Basking Sharks & good vis
We took ‘Atlantic Scuba 1′ out last Sunday to dive the wreck of the Caroni Rivers and ‘The Old Wall’. The sea was like a sheet of glass and the skies were cloudless. We watched the divers descend the shotline until all we could see were their cylinders in the distance. The vis was reported as being greater than 10m, from a depth of 15m they could see the boat on the surface.
On route to ‘The Old Wall’ we saw a lone Basking Shark, two of the divers snorkelled up and jumped in but the shark wasn’t being social and disappeared. The next divers jumped in on ‘The Old Wall’ with about 8m vis, the site is covered in kelp in the shallows, but as the kelp disappears the dead mans fingers and corals appear.
The previous day we dropped a group on the Rock Island Bridge wreck, a shallow wreck but with 6-7m vis and lots of life including a variety nudibranchs it is a pleasant dive. The divers came up with a few scallops for their suppers.
Atlantic Scuba Diver Training and RHIB Charter.
After a lot of thought I have decided to take this to the next level. I can now offer nearly the whole range of SDI courses from basic Open Water to Deep Diver (40m).
Full details on my website at http://www.atlanticscubatec.co.uk
I can also offer air to 300 bar. I will soon hopefully have a full mixing panel setup to be able to offer Nitrox & Trimix. I am based in Central Cornwall, 10 minutes from Newquay, 10 minutes from Truro, 30 minutes from Penzance/St Ives, just 300m off the A30.
RHIB charters! I have now bought a coded RHIB from ‘Dive Action’. ‘Atlantic Scuba 1 ‘ is coded for 10 people and runs twin Yamaha 4 stroke engines so is quiet, quick and reliable.
Milly, No, Sphene, not again!
After yesterdays mis-calculation of the currents we weren’t gonna make the same mistake today, we set off early to dive the Milly. The Milly is shallower and it would be a lot easier to dive if the current did start. Everything was going well until we rounded Pentire Point, there was a lot of chop on the water. We had to back off the throttle to a more comfortable speed, it was now going to take us half an hour of pounding and then it wasn’t going to be nice around the site. We looked at each other and decide that the Sphene was close and it looked a little flatter there. So it was back to the old favourite, that we had dived twice in the last 2 weeks. As the diver kitted up I trolled around looking for the boiler, we don’t use a GPS on this site, just transits, but it would be good to have the exact co-ordinates just in case.
I found the highest point and marked it, then sent the other diver in. I carried along with my trolling and mananged to distinguish the bow section as well. It wasn’t long before the other diver appeared and told me to go in, the vis was excellent. I dropped in and the vis was very good, 10-15m, failing light was a problem for my camera though. I did a couple of circuits and never found any current even though we were now well past slack water, yesterday there was a lot of current, today none.
Always a cracking dive, easy to navigate, shallow and loads of life. Oh well!
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Drifting the Rumps
Friday evenings dive was cancelled as we didn’t have a boat. After a quick chat it was decided that we would go and dive the Ezra Weston. Slack water was around 3pm and as it was neap tides slack water should last for a long time. By the time we arrived at the site it was about 30 minutes after slack, we dropped the anchor. The sea was flat and the wind was non existant, but for some reason the GPS said we were moving at 1ft per second. Watching us drift away from our shot we had obviously missed slack water, which was strange as we had so much slack water last weekend on a spring tide. It was decided that we wouldn’t dive as too much current would ruin the dive. So off we went to get a better idea of how the seabed lies around the area. We eventually ended up near an island called the Mouls, I decide to jump in and have a look. Continue reading this entry »
Sphene Again.
Several local divers wanted to have a dive off the north coast of Cornwall, some had never dived the north coast and wanted to see what it was like. Looking at the forecast the south coast was going to be a bit rough anyway, it could even affect the north coast a bit offshore. So with the divers and conditions in mind, the Sphene looked favourite for all. Continue reading this entry »
S.S. Sphene and the Lobster catcher
It’s that time of year when we get the biggest spring tides, it also mean sthe smallest neap tides and we didn’t want to waste that. We had planned a dive to 60m on H.S. Rewa on either Saturday or Sunday or both, but as we got closer to the weekend the forecast wasn’t looking so keen so we waited until the day.
Saturday morning came and we were still unsure. Did we want to travel 26 miles on a RHIB in rough conditions and then have the dive cut short? Not really. I had planned 45 minutes at the bottom and relied on surface support in case of CCR failure, if it turned out rough I couldn’t rely on surface support finding me quick enough if I didn’t return to the shot line. So the safest bet was to wait until a flat day. Not wanting to miss the tides we ended up back on the old favourite, the Sphene. Sunk in 1946 in bad weather, it’s still a nice dive and a good place to find Lobsters. Even better with my new Lobster catcher! Continue reading this entry »
Cannon Ball site
Just outside of the Fal estuary there is an area known by local divers as the cannon ball site. Local divers have brought up many cannon balls from here over the years and every now and then we dive there to see what’s around. It was our usual Friday evening dive and this site was selected as a change. Continue reading this entry »
S.S. Kilmaho
Today saw the second of the two planned dives out of Penzance on Fred Buckingham’s ‘Pamela P’. We left at the same sensible time of 11:30 and once again decided the dive on route. As our remit was a maximum depth of 60m we were presented with a few options, the favourite being the Kilmaho. So that’s where we headed. The Kilmaho was sunk by UB-20 in 1917 whilst on route to Dunkirk with its cargo of railway components including track and carriage wheels. As far as Fred knew it hadn’t been dived that often and sounded interesting to us. Continue reading this entry »
S.S. Elastoplast!
Today saw the first of two dives out of Penzance on Fred Buckingham’s ‘Pamela P’. A large catamaran based in Penzance that is very comfortable and well suited to divers. We left at a sensible time of 11:30 and decided the dive on route. Our remit was a maximum depth of 60m and after a bit of discussion we ended up heading for a wreck which had not been identified. The first time anyone dived the wreck they cut themselves on it and required a plaster, an Elastoplast, so that was what the wreck is called for now. Continue reading this entry »
S.S. Hera, Again!
Well it was another Friday evening. Shaun still hasn’t decided to take us out for the usual Friday evening dives and Gary’s hardboat wasn’t available. So it was Gary’s RHIB or nothing! We met back at our original embarkation spot, Customs House Quay in Falmouth. After some discussion and Gary’s concern at the state of tide we still decided to dive the Hera, which hopefully wouldn’t be very tidal, it was mid tide, but it was still close to the small neaps. 7 set sail (powered) off into the sun drenched water, Continue reading this entry »