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The 1999 “Official” Falmouth Eclipse Dive
OK so lets get the story straight. On morning of the eclipse the particular part of the world we were in was cloudy. Not only that but it was the kind of thick, insistent cloud that Cornwall does so very, very well. And it rained. Not all the time just intermittently enough to piss off everyone with a camera. Did we enjoy the eclipse? Of course we bloody did! It was fantastic!
We got to our chosen vantage point, a golf course overlooking Falmouth bay and with a clear view of the Lizard and the Manacles before 11:00 (local) and prepared ourselves. By that time it was already noticeably darker than you would expect at that time of day and year despite the heavy cloud. There were several hundred people there, most were reasonably quiet, and our group was by far the noisiest. By 11:05 the light level had fallen enough so that the sunlight away to the south was almost uncomfortably bright, the crowd grew steadily quieter, the atmosphere more expectant. By 11:10 it was decidedly gloomy, the light was very even but had a certain sharpness to it. Basically it had got very weird. This was about as good as it was going to get surely…
Not exactly…. At 11:12 like a switch being thrown the whole area was thrown into total darkness, for a second the crowd were completely silent before erupting into a mix of cheering, whoops and applause. All across the headland to the west camera flashguns lit up the darkness. At first it was just one or two then seemingly hundreds glittered across the land. At sea the navigation lights of a hundred small yachts and boats came on followed by their own contribution of flashguns. The atmosphere, which until now had been merely electric, exploded. The cheering seemed to be coming from everywhere, from thousands of people who covered miles of coastline to our east and west. I grabbed my camera and starting taking photos caught between the desire to record something of the eclipse and just experience it. In the end the roll of film lasted less than a minute so for about a minute more I just stood and watched until as suddenly as it had started it was over. False night became true day again, growing steadily brighter and brighter until the past few minutes seemed like little more than a dream. With the event of a lifetime over we set off back to the caravan site. On the way back we stopped off for an ice cream.
The Diving
As you may have realised by now the weather wasn’t all it could have been for August but that didn’t stop us from having a damn good weeks diving. My personal highlights were a great dive on the Hera with Mike Efford and a superb dive on the Volnay with Jo Kaplanian. Dropping the shot line onto the boiler door of the Volnay was also quite a good moment as was discovering a great scenic dive by just picking a place on a chart (thanks to Ben Field, Mike Efford and Matt Colebrook for making the choice). Also surviving having the RIB Polly dropped on me at Porthkerris and seeing Polly modified so that she planes easily come to mind as quite memorable moments.
Peter's plan to use the slip in Falmouth worked magnificently once we had three boats that could go the required distance without an oil tanker alongside. It was an especially good idea as the dive shop at Maenporth has been completely demolished.
The plan now is to find a forthcoming total eclipse with guaranteed clear skies and coral reefs nearby. Any ideas anyone?
Standing:
Steve Hamilton, Steve Layton, Charlie Godfrey (just), Ben Field (just), Maggie Layton, ?, Chris Ord, Phil Siswick, Mayte Siswick (nee Jonsson), Robin Parker, Jo Kaplanian, Mike Efford
Crouched:
Peter Slegg
Prone:
Adrian "Nobby" Norris
The Divers
Peter Slegg, Antony Slegg, Charlie Godfrey, Phil Siswick, Steve Hamilton, Joanne Kaplanian, Robin Parker, Adrian Norris, Steve Layton, Maggie Layton, Mayte Jonsson, Mike Efford, Matt Colebrook, Arthur Jerrett, Ben Field, Mark Oliver.