Porthkerris - 2-6 June 2005

After much excitement about visiting an alleged best British diving location, and completing my 14-1 days-to-go countdown, we were all finally off. Undoubtedly the worst part of the trip was the six and a half hour journey time each way. However, the friendliness of the locals ensured a couple of cold pints were served to even the latest arrivals. Breakfasts were almost gourmet, with fresh Orange Juice & Coffee accompanied with a very hearty breakfast. Already the trip was looking good and we hadn’t even dived.

Upon arriving at the dive centre we presented with friendly staff that could not help more if they tried. The weather report was mixed with sunny intervals, so the diving was planned around the weather.

Day 1 - 03/06/2005

Dive 1

First Dive of the trip the viz was excellent - I have never dived in viz like it before in the UK. I enjoyed the first dive to get to grips with all the skills that had not been put to practice since the last time I had dived.

Life was mainly concentrated around the boilers and included: Dead men’s fingers, Pollack, wrasse, and masses of brittle stars, bib and a beautiful cuckoo wrasse. The resident conger probably had a little headache after Kathy accidentally accosted it over its inquisitive head with her torch that she was trying to fix at the time.

Dive 2

A spectacular reef rising up from 30+ m to about 6m with spectacular walls and gullies covered with jewel anemones and deadmans fingers. We followed the line down to about 15m and headed West (West is best). The rocks were covered with jewel anemones, dead men’s fingers and plumose anemone. Close to the rocks could be seen most of the local wrasse species including some rather colourful rock cook and Bib.

Day 2 - 04/06/2005

Dive 3

The Mohegan sank October 14th 1898, after the Captain somehow veered off course from the shipping lanes into the shallow, treacherous waters of the Manacles. In the dark, the liner hit Vase Rock losing its rudder, then impacted into the Voices on the starboard side and began to sink rapidly. The lifeboats proved difficult to launch as the ship began to list, and one capsized. Despite a rapid launch of a lifeboat from nearby Porthoustock, the collision claimed 106 lives.

The wreckage of the Mohegan has been subject to over one hundred years of the Manacles weather, meaning that the three boilers are about the only part of this wreck that isn’t flattened against the seabed. The wreck lies in a north to south direction and the seabed shallows towards the west. On descending I thought I had missed the wreck but what I thought was the sea bed was in fact the wreck. What a marvellous, massive, impressive wreck, this was what diving was all about! We found the boiler tanks which were leaning against each other and forming a gully. As the conditions were exceptional I could not resist swimming through the tight gully and intruding on the fish inbetween. The rest of the wreck contained holds, holes, lots of potential Conger hide outs. I saw lots of cuckoo wrasse and Rock Cook, which with the excellent viz made this dive more suited to the Red Sea than the UK.

Dive 4

Not being a great fan of ‘drift dives’ I had already formed a biased opinion of what the dive was going to be like before I had even entered the water, I wanted to go back to the ‘Mohegan’. The only good point, as far as I was concerned, was this site was a popular location for the “Angler Fish/Monk Fish”, dinner was calling. How wrong I was. The excellent Viz made this dive just as impressive as all the previous dives. The shadows of the sunlight reflecting of the silhouettes of the rocks made it almost eerie. At one point Pete, my buddy, and I were gently drifting through a continuous channel surrounded by rocks covered with sea life. Unfortunately, I found no Angler fish, though there were some pretty big species of fish which still remain unknown to my non-existent marine biological vocabulary. (Where is Ellinor when you need her?)

Day 3 - 05/06/2005

Dive 5

The Rock Island Bridge was an American registered steamship which changed course to sail to Helford instead of Falmouth after it started taking on water. It was clear that the boat was going to sink so it was ordered to move to the estuary entrance in order to prevent it from blocking the shipping route. Later there were attempts made to raise her using cables attached to concrete pillars on the bank, but to no avail.

The Rock Island Bridge lies in a sheltered cove, so even if there is a strong current flowing further out to sea, the drift will be gentle to non-existent on the wreck. The constant deposition of sand from the nearby river into the estuary has meant that over time the wreck has become silted up and it now barely shows above the surface. The dive is less of a wreck dive and more of a dive for the sea life that congregates around these meagre remains. There are pollack, wrasse, rock cooks and mullet concentrated into a small area. If you head northwest away from the wreckage into the sandy channel, you may find some swimming scallops, Sand Hoppers & Tube worms, as Alan and I did.

Dive 6

Chynhallis Reef is a scenic drift dive. The seafloor is sandy with some rocky outcrops that are generally covered by kelp and if you look closer soft coral and sea fans. There is quite an abundance of life, making this a reasonable dive. As we hit the water we immediately saw a dogfish. We passed by the rocks where there were lots of sea urchins, wrasse and rock cooks. Again what made this dive was the excellent viz.

Dive 7

Rumoured to be one of the best shores dives in the UK I felt obligated to enlist a buddy and add it to my portfolio. Alan, Chris W and myself did our 2hr surface interval and headed down to the shore The most difficult part of this dive was the swim out to the rock which is about 100 metres from the shore. The cove nestles under the high rocks which protrude from out of the water. Once submerged, we followed the reef east which is dissected by a number of rocks and gullies forming nice channels to swim through in single file. The depth gradually increased and got more interesting with the plant life providing lots of protection for sea life to hide within. My favourite part of the dive is when you drop down into the “Fish Bowl” which is literally a bowl formed by the surrounding rocks; I am pleased to report there were plenty of fish in the “Fish Bowl”. We dived to the eastern most point of the rock where the tide picks up a bit and then retraced our path to return to the shore.

N.B. If you see some really inviting, shiny, user friendly steps to climb out of the water near the dive itself don’t think this is a short cut to save you having to swim back to the shore. These steps belong to the MOD who are not particularly happy about letting divers in & out of their compound all day.

A really great dive – a must do. If I completed this as my fist UK dive, instead of Swanage Pier, I would have probably had to christen my dry suit in the excitement of it all.

Day 4 - 06/06/05

Dive 8

On Friday, 14th December 1914, the Volnay hit a German mine on the Manacles. Fortunately its cargo, which was partly made up of shells, did not explode and the captain was able to divert from the planned course to Falmouth to the bay at Porthallow. Before reaching it, the Volnay began to sink and the remainder of its cargo, which consisted of food such as coffee and tinned meat, was washed up on Porthallow Beach, much to the residents joy - it was nearly Christmas and rationing was in effect, so this made Christmas a much more pleasant experience!

A lot of the wreck has been flattened, although not as much as some of the other wrecks in the area and it is still possible to locate the boilers and distinguish the keel. The silty seabed prevents you from doing much in the way of rummaging amongst the wreckage, as clouds of silt will immerse you in seconds. However, it is still possible to find the lead pellet shells on the wreck if they have been uncovered by the tide. There is quite a bit of fish life on it including bib and wrasse and a lot of sea fans. Chris W’s and my mission was to find Congers, which had been quite sparse so far. I had to say that we were almost beaten until the last four minutes of our bottom time when I found a giant Conger hiding in the very back of a cargo hold.

Tip given after the dive: ‘If you turn your flash light on and off continuously the conger will come out of its hiding place to investigate the flashing light.’ - this theory has not been proven, though I would love to put it to the test

Dive 9

Caution: Tidal, slack water very short on springs, surrounded by deep water

The Penwin is an outstanding granite reef some 200m north of the Manacles. It descends from about 6m down to 35m or more. One of the main features of the reef is a vertical granite wall blanketed with invertebrate life. As with the whole of the Manacles area there is a plenty of marine life. The area is extremely tidal and care should be taken as the surrounding seabed drops off rapidly. Our slacks were small and by the end of the dive the tide was strong and draining a lot of energy to keep in the direction back to the shot.

Conclusion

I do believe a good time was had by all, and the clarity of the waters made that car drive seem all the more worth it. The dive centre and locals were great, the diving was great and the weather was OK. I would definitely recommend this trip for anyone who is considering seeing a bit more of the UK, other than Dorset. I would also recommend taking an extra day of work and extending the trip by a day as the cost is marginal when you have driven that far is the first place.