Tiverton Diving Club On Tour! Porthkerris Divers are a well establised diving operation situated on the Cornwall's Lizard peninsula. Andy organised a weekend away to sample the diving scene, an overnight stay at St Keverne Campsite was essential, otherwise it was over a two hour drive back to Tiverton!
We weren't "lucky" with the weather, but thanks to being east facing and protected from prevailing winds by a sheer cliff, we got away with most of our planned dives!
Date: Saturday 3rd August Dive Number: 172
Place: Vase (Manacles) Buddy: Chris B
Time Down: 1230 Dive Time: 00:29
Time Up: 1301 Max Depth: 30.5m
Visibility: 8-10m Water Speed: 0kn
Weather: F4 SCT030TCU W14C Entry: Boat Celtic Kitten
Our first dive was a hardboat dive. There are two hardboats that run out of Porthkerris, Celtic Cat and Celtic Kitten, the latter was the boat we were booked on. The boat has a front door like a RORO ferry and fronts onto the stony beach, so divers can simply walk on like it's a landing craft - the benifit of this is so that we don't need to kit up on the boat as the deck itself was quite small. Chris and I were uncharacteristically slow at kitting up, so ended up carrying some kit onto the boat and trying to untangle our hoses in front of a group of bemused looking divers from another club! We soon sat down with everyone else and enjoyed the moderately choppy ride out to the site. Dave, the skipper, was a really chilled out guy - most chilled out skipper I've ever seen! He made everything seem so smooth and easy, which put all the divers at ease. Even when Chris' cylinder slipped through the strap prior to entry, he just laughed, pulled him back, set it straight, slapped him on the back and all was well again. Some that I've encountered in the past would have held a grudge against something like that for the whole weekend!
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| porthkerris.com |
"The Vase is a very pretty, colourful reef dive. It is part of the
Manacles and is a rock that is wedding cake shaped with three tiers at varying
depths. The rocks are covered in kelp, sea fans and sponges and beautiful jewel
anemones of all colours imaginable, coating the granite on the north-east
corner of Vase Rock. There are sandy gullies and coves within the rocks that
provide shelter from the current and are home to numerous sea urchins,
starfish, crabs, pollack and wrasse. The current here can be exceptionally
strong, especially on springs when it is only possible to dive on slack". Porthkerris.com
Once on the shotline we descended to a depth of around 20m on the Vase and headed north towards deeper water. Chris and I had previously agreed not to exceed a maximum depth of 35m, so we planned decompression stops from the BSAC '88 Tables, 1 minute at 9m and 3 minutes at 6m. At a depth of 30m we still had some depth ahead of us but we decided to ascend up the profile again for the sake of our air consumption. It was quite light at 30m, rather misleading as it usually gets dark at that depth in the UK. The Vase of course was very colourful, with sponges, fan coral and several fish, including one big pollack and a huge lobster which Chris saw, but didn't tell me! We found a pinnacle which plateau'd at 6m so our final deco stop and DSMB deployment were made easy for us.
One of the best things about Celtic Kitten is the lift. It's so easy to just stand on it underwater after a dive and then Dave winds it up so we can simply walk back onto the deck. Too easy!
Place: Porthkerris Bay Buddy: Chris B, Keith S
Time Down: 1500 Dive Time: 00:25
Time Up: 1530 Max Depth: 14.9m
Visibility: 4-5m Water Speed: 0kn
Weather: F4 BKN015 W13C Entry: Shelving Shore
After a decent surface interval back on shore we prepared for our second dive of the day - Chris' final Dive Leader open water training lesson. The drill consisted of
- Controlled Buoyant Lift (CBL) of a non breathing casualty from 15m
- Tow casualty on the surface for 50m
- Exploratory dive
We summoned Keith to join us on the dive so he could act as the casualty, which would work better from my perspective of monitoring the skill. We needed a depth of 15m, and much of the bay was only 8-10m. We needed to go around the other side of these rocks.
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| porthkerris.com |
This required a moderate surface swim which gave me cramp more than once and further flooding in my drysuit which I have found to occur more when I'm on my back. We reached the far side of the rocks and descended to find a clear patch of sand at a depth of 15m, ideal for the initial casualty set up. The first CBL was too fast and it took a while for me to catch them up on the surface. Everyone was okay though, apparently there was also confusion as to the last 6m whether they held on or separated, and who was and wasn't inflated. While we were on the surface I made Chris do the 50m tow which really did seem to tire him out. We dropped down again to catch our breath before retrying the CBL, this time arresting the asecnt at 6m and then immediately descending without surfacing. There was no way we were going to do a third run as multiple ascents can be detrimental to our biology. Fortunately Chris did really well on the second ascent and made haste without speed, hitting 6m before immediately descending again. Finally, Chris navigated and explored our way back to the beach, reaching it spot on to where we wanted. At three meters depth as we were swimming up the final shelf, Chris bent down, took his fins off and attempted to 'walk' up the beach. He really had to lean forward to maintain any sort of propulsion and made it look rather difficult. Impressive, funny, but not really appropriate if he was leading the dive, or even looking after his buddy should anything happen to them. All we need to do now is to get him to do simulated rescue breaths and compressions on a dummy. Maybe Keith will be available again...
Back at the campsite, Andy and Sue sorted everyone out with a slap-up barbeque dinner. It was a little cold considering it was August, but it's truly the only way to relax after a hard day's diving!
Place: Volnay (wreck) Buddy: Steve G, Keith S
Time Down: 1200 Dive Time: 00:43
Time Up: 1243 Max Depth: 19.5m
Visibility: 4-5m Water Speed: 0kn
Weather: F4 OVC002 W14C Entry: Boat Celtic Kitten
We didn't know if we would even be diving at all today as we had such bad weather overnight and it was so windy at the campsite. We underestimated the degree of shelter the site had though, and when I asked Jo at the front desk if the hardboats were still going out she looked in comic disbelief and exclaimed, "hell, yeah!"
"Homeward from Canada with luxury goods and ammunition, [Volnay] detonated a contact mine on 14th December 1917 off the Manacles, and was
bought into Porthallow bay and anchored a quarter of a mile off Porthkerris
beach, where she sank in 21 metres onto a sandy bottom. It is a non-tidal, nice
and easy wreck to dive. Although the wreck is well broken up, there are still
some very large pieces, but the whole site is covered in a fine layer of silty
sand and you must be careful not to stir things up. You may find some
shell cases, lead balls or cordite if you’re lucky". Porthkerris.com
We were back on the Celtic Kitten for this dive and also joined by the same club as yesterday. Dave explained all about the wreck and suggested, as the Celtic Cat had already dropped divers off, that we go north rather than south, where the other divers had probably gone to stir up the silt! Didn't find any treasure though. Found a shoe, but it looked new, so left it to grow some barnacles for next time.
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Place: Porthkerris Bay Buddy: Toby & Kate
Time Down: 1430 Dive Time: 00:31
Time Up: 1501 Max Depth: 8.2m
Visibility: 2-4m Water Speed: 0kn
Weather: F4 OVC002 W14C Entry: Shelving Shore
Final dive of the trip, and after a chicken baguette, a cup of tea, fig roll and two hours surface interval we were ready once more. I took Toby on his final Ocean Diver open water lesson. Drills included
- SEEDS Brief
- Lead the dive between 12-20m
- Mid water hover on low air
- Weightbelt jettison
Kate, Toby's partner also came along on the dive as Toby's dive buddy, and I would swim along behind and monitor his dive leading. Toby gave a good brief and I was very impressed that he reviewed and reconsidered his original decision to enter via the smaller entrance where swell was being amplified up the shore and took the safer entrance, even though it meant a longer surface swim to where he wanted to go. He was also keen to practise compass navigation, which wasn't necessary but very useful for the exercise.
Toby's conduct in leading the dive was outstanding. He regularly checked Kate's (and my) air - even if it was every ten bar at least he was mindful of it. Assessing the length of time to leave between asking again comes with experience. He was also good at checking the 'ok' sign with Kate and myself as well. Toby successfully used the compass to navigate north through the gully to the left of the bay, and after the first 'third' of air supply then took a reciprocal bearing as he planned in his brief for the second third, leaving a third left in the cylinder as reserve. We reached the final shelf leading up to the beach where Toby demonstrated he could execute a mid water hover whilst low on air, and then I got him to sit down on the stones at 1.5m depth, where he jettisoned his weightbelt and safely bobbed up on the surface.
We then walked up to the kit washing station and debriefed while spraying each other with cool fresh water, after a salty weekend it felt so good! I was able to sign off OS5 in Toby's book, he has a few more to get signatures for but otherwise I look forward to seeing him and Kate in Sports diver lessons very soon!
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| porthkerris.com |
Total accumulated time underwater: 3 Days, 14 hours, 39 minutes
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