Our penultimate day in Loch Alain and our last full day of diving means time to reflect on what we have learned thus far.


In SCUBA-ing as in life, balance is the key. If we refer to the below picture we can see the perfect balance of preparedness stripped down to bare necessity – a perfectly moulded NAS diver.

Now I know what some of you BSAC divers are thinking – this ill prepared buffoon simply does not have enough equipment to survive anything other than the most minor of setbacks. For example diving with only two tanks is never advisable (where are his ponies?), and diving to any depth with only three computers is simply reckless (the keen eyed of you will note that he’s only carrying a dry powder extinguisher – I don’t think I need to elaborate on the foolishness of this endeavour, not even a PADI diver would be so remiss). But while we’re on the subject – PADI divers, the grey and blue thing covering our intrepid hero is called a dry suit – handy for keeping warm when you’re not diving in the Caribbean on holiday. But, whilst we marvel at this diving machine, lets remember our key word – balance.

Today some less “balanced” divers returned the recovered artefacts to trench 2 and covered them with protective sand bags, they then attempted to back fill our two excavated trenches using the exhaust of the dredge. A few hours later and the beaches of the Morvern peninsula (down current of our site) having been raised a couple of feet we decide to call a halt to this activity. Poor preparation meant that all but one of them had left their bucket and collapsible scuba shovel on the beach. Team spirited bunch that we are, we considered it unfair to expect our NAS prepared diver to do all the work, so we agreed to return tomorrow morning and fill the remains of the trenches with sandbags. A valuable lesson learned we returned to shore.