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Diving

Dives

I've dived with Sarah McCracken 38 times:

Dive number	Date	Site	Location	Area	Country	Wreck	Freshwater	Depth (m)	Bottom time (min)	Total time (min)	Divers	Quality	Summary	Equipment
217	4 May 1985	Hispania	Sound of Mull	Mull	Scotland			23	25	30	Iain Hosking, Sarah McCracken		First dive with Sarah. Hauled our way down to the bows in the teeth of a gale, recovered our breath and headed aft. Good plowter around holds, bridge, stern section. Visibility good, conditions perfect - ace dive.	own + EUSAC Scubapro Mk II
218	4 May 1985	Calve Island Cliffs	NE corner of Calve Island	Mull	Scotland			30	20	20	Iain Hosking, Sarah McCracken		Almost a night dive. Incredible variety of life - starfish, sun stars, feather duster worms, sea squirts, dahlia anemones, Devonshire cup coral, sleeping wrasse, things with pincers etc. Phosphorescence too. Another good dive.	Own +Scubapro Mk II
221	6 May 1985	Rondo	Eileanan Glasa, Sound of Mull	Mull	Scotland			40	11	14	Iain Hosking, Graham Russell, Sarah McCracken		Dived at full flood for added excitement. Current swept us down to 40m pretty quickly and down there it was fairly calm, but the current was then against us on the way up. Most invigorating dive yet on the Rondo, and a good end to the trip. First dive with Graham.	Own +Scubapro Mk II
224	26 May 1985	Bass Rock		Forth	Scotland			28	22	24	Iain Hosking, Sarah McCracken		Sarah's first dive in her new drysuit. My first dive since last July in a wetsuit. Dived the NE corner of the Bass on an ebb tide and followed the current anticlockwise. Depth 20m at first onto level bedrock, with brittle stars, plumose and dahlia anemones. At end of dive drifted over a massive drop-off going down to at least 40m. Jenny saw seals underwater.	Wetsuit, club 60, Graham's weightbelt (about 28lbs). Rest as usual.
228	4 Jul 1985	Chadwick	West coast of Skye	Skye	Scotland			24	23	25	Iain Hosking, Sarah McCracken		Jammy dive. Grappling the wreck was a total disaster. At the second attempt we copped out and drifted along the bottom upside-down. At the end of a brief gossip we looked up and there was the wreck! We couldn't believe our eyes. Had a quick gnash down to the prop and then up to the bows via the boilers. Back down to the boilers again when we met Adrian and Carole. Good fish life, especially the cuckoo wrasse which were fluorescent electric blue. Good vis, fair current (slack was 2 hours later than we calculated).	own
232	7 Jul 1985	Meall Thailm	North-east of Tongue Bay	North-west Scotland	Scotland			10	10	10	Iain Hosking, Sarah McCracken		GR's information on this dive is not too clear, so we mistook the site and ended up diving here. Bottom - kelp. Boring.	own
233	7 Jul 1985	Meall Thailm	North-east of Tongue Bay	North-west Scotland	Scotland			23	22	25	Iain Hosking, Sarah McCracken		Hit the right site this time - a tunnel which goes right through the island (Boats can be taken through). An out of this world dive - as Ridley says, vertical walls and huge boulders (Barratt house sized, maybe) on the bottom. A seal made itself scarce as we approached. Anemones very colourful and also several crabs and lobsters. Looking up we could see waves breaking and the tunnel roof over our heads.	own
234	8 Jul 1985	Meall Thailm	North-east of Tongue Bay	North-west Scotland	Scotland			20	40	42	Iain Hosking, Adrian Roddam, Malcolm Gauld, Sarah McCracken		Too good a site not to have a full dive on, so we hit it again, in a loose foursome with Malcolm and Adrian. Found three lobsters - one was huge, with one claw guarding a dead dogfish. Saw crabs sitting in holes in the rock wall, also shoals of small fish, the usual anemones and sponges etc.	own
240	13 Jul 1985	William H Welch	Furadh Mor	North-west Scotland	Scotland			20	25	30	Iain Hosking, Sarah McCracken		Wreck of a 7126 ton liberty ship. We saw maybe 1 ton, scattered among kelp. We were followed around by a dogfish for most of the dive. Good weather at last. Most of the wreckage lies between the two points on the west of the island.	own
241	13 Jul 1985	Sgeir Maol Mhoraidh	Loch Ewe	North-west Scotland	Scotland			20	12	15	Iain Hosking, Sarah McCracken		A short dive, with some danger of death from boredom. No sign of any wreckage but then we hardly made a systematic search. Aultbea Hotel made up for it though.	own
242	3 Aug 1985	Loch Long		Clyde	Scotland			31	18	22	Iain Hosking, Carole Mullen, Graham Russell, Sarah McCracken		Forecast SW 5 so called off the 'Kintyre' and dived at the usual spot in Loch Long. Straight down to 30m in very clear water, torch beams lighting first on a washing machine, then on huge boulders covered with anemones and feather duster worms. At 18 minutes ascended to 5m and spent another half hour among plumose anemones, wrasse, codling, blennies, crabs and clabby-doos. Good dive.	own
247	25 Aug 1985	St Abbs	South side of the Firth of Forth	Forth	Scotland			11	32	35	Iain Hosking, Sarah McCracken		Second dive of the day. Round behind rock parallel to the harbour wall, but didn't find the same spot as I dived with Derek in March. Still, good gullies and masses of life. Dozens of silicone/yellow nudibranchs, squat lobsters, saithe, corkwing wrasse, lobsters (shy), seasquirts, controversial small fish [drawing in logbook]. Pretty clear, no current, very relaxed. Dry suit held out (phew!).	own
249	8 Sep 1985	St Abbs	South side of the Firth of Forth	Forth	Scotland			16	55	55	Iain Hosking, Sarah McCracken		The Not the HF because Malc's landrover was MOTless. Weather - scotch mist. Sea conditions - swell (and I don't mean good). Vis not bad if you looked up. Life: lobsters, squatties, flatfish, shrimps, wellington boots, dead men's fingers.	own
262	13 Oct 1985	Hispania	Sound of Mull	Mull	Scotland			24	32	35	Iain Hosking, Sarah McCracken		Down the line to the bows, back to bridge via holds, into engine room, through an area with valves and pipes. Comprehensive tour of engine room and then into the aft holds. Over stern to prop shaft (and missing hull plate). Forward along starboard side to Captain's bath. Climbed mast, into chain locker and up. I think we saw about everything.	own
263	19 Oct 1985	Helena Faulbaums	Belnahua	Oban	Scotland			52	15	35	Iain Hosking, Sarah McCracken		Unpromising start to the trip when the car blew up, but despite all odds dropped the shot on the engine casing and went for it. Attached strobe to line and swam off. Found ourselves back at the light. Taking a different direction we swam forwards, past mast and winches to the lamp room. Found a light bulb. The wreck made much more sense on the way back - noted the 'greenhouse' over the engine room, funnel, soup plate. Fair current on the stops, which we occupied by untying Sarah [eh?], losing the soup plate and eating an apple. Vis not as good as previous dives, and more narked than usual. Engine room is much more broken up than other parts of the wreck - very disorientating.	own (Rollo's twin 55s)
264	20 Oct 1985	Helena Faulbaums	Belnahua	Oban	Scotland			54	15	35	Iain Hosking, Sarah McCracken		On site well before slack. Dropped shot immediately forward of the bridge despite barely-visible transits. We were the second pair down. Spent a couple of minutes at the shot, then crossed over to the starboard side, back over the bridge (now collapsed) and aft along the port side to the engine room. Noted portholes, binnacle and pedestal. Vis OK, less narked than yesterday. On stops checked suit for leaks: none.	own, twin 55s
267	23 Nov 1985	Falls of Lora	Loch Etive	Oban	Scotland			28	20	20	Iain Hosking, Graham Russell, Sarah McCracken		Sarah's idea. Another Mythological Site. HW 'slack' 3.30pm. We dived then and hit a current immediately. We were just beginning to feel smug about keeping together when we were split up and whirled along by an estimated 5 knot gale. Ended with a gentle plowter in a large diameter whirlpool. Brilliant.	own. USD Deepstar DV
276	29 Mar 1986	Chadwick	West coast of Skye	Skye	Scotland			21	33	33	Iain Hosking, Geoff Hide, Sarah McCracken		Amazingly brilliant weather. Woke to blazing sunshine, and the Cuillins across the water. Out to the Chadwick in slightly rough conditions (sea state 5). Geoff joins the ranks of the Master Grapplers by casually dropping the grapple straight into the wreck after lining up a couple of boulders on the shore. No messing. We dived second (feeling queasy) and hit the bottom in tremendous visibility (especially when the sun came out!). Twice around the wreck, through the arched bit twice, down to the prop, round the boilers. Saw several attractive brass valves, bits of copper pipe, lumps of coal, millions of cup coral, scores of tiny nudibranchs (purple with white spots), red sunstars, crabs (one with an outrageous coat). Ace dive! Slack 11.30 GMT (12.30 EST), ebb tide.	own, + Ewan's twin 40s.
284	3 Jul 1986	Markgraf	Scapa Flow	Orkney	Scotland			44	18	33	Iain Hosking, Mark Inall, Sarah McCracken		Threesome with Sarah and Mark. Bows very impressive still, rearing vertically out of the sand. Fairly fast trip around to the starboard side. Sarah helped me lug a lump of wreck as far as the bows before dropping it. Knackered.	Twin 55s, 28lbs
290	9 Jul 1986	Helena Faulbaums	Belnahua	Oban	Scotland			52	15	45	Iain Hosking, Sarah McCracken		Down line to greenhouse. Swam aft (by mistake) till we saw the spare prop, then forward to the estimated position of Sarah's gauge. No sign. Looked for the second compass. No go either. Experimented with sawing off a porthole. No go. Sarah found a lead acid battery in a glass case which was plonked into my goody bag. She also saw a squid. On the 15m stop I managed to drop the battery. Damn.	Twin 55s
312	12 Oct 1986	Cessna 150	Sound of Mull	Mull	Scotland			32	18	20	Iain Hosking, Sarah McCracken		This was the wing from Peter Gibbs' plane which crashed on Christmas Eve 1975 and which was finally found this year by Dick Grieves. We carried out a search from the wing to see if any other wreckage lay nearby, using compass bearings, but found nothing. Proved the compass by swimming back to the wing, and picked up plenty of scallops, which made a good lunch. Last dive with Sarah for a while [she was off to Australia].	Twin 55s
346	9 May 1987	North Connel		Oban	Scotland			7	10	10	Iain Hosking, Sarah McCracken		Given tea and after eights for looking for an old couple's sewage outlet. Didn't find it, but saw old moorings, masses of weed and unpleasant fuzzy brown growth that thrives on human waste products. Not nice. Current.
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.
355	13 Jun 1987	Hispania	Sound of Mull	Mull	Scotland			25	27	29	Iain Hosking, Sarah McCracken		A fine day - new boat and engine so planed out to the wreck in double-quick time. Dived second, in quite a current. Vis was very good, and lots of fish - big ballan wrasse, smaller corkwing wrasse (very pretty), blennies and pollack. Swam through the tunnel and had a good rake around the engine room. Left a buoy on the wreck to return later.
368	22 Oct 1988	Shiprock	Port Hacking	Sydney	Australia			14	37	37	Iain Hosking, Sarah McCracken		Repeat of last time - boat dive cancelled - we'd already hired the tanks so dived here. Goatfish, catfish, rock cod, huge ugly fish, massive seaslug. Then a mother possum with a baby on her back. Not bad at all. Oh, phosphorescence too.	Mirage ADV, 24lbs, own DV (serviced), hired tank.
369	4 Nov 1988	Spot A	Latitude Rock, Cape Hawke	Forster	Australia			18	36	38	Iain Hosking, Cathy Humphries, Sarah McCracken		Boat dive organised through Forster Dive Centre. Beautiful day, sea quite lumpy. Visibility good on the surface, poor to terrible on the bottom. Spot A is where all the fish hang out. Those I recognised included bullseyes, scorpionfish, huge groper, lionfish (butterfly cod), wobbegong shark (which swam out from under Cathy's feet), moray eels. The groper were a new sight for us (although I've seen so many photographs they seem like old friends) - very impressive, one a lovely powdery blue. Excellent dive. Afterwards - collected oysters and ate lots. Thai meal at night.	Wetsuit, ADV, 24lbs, own DV, own tank (just tested)
370	5 Nov 1988	The Pinnacles, Forster		Forster	Australia			32	18	20	Iain Hosking, Cathy Humphries, Sarah McCracken		Overcast day - almost Scottish (but warmer). The Pinnacles is supposed to be a shark-infested spot, and right enough, there was a large grey nurse there. Everyone saw him except Sarah and I. Fish - mados, morwong, blenny. Not so much life stuck to the rocks, but quite a few sea tulips, whatever they might be. Visibility infinitely better than yesterday, and less wave action. Very relaxing dive.	Wetsuit, BC
376	3 Dec 1988	Satara	Seal Rocks	Forster	Australia			43	15	33	Iain Hosking, Sarah McCracken		The wreck is fairly intact, and dotted with Devonshire cup coral. The phosphor-bronze prop is particularly attractive. Visibility was good, and the fish life prolific. Very relaxed and enjoyable dive (helped by taking a seasickness tablet beforehand). The stops appear to be Rory's special stops - certainly not the ones from the US Navy tables.	own tank, filled to 230 bar.
377	4 Dec 1988	Catterthun	Seal Rocks	Forster	Australia			55	15	60	Iain Hosking, Sarah McCracken		The day got off to a bad start when Rory found his boat had been cut adrift, but once at sea all troubles were forgotten in the anticipation of an excellent dive. And so it was. From 40m we could see the wreck spread out below us like a map - it was incredibly clear and bright - maybe 150 foot vis and no need of a torch. We landed on the engine cylinders, which stand 40 feet high, and swam forward past the boilers to the bows. The wreck has largely collapsed and all sorts of interesting goodies were visible. Next time we have to do longer than 15 minutes. Stops were apparently enlivened by a shark swimming round us, which as usual I didn't see. Stops are for 20 minutes at 63m, plus an extra 5 minutes at 3m. See https://www.michaelmcfadyenscuba.info/viewpage.php?page_id=82	own tank, filled to 260 bar, equivalent to 104 cu ft!.
382	14 Jan 1989	Tuggerah	Royal National Park	Sydney	Australia			46	14	25	Iain Hosking, Mark Inall, Sarah McCracken		Took Mark and Sarah out for a real Sydney wreck (birthday present for Mark). Met Peter (the Swede) and Jeff, who dived with me on the 'Undola' last month, and Richard. Sea horrible - divers all chunderous - but worth it. Visibility on the surface was brilliant - clear blue water - well over 100 foot vis. Not so good on the bottom, though - about 40 foot. Thousands of fish forming not so much a veil around the wreck as a wall. Headed to the bows first, where Sarah met a numbfish, and was totally shocked by the experience. They're very lazy, and I was lucky not to be fried while digging it up. Anyway - back to the boiler (with resident small moray) and the stern, with yellowtail, old wives and toadfish. Back to the line inside planned time despite being temporarily lost in fish. Deco stops and anti-chunder stops.	(wet sleeve)
394	25 Mar 1989	Shiprock	Port Hacking	Sydney	Australia			15	45	45	Iain Hosking, Sarah McCracken		Was to have been the 'Tuggerah' but when we phoned Max he said 'No mate, it's been blowing all night mate,' so it was plan B again. From the tide tables it looked ideal - HW at 10.07 am at Port Hacking, but in fact the current was ferocious, and appeared to be ebbing. It rained while we changed, the vis was relatively poor, and my right sleeve leaked, but apart from that it was fine. Saw a black anglerfish, hanging on to the soft coral using its fins like hands. Also a goatfish, with an attendant juvenile, by its appearance. Usual piles of fish, especially leatherjacket. Not bad.	Hired 88 (which required an extra 4lbs - I was buoyant by the end of the dive).
398	16 Sep 1989	Hallcaine		Sydney	Australia			45	16	41	Iain Hosking, Sarah McCracken		First dive with the Terrigal club (Brisbane Waters Aqualung Club) - birthday present from Sarah. Sea not as calm as expected - very chunderous. But a beautiful day. Fortunately felt OK in the water, and guesstimate of weight required was about right. The wreck was a wooden steamship, so only the machinery is left - boiler, engine, anchor, winches and two bronze props. Plenty of the stuff that glints, though the telegraph has gone. Fish - nannegai, little morays, scalyfin. Also colourful nudibranchs and cup coral. Vis not bad. Suit wet.	82 + 88 cu ft + 2 DVs. About 20lbs lead. Could do with 4 more.
471	2 Nov 1991	The Tubes		Jervis Bay	Australia			24	30	36	Iain Hosking, Sarah McCracken, Steve Harris		Knocked this morning's dive into a cocked hat. Only three divers in the boat, in fact in the whole of Jervis Bay. Much sunnier out at Point Perpendicular. Dolphins rode the bow wave on the way out. That was the first surprise - then we saw a scalyfin chasing a stingray, a weedy sea dragon (spotted by Steve), a garden of sea-tulips, big sea-scorpions, a cuttlefish, a blue devil fish and a moray eel. Our navigation was perfect - down a sandy slope, then left through the tulip garden, up to an area of huge jumbled boulders, then back at 5m through all these house-sized boulders, with sunlight streaming past us. Sarah and I are now level pegging in dives - 471 each.	Valve dismantled and lubricated - now fixed.
474	3 Nov 1991	Point Perpendicular		Jervis Bay	Australia			16	45	45	Iain Hosking, Sarah McCracken, Steve Harris		Dived with Sarah and Steve again as the Cathys took it easy. Again more spectacular than the first dive of the day (sorry lads) with extremely large boulders especially towards the end of the dive. Swam back at a shallow depth (5m) with sun slanting through clear water and navigated our way straight to the boat.
478	6 Jun 1992	Long Reef	Dee Why	Sydney	Australia			23	39	39	Iain Hosking, Sarah McCracken		On Herb's boat (cost $30). Beautiful day. Seas calm, westerly. Strong current. Bottom - boulders and kelp. 3 cuttlefish, one in a large swim-through under a house-sized boulder. Nice light effects here. Saw a new fish [drawing in logbook] - looked like a strip of kelp - same colour of green and with very little control. Long snorkel back to the boat.	Wetsuit, Sportsways DV, Arctic.
484	4 Jun 1995	Osborne Shoals		Sydney	Australia			18	40	40	Iain Hosking, Sarah McCracken		Sarah's idea, approved by Cathy. Went out with Karl St John ($30). Pissing with rain, but reasonable vis. Big cuttlefish (came out of his cave for a closer look), yellowtail, morwong, blue groper. Afterwards: Guinness at the Mercantile and a visit to the Rocks Sunday Market. A good day.	Dry suit was actually a wet suit. Didn't notice till after the dive, though.
485	3 Dec 1995	Barron's Hut	off Port Hacking	Sydney	Australia			26	32	35	Iain Hosking, Martin Zolfel, Sarah McCracken, Steve Harris		Beautiful morning - warm and sunny. Left Dolan's Bay Wharf at 10am and it was a short, comfortable trip on Max's boat Sea Tamer II to the site. Kitted up quickly and dropped in. My buddy was Martin but we dived in a loose foursome with Sarah and Steve (Sarah on her first dive since June, Steve on his first since February). Reasonable vis, 30 feet or more, and warm until we hit a distinct thermocline at 22m. There was a real gin & tonic effect where the warm current from the north hit the cool southern water. Martin led us straight to the cave & chimney, where we entered in the cool water and emerged a few metres up in the warm layer. We then covered the whole site, including several swim-throughs. One contained a moray eel under a rock, which appeared to be moving in on my finger. Sarah also saw what might have been a baby wobbegong in this area. There were plenty of fish, including several varieties of leatherjacket (including one with a big yellow spot on its side), scalyfin (frequently in energetic combat), old wives, yellowtail, blue groper and an eastern blue devil with vivid blue markings. We had time to see several nudibranchs too, including the common Bennets Hypselodoris (wine-red dots), Red-lined Flabellina (purple fronds) and Variable Aphelodoris (bird poo). The cup coral were also very pretty. After a precautionary stop (because we were on the limit of decompression according to Mr Aladin) we surfaced to sun, soup, salami and cheese & bacon rolls. Delicious. Still $30, plus a $10 contribution to Martin for petrol. Home by 2pm.	Dry suit, 87, Arctic etc. Found the leak as soon as I put my head under the water - a 1-inch tear in my neck seal which meant that the dry suit functioned more as a wet suit. I followed the progress of the water throughout the dive - down my neck, then down my chest, then arms and finally, on the ascent, into my boots.