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Diving

Dives

I've dived with Crawford Foster 14 times:

Dive number	Date	Site	Location	Area	Country	Wreck	Freshwater	Depth (m)	Bottom time (min)	Total time (min)	Divers	Quality	Summary	Equipment
171	13 Apr 1984	Calve Island Cliffs	NE corner of Calve Island	Mull	Scotland			38	12	15	Iain Hosking, Crawford Foster		Cliff dive. Cliffs go down vertically to 50m but we stopped to be able to dive later. Cliffs covered in sea squirts and cup coral, with occasional plumose anemones and starfish.	own
172	13 Apr 1984	Pelican	Calve Island, Tobermory Bay	Mull	Scotland			20	9	15	Iain Hosking, Crawford Foster, Mike Weitzner		Short second dive. Snorkelled out from shore and down cliff to wreck. Up to bows, down to stern and surfaced. Vis good for this wreck.	own
202	24 Sep 1984	Leith		Forth	Scotland			7	20	20	Iain Hosking, Crawford Foster, Jenny Clough		2nd Class rope search with Jenny and Crawford. Searched for obstruction marked off Leith. Appalling vis: 1-2m, and some current. Weather calm and clear.	own
226	3 Jul 1985	Nordhuk		Skye	Scotland			28	23	23	Iain Hosking, Crawford Foster		Slack at 4pm so we filled in the time exploring caves and snorkelling around seals. Grappled it in 30s. Fantastic vis meant we could see the whole wreck lying there smashed up. Good close quarters rake around. Found portholes (ferrous), pressure vessel, cogs, winches etc. Lots of fish life.	own
268	2 Jan 1986	Calve Island Cliffs	NE corner of Calve Island	Mull	Scotland			36	14	16	Iain Hosking, Crawford Foster		First dive of '86. A beautiful day - clear and cold with wind force 3. Water quite clear but not gin clear. Down to 34m in free-fall mode and spent the time drifting along in the current, upside down half the time. Pretty cup coral, like sweets. Afterwards we had man overboard drill, a prat about and a bit of target practice.	own
271	16 Feb 1986	Falls of Lora	Loch Etive	Oban	Scotland			22	10	10	Iain Hosking, Crawford Foster		Sunnier and winder day (easterly 3). Full of anticipation after Mark surfaced to report he'd been in a Kenwood mixer. Very fast at the start, then slower through gullies. Reached pebble slope at south edge where a very insistent upwelling dumped us on the surface.	own (as 269), 29lbs.
272	16 Feb 1986	Falls of Lora	Loch Etive	Oban	Scotland			22	10	10	Iain Hosking, Crawford Foster		See 271.	see 271
295	13 Jul 1986	Helena Faulbaums	Belnahua	Oban	Scotland			54	15	45	Iain Hosking, Crawford Foster		Last dive of the trip. Crawford and I raised the lamp he found yesterday and found a few more portholes. Overcast, chilly day but still calm.	Twin 55s, 28lbs
300	18 Sep 1986	Beagle	North of Great Cumbrae	Clyde	Scotland			33	16	18	Iain Hosking, Crawford Foster		Still perfect conditions. Several buoys on the Beagle so we added ours. Down onto the bows, swam round forward hold, then aft along starboard side, past a locked-in conger. Very impressive rudder and prop. Vis not too brilliant.	Kevin's Rowi suit, 24lbs.
301	18 Sep 1986	Wallachia	The Gantocks	Clyde	Scotland			33	8	10	Iain Hosking, Crawford Foster		Conditions even better. Wreck was buoyed so we were able to update our transits. 2 hour surface interval so we had a time penalty, but an excellent dive. Saw the bridge, wheel, engine room 'greenhouse', spare wheel, jars and beer bottles. Down over stern to see prop and rudder. Tried 91-year old beer. Horrible.	Kevin's Rowi suit, 20lbs lead, club 78.
353	22 May 1987	Loch Long		Clyde	Scotland			25	25	25	Iain Hosking, Crawford Foster, Sarah McCracken		Night dive - surfaced at exactly midnight. A brilliant dive, literally, with incredible phosphorescence. Sarah led. Plenty of life - colours showed up well in the torch beams - several sorts of sea anemone (big plumose ones at the end), masses of peacock worms, all out and arranged very tastefully about the rocks, with sea squirts in among them (transparent and pink varieties). Fish - pollack and small cod-like things - three dorsal fins and barbels (pout? dab? poor cod?). Also tiny purple sea urchins, east coast type squat lobsters and a starfish looking like a wedding cake - pink knobs on white. We turned our torches off and played at Disneyland for a while. Crawford and Sarah were easily visible by columns of bubbles and sparks. Oh, and a whole shoal of jellyfish. Good dive.
354	24 May 1987	Otter Ferry	Loch Fyne	Kintyre	Scotland			34	16	18	Iain Hosking, Crawford Foster, Sarah McCracken		Beautiful day but site not too remarkable. Torch failed on entering the water so I tagged along behind Sarah and Crawford, seeing less and less as we got deeper. Good few drinks at Strachur that night, and slept on the beach. Drove back through Hell's Glen at 4.30am next day.
408	26 May 1990	Manly	Around the corner from Shelly Beach	Sydney	Australia			15	50	50	Iain Hosking, Crawford Foster		Recommended by Phil Marshal. Tricky descent to the water down a cliff and across boulders, which continued underwater. Exposed site so few squidgy things, but lots of fish - sea carp, morwong, yellowtail, bream, a moray eel, pomfret (ladder-finned) etc. Also abalone and cuttlefish. Found a goody bag. Beautiful day.	No BC (they're worse than useless), 82, 26lbs.
409	27 May 1990	Shiprock	Port Hacking	Sydney	Australia			14	45	45	Iain Hosking, Crawford Foster		All EUSAC visitors get taken to this spot. A good dive (except for the leaky suit) with heaps of leatherjacket (including one new to me - fan-bellied), all eating the soft coral, and old wives, catfish, rock cod (ugly), flounder, magpie morwong, immaculate damsel. Best moment was Crawford's close encounter with a numbfish (electric ray). Finished off with an octopus - amazing colour changes.	Discovered the cause of the leak in the left sleeve - the Draeger mushroom valve - then spoilt it by melting a hole in the cuff. Saturated during the dive - amazing that so much water can enter through one small hole.