22nd/23rd May
Porthkerris, Cornwall
4 dives, all wrecks on reef; Alice Marie and Denise on Saturday, Mohegan and Volnay on Sunday
Depths between 16m and 23m
Temps between 12 and 14 degrees
Vis between 4 and 8m
Single tank, no deco, air
Saturday from the Cat (hardboat) and Sunday from the RIB
Diving with Kerri, Scott and Sean, Sally taking pics on land

Our B&B was in St Keverne, 5mins from Porthkerris Divers and 5.5 hours from Richmond on a very good run. Sally and I picked up Kerri, loaded the gear and made it to bed before midnight on Friday. Scott and Sean got there at around 00:30 and we all met up at about 08:00 for breakfast overlooking the ocean. With it's waves. Bugger.

We were there in the hope of seing Basking Sharks, and with the Easterly wind blowing it looked like Saturday was not going to be a winner. We went to the dive store and met up with the guys, who seemed rather abrupt to begin with, but first impressions did not last and they were in fact a great bunch. Paperwork done we had to head for a port on the western side of the Lizard Peninsuala so we could get out and do some diving - the East was blown out.

Our dives were to be the Alice Maria and the Denise, with a long surface interval while we waited for the tides. "The Alice MarieThe remains of a steel Barque sank in 1908 after hitting the Runnel stone. Today she lies well broken on a light sandy bottom in about 25m of water and is home to a wide variety of marine life. Well worth a look for the marine life alone." That is from smeone elses website, but pretty well sums it up. It was Kerris first dive in UK waters, Scotts first dive in his new drysuit and undergarment, and Sean, who I had not dived with previously had no hood so I wanted to keep an eye on him. Add that all up, put me in charge of navigating the scattered wreck remains and shooting the SMB at the end of the dive and that does not leave me with much to say. However, I found a nice nudibranch and a congar (Scott and Sean saw 4), loads of pollack (or Ling), other bits I still need to learn the name of and a nice variety of fixed life, so it was still a very nice dive. Kerri went well, Scott was fine in his new suit, and Seans suit had a hole, so the long surface interval was good news. We went down and came back up the shot and it was a nice, but not spectacular dive.

Lunch was, however, quite spectacular by dive boat standards. Chicken drumsticks, mars bars, bioled eggs, spiced veg salad, bread rolls. Nearly fell off my chair. Weather was ver nice too, wind had a bit of a chill, but out of that it was warm in the clear sun.

Second dive should have been great but was a shocker. The Denise sits off of a lovely bit of kelp-forested reef which we dropped down into. Samll canyons and guyys, loads of fixed life, was going to be great. Sadly Kerri felt off colour and indicated that she wanted to return to the surface. With the single SMB between the 4 of us I had a bit of a think and came up with a plan. I shot the bag and handed the reel to Scott. I indicated that he and Sean shoul continue their dive while I took Kerri to the surface along the bag line. Took a few minutes, but seemed like a good plan.

Kerri was fine coming back to the surface, we made our slow ascent and stops without incident. We then waited for the guys. They had not had a great time. Sean had spotted the hole in his suit in the surface interval and Scott did not have a great time with the reel. In the current. Strugling with the reel had flexed the tendons in his wrist and allowed water in, so he had wet arms. Add that the his limited experience with areel, in current, without a guide - you get the picture. He had got borderline panicced, but to his credit made the stops, made it back to the boat with Sean and after venting a little all was good with the world.

So sadly, what should have been a great dive was rather ordinary (at best) and the day drew to a damp end. Weather was nice though. On a positive note Sean got a new suit and it looked like the wind was about to drop. We went and had a very nice dinner and readied ourselves for Sunday.