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At The Loch With Richard Carter

On my first full day at the loch this year my wife Florence and I traveled 25 miles to Buckie to see John Hedgeley who while at the loch with his wife, son and daughter on the 10th of April saw and took a picture of an object in the water.
We spent about two hours with him getting his full story and I must admit his pictures do show some solid object in the loch but I will study them more before I decide on them.
Returning to Inverness we called to see Gary and Kathy Campbell who as your readers will know run the Official Loch Ness Monster Fan Club. The fan club seems to be doing quite well and now their homework support package is causing interest in schools as well as individuals. While at Gary’s we drove to the house of Paul Alexander with the hope of getting a copy of the video he took on 12th of August this year in Urquhart Bay.
Mr. Alexander was quite happy to let me have a copy but after watching it several times I am afraid I cannot see anything but a boat wake. Next on my list was a visit to see Steve Feltham the full time monster hunter who lives in a converted mobile library. After five years at the loch he is still enjoying his way of life around the water, even though he still has not taken that piece of video for final proof of the existence of ‘Nessie.’
He is still making his little ‘Nessie’ models which he sells to the tourists which helps to keep him in food and diesel.
I met Dick Raynor at Drumnadrochit to discuss plans for some film work I have planned to help me with my research into Tim Dinsdales 1960 film taken in Foyer’s Bay. Dick kindly offered to loan me a 16mm Bolex camera and supply the film as it must be ordered specially, and because I am not very good with cine camera’s he also offered to shoot it for me.
Everything was arranged, the hire of the boat, permission to film from the Foyer’s Hotel and when the film finally arrived, the weather started to turn and we could not find the right time and conditions to do the filming. (Maybe one last trip to the loch before winter.)
I left Dick after making arrangements to spend an evening with him and George Edwards out on Nessie Hunter II.
While at Drumnadrochit I called in to see Adrian Shine the leader of the Loch Ness Project. The work is heavily involved in taking core samples 600 feet down on the loch bed. The samples are studied by several universities around the country with the hope of understanding how the loch and its environment has evolved since the last ice age.
Another project they are carrying out at the moment is a new angle on working out the fish population in the loch by studying the 200 plankton species in the loch to work out if there is enough food to feed the fish counts which vary from one to twenty tons.
I met Dick Raynor and George Edwards at Temple Pier at 18.00hrs on a damp cold night and must admit the thought of going out on the loch in the dark gave me mixed feelings. We loaded all the tackle and George steered Nessie Hunter II out into Urquhart Bay towards the castle.
The loch was calmer then I thought it would be so I settled down to watch the colour screen sonar as it tracked the bottom shelve. It was on this same sonar that George picked a depth of 257.5 metres in 1991 which turned out to be a false reading but he assured me that he could find it again any time he wanted, and we set off out past the castle. At this point you enter the open loch from the nice sheltered bay and believe me it does not get much worse in the sea thankfully George decided to give up his search and we moved back into the smooth sheltered water’s by the castle.
Dick had brought along a hydraphone which we set up and lowered into the murky waters of the bay. For those of you not familiar with hydrophones all they are, are water proof microphones which can pick up any noise from under the water. The hydraphone is run through a tape recorder which can be played back later to check for any unusual sounds.
As George’s boat has a PA system we listened through speakers at the strange sounds made by the sonar clicking away below us. With the sonar turned off you can hear the sounds of the water from fifty feet down.
The only strange noise we heard was finally put down to an anchor chain in the bay. This for me was the highlight of the trip, sat there in the calm of Urquhart Bay listening to the sounds fifty feet down.
Another piece of equipment Dick had packed was his image intensifier and now the weather had picked up we scanned the shore which looked like daylight through the machine. I must admit it is better then mine, I think my wife and I will have to save up and buy a better one.
After, we sat talking and I was surprised but not shocked to hear Dick say that how he now believes his cine film of 1967 could have been a mistake and he thinks it could have been a family of Gooseander which is my favourite theory about his film.
Power for the course! If JARK got this one wrong they could also be wrong about Tim Dinsdales.
We returned home after our week’s trip more in need of a rest then when we set out but a few more sighting report forms filled in, a piece of video and some good memories. I hope, when the day comes for me to put all the pieces together and finally prove that Nessie exists it will be as much a enjoyable experience as it has been so far in trying to get there.

If you have seen Nessie please let us know, personal details will be omitted if that is your wish. Email