Dive trip to Porthkerris. August 2018
We drove down to St Keverne for our annual diving pilgrimage. Some of us were camping in our usual field at the Village campsite. The pigs were much quieter this year, no usual squabbling or loud snoring (except for Alan). This is because poor Winston the old pig had died (RIP).
All the other divers and partners were scattered in the other B&Bs like the Old Temperance House or Parc N’Grouse.
Our first dive on Friday was Drawna Rocks, although many of us (including me) ducked out of this. This was to check out weights and kit. The tide was out so this became a shallow dive. It showed that diving in threes is not good practice as some got separated from their buddies. Congratulations to Mark for his first sea dive and being well looked after by Neil and Evelyn.
We had arranged to go for a meal at Rosskilly’s Ice cream parlour. We agreed to go down in dribs and drabs. (me being a drab) The food was really nice and quickly served. Some of us enjoyed a huge ice cream sundae….and did not share (no naming and shaming here)
On Saturday, 12 of us were on the Cat and 4 on the Kitten. The Cat went to the Citrine in the Manacles in the morning. The MV Citrine was a 779 ton cargo ship that sunk in bad weather after the bow hatch had been breached by the water on 2 January, 1956. It had started to head towards Cadgwith Cove, hoping to beach itself and its cargo of limestone chippings, but it never made it. The wreck is very broken considering its age, with bits of winches and parts of the wreck scattered across the reef. The current wasn’t too strong and there was only 2.2metres tidal range. There was the usual wrasse and bib on the wreck and other pretties.
After a packed lunch we dived on the Carmarthen. The 4262-ton steamer Carmarthen sank on 26 July, 1917 after being torpedoed by UC-50. Kapitanleutnant R. Seuffer had laid all his mines when he spotted the Welsh steamer rounding the Lizard riding high in ballast from Genoa for the Tees. His torpedo hit her close to the engine room, and though her engines continued working, she started taking in water fast.
Captain Griffith Roberts, who thought he had been mined, ordered his crew to abandon ship. However, Commander J.A. Collett of the patrol trawler St. Hubert was soon alongside and disagreed with abandoning the steamer. He felt that they might be able to beach her. Soon tugs had the steamer in tow. They made some headway, but at 8pm Carmarthen grounded in Eagle Cove and became a total loss. This is a shallow dive with lots of general wreckage to see. Quite pretty.
Evelyn and Neil and Mike and Mark on the kitten dived Raglan rock pinnacles in the morning, this is a pretty reef with lots of life on it. They dived Helford River in the afternoon in the hope of seeing rays, but they were not out that afternoon.
Saturday night we had pre booked at the Three Tuns. Again the food and beer was really nice and it was good atmosphere.
Sunday some divers had a swap round from the Cat to the Kitten. We both went to the same sites though. We dived the SS Mohegan in the morning. This is a 7,000 ton steamship that sank on the 14th October 1898. After losing her rudder on the Vase Rock, she slammed into The Voices Rocks in the heart of the Manacles, with the loss of 107 lives (although the local church recovered about 138 bodies). During the night after passing the Eddystone a Captain who wishes to clear the Manacles and the Lizard usually steers west-south-west but Captain Griffiths (by some error of compasses or judgment) drove his ship in a West by North direction right on to the Minstrel rock, in the heart of the Manacles. This dive is at a depth of between 15 and 29 metres and has visibility of about 5 metres. This is always a popular dive, it is huge and easy to navigate along the longitudinal and transverse girders provide a rough grid to follow. We got dropped on the 3 huge boilers. We found a conga eel hiding underneath. There were loads of cray fish on this dive.
In the afternoon we agreed to do Vase Rock (pronounced Vaase) this drops down to about 35 metres and we could pick our depth although the deeper we were the better the visibility and life. Again a very pretty dive swimming along the gullies and loads of anenomies and dead man’s fingers.
As usual Elaine managed to spot a nudibranch this weekend.
Sunday night was spent in the White Hart where we took over the side room as usual. Again, the food was good quality and we had a good night. Thanks to Elaine for doing the quiz. The best team won.
On Monday some of us went home as there was work the next day. Others stayed and completed the Volnay. This is a WWI 4,609 ton cargo steamship, sunk by mine in December 1917. At 117m it is a big ship. Amongst its cargo of tinned foods it also had munitions, including anti-personnel shells. The Volnay is close inshore and is mainly unaffected by currents. It has two huge boilers and the smaller condensing boiler. The visibility on this was quite good and due to recent storms shifting sand around some more stuff is visible.
We had a great weekend and the weather was mostly kind to us as was the sea state (enabling some of us to have regular naps on the boat…….Nic)
Thanks to Steve for organising this in his inimitable way ably aided by Hilary and thanks to Elaine for the lovely cakes and Jammie dodgers.
Lynda
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