Читать книгу Into the Abyss. Diving to Adventure in the Liquid World онлайн

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I soon learned that there was a bit of a history in the north-east between my predecessor divers and fishermen. So much so, that in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, before I had started diving, there had been an attempt by locals in one of our now favourite dive spots, to prevent divers using the harbour for launching and retrieving their dive boats. The BSAC had successfully taken the harbour trustees to court and got an order allowing divers access to the sea there.

My club soon discovered that the fishing town of Gardenstown, just a few miles to the east of Macduff, was situated in an area where there was little run off from the land to bring silt down into the sea. Underwater, the sand was clean and white and as a consequence, the whole area of sea around Gardenstown was truly blessed with fantastic underwater visibility, of an average of in excess of 20 metres. As a result our dive club found ourselves drawn there regularly for club dives.

I had not fully realised the strained relationship between divers and fishermen at that time. But the history soon became clear when we returned to Gardenstown harbour in our dive boats after one Sunday morning dive. Gardenstown was very religious and the Sabbath was still largely observed. As we got changed out of the way at the end of the pier we saw a number of local youths in five or six cars driving their way along the harbour area towards the breakwater we were on. They then strung a barrier of their cars across the harbour pier blocking in our cars and causing a bit of a stand off as we tried to leave the harbour.