Options, not the Cadburys drink

[Okeanos]

Today was about options. The wind was blowing hard and the north coast was going to be a non starter. With the strong south westerlies we decided to go into the Carrick Roads, the estuary of the river Fal. It's very wide with a deep channel, we were going to try Trefusis point. A shallow area with a bottom of dead Mearl but with 3 wrecks. The Queen, a Spanish galleon that is buried, the Torrid, HMS I think, washed up and heavily salvaged, there are still bits sticking up and there is supposed to be another wreck. We launched at Mylor and as we entered the main part of the estuary it was not looking favourable. So we decided to look for a more sheltered spot. We rounded the corner at Turnaware point and it flattened out quite a bit so we decided to dive there.

In we went, the vis looked bad at about 2m and we soon found the bottom, thick silt. We headed towards the deeper channel and as we approached the vis improved to about 3-4m. The bottom had quite a covering of empty bottles, mainly milk bottles (Unigate) or stubby lager bottles, a strange party. Starfish of all sizes littered the floor as well as lots of different types of crabs, Decorator, Harbour, Hermit & Swimming Crabs. Squat Lobsters were dotted around too.

I came across a large piece of concrete with some huge D shackles on it. Apparently during WWII there used to be Pontoons in this area for loading the D-Day landing vessels, this may have been one of the weighted sinkers for it. I also came across a fishing rod and reel a few mugs and a plastic plate, the crap people throw overboard!

I collected a few bottles to see what they were, all crap, inside 3 of the were Gobies which I set free and returned their hiding places back to whence they came. I kept I glass jar which was reasonably old.

After we came up the second pair went in. While they were down the wind changed direction and it got a bit hairy.

Altogether a fun and interesting dive and well worth it.

[NeilP]

Sounds lovely.

It'll be better tomorrow although I'm not looking forward to the viz!

[Okeanos]

Didn't dive today, went for a run instead. I'm gonna be a bit pre-occupied with running for the next few months. If something worthwhile was on I would have gone, but with the expected lo-vis I couldn't be bothered to ring around.