Past Trips - Penzance 2002

My First Sea Dive

I had been looking forward to this day ever since I snorkeled the 'Train Wreck' when I went along for the ride in J.K.'s RIB in September last year! All I could see then was a load of divers going down and then back up the shot line, but now I was going to actually go and dive in the sea.

The dive site was the Low Lee Ledge, which has the wreck of the collier 'Primrose' straddling the reef and the remains of a Dutch East Indiaman wreck in the vicinity.

My buddy was Phil, who led the way down the shot line and we ended up by the bow of the Primrose. Once we'd sorted out our buoyancy we went off in a clockwise direction over some wreckage and around the reef, and we followed the nature trail guide rope, or at least Phil did - I couldn't see it half the time.

The first stop was a cannon lodged in a gully, which probably came from the Dutch wreck. Once I'd taken in the sight of the cannon we went off again and continued further around the reef. More wreckage - this time the stern of the Primrose. We continued on over some huge boulders and eventually came to a rope leading away from the nature trail, which we followed. At the end of this rope was another cannon! Back to the nature trail again and we eventually finished up where we started at the bow of the Primrose. We had a look inside the wreck and swam under the keel where it was hanging over the reef. I was amazed at the number of different fish we saw - and the shoal of pouting underneath the primrose was amazing to watch in the beams of our torches.

My summary of the dive - thoroughly enjoyable and well worth waiting all that time for. Top Banana!

Claire.