KERNOW DIVE FESTIVAL JULY 2010 - REPORT

REPORT WRITTEN BY SUET

Kernow Weekend 2010

This was our third visit to the BSAC Kernow Dive Festival. Richard arrived to pick me up with Top Knots in tow at 6am Thursday morning & we had a good drive to Penzance arriving at Cardinney campsite at 1.30pm, the weather wasn’t promising, bit windy & overcast. Sara, Ally, Steve & Chrissy were already there with their tents pitched. With our own tent erected & Top Knots ready for the next days diving, off we went for some food at the First & Last Inn & booked a table for all the gang for the following evening.

The intention was for me to drive the RIB on Friday morning as Alan & Deborah were not expected until later in the morning, however when we arrived at Penzance Harbour Alan was there but my kit was back at the campsite, luckily (or not) Richard G had left his regs behind so a quick trip back to Cardinney to collect his regs & my kit, we’re going ‘scuba diving’. The weather had turned into a beautiful sunny day. Our dive was to be the SS Lincoln, 60m long & weighing 624 tons & carrying coal, she sank after hitting the Runnel Stone in bad weather on 5th July1886, she drifted for a while & now lays in 31m. Sara, Richard H & myself dived together, the wreck is very broken but full of cucumbers, a cuckoo wrasse that followed us for most of the dive, spiders & blue jellies. We had such a great dive, before we knew it we were in 10 mins deco, not good when you’re already cold! Now, if two of your dive buddies had a 10mins deco & one didn’t, wouldn’t you think it was a little strange….? Richard had no deco showing on his Aladin. After a little mickey taking it transpires that according to his computer, he was diving on 100% O2, doh!

Once back at Penance Harbour we joined the rest of gang & some of our friends from Coventry BSAC for a sociable drink at the Renaissance bar before returning to camp for a game of footie with Zak, I tried on Diggers Inspiration re-breather for size, perfect fit but I think I might need a lesson or two before going diving with it? Our sixteen places booked at the Last & First Inn grew to twenty one, it was a cosy & fun evening.

Safety Notice: How not to make an emergency exit from a tent – Lay on the airbed & apply your trousers & pants to the knees, stand up as best you can & unzip the exit, lose your balance & fall out the tent with your trousers & pants still around your knees, wake all those sleeping in the tent & reveal your buttocks to any poor unsuspecting camper that happens to be passing & waking the whole tent. This procedure was expertly demonstrated by Richard H, not a pretty sight first thing in the morning, but very funny!

Saturdays diving started with the beautiful Runnel Stone, which is a magnificent granite pinnacle rising from 35m to 6m beneath the surface, it is also the final resting place of the City of Westminster wreck, which was built in 1916 & broke in two after hitting the Runnel Stone on 8th October1923, in doing so she knocked 6m off the top of the pinnacle, before this event the Stone was visible at all states of the tide, it has not been seen above the water since. The Stone is easy to find as it is marked with a permanent large brass belled buoy. No Glenn, you can’t have the bell for your mantelpiece! Richard, Steve & I had a great dive. We found the broken wreck almost immediately, the little swim through under a plate & the two huge boilers (these are actually from an earlier wreck Moorview that the Westminster sank partially on) this was home to one of the biggest congas I have ever seen & the closest too! It wasn’t long before we had to make our way to the surface, however the joy of the Runnel Stone is the fact that you can enjoy a fabulously slow ascent & on the way see the millions of pink, green & cream plumrose anemones, dead mans fingers & massive ballan wrasse. This is one of my favourite UK dive sites & a must do if you ever get the chance. All back safely & headed back to Sullivan’s café for a welcomed breakfast.

Our second dive of the day was to be a first for all of us & the conditions needed to be perfect as it is always subject to strong tidal flows. It is a group of huge rocks 1.5 miles off of Land’s End, a 13 miles RIB ride from Penzance. As we arrived, the rocks looked huge, eerie & atmospheric, all it needed was the Black Pearl to appear! It was obvious that we were not going to be able to dive the Atlantic side, with the huge waves, swirling water & whirl pools. On the Land’s End side things were much calmer, although there was still a swell & the odd nosey seal. Richard, Steve & I were diving together again, under the surface we had huge kelp beds, blue jellies & wrasse. Now, when you go diving in a drysuit, what’s one of the last things you do….have a pee, Richard had to abort the dive for a call of nature. Back on the surface, picking up the divers was a little hazardous, Glenn was close to the rocks, quick de-kit & into the RIB, where was his buddy, Digger in his Sigourney Weaver outfit, much to the amusement of us all he was the only one who’d got ‘sucked off in the rocks’ (was it a seal or a mermaid?) he surfaced right in the middle of them, Richard expertly guided Top Knots between the rocks, with those on board also keeping our eyes peeled for any unexpected rocks just under the surface, Digger was finally de-robed of his Inspiration & we picked up the last few divers. A spot of swimming with the basking sharks on the ride back to the Harbour.

Back at the campsite the weather has closed in & it had got cold, so we decided not to attend the organized BBQ & headed for Sennen Cove to find a pub to eat but they were full so back into Penzance & the Renaissance Bar, I can highly recommend the Long Island Ice tea, I enjoyed it so much I just had to have a second!!

Sunday morning & it was the last dive for most people before heading home. The site was the Conqueror, which was a modern freezer trawler, carrying a cargo of frozen mackerel that sunk on Boxing Day in 1977. So who didn’t secure the bow rope? Coming out of the harbour the rope had trailed under the hull, having taken the RIB out of gear, Glenn jumped into the water to retrieve the rope but at the bow the boys were dangling poor Sharon head first over the tubes, having been hauled back on board she looked rather wet! Fraser joined Richard & myself for a fabulous dive on this wreck. It is suitable for all levels of diving, holding Fraser’s hand we swam around & through the wreck, making friends with a spider crab & starfish on the way. Fraser had a great dive & we hoped to find some basking sharks on the way back to harbour but alas they weren’t out to play.

Time to put away the dive kit & tents & say goodbye to those going home, Sara, Ally, Richard & I were to stay a further two days, that meant more diva diving….or so we thought? We woke Monday to the sound of heavy rain & water dripping through the tent….mental note: time to re-waterproofing our tent! The glorious weather had finally broken, so our diva dive on the Runnel Stone had to be abandoned, chatting over breakfast & looking out at the heavy rain & wind we decided to throw the very wet soggy tents in the RIB & make our way home a day early. We got absolutely soaked while packing up & getting the RIB ready for the trip home, however, we’d had such a fabulous weekends diving it was all worth it…..can’t wait until next year, but we have Lyme Regis to look forward to first!