Porthkerris 2010...a trip report in bullet points.

Friday:

• Forward guard arrived, put up tents then decided that it was way too wet to think about a shore dive.
• Rear guard arrives to full campsite, but finds a spot pitching half in the bushes, half up a hill and using Ian’s BBQ as a door mat.
• BBQ for dinner… no casualties.
• Sat around for the evening getting wet as the rain managed to penetrate the gazebo from all directions simultaneously.

Saturday:

• Ropes off not until 13:00, so the unusual experience of a lie in on a dive weekend, followed by the boredom of having nothing to do, being ready and having no boat.
• Ropes off didn’t occur until well after 14:00 but the local dogs did entertain us with endless fighting over a manky mackrell head on the beach
• First dive – Lowland Point ~ 22m. A relatively pretty bimble along the margin between kelp and a sandy(ish) shelf. Got a bit bored after about 40mins so surfaced.
• Second dive – The Mohegan ~25m. Shot down almost on the boilers, so a slight moment of confusion as to whether the big object in front of us was a rock or a boiler (it was a rock). Leisurely dive around/over the wreck until we ran out of no-deco time and surfaced near the stern.
• Evening weather forecast made the idea of another BBQ unappealing, so the skipper suggested a restaurant in St Keverne and got the office to make a booking for us. A very nice meal followed (way too sophisticated for a dive weekend) and the bad weather didn’t.

Sunday:

• Earlier start once we managed to find the boat in the heavy sea mist
• First dive – The Volnay ~18m. Again shot down almost on boilers and a nice tour around most of the wreck. Phil was the only one to find lead shot the skipper had said littered the bottom on certain areas. Entered with heavy sea mist (and two boats covering the site), exited to lovely sunshine.
• Second dive – Scalloping near the mouth of the Hel. An experiment by the skipper to see how different sites were delivering saw three groups of divers dropped into completely different places. Nice scallops found by all, along with seeing lost of cuttlefish (well on my diver anyhow).
• Wondered if we were going to make it back to shore when the boat started to spew black smoke from the port engine, but we made it, dekitted, took tents down and started the long, long trek back to Wales.

Peter Giles