Cornwall Dive Trip May 1999

Last update: 13/10/99

Well... it happened!

This was a small-scale improvised trip, mainly for members of the Diving Leisure London Diving Club (and some friends).

We were on the Lizard peninsula, south of Falmouth. Using RIBs from Porthoustock and Porthkerris beaches, we were diving on and around the reefs, rocks and wrecks of the area known as the Manacles.

With a total of 9 people on the trip, we were able to book 6 boat places with Dive Action, and a further 3 places with Porthkerris Divers. In fact we all ended up diving in much the same places - the Volnay and the Manacles, but at somewhat different times.

Taking part were:

The Porthoustock Six

Kevin B.
Angharad B-W.
Kim S.
Tim G.
Ross B.
Paul F.

The Porthkerris Three

Nick F.
Tony P.
Janet P.

The diving

These are the figures from my log - others' profiles should be broadly similar.

Saturday 1st

	12:00 Volnay 18.7m, 34 minutes Finding the buoy in the fog was an impressive feat! Cargo ship of 4,610 tons, sank after hitting a mine 14/12/1917
	16:30 Volnay 22.8m, 33 minutes A fog bank was looming offshore so we dived here again rather than something more ambitious. Actually a better dive than the previous (slack water and better light).

Sunday 2nd

	08:30 Raglan Rock 37m, 20 minutes Excellent pinnacle with a system of gullies dropping away: lots of life to be seen.
	14:30 Mohegan 23m, 36 minutes Good large wreck! Descended in sunshine but surfaced to find that fog had suddenly surrounded the RIB. A Basking Shark was seen by some of the divers who surfaced earlier, but not by us :-( Liner of 7,000 tons. Ran into reef 13/10/1898

Monday 3rd

	09:00 PenVin Rock 20m, 41 minutes Another good pinnacle, with a sheer wall on one side and a shelf on the other. Again lots of life, but we didn't have such good vis on this one (about 3m c.f. 8m previously).
	13:00 Morah Rock drift 16m, 43 minutes Dived before slack so people could get away earlier back towards London. A fairly lively drift! Some passed over the wreck of the Lady Dalhousie, but I didn't see it. Excitement after surfacing watching a helicopter returning some divers from another RIB who had surfaced early, not been spotted, and floated away down the coast.

The non-diving part

We stayed in a comfortable cottage near St Keverne, which was convenient for both dive centres and both beaches (and the village).

Copious breakfasts were provided at the adjacent farmhouse!

The local pubs were the Three Tuns and the White Hart, both in St Keverne and both of which also did excellent food in the evenings.

Here are some pictures.

Costs

The Dive Action boat fees were Ł72 per person plus Ł10 for air for all six dives over the three days. The B&B costs were Ł18 per person per night.

Links

Diving Leisure London	0171 924 4106
Dive Action	01326 280719
Porthkerris Divers	01326 280620

Kevin Beurle, May 1999