Liverpool University SAC ventured to the far west of Cornwall, making the most of the wrecks and reefs.
CLUB: Liverpool University Sub-Aqua Club
DESTINATION: St Just, Cornwall
OBJECTIVES: We have been running an annual expedition to Cornwall for many years now. It offers the opportunity to dive some of the best sites in the UK, so where better to get qualified and have some fun dives? Being based in St Just, we were ideally placed to dive the north and south coasts of Cornwall
The trip
We started off with a shallow shake-down dive off Sennen on the Beaumaris, following a launch from the beach. The ribs of the relatively shallow wreck are home to many macro algae, anemones, crustaceans, worms and fish – so this was an interesting start.
Boat handling practice | A small-spotted cat shark prompts a plume of bubbles
On subsequent days we launched and recovered from Penzance Harbour, heading out to other wrecks and reefs. Excellent though Capernwray training is, diving on a wall of jewel anemones, seeing the cat sharks, leopard spot gobies, sea cucumbers and spider crabs is another experience. We could do more of these fun dives this year because the 2025 cohort were already qualified Ocean Divers.
But this is by no means a trip for novices only. Kira put her boat handling practice to good use and there were deeper dives for those that wanted them. The shifting seabed had revealed parts of the wreck of SS Hellopes that had not been seen by even our older members, so new experiences were had by all.
Those progressing to Dive Leader had a great chance to do some dive planning and management practice. We were all waiting every evening for Liam, Damien or Anna’s WhatsApp with the pairings and boat allocations for the next day. Just as important was who was getting the pasties in for the lunchtime surface interval.
Logbook moment
Probably the highlight, for those of us that saw it, was descending on the Alice Marie and there, out in the open, was a conger eel just swimming around the shot line. For some, though, the best part was the amazingly welcoming Star pub in St Just, especially the last night before the long drive home and a return to life on dry land, although some of us were shore diving a week later.
Big ballan wrasse, a Cornish specialty
Dive team
The incomplete list of divers includes:
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This article was originally published in SCUBA magazine, Issue 159, October 2025. For more membership benefits, visit bsac.com/benefits.
Images in this online version may have been substituted from the original images in SCUBA magazine due to usage rights.
