River Leven for a Christmas Dive

After the storms of 2015 washed out plans to dive the River Leven last Christmas JBOD has been keen to dive it.

For the dive we ideally want a fair bit of flow to get a reasonable drift but not so much that we miss the marina at the Swan clout our heads on the bridge and get washed over the weir. Winter often provides these conditions and has the added benefit that the boats are moored rather than dodging divers. An added complication is that the exit point is quite a distance from the entry point so we needed to consider the arrangement of the car parking.

Alistair and Helen arrived at Fell Foot, the entry point, early. Helen was joining Lynn and Anna for a walk and was part of the surface team. Some while later John arrived so he and Alistair moved Alistair's car to the exit point at the Swan Hotel.

Eventually Adrian arrived and everyone kitted up so that the surface team could get off for their walk. The water is cold and we weren't expecting to move a lot so everyone was dressed in their warmest gear! Fortunately everyone was using a single cylinder so the walk down to the river wasn't too arduous although negotiating the anglers' lines at the entry point was a little tricky!

From the surface there didn't look to be a lot of current but it was quite quick enough if not exhilarating. The team drifted down the river which has a stony bottom with weeds. As soon as a meander was encountered the water got deeper, darker and slower and we managed to get a full 8 metres of depth. After a while the meander finished and the speed picked up again until the next meander.

After forty minutes we were listening for the weir! A quick peek at the surface told us we were almost at the marina which has a handy ramp for exiting the water. Once dekitted everyone moved into the Swan Hotel to find Helen and Lynn enjoying beer which led on to a pleasant lunch for all. Many thanks to everyone that made this trip possible and turned up to make it fun.