Atlantic Diving Services

Well last week was another interesting one.

On Monday we were called to assist a large trawler with her nets caught in her propellor so our team mobilised and headed from Lochinver on our fast Offshore 105 the Skua to rendezvous with the trawler.

The prop and rudder were heavily entangled but over the course of a few hours we were able to completely clear the nets.

Tuesday and Wednesday were spent inspecting the chains on the pontoons in Gairloch Harbour, and inspecting the Gairloch Harbour moorings.

On Thursday we prepped our workboat the Walrus for the following weeks work and moved her down to Old Dornie ready for the next week.

Well another productive few days for ADS working on pontoons.

We had a couple of days inspecting pontoons in the East Coast harbours of Balintore and Portmahomack , measuring the anchoring chains and checking tension, inspecting walkway hinges etc.

We all had a laugh at one of our team-mates who shall remain nameless ( but lets call him Duncan ) who asked the waitress in the local cafe what was in the brie & cranberry toastie 😄 then ordered something else on being informed that the brie & cranberry toasty contained... wait for it... brie & cranberry.

We then had a couple of days inspecting the pontoons in Lochinver Harbour while the weather got progressively windier.
The pontoon system in Lochinver is fairly big by Northwest Coast standards with almost 50 chains securing them to the seabed and shoreline.

The week was then finished off inspecting the pontoons in the picturesque East Coast village of Helmsdale.

Last week was another busy and interesting one.

We had a number ( 29 ) of acoustic receivers to recover from the seabed in Loch Erisort on the Isle of Lewis.
These were picking up signals from tagged salmon and we had deployed these receivers ourselves back in March.

Monday was spent loading the boat and steaming over from the mainland to Loch Erisort.
We found a peaceful little anchorage at Leurbost which became our home for the next few nights.

We had several very productive days locating and recovering the receivers ( easily found as we had updated the co-ordinates for each one as we deployed them a few months ago; and the plastic trawl float on each unit floating a few metres off the bottom gives a superb echo on the sounder.

We were tasked with recovering these using an ROV , but in the evenings also found time to do some diving round Erisort which proved to have very varied habitats:
Mud seabeds with huge forests of the tall seapen Funiculina, along with forests of slender and phosphorescent seapens.
There were also steep rocky reefs covered in jewel anemones and even red fingers.

When scallop diving in Erisort a few years ago we discovered large beds of the very rare Arichnanthus Sarsii anemone although didn't see any on this occasion.

At the end of the week we had a sunny if slightly bouncy trip back to the mainland.

Well a scorching hot week for the team!
We had a day inspecting moorings around the Summer Isles off one of our workboats on Monday.

Tuesday was spent in Inverness collecting work supplies and then on Wednesday we replaced rotten wooden supports under the decking on the pontoon at Kyleakin in 28c heat.

On lifting the decking we were puzzled to discover a number of rotting monkfish and dogfish on top of the pontoon floats under the decking...
We then learned from the locals that this was due to a small local mink grabbing what been discarded from the fishing boats and dragging it inside the pontoon.

Thursday and Friday were spent ferrying RSPB volunteers out to Priest Island at the Summer Isles for a few days studying the birdlife, and running a handyman out to carry out some maintenance work on the RSPB shed on the island.

We had to wait around each day for the handyman to finish so decided to take it in turns to do some fun dives.

While the viz was hampered somewhat by a plankton bloom and well down on what I recently had in Northern Ireland we still enjoyed superb dives on the wreck of the Fairweather V and in the surge gullies at the Keyhole on Priest Island

Stunning weather up here last week!

Last week saw us inspecting moorings around the Summer Isles, including locating and re-instating a missing mooring on a remote island which hadn't seen use for 5 years.

Bit of a short blog really as it was an uneventful week, but some very big varied jobs coming up which we're very excited about.

Well last week was an interesting week for the team.
We were tasked with recovering a number of acoustic receivers for monitoring tagged salmon.
Usually these recoveries have taken place in the sea but last weeks work involved recovering them from the freshwater Loch Oich, part of the Caledonian Canal waterway.

The receivers in question comprise an acoustic receiver attached to a short ( 3-4m ) length of rope weighed down with a 38kg weight, with a trawl float at the top to keep the receiver clear of the mud.

With no diving allowed in the Canal and surrounds recovery took place with an ROV with a grab arm and sonar, piloted from the workboat we were using.

We had positions for each receiver and would put a hydrophone in the water which pinged a signal to the receiver on the bottom.
The receiver would answer back to the hydrophone to verify its presence.

This being a short notice job in tourist season accommodation options were limited, the team thus ended up camping!
Think Clarkson & Co on a Grand Tour camping trip and you get a rough idea of how that went....

Well another busy week and a bit for the team.

Last week we carried out moorings inspections at Badachro near Gairloch on our workboat the Walrus.

We then had a very intensive day working in Ullapool off our main boat the Lady Nicola, replacing worn chaser chains on the visitor moorings ( the chaser, also called a scrub chain, is the chain joining the rope riser from the surface to the ground chain anchored along the seabed ) , this was quite full on work for our divers as the deeper moorings here are in around 24m of water, fairly deep by mooring standards.

This week we had 2 days inspecting moorings and replacing worn riser chains at Badachro, as well as a tricky job replacing an entire section of ground chain between the anchors on one mooring.

We carried out an underwater survey on Wednesday on the pontoon we recently installed at Kyle of Lochalsh.

On Thursday we took the Walrus from Gairloch to Ullapool ( the Lady Nicola is now back in Lochinver ) where we inspected more moorings.

We then had a job in Lochinver that night off our fast Offshore 105 the Skua, carrying out a propellor clearance and inspection on a large trawler.
The rope obstruction was easily cleared; we then carried out an inspection of the various sensors on the hull.

Friday saw us carrying out yet more mooring inspections in Ullapool and Ardmair.

Phew !!

Another busy week last week.

The 1st 2 days were spent refurbishing moorings in Plockton and Loch Kishorn.
Working off our workboat the Walrus re re-instated several moorings needing new riser ropes and chaser / scrub chains , as well as pressure cleaning a few moorings.

On Tuesday evening we took the Walrus North to Gairloch and then spent Wednesday replacing worn riser chains on moorings in Badachro.

On Thursday we were working on our original boat the Lady Nicola which is now back in action following a full engine rebuild, replacing worn scrub chains on the Ullapool moorings

The Lady Nicola back in action after a full engine re-build, total nut and bolt overhaul by a Caterpillar specialist

Well last week was a busy one...

After a mental week the week before replacing broken fendering on the ferry pier on the Isle of Eigg and inspecting and cleaning moorings on Canna and at Plockton we continued at Plockton again last week.

We had 2 days inspecting, measuring and pressure cleaning moorings in Plockton and Loch Carron then headed to Kyle of Lochalsh for 2 days work installing the pontoons for the Summer season.

Working alongside a local work boat the pontoons were towed in sections at High Water from Kyleakin where they had been beached over Winter to Kyle of Lochalsh.

A bit of clever boat maneuvering ( especially in the strong winds on Wednesday ) and the pontoons were bracketed to a post on the shore line wall where the connecting bridge walkway will be re-instated, our dive team then began recovering the mooring chains from the seabed where they had been left and tying ropes to them, these were then hauled up into position using the boats hydraulic haulers and shackled into the appropriate eyes on the pontoons.

We also inspected and cleaned the visitor moorings at Kyle of Lochalsh before sailing the Walrus back up to Plockton ready for next weeks work.

While in Plockton we also inspected the new pontoon at Duncraig which we supplied and installed last year.

Inspecting moorings at Kylestrome a few months ago

For those who haven't yet seen it, our new ( well last Summer ) workboat the Walrus.
She is proving to be a perfect workhorse for mooring work and deployment of scientific equipment and has so far covered the West Coast from Kinlochbervie down to Oban; the Ross of Mull; Colonsay; Coll, Muck, Eigg and Canna; Skye and the Northern Outer Hebrides.

In February we had 2 of our 3 boats on the Isle of Lewis for a month, the Skua in Carloway and the Walrus in Stornoway, recovering acoustic receivers tracking tagged salmon 🥶🥶🥶

Long trip from Gairloch to Loch Snizort on Skye and back deploying acoustic receivers to track tagged salmon

Working at the Small Isles last week inspecting and pressure cleaning moorings on the island of Canna, doing some work on the port flasher in Muck harbour and replacing broken rubber fender units on the ferry pier on Eigg

Well the last 2 weeks have been a little, shall we say, blowy !!
We have however been busy carrying out maintenance on the Lady Nicola in drydock, which is now back in the water.

We also decided to try and make some order out of our storage unit and spent some considerable time rearranging it and fitting some much-needed shelving.

Not much else to say apart from fingers crossed this weather changes!

Lovely morning in Lochinver

Well last week was a cold, wet and very very windy one for the team so not the busiest start to the New Year.

We did however, among carrying out some boat maintenance, carry out a propellor clearance job for a fishing boat in Lochinver.

A bundle or very thick rope was tangled round the propellor but despite the poor visibility our dive team were able to clear it efficiently, the surface team viewing the action on the divers live feed camera.

Once cleared the propellor and rudder were inspected for any damage and video'd for the customer.
Warmer in the water than out !

We would like to wish all our customers and friends a very happy New Year and all the best for 2022

Amazing some of antiques our divers find when working on moorings in old anchorages.
Many of them Victorian era

Well the festive week was another busy and varied one for team ADS.
After finally getting a break in the weather after Storm Barra, we took our Offshore 105 the Skua over from Lochinver to the Western Isles on Monday morning.

We spent a day in the Minch recovering acoustic receivers from the seabed monitoring the movements of tagged salmon.

There is a lot of detail on these in a previous blog from when we recovered some off of Jura, but in short when arriving at the lat/long for each receiver we dangle a hydrophone in the water, this pings an acoustic signal from a control unit and tells the unit on the seabed to release and come to the surface so we can recover it.
We also had with us an ROV with sonar and a grab in case any needed finding on the seabed.

After recovering a number of these we tied up in the marina in Stornoway for the night, where we were noteable as the only boat not decorated with Christmas lights.

On Tuesday we headed South to Loch Erisort on Lewis to recover more receivers before heading across the Minch to Gairloch.

On Wednesday we had a busy day diving, carrying out some mooring maintanance outside Gairloch.
The visibility was surprisingly good given the recent storms!

We would like to wish all our customers and friends a very happy Christmas 🥳

Well last week was another busy one for the team in spite of the appalling weather.

Monday saw us working at the Summer Isles carrying out some maintenance work on some moorings we inspected previously.

Tuesday saw us in the lovely Badachro where we spent the day pressure cleaning the pontoons, clearing off a year of accummulated mussel growth.
The pontoon chains and shackles were all inspected and measured while we were diving.

On Wednesday we drove to Fortrose and spent a day diving off a local workboat, removing risers from moorings for the Winter and replacing them with buoyed ropes so they can be located in the Spring and the Summer risers refitted.

We also had an hour of sunshine and calm weather that morning which was a memorable occasion.

A cold but fairly busy week this week for the ADS team.
I brought the Lady Nicola down from Lochinver to the Summer Isles.
A decent Northwesterly swell made for a somewhat lively trip.

We then spent several days inspecting moorings round the Summer Isles.
As always, each mooring was thoroughly inspected with riser chains / ropes, chasers / scrub chains, ground chains and all shackles, swivels etc measured.

The risers, buoys, pickups etc were then pressure washed, and any issues requiring attention reported to the customer.