Cornwall – Carn Base
31 July 2004
Carn Base, at last, 2004
…or how Conger Dick was nicknamed.
Trip report by Nigel Summersby
First published in London Diver, September 2004
I've dived in Cornwall nearly every year with the club since 1987 when I joined, we've had some great weeks diving, and some rough weeks camping! With Cornwall it's usually one extreme or the other.
We have attempted to dive Carn Base several times but, due to the difficulty in finding 'the spot' and the difficult weather and tides, have not had any success. We once found the site but had misjudged the tide. We dropped the shot and I think I could have water-skied in the current! Fortunately, we now have a chartplotting GPS on the boat which makes locating the site much easier, (just ask Jeff where the Bucks are…), and now there is also a bloody great buoy on the seaward side.
Anyway, this year we thought we'd have a bash again. The weather was superb, the sea was calm and we had an idea of when slack should be. We set off from Lamorna, taking extra vigilance around the newly discovered Outer Buck, and set a course in the direction of Carn Base (head for the Longships and turn left a bit). The new chartplotter guided us directly to 'the Base' and after scouring the general area for a bit we located a promising looking drop off and prepared the shot line. At the spot the shot was dropped and we circled it to establish the strength of the current, disappointingly it was too strong but we knew we were early so things should improve. Our attention was attracted to the buoy in the distance, and were surprised how far it was away, and it's size when we got there. With time to kill we made the most of some photo opportunities whilst waiting for the current to slacken.
I was to dive with Richard, whose diving was coming together quite well as the week progressed. We returned to our shotline to check the current and things were now looking promising, kitted up and after the usual checks we dropped in and made straight for the buoy, a swift exchange of OK's and we started our descent into the 16 metres below.
The bottom came into view as I descended first and then I caught sight of a large free-swimming conger eel. I dropped to the bottom and pointed at the eel for Richard. I could see he had seen it as he was watching it with interest, getting closer and closer as he descended. I thought, how brave, getting so close to a large eel on your initial dives. He kept getting closer and was now putting his hands out as if to grab the eel. I thought whoa! that's not what your supposed to do. At the last moment he had second thoughts and decided not to touch it, with a lot of back paddling with his hands he just crashed straight into the bottom with his knees akimbo with this magnificent conger escaping from between. Strangely, since this incident his buoyancy control has quickly improved. Oh how we laughed!
The rest of the dive was impressive to say the least. Ten metre gullies with bright white sand at the bottom, loads of life and jewel anemones everywhere. All too quickly, and after all the excitement, Richard, sorry Conger, was getting low on air so it was time to surface.
At the BBQ that evening the story was re-told and Marian came up with a nickname to be proud of… Conger Dick.
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