The Whelps

By Mark Milburn on 1 October 2008

Still very windy

The ever growing intensity of the northerly winds had meant that todays dives were going to have to be sheltered by the south coast. The winds were forecast as being force 3-4, so we planned to dive The Whelps which is protected by Gull Rock, which lies close to Nare Head.

We left Falmouth on Jason’s Westbay Lass. The estuary was quite choppy, the sea state was a 3-4 there! We rounded St Anthony head and it flattened out in the protection of the land. That was the last bit of flat sea until the protection of Nare Head, it was a fun journey, it was more like a force 6-7 out there. The Whelps looked reasonably flat, so we kitted up and Jason dropped us in close to the rocks.

Looking around

We dropped in and descended to the immediate bottom which was about 12m. I then headed along the east side of the rocks out to sea. As we got a little deeper the initial Kelp started to disappear, leaving walls of Dead Mans Fingers, Jewel Anemones and Cup Corals. A very pretty site. Urchins and Sea Cucumbers were also scattered around the rocks. Male and female Cuckoo Wrasse were very interested in us, they were always just out of view of the camera but only about a foot away. There were also a few large Pollack and Wrasse scattered around and a couple of Pink Sea Fans. There were a few gullies, all of which were covered in Dead Mans Fingers, very attractive, sights like this tend to be a little deeper, not at 17m.

Time was ticking and I started my return towards the shallows, Jewel Anemones were everywhere, there was one wall at about 10m that was covered in them, all different colours, a magnificent sight.

I eventually made it to the surface after 62 minutes. The wind had picked up while we were down there and our hopes of diving the Old Wall out of Falmouth were fading, never mind there will always be another chance.

Contact

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

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