UBUC

Dive Sites

The diving on the Porthkerris trip, like every trip, depends on the weather. When the wind is Northerly through westerly to southerly, we are based at Porthkerris beach, which gives access to Porthkerris reef and a number of wrecks. If the wind is northeasterly through southeasterly, then we head over to the other side of The Lizard to Mullion Cove, which boasts a some reasonable shore dives and the wreck of the Denise. In some more extreme weather, we have to head up to Falmouth and dive the Falmouth Submarines, but this hasn't happened in a number of years.

 

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Porthkerris Reef

The main bulk of the diving that happens on the Porthkerris trip is on Porthkerris Reef (shown above, at low tide from South Beach). It is enclosed in Porthkerris Bay, which has it's own dive centre and café (a weighty boon for when the weather turns nasty). The reef runs roughly parallel to the shore North-South, with depths of 5-8m on the inside, and deepening to 13-17m on the outside. The reef is home to a lot of marine life including pollack, cuckoo wrasse, ballan wrasse, squat lobsters, common lobsters, swimming edible and spiny crabs, gobies, shrimp, conger eels and a rarely sighted John Dory.

It's here you'll get your first couple of open water dives and as the week progresses and your skills develop, you'll get to dive round the back of the reef to the quite dramatic cauldrons and overhangs.

 

 

 

The SS Volnay

The Volnay was a 4609 tonne steamship laden with 18-pounder shrapnel shells which sank at Christmas 1917 after hitting a German mine. She can be reached using the club boats. You'll find her lying in about 20m and using the following transits, you can drop a shot right on her boilers - keep an eye on the echosounder.

Volnay Transits:

The Volnay can be dived at any state of the tide. As the wreck is in 20m, you'll need to have done ideally 4 dives before diving it. The full Divernet Wreck Tour for the Volnay can be found here: Volnay Wreck tour

 

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The Mohegan

Not dived as often as the Volnay, the Victorian Steam Liner Mohegan can really only be dived at slack water. She is situated on the Manacles. She sank in autumn 1898 due to either a dodgy helmsman or a dodgy compass! Again lying between 22 and 26m, the Mohegan is only dived by more experienced trainees nearing the end of the week. The rocks around the Mohegan are just as amazing to dive as the wreck if you have time spend a few minutes exploring these rocks before moving onto the wreck itself.

The full Divernet Wreck Tour for the Mohegan can be found here: Mohegan Wreck tour

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Mullion Cove

When the wind changes towards a more easterly direction (and it inevitably does during a week at PK!) we head over to Mullion Cove. (Although referred to as 'Mullion', the tiny village at Mullion Cove is actually called Porthmellin, Mullion being a slightly larger village about 1 mile inland)

With the harbourmaster's approval, we can launch the boats from the harbour and dive either side of the harbour exit.

The diving itself is fairly gentle, with depths of 3-9m depending on the state of the tide. The bottom is sandy with a reasonable amount of life to be had - similar to but in less quantity than PK reef

 

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The Denise

The Denise was a 1596 tonne French steamer that ran aground during fog in early summer 1918. Lying in 12-16m, the wreckage is well broken up, with only the boilers still intact. It is found by lining up the fourth rocky outcrop on Men-te-Heul with a large rock that is visible at all but high water. The drop-off point is just north of this rock and the wreck lies in the long gullies that stretch NE out into the sea and can be dived at any state of the tide.

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Mullion Island

There are plenty of bits and bobs to see round Mullion Island such as bits of wreckage and cannon, but usually the game is 'Diving Roulette', where the boat handler will find around 15m on the most sheltered side of the island, drop a shot and send in the troops! The diving is usually fairly interesting, although more-so to a kelp enthusiast.

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