Falmouth June 2006
We stayed at the Four Seasons Guest House. Nice B&B with
DVD and digital telly in the room. Breakfast was OK and it was a 15 minute walk
to the quay. Parking was available so we'd drop the kit on the Quay, drive back
to the B&B and walk back down. Only parking down near the Quay is 3 hour short
stay so not much use when your out all day on the boat. Nearest long stay car
park is the train station which was only 2 minutes from the B&B anyway.
Your best plan is to drive to the quay, dump the gear by the steps to the boat
and then drive your car either back to the B&B or railway station.
The dive club chartered 4 trips on the vessel MV Redeemer from Bay Marine for the weekend. Good boat with electric lift and on board toilet. Kettle was always hot after a dive with teas, coffees and hot chocolate being dished out to the divers soon after surfacing. The boat has reasonable space and was comfy with 12 divers and full kit on board. The only (very small) criticism was that there was no benches, just raised areas to kit up on/sit on (see below right). Apparently the benches are on order and they will be installed soon. Skipper Shaun and his mate Becky did an excellent job and I would recommend the boat and I'll be certainly using them again (especially after seeing some of the other boats/bath tubs at the dive sites there)!
The Bristol Channel Divers chill after a dive! & heading back to shore
The boat has all the creature comforts and Shaun was more than happy to show me the GPS mapping system. It's like the car ones but without the annoying voice! Below is the wheel house and Shaun and Becky helping retrieve wet, soggy divers!
We also got a visit a couple of times in the harbour, but with no fish we weren't that interesting apparently...
Anyway, onto the diving...
The Manacles
The first dive was on a reef, unfortunately I didn't write down the exact one, but I'll find out soon!
I have to say this is the closest to a coral reef I've seen in UK waters. It was amazing, every rock was covered in anemones, plant growth, urchins. It was fantastic. I only took out my mju 300 camera as I had a lot of new gear so didn't want to take 'the beast' on the first day. Some of the best are below. Without a strobe I cannot show the amazing gullies, rocks and formations that we saw, but trust me, it was fantastic!
The rocks in this area rise up on average 3 to 5m from
the rocky bottom. The sides of the rocks are coated with dead mans fingers,
urchins, jewel aneomes and a vast array of marine life.
Notable fish life included some wonderfully coloured cuckoo wrasse, posing
dogfish who aren't camera shy.
There were a lot of star fish and sea cucumbers around, some of which were big
specimens.
Camera - mju 300 in PT-16 Housing. Internal Flash
Max Depth - 27.6m
Temperature - 11 degrees
Visibility - 6m
Maun Voes
The second dive was supposed to be a wreck, about 100m from the first dive. Unfortunately a wrong turn at the bottom of the shot left us swimming around the reef the ship hit. Maen Voes. It wasn't as good as the first dive, but was still full of life and lots and lots of kelp.
The kelp was quite thick in places and
slowly swimming through it in the bottom of a gully was erriely relaxing.
Several urchins and star fish had attached themselves to the leaves and were
swaying in the current.
There were a few crabs around, mainly tucked away in the crevices.
Camera - mju 300 in PT-16 Housing. Internal Flash
Max Depth - 18.1m
Temperature - 11 degrees
Visibility - 6m
The Whelps
This is a huge reef that breaks the surface and then slowly drops away. Suitable for all levels there is a lot of gullies and rocky out crops.
Whilst the fish life wasn't as prolific as
the Manacles, there was plenty there. We saw an amazing cuckoo wrasse which
looked like it belonged on a coral reef rather than off the UK coast with it's
electric blue colouring. Unfortunately it was a bit camera shy and I couldn't
get a photo to do it justice.
One of the other buddy pairs found a huge angler fish in about 20m.
This time I took out the proper camera! It's amazing the difference a good strobe makes!
Camera - Olympus c7070WZ, ikelite Housing with Dome Port, DS125 Strobe.
Max Depth - 20.8m
Temperature - 11 degrees
Visibility - 5m
The Herra
This is a wreck just the other side of the Whelps from Falmouth. Whilst there is a few bits standing tall (3 or 4m) most of it is fairly flat. But even with a metre or two up stand in places there is a lot of holes, overhangs and various nooks and carnies to explore. Fair bit of marine life with crabs, Pollock and unknown (to me anyway) fish. Given the number of overhangs and spaces under the wreckage a torch is a must on this site. Whilst you can have a nice wreck dive without one, many critters are tucked away in the over hangs including some large wrasse.
Camera - Olympus c7070WZ, ikelite Housing with Dome Port, DS125 Strobe.
Max Depth - 16.3m
Temperature - 11 degrees
Visibility - 6m
Return to www.diving-dave.co.uk homepage here.
Falmouth September 2007
Stayed at the guest house Telford, 47 Melville Road. Only a short work down to the harbour and a nice little guesthouse.
We dived with Westbay Lass, Skippered by Jason Rosenveare. A smallish hardboat but took 9 divers in relative comfort. Entry was by backwards roll and exit was up a ladder by the stern. Was manageable even in full UK kit.
Unfortunately no underwater photographs as my housing is in the US of A being fixed :(
Manacles - Vase Rock
First dive on the Saturday mornings was the Manacles as in 2006 above. Again the life was prolific with every inch of rock covered in colourful life.
Max Depth - 32.9m
Temperature - 16 degrees
Visibility - 6m
Epsilon
This wreck is fairly broken up, with only the huge boilers standing really proud of the sea bed. Shine your torch into the holes and you may be greated by a conga staring back at you. There were pollock and mullet milling around with lots of big starfish and hermet crabs along the sea bed.
Max Depth - ??.?m
Temperature - 17 degrees
Visibility - 5m
The Whelps
As above. Nice reef system with gullies and huge blocks of stone. In one place it was like a wall dive. All surfaces covered in aneonomes, dead mans fingers and urchins. After exploring the reef we went out a bit and picked up some current. Nice drift along a sandy bottom with the occasional rocky area which was full of life. Plenty of cuckoo wrasse and ballen wrasse as well as velvet swim crabs.
Max Depth - 22.0m
Temperature - 16 degrees
Visibility - 7m
The Hera
Well, that was a completely different site to last year. The wreck is actually in 3 parts and I must have visited the flattest of the 3 last year. This year was given a compass bearing by the skipper and found a lot more wreckage with a lot more structure. Plenty of areas to explore and some limited penetration available if your up for that. Be warned there is a lot of fishing line on this wreck and we collected a good BCD pocket full.
Max Depth - 15.0m
Temperature - 16 degrees
Visibility - 7m