Another Friday Evening Dive Out Of Falmouth

By Mark Milburn on 27 September 2008

It depends on the weather

The continuing winds had decided to switch to westerlies – this hopefully meant that the Friday evening dive would once again be on. The boat was fully booked by all the usual suspects. They were all eager to get a dive in after the bad weather over the last few weeks.

We had hoped that the phone wouldn’t ring to cancel the dive, and it didn’t, so off we went to Falmouth to see where we were going this foggy evening. It was high spring tide which meant very few steps to carry our kit down to the boat; in fact it was virtually level with the quay. As soon as the last one was on board(it’s always the same one – the one that lives closer than everyone else and turns up late!) Shaun powered off.

The Manacles

We were heading for the Manacles; hopefully Raglans reef, a common site for a Friday evening. It has a great range in depth to suit anyone, up to its pinnacle at 6m – also great for a decompression and/or a safety stop. We had to be ready as soon as we got to the site as it was the start of slack water. We would probably have between 15 and 25 minutes before the tide would turn and start to tear its way past the reefs.

It had been foggy all day, and it was still restricting visibility, so Shaun decided we would dive the Mohegan instead. As the Mohegan is virtually flat, he could drop a shot line and we would all reel off. That way we would come back to the shot and we wouldn’t end up drifting off into the fog. We all jumped in as fast as we could and descended into the green waters below.

Great Vis

Considering the recent low visibilty underwater due to the plankton bloom it was very clear, probably at least 10m this time. It was also quite light – it seemed lighter than it was topside with the fog and cloud cover. As soon as we hit the bottom all the lines were clipped on and we all went off in different directions. I headed towards Mean Voes, the rock pinnacle that the Mohegan scalped as Maen Voes had it’s revenge by ripping a hole in the Mohegan’s side. I wasn’t looking for anything in particular; I had only been diving the Mohegan two weeks prior. Maen Voes is an impressive pinnacle that stands almost sheer from the bottom at around 25m to the surface, only breaking the water at a low tide since the Mohegan ground it down. The pinnacle is covered in sea fans and dead man’s fingers and is surrounded by the remains of the wreck. The wreckage itself is also covered in sea fans, dead man’s fingers, cup corals, spiny starfish, sea stars and a very strange looking orange and white striped worm, called a Myrianida Pinnigera. The worm looked longer than it should be according to the book, but it did state that it grows longer whilst breeding. Hope I didn’t interupt! And I hope the photo is suitable for public viewing!

Carrying on around Maen Voes, I found myself running low on line; 75m of it run out all over the place. I slowly retraced my steps, winding the reel back in, every now and then being distracted by something that caught my eye – usually something small. One thing that caught my eye was a large mooring ring with its fixing still attached. I picked up the ring to see if it was free and the whole lot came off in my hand. If only I’d had a goody bag or lift bag with me. It probably was a good thing really. Carrying my camera, a reel with 75m of line spralled out and my torch, trying to operate a lift bag at the same time could be asking for trouble. Now if it was brass, it would have gone up somehow!

After forty minutes at around 25m it was time to wind the reel all the way in and go back up the shot line. As I started my ascent, I couldn’t get over the visibility. I ascended very slowly to make the most of the panoramic spectacle that was the Mohegan in good vis.

Chips!

After the dive we made it back to the pub where Shaun lays on a huge plate of chips and some bread and butter. It didn’t take long for a dozen hungry divers to devour that!

Contact

Author: Mark Milburn
Email: info@travel-dive.com

Article Comments