French Falmouth Trip
We arrived in Falmouth on the Sunday night with enough time to grab a couple of pints in the pub followed by a late night Curry. When we caught up with Phil we were shocked to hear that the skipper did not want to take his shinny new boat out on the Monday as the wind had picked up, he wanted to use his RIB leaving Mullion Cove at 4:30pm! As we had most of the day to spare Phil suggested we have a tour of the AP Valves Rebreather factory and he managed to arrange for the MD, Martin Parker, who is also a test diver to show us around. It was fascinating listening to Martin who was very knowledgeable and approachable and I was shocked that he was happy to give an hour and a half of his time.
Once Phil had got a software upgrade and a minor issue with his Rebreather fixed we headed to Million Cove, for a pre-dive Cornish pasty while watching the Basking sharks in the bay. Kitting up on the beach by the entrance to a cave and carting 3 x Twinsets, 3 x Rebreathers and 7 x stage cylinders into the RIB was not fun at all especially when it is your first 50+ meter dive. Just before jumping in fully kitted I remember saying never, ever again!
The wreck was called J. R. Parks and as I followed Gavin down the shot line my vision went blurred as I passed about 45 meters, it was then that I released that I was probably Narc’d! Then as I reached the seabed at about 52 meters everything came into focus and I saw Gavin in the distance with his torch light. We had a good look around the wreck but the whole dive was very dark and by the time we were all back on the RIB it was about 7pm. On the way back to Mullion Cove we saw a couple of Basking sharks but they disappeared whenever we got close.
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The second day we were all pleased to be diving on a hard boat especially as we had most of the boat to ourselves. The first wreck was called Epsilon which was very scattered on the seabed. After looking at a bit of the wreck we lost it and it took 10 minutes of fining around in a circle to find the next bit, followed by the main part of it. Towards the end of the dive we bumped into all the other divers coming the other way. With a max depth of 24 meters it was a much easier dive than the previous day.
The second dive of the day was called the Volnay which was quite a big wreck with lots to see. Gavin found a C4 torch which still worked and he gave it to me, the wreck is at a depth of about 19 meters so it is probably used for a lot of training dives. We were joined by a photographer who wanted to film some basking sharks and he had several opportunities on the way to and from the dive sites throughout the day. Gavin and I kitted up to join him at one point just as we lost sight of the shark. After waiting half hour we de-kitted and then you guessed it another basking shark showed up. Typical!
Day three we were back to deep dives with the Lady of the Isles at a maximum depth of 54 meters. Up until that point in my scuba diving career all the Conger eels I had ever seen were just heads sticking out of holes but during this dive one came out in front of me and as I watched in amazement as it followed Gavin for a short time, I froze and rubbed my mask wondering if I was seeing things but it was definitely there. Luckily it went off into another part of the wreck just before Gavin turned around and Lee and John arrived from opposite directions. I tried to explain what I had just seen but no one could understand what I was going on about as usual so I told them after the dive. During the ascent to the surface John’s DSMB just missed me, as it shot passed, which was lucky.
The fourth day started with the wreck of the Veritas unfortunately George went in first and pulled the shot line down with him so we had to go down without one. I lost Gavin but after 5 minutes of fining I found him and the wreck which was very big. The prop was still intact sitting upright and looked very impressive. Maximum depth was 40 meters and we managed to do the whole circuit of the wreck in 45 minutes, a very good dive in my book. The second dive of the day was my 100th dive unfortunately it was a very tame one. Called the Mohegan maximum depth of 25 meters it was very broken up and nothing very exciting to look at.
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Day five was to be our last dive in Falmouth and the skipper said he had saved the best to last. Phil and George went home that day which meant there were only 4 of us left on the boat so we had 2 full benches each which was ultimate luxury especially when you consider how the week started, on a RIB! The skipper called the wreck the Jersey Queen and just as we were about to go in he announced that the depth was slightly more than he had anticipated… 58 meters to be exact! As we went down the shot line I noticed that the visibility was not very good and at 55 meters I was wondering when the wreck was going to appear. At 58 meters I saw the end of the shot line attached to the car battery on the seabed and no wreck in site! Gavin and I finned for about 5 minutes before calling it a day and beginning our accent. Back on the boat the skipper was shocked that we had not found the wreck and showed us its size on the sonar, we must have been very close to it. Our only consolation was that the other buddy pair did not find the wreck either.
