June 2008 - porthkerris
All set for our 6th annual trip to the Lizard and a long weekends diving
with the Porthkerris team.
Thurs 12th June
Everyone left for the long journey at various times, Steve and Dab detoured
to St Ives to reccie the August Bank Holiday dive trip, Phil and Tweenie
managed to get lost in ST Keverne. The others arrived mid afternoon on the
campsite and set their tents up in the windy conditions, which proved
interesting. How many men does it take to put up a tent? In these conditions
4, 3 to hold it down and one to peg it out Once sorted we could enjoy the
wonderful hill top view of the land and seascape. Phil got friendly with Cam
the curly coated retriever and Nikki got embarrassed by a five legged horse!
Fortunately there were no traffic delays and even with some dependency on
satnav's all bar one arrived in time for an evening BBQ, Mel arrived just
after 10pm, two hours earlier than expected, after successfully bullying her
boss for an early departure from work. Tweenie was up to his usual tricks
(Drink assisted) and managed to fall over and pull his tent pod down,
although did manage to get to bed by midnight.
Fri 13th June
An 8.30 RTG was accomplished by all, even with Phil forgetting to bring his
dry suit down from the camp site. The barmy weather had Vince confused as he
suited up without an undersuit. The first dive was the City of Ghent a
lovely wreck with excellent vis. City of Ghent - 616 tons, 210 ft long and built in 1953,
it makes a beautiful dive in just over 30m of water being small enough to
swim around in the time available at that depth. Carpeted in deadmens
fingers and excellent vis (nearly 12 metres). During our surface interval we
enjoyed a good fill of sandwiches and hot drinks (Thanks Jo) but
unfortunately Karen felt the after effects of a bad fill from a previous
dive trip and spent some time feeding the fish. Mel didn't want to take her
gloves off so got Dave to feed her a sandwich, which was nearly consumed in
one mouthful (Not by choice!). We were then ready for the next dive.
Mike dropped us on the wreck of the Spyridion Vagliano, north of the Mean
Voes in about 18m of water. A lovely little wreck with plenty of marine
life. After a mooch around we were given a bearing across the reef to the
Mohegan. This proved too much of a test for most and only Mel and Tweenie
made it, although we all enjoyed the dive none the less. Either we need
refresher compass training or we shouldn't follow Dabster!
Back on dry land at 1.30pm meant we could shower, relax and drink, but not necessarily in that order!! Those that managed to get past these three activities (Some got stuck on one in particular!!) went for an afternoon hike to build up an appetite for the evening meal. Walking uphill in the heat of the afternoon proved testing, although we were rewarded by a handy diversion into St Keverne The Three Tuns for refreshments. Fortunately Vince is survival trained and had some cash for emergency pub rescue treatment (Thanks Vince). Back at the campsite and the rain briefly showered us so we all congregated in the big tent. The afternoon was brightened up when Jo came along as promised to show us her lovely puppies (The four legged kind).
Another BBQ session set us up nicely for a good night's rest and looking
forward to the next day's diving.
Sat 14th June
A deep first dive on the wreck of the Veritas the 235ft, 1133-ton Norwegian
steamer that was on her way from Gothenburg to Bristol with a cargo of pit
props in August 1807, when she was involved in a collision. Clear and bright
at 38m with at least 8 metres vis. This upside down wreck provided some
interesting sights and marine life.
The second dive was for scallops just outside of Falmouth. Mike dropped us
all off in various locations just to make sure we weren't all bumping into
each other. Not only did we all
come up with full goody bags but there were plenty of other life tosee,
including blue spined rays and crabs, Pete even discovered a 2 stroke
outboard engine (Surprisingly he didn't try and start it). After a quality
check most of the scallops were "Moored" in the bay, the Skipper was
presented with a bag full and another bag was taken for a cook off between
Jamie (Vince), Gordon (Pete) and Delia (Dabster).
A showery afternoon cleared just in time for a 2 mile walk to the 6
Pilchards pub in Porthhallow. A great pub and even the LandLord was far more
pleasant than last year. Unfortunately Nikki felt the effects of the
scallops for a second time, this resulted in an early departure to recover.
The meal was lovely and filling, which was walked off on the way back to the
campsite leaving just enough space for a few night caps and several
Tweenies!!
Sun 15th June
The final days diving. With a mill-pond sea and clear blue skies we
headed for the Manacles. Nitrox fills were low as some numpties from another
club drank most of the O2 following poor diving practices. However, we had a
very relaxing and pleasant drift onto the Mohegan. Mike deliberately
dropped us short of the wreck so we could drift onto it, we all came across
some wreckage and then continued through the gullies and across to the edge
of the cliffs.
On the transfer trip to the Citrine Pete yelled as if he was falling
overboard, luckily Mike the
skipper took notice as Pete had spotted a Basking shark which turned out to
be about 5M long. Finally our luck was in a huge specimen captured our
attention for half an hour, cameras were working overtime to captur this
beautiful moment.
The last dive was on the Citrine, 1km to the south-west of Cadgwith are the
remains of the 779-ton motor vessel Citrine in 22m of water surrounded by
low rocky reefs. She foundered in a gale with a cargo of limestone when
waves smashed in her fore hatch on 2 January 1956. All ten of her crew were
saved by lifeboats, a fantastic last dive was had by all. Back in the bay
Phil recovered the scallops and at the same time managed to get the rope
caught round the prop, Vince being the only diver who had not stripped his
kit down kindly volunteered to get wet again and freed the Cat from the
mooring rope!! After thanking Mike for a fantastic few days (As always) we
unloaded the dive gear, washed down the kit and packed up the tents,
although some lucky ones decided to stay for another day to relax and enjoy
the local area.
Vince, Karen, Pete, Nikki and Jon were left, whilst enjoying a relaxing beer
the phone kept them informed about road blocks into Helston due to a crash
and fuel shortages all along the motorways. One of the team even had to call
the AA because they ran out of fuel, perhaps the remaining five would be
stranded in Porthkerris, great!
The last night was topped off by another walk into St Keverne, this time an excellent meal was devoured in the White Hart followed by a bottle of red. We even brought Dave a drink for helping us out and filling our cylinders all weekend, although Nikki did remind him that her last fill was light (Poor chap, he did his best under the circumstances).
After a walk back to the campsite, Vince got out a wood burning vessel and we all sat under the hedge out of the wind enjoying a last few drinks looking out at a fantastic view disappearing into the night
Jon Coleman.
