Isles of Scilly, Dive-sites

Isles of Scilly

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The Isles of Scilly, Some 28 miles to the west of Lands End, Cornwall have been a dangerous magnet to shipping over the centuries. The cry "Wreck" is embedded in the Scillonian language and even today, the 'right to wreck' is engrained in the cultue of the islanders.

View of St Marys, Isles of Scilly St Marys is the largest of the many Islands that make up the Isles of Scilly with the the majority of the 3000 Islanders living here.
The beach at rear of Newtown, St Marys
One form of transport that divers usual hope they will never have to use! But the helicopter transfer from Penzance to the St Marys is an excellent way to travel the 30 miles from Lands End to the Isles of Scilly. The trip takes about 30 minutes and gives you spectacular views of Lands End and the Isles of Scilly from some 1000feet! Transporting your divekit is another matter though! We hired a small container on the Scillonian III, the ferry that travels from Penzance to St Marys a number of times each day (Except Sunday). The container was small (about 2m x2m x2m) but well able to take 12 full sets of dive kit including quite a few twinsets and some stage bottles! The return cost of the container at just under 100UK pounds was well worth it working out at well under ten quid each amongst the 12 of us! Top-tip: Bring your own padlock as the container will be sitting both on the Quay and on the boat without anyone to keep an eye on it. Traveling by helicopter (about 85pounds return) isn't that more expensive than travelling by Ferry (about 65pounds return).

666 - No its not the inscription on the head of your DiveClub Training Officer, its the number of charted wrecks around the Isles of Scilly. The Cita is about he best dive we did during our trip. The Cita, which ran aground early 26 March west of St. Mary's off Newfoundland Point in the Isles of Scilly. The Cita (Antigua and Barbuda-registry 3,083-gt, 3,900-dwt dry cargo vessel built in 1976, owned and operated by Reederei Gerd A. Gorke), sailing from Southampton, England, to Belfast, Northern Ireland, with 200 containers, ran aground early 26 March west of St. Mary's off Newfoundland Point in the Isles of Scilly. The eight crewmembers, all Polish citizens abandoned the ship. The Cita had a 60 degree starboard list with most of the hull underwater and lost 80 containers overboard. She slipped off the rocks and into deeper water on 9 April in bad weather. The ship was carrying containers from Southampton, England, to Belfast, Northern Ireland. Smit Tak B.V., using the vessel Salvage Chief, recovered 98 percent of the petroleum and paint aboard the Cita. The contents of the containers were salvaged by the locals!
Some three years on, the wreck has broken into three distinct sections. The bow has broken off and is seperated by some large kelp covered rocks from the main body of the superstuctrure. The Accomomodation block at the rear of the Cita has tumbled off the main structure and lies on its side. The wreck therefore lies in a depth between 8 and 35m's. This offers two seperate dives on the wreck, the bow section (16m) and the stern/accommodation section offering depths to 35m. The Rudder and two blades of the prop are still intact at around 32m and make a good dive. There are one or two simple swim-thrus in the accommodation block but full wreck penetration is best avoided unless you are equiped to do so.


*The Mentor:* The Mentor is one of the better dive-boat that crusies around the Scilly dive-spots. The Mentor usually picks up in Penzance(?) and sails across from Cornwall to the Scilly Isles. This saves you sea or air transport - but be warned, having spoken to a number of people of seperate tripa on the Mentor, on average 80% of passengers are sea-sick during the crossing! With cabins, compressor and nitrox on board, she is an excellent live-aboard and dive-platform. Usually mooring up in St Marys harbour each evening - you get the chance to savor the delights of the local pubs in the evening. She can also steam off early in the morning and you can be awakened over the divesite with breakfast sizzling in the frying pan!


The Isles of Scilly were at one time (1980s), one of the top UK dive destinations for many UKdiveclubs annual week away dive-trip! Over the last 10 years, diving has exploded as a sport - but the Scilly Isles has fallen in popularity as a dive destination. I believe this has occurred for a number of factors The Red Sea factor - (Relatively) Cheap Air-travel combined with the Egyptians investment in tourism has opened up the Red Sea as a major dive location for Europeans. For 500UK pounds you can get a week in the RedSea in a nice hotel and a weeks diving in warm hi-viz water with more sealife than you could hope for! Why spend the equivalent in going to a UK destination like the Scilly's with very variable weather & underwater conditions The wrecks around the Scilly Isles are invariably knackered! The Atlantic weather that forced so many ships onto the rocks and reefs around the Scilly Isles has not relented since. Most of the wrecks are now very broken up. UK destinations such as Scapa Flow offer more intact wrecks, more sheltered conditions and with the boom in Nitrox and twinset diving, easily in reach of your recreational/techie wannabe diver. Visiting the Scilly Isles is not that cheap. Accommodation, food and beer prices have a significant markup on normal UK prices. I guess this due to both the added transport costs and the short tourist summer-season offering limited opportunity for locals to make their annual income. The Scilly dive operators haven't really kept pace with the advances in the dive industry over the last few years. Much as I respected the immense knowledge our Skipper had of the Isles and the wrecks, the boats facilities left a lot to be desired. No compressor, no day cabin or showers, and no benches to kit-up on - a must with a twinset. Divers expectations of diveboat facilities have been significantly raised by overseas dive operators. Divers don't just expect a compressor on board these days, they want nitrox on tap!		Jim Haslin's boat The Lady ??? which we used on our trip. Even with the 'extension' at the rear, the setup just isn't viable for twelve divers and the all the divekit they carry these days (twinsets, stages, toolkits etc). The boat was also rather exposed to the elements and although we avoided the rain, any lumpy seas saw us all huddle for cover behind the wheel-house in our drysuits. The ladder was okay but did require you to crawl onto the deck on your hands and knees whilst someone took your fins off.

Isles of Scilly Trip Photolog! (July 2000)

Some photos of the goings-on above the water during our week trip

Lunch over the Cita Wreck. The Penzance-St Marys Helicopter shuttle can be seen in the distance
H, Steve, Myself and Dan - Kitted up and ready to rumble - thou Dan seems to have a slight problem with his kit?
H seems to have her hood on the wrong way - maybe that's why she gets lost underwater so often?
Jason climbing back onboard. You know these techie boys, all those bottles and lots of bottom time - but they miss all the hotwater for the post-dive tea!
Jason (I think) waiting for a lift!
Jason face seems to have re-moulded itself - too much regulator in the mouth I reckon!
Jason loose with the vaseline again! He definitely has a "bottom" fixation!
H and the boy mucking around at the stern!
Steve looking sexy with his new twinset
Myself - making a bad attempt at looking cool in my new twinset rig and holding onto my new Kowalski torch in case Steve tries to take it apart!