By Tom Ingram
29th and 30th August 2020
I always look forward to our yearly, sometimes twice yearly outing to Porthkerris Divers. This year a familiar bunch with a couple of very welcome extras. You know who you are!
About Porthkerris
Porthkerris Divers is a family-run affair with husband and wife team Mike and Jo. These days, their children are old enough to help out too. Then we’ve got the local man Dave, who is a cracking guy. Dave skippers the Celtic Kitten and Mike skippers the Celtic Cat. You’ve got Darren in the compressor room and Shannon in the shop. All really nice people!
We were staying for the duration of the trip at the next bay around the to the north called Porthallow. This small but idyllic bay has a very convenient pub called the Five Pilchards, a newly owned establishment in 2019/2020. Our home for the weekend was Gallen-Treath Guest House with hosts Alicia and Clive. They do a mean fry-up!
In my eyes, the diving at Porthkerris is awesome. I like great reefs with a few wrecks and of course the Helford River, which is full of life and masses of critters.
Types Of Diving
There are typically three styles of diving at Porthkerris. You can either take a shuttle on the Celtic Kitten, shuttling divers to the closer dive sites, coming back to shore each time. Then there is the bigger boat called the Celtic Cat. This charter goes out for two dives before returning and takes divers to the more distant or offshore dive sites. Both are great options! Usually, the other-half comes with me and as a non-diver, means I normally take the shuttle so I am not out all day. There is also a great shore dive on Dawana Rocks which is free to anyone staying at any other accommodation options at Porthkerris.
Our First Day
After a catch up with skipper Dave, our first dive was on one such reef called Vase. A stunning set of pinnacles rising up to about ten metres from the surface down to 45 metres. This time the viz wasn’t quite up to normal following the storm but still a respectable 3-6 metres. My dive buddy Brian and I followed the reef wall down to the south-east and levelled off at 30 metres. We followed the reef around taking in the incredible vista. Bumping into a conger and crawfish and a school of mackerel! To top off a great dive we had a 5 to 6 foot Bull Huss swim through our legs near the end of the dive! A first for me!
Dive site for the afternoon was the popular and historic SS Mohegan shipwreck and navigate to the Spyridon. Brian and I were joined by Tom and Mandy this time. We set off down the shot to our first stop at the boilers on the Mohegan. A nice conger greeted us together with plenty of crawfish. After about 15 minutes on the Mohegan, our plan was to head west to find the Spyridon. After a few minutes swimming, we came across the wreck And spent half an hour slowly working our way up the length of her. We sent up the DSMB and skipper Dave was on hand to pick us up. He then took us to see a few playful dolphins on our way back to Porthkerris in which is always nice to see!
After a tough day diving, it was only right we headed into St Kervern to another local pub called the Three Tuns. We all had a very enjoyable evening with some good food and a couple of drinks!
Our Second Day
Our second day and an early start for an 08:45am meeting on the Kitten. After another massive fry up, this wasn’t as easy as it sounds! The plan was for another Manacles reef dive to one of my favourite sites, Penwin. Unfortunately, the tide was running a bit too much and we had to cancel that and head back into Pancra Head. On its day a fantastic reef but the viz had dropped to about 1-3 metres and Pancra wasn’t quite giving us all that is usually on offer.
Anyone who knows Mandy Bryer will tell you that she loves the Helford River, her camera and underwater critter life. So of course, our last dive (well for me anyway) was you guessed it, the Helford River! Not everyone’s cup of tea but for us, you can’t leave Porthkerris without doing it. Critter heaven, which didn’t disappoint! Cuttlefish, rays, plaice, tube worms, crabs of all sorts big and small, gurnard, starfish, jellyfish, giant snails hermit crabs scurrying everywhere to name but a few. Oh! And of course! The usual scallop collection for the BBQ later that afternoon. Always a great way to round off any trip!
