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 »
S.S. Medina & S.S. Cheapside
Well it’s been a long time since I updated my blog, so I thought it was about time. The past few months has been a hectic time, even with the prolonged bad weather. I managed to get a week’s diving in Malta and a lot of UK dives too, although not necessarily the dives I wanted to do. The last 2 dives were almost a typical example of what has happened over the last year. Continue reading this entry »
Scylla & James Egan Layne
The weekend started off as normal, a Friday evening dive out of Falmouth ended up in the channel collecting a few Scallops for tea. Saturday I ended up doing a shore dive on Pendennis Point in Falmouth with a newly qualified diver, he wanted to try UK diving after qualifying in Sharm in February. He really enjoyed it and wants to do more. Saturday night I was off to Plymouth for a couple of dives on Sunday with Tim. Continue reading this entry »
Stanwood, Great Eastern & the Epsilon
Another few dives completed. Two on the Stanwood, one on Thursday morning, Shaun had a group together and wanted to fill the boat. The original plan was the Hera, but as we passed St Antony’s headland the swell was a little large for the newbie’s on board. Shaun turned the boat and announced we were diving the Stanwood, I hadn’t dived the Stanwood for a while so it’d do. Off we went, a few pictures before the newbies appeared then go and find some Scallops. I’ve been promising my dad some Scallops for ages and they were coming round that evening.
Friday evenings dive was, to my surprise, the Stanwood again. The vis wasn’t so good this time as the tide was ebbing which brings the crap down the estuary. A few more Scallops.
Sunday, there’s a little dived wreck called the great eastern locally although no-one actually knows it name. Rumours that the bell was raised years ago with the name of a woman followed by a letter like ‘Annie B’ or something like that. The vis on the surface was bad due to the amount of plankton around, not surprising as the sea was 13 degrees at the surface. As we descended it started to clear and was probably 10m near the bottom, and 10 degrees too. It was to be a short dive to 62m, I’m still getting used to the rebreather at depth, but changing a few things last time made the whole thing feel really comfortable. On the return the next group were ready to go out, I asked how many and how deep. Only 5 on the Epsilon, max depth 25m, I could stay on if I wanted. So I decided to stay on board. We headed out and I jumped in first, I had over 2 hours surface interval and the box gave me 47 minutes of no deco time so that was plenty. I swam around the boilers having a look at the congers inside them, the odd piece of wreckage sticking out of the sand and a few steel plates lying around. I then headed off onto the sand to see what was there, more Scallops! It was getting a little shallower and the box was giving me loads of no deco time but the others on the boat were probably up by now, so I joined them.
A week of diving! Odd days anyway.
Well it all started over easter. I went out on Westbay Lass on Friday and did two dives. The first was a shallow reef where he had a big hit on the magnetometer. I swam around for 30 minutes and never found anything! I only decided to do this dive as we had got to the dive site before slack water, it passed enoug time to get slack water on the Mohegan.
I’ve dived the Mohegan loads of times and never found much, there’s loads of broken pottery on it and theer is reports of portholes, but I’ve never seen them. We hit it on slack and had some reasonable visibility, probably around 6m. We started swimming to where Ben has been finding all sorts of bits. I mean bits, I did find half a copper flange and a whole trim tile, I doubt if there is really much more there, it’s been dived far too often.
That evening I went out on the usual Friday night dive on Shaun’s Autumn Dream, a drift in the channel, the usual Scallop collecting and then back home.
Saturday was a deeper one, Ben Rein in 61m, originally we had planned the Bretonne but due to conditions we changed to teh Ben Rein. The wreck was hard to find as it is only 32m long.
Sunday we had a rest.
Monday I managed to get a go on the new Pelagian Rebreather, I’ll do a post on that seperately, it was only a shore dive at Seal Cove in Newquay. We swam around and went into the cave there, quite a big cave that’s only in 5m of water. We went looking for seals but never found any.
This is just a brief account as I have been really busy, with so many different things.
Raglans’ Reef Manacles 21st March
I had a phone call from Paul on Saturday just after I had got off the boat asking if I wanted to dive on Wednesday, I asked what time, he said Shaun hadn’t told him yet! I turned to Shaun and asked what time, Paul laughed! 1:30 Wednesday. Paul had 6, which would be enough for Shaun to go out, but just in case someone cancelled a spare would be handy. I rang around and had a few maybe’s. Continue reading this entry »
Dark Mohegan
With the recent constant bad weather, it was a surprise text that stated “Mohegan Saturday at 11am”. I know the winds had dropped, but what would the vis be like? I suppose I should go and find out. Continue reading this entry »
Hera Again!
With the recent weather, diving locally had been very limited. We had ended up in the Carrick Roads for nearly every dive, as this is protected from most winds except southerlies. Friday evenings dive had been cancelled through lack of interest so would we get out on Saturday? Continue reading this entry »
Veritas & the beeping.
Well it’s been a slow start. The increasingly annoying winds have caused most dives to be canned. I was getting so desperate even the local quarries were looking tempting. Continue reading this entry »