>A last minute opportunity came up to join the BSAC 21 dive trip to Skye, Sorrel had already organized a successful trip up there earlier in the year and I had always fancied diving the seas around the Outer Hebrides and a space was available. Derek and I agreed to car share and after a busy Thursday morning with work he picked me up from Perth and with mobiles switched off and we made our 4.5 hour drive up to the North West tip of Skye at at Village called Stein (Click this link for a map of the locations) where Gordon and Aileen run the Dive & Sea the Hebrides dive centre.   After having a week of relatively calm weather across Scotland the winds picked up and Skye lived up to it name, the great thing about this part of Skye is the protection from most of the prevailing winds allowing us to get into several dive sites in poor weather conditions.

We arrived at 6pm and after dumping kit headed off to the Stein Inn for some food and a Pint, On the Friday morning we were introduced to Skye Time and after a briefing at 9am agreed to meet at the boat for 10:30am very civilized, non of this crack of the dawn stuff! We headed across to the Pinnacles on far side of the Loch just next to Rubha Maol  on the lee shore to provide protection from the wind and waves.
 
After dropping down the shot to the top of the pinnacle at ~9m Dermot Nancy and I descended to the South Western side with a Vertical wall that dropped 12 metres to the Sea bead with lots of cup corals and a few Scallops on the Sea Bed we worked our way south east and then headed North over the Reef which had dropped to 2-3 metres where we found shoals of juvenile cod swimming amongst the rocks and kelp forest. After a leisurely dive backup the north east face of the pinnacle we swan up to the top and headed back up the shot. I spotted one or two small Sea Pens and the Yellow encrusting sponges were starting to come back to this Pinnacle after the Fish Farms had been moved 18 months previously.

Gordon our Skipper then took us across to the Island of Isay where we sat amongst the ruinshaving our packed lunches and chilling out for an hours or so.  The second dive of the day was just a few minutes from our lunch stop to the North of Clett island and was a gentle reef with possibilities for Scallops. Nancy and I paired off for this dive and headed North westerly at about 17m. The Fish life on this reef was excellent with lots of Wrasse including colourful male Cuckoo Wrasse and cup corals on the rocks Nancy and I followed the reef for about 100m before heading up into the Kelp Forest and deploying my delayed SMB. What a great day.