Night Diving

Last night's sky was littered with stars, no rain or wind and perfect for a night dive in Trafraska. Temperature again was 12 degrees and with low tide, we snorkelled out to gain a bit of depth and dropped into 6 metres for our descent. The visibility was excellent and there were a couple of huge spider crabs. One was just enjoying his dinner when our lights obviously disturbed him. He gave us an angry look, then took off from his perch on the wall and absailed, legs wide apart which must have measured at least half a metre, landing like a space craft in front of our faces. We reached one spot where there were loads of fish whilst other areas were totally deserted except for all manner of crabs. All cracks and holes in the wall had life inside peaking out such as smiley tompot blennies, gobies and baby conger. There were the usual urchins, common starfish, bloody henry and dahlia anemones. We had a pleasant 34 minute dive with maximum depth of 7.7 mtrs (nice and easy). Unfortunately there was no moon, hence no phosphorescence. Our UKC8 torches were wonderful and bright and we didn't need our back-ups. I love night diving but it does get too late in the height of summer when it doesn't get dark until after 11 pm