In July 2007 a party of 12 divers set off to visit Porthkerris and the Manacles reef dive sites. Despite the year being rather a bad one for diving weather wise we hoped for a break in the incessant rain and were not disappointed.
Blog
Scillies 2007
A wonderful week away….
On Saturday the 28th August last year a group 12 divers and 4 nondivers from the dive club jumped on a ferry to the Isles of Scilly 30 miles off the tip of Cornwall for a week of diving. The Scilly Isles are unique for diving as it has more wrecks per square mile than any other place in the world ranging from four 17th century British fleet ships which sank in 1707 right up to the Cita a container ship which sank in 1997. It is said that there are over a thousand ships wrecked around these islands.
The ferry trip was around three hours from Penzance to St Mary’s and can be a very lumpy crossing at times, but luck was on our side it was a smooth crossing. We arrived in St Mary’s mid afternoon on Saturday and had a short walk to our B and Bs. To start the trip off on a good footing we all meet in the evening for a meal and few sociable drinks. As the diving did not start until Monday we had a free day on Sunday to go and explore the Islands.
On the first day of diving we met up with our skipper Jo at the harbour and got started loading dive kit from the shipping container to the dive boat (Moon Shadow). We were then on our way to the first dive site of the Plymton and the Hathor
The first thing you notice when you land on the wreck at 24m is the 10-15m visibility down there, meaning you can get a clear picture of the wreck, making navigation a breeze. As Karen and I made our way down the wreck to 30m, it was hard to see at first where one ship ended and the other started. Once we got our bearings you could make out the bow of Hathor jutting out at 90 degrees to the Plymton. Our thoughts were if this was a taster of things to come we were in for a week of amazing diving, (which certainly turned out to be true).
The second dive of the day put us on a set of rocks that were supposed to be teaming with life. Unfortunately, the current was so strong it was sweeping us off the rocks out into open water, so along with ourselves many divers aborted soon after entering the water.
Over the next four days we dived a mix of shipwreck and scenic locations. One of the wreck dives we did was the Cita, which was the last ship to go down in the Scilly’s. The Cita was a large container-feeder ship that sank on 26th March 1997 after going ashore at full speed at 03.30am. All the crew were fast asleep and the vessel on automatic pilot with the radar alarm system switched off. The Cita is still largely complete and still has a good coating of paint on it.
For me the best dive of the week was the wreck of the Italia an Italian-registered 2,792-tonne armed steamship carrying coal from Cardiff to Toronto which drove ashore 11th May 1917 in dense fog during the same night that the SS Lady Charlotte was wrecked near Porth Hellick, St Mary’s 3 miles to the east. As the Italia drove ashore on Wingletang Ledge the inhabitants of St Agnes were unaware of the wreck, as the sound of escaping steam and her siren were thought to be coming from the Lady Charlotte wreck.. The Italia lies trapped in a sheltered, steep, sloping gully, her stern at 20m and the bow at 50m, myself and Andy swam the length of the ship. This ship looked like it had been ripped open down its centre line. The engine sat in the middle with conrods and crankshaft exposed. Further down the Italia at 43m is the bow light tower sat in the twisted metal untouched with the lantern still complete like someone had just placed it there.
The week wasn’t just about diving, in the evenings we met up for food and a spot of lighthearted socialising over a few drinks and food. All in all it was a fantastic trip with excellent diving, good weather and good group of people who all got on well. On behalf of all who went along I would like to thank Chris Stevens for organising such a great trip.
Stuart Bowsher
Falmouth 2007
Photos from the April 2007 trip to Falmouth and Porthkerris
The 2007 season was kicked off with a camping and diving trip to Falmouth and Porthkerris where we dived from Falmouth’s Castle beach and on Drawna reef at Porthkerris beach.
We mostly traveled down to the Retanna Holiday park where we’d got various static caravans, tent pitches and sites booked for our motley collection of divers and their families.
Saturday dawned with an 8.30 briefing in the nice warm static caravan before heading off to the Castle beach in Falmouth for a day of shore diving looking for the famous submarine wrecks.
We pitched up at the top of the beach, strategically near the toilets. There was a nice clean concrete platform at the top of the beach which is ideal for our basecamp. After important preliminaries including coffee and cake we got in for a first dive to begin trying to find the submarines.
No joy in finding the subs but reinforcements arrived at lunchtime courtesy of the Esnouf’s huge minibus. After a good interval (to allow the tide to come back in from the end of the reef……) we got in for a second dive with the aim being to use the marks from dive directory to locate at least one of the wrecks. Wind was picking up and swimming out to the approximate location was quite hard work, but we got roughly to where we thought we should be.
We descended to a kelpy seabed at ~4m and found only rocks and kelp – so much for navigation. After about 1 hour of dive time most people had drawn a blank but one pair did stumble across one sub, just opposite the toilet block , about 30m from where we’d camped!
Sunday the wind was not great for the Falmouth site (and we were all a bit bored wth 5m dives in sand and kelp) so we relocated to Porthkerris to visit their famous Drawna reef. The cloudy skies soon cleared and we had a lovely day on the beach with very good weather a got rather sunburned. Two new members joined us and got to dive the reef’s kelp forest and the associated rocks. We even found a wall covered with nearly every color of jewel anemones – lovely.
After two good dives on Sunday we retired to the campsite having booked a RIB dive from the dive centre on Porthkerris beach to dive out at sea.
Monday the weather was rather rough so we couldn’t get on the Manacles reef sites. Instead we dived the Volnay which proved be a very good site with lots to see. A shot was already positioned on the boilers and we dropped right between them. The cargo of antipersonel munitions was scattered across the seabed and lots of lead balls were found near the bow.
After the dive the rain really came down so we gave up on the second dive plan and retired to the three tuns in St Keverne for lunch before beginning the long drive home.
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