I've only done this dive three times, its a good slack water dive and it can be done
as a drift by the suitably qualified and experienced.
My most vivid memory of the first dive was seeing a large free
swimming conger enter a rocky depression. I tried to communicate
this to my buddy Keith, but hand signals being what they are,
he interpreted it as "there's a nice hole with a swim through
at the end, lets go in!" Which he promptly did. I must admit
my estimation of him (which was already pretty high) soared as
I saw the cool way he handled the 2m+ conger coming out of its
lair and "mouthing" his right leg as he negotiated
the swim through! Even more surprising was the lack of any reaction
from him at all as he emerged. "What a guy!"
It wasn't until we surfaced after a nice relaxing safety stop
that the true story came to light- "conger, what conger?
I thought that was you trying to pull me back!"
So you've been warned if you see a hole with swim through at
the end have good look before you stick you're head in!
The second occasion was far less eventful but just as enjoyable,
we descended through about 13m of water onto boulders and kelp.
We then swam east across the current and into deeper water where
the reef became less broken with depressions and gullies. The
most memorable feature was the incredible number of sea fans
down there, arranged not singly but in clumps of 10 or 20. We
even saw a white one, only my second. The drift was gentle (about
1/2 knot) but we were only about 30 minutes into the dive and
at about 25m when the bottom dropped swiftly away from us. Being
aware of the reverse profile we surfaced.
The third was in 3-4m vis. to try out my new camera,disappointing vis. but still a most enjoyable dive. Some
of the photos are on this page.
A female cuckoo wrasse with sea fans in the back ground.
Male Cuckoo wrass (colours corrected and contrast
adjusted)
Caution
Take care when doing this on an ebbing tide as the the
bottom rapidly drops away to 30m+.
Depth appr. 10 - 28m + (gets deeper further south)
Rating ***
Location 50 03.75N 5 3.0W (approx)
Launch Porthkerris, Porthoustock or Falmouth
Caution - Tidal, surrounded by deep water.
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