Tales of old Runnelstone

T'was the weekend when the astronomical predictions were right. Venus was in conjunction with Saturn, and Pluto was doing something peculiar with Uranus (and Micky Mouse wasn't amused).

The cry went up at the old Totnes Diving Club bar "the tides be right for the Runnelstone - us can dive it twice a day, and three times on St Simon' s Day".

And so it came to pass the the masses assembled and did boldly trek into the badlands that some call Cornwall. One wagon lost a wheel and the others were so afraid of the natives that none stopped to assist. Fortunately by wearing copious amounts of garlic the undead of Kernow were held at bay until the fourth emergency service arrived (no, not dial a pizza) in the shape of Sid of Saltash.

Tradition says that if the preceding night of a dive is not spent paying tribute to St HSD then all kind of mishap will follow, and who are we to argue with traditions older than Christianity itself? The gods of Ralph and Huey were well pleased that night.

And so dawned the morning. The assembled throng decamped to Lamorna under the leadership of 'Old Nick', a sea dog battered from too many years before the mast. Yes, the Gods were smiling, or was it sneering, upon us. Lamorna opened up like a jewel amongst a pile of non jewel like things!

The Runnelstone was found in the normal Totnes efficient manner without the need to resort to live sacrifices and the black arts. Having seen that things were going too well for a first dive, the Great First Class Diver in the Sky struck down the drysuit of Karen and lo it did leak.

However all who did enter the water were rewarded with an exceptional dive and that most valuable of commodities, brass, was found. There wasn't an unphotographed squidgey thing anywhere to be seen, indeed most were demanding a fee.

A most satisfying lunch was spent eating Tiger baps (made from real tigers). Amusement was to be had by watching Brixham club obey every whim of their DO who spoke his pearls of wisdom from a pulpit erected in the carpark.

Soon it was that time again. The rock was exerting that primeval call on us. It had to be visited again. This time we were the only boat on the site. Not surprising since the swell was now up to Mark 5 on the technicolour yawn scale (most of our threshholds was 4). The second dive proved as good as the first, with a neat bit of redeploying the shot as Janet and I were heading up the rock. Unfortunately the brass hole that I had found on the first dive was now just an ordinary hole.

With the boats recovered and the masses showered and made beautiful the next port of call was the Logan Rock for an evening of daring diving tales and chips.

The following day meant one more trip back to the Runnelstone, this time joined by a further eight inflatables. The squidgy things were going to get a bashing today! Second dive was Low Lee Ledges, a pleasant exploration of gullies, pinnacles and more weird underwater things.

All things considered, an excellent weekend, no aggro, lots of fun and good diving.., what more can you ask for?... 

Well since you ask.....

Wrecker Yates