North Cornwall Diving - June 06
A swiftish ascent from about 20m did not bode well on Friday evening for the start of a weekends diving! Fortunately it did not continue in this vein and I had not missed out on a particularly wonderful dive…..these were still to come! The cause of the ill-timed ascent was a dodgy cuff dump that seemed reluctant to vent until I got to about 10m. However as the dive had been dark with poor viz I did not feel I had missed out on a lot.
The following day the dive was just about as different as you could imagine with brilliant sunshine; the plan was a shore dive on the north Cornwall coast.
As we discussed the entry point and plan for the dive I had high hopes. The cuff dump had been flushed through and screwed back on tightly although there was a slight query about its position on the seam maybe not making a good watertight seal.
I often find shore diving a bit of a nightmare due to the struggle I have putting on fins. However, this was to be very different with a wonderful buddy who kindly put on my fins for me once I was in the water. Thus I was able to start the dive stress free without being worn out from fighting to get them on. I have tried a variety of techniques…. deep water, shallow water hanging onto a buddy etc but I always end up struggling. On occasion I have even wished I not decided to dive at all, as I can often end up hot and bothered, falling over and doing a great imitation of a stranded fish………much to the amusement of others! However this time everything went smoothly and soon we were off working our way along the right hand side of the bay.
Much to my chagrin within a few minutes I felt the tell tale trickle of water coming in through the cuff dump which I tried to ignore. With visibility this good and the scenery so fantastic and feeling so chilled out I wasn’t about to let anything spoil this dive. As we crossed the end of the bay to the other side I could feel that the water had progressed inside my suit up my arm and down my front. Some time after this I was down to 40bar so we started to head back skirting round the rocky outcrops of kelp where spider crabs stilt walked across the vast white expanse of sand to reach the cover of the kelp.
All too soon I was down to 10bar and starting to get a bit of cramp in one foot. I also realised that the water inside had worked its way down to my hips and I was beginning to feel a little chilly. I hadn’t realised that we had actually clocked up a dive time of 84 minutes ……which is probably why my legs were a little tired!….so I decided to surface. Divesting myself of my suit after the dive I was able to wring out the undersuit and the water was literally dripping off the end of my sleeve. However it had all been worth it for such a superb dive.
The following day with the cuff dump glued and tightened up just about as tight as it would go little did I know that I was to be treated to my third fantastic bit of diving of the weekend. The aim was to dive The Spheen again on the north coast. With visibility of probably about 20m you could see the wreck as you descended down the shot. I was absolutely amazed, as I had never seen a wreck so clearly in UK waters
At one point I was hanging onto the wreckage to steady myself in the bit of surge to photograph a nudibranch when a grey head suddenly appeared and nearly frightened me to death! I had never seen a conger before and realised that I had been hanging onto his entry, so it wasn’t surprising that it had come out to see whether there was anything edible about! Unfortunately I wasn’t able to entice it out again, it had obviously decided that neoprene gloves where probably not that tasty and so I wasn’t able to get a decent photo. By this time my no deco time was nearly up so I decided to leg it up to the boilers and the area beyond that on the stern, which was several metres higher in order to gain an extra bit of time. Here I found quite a few Pollock languidly swimming amongst the broken timbers of the wreckage, which was covered in many different types of anemones. Eventually I reluctantly decided that I really should be calling it a day. I wanted to return up the shot as there had been considerable current on the surface (for me anyway), so I made my way back. With such good visibility it was easily found and my buddy appeared as well so we returned up the line together. The cuff dump had held out well and worked properly much to my relief.
So yet another weekends wonderful diving in Cornwall that was even better than my last!
more piccys
Various Dive Sites in Cornwall!
shore diving piccys
A Shore Dive in Cornwall!
