Newsletter 2012
PORTHKERRIS NEWS 2011/2012
Greetings from Porthkerris! Hope you had a good Xmas and a merry new year!! Things here at Porthkerris have been slowing down since October, although we have been getting quite a few shore divers throughout the winter months….
NEWS We’ve had a busy year here at Porthkerris; not only has the diving been going full steam ahead, the house is also coming along nicely. We are just about to start rendering it in the next few days. Feedback in the past from our customers points towards there being a shortage of short term self catering accommodation and package deals in the area so the plan is to incorporate some self catering diver accommodation into the new build. Hopefully the long term plan here is that there are going to be 3 apartments at the front of the house, close to the pool. Two of them will be able to sleep 2 people – there will also be a locked door joining these so there will be the option to open them up as a family room. The beds in these can be double or twins. Both of these apartments will include a kitchenette and a bathroom with shower, toilet and sink. The third apartment will have 4 single beds, this will also have a separate kitchenette and bathroom. At the rear of the house there will be another self-contained apartment sleeping up to 4 people. It will have an open plan kitchen/ dining area/sitting room, a bedroom and bathroom. The bedroom will have 2 single beds (which can be made into a double bed). The sitting room will have a double sofa bed. And if you’re looking for a wonderful little hideaway then there will also be the Log Cabin. It has its own separate entrance porch with an outside seating area for at least 10 people, the kitchen/sitting room is a large open space and there are 3 bedrooms. Two of the rooms will have 2 single beds and one will have 4 single beds. The idea for the cabin is that it will be booked on an individual basis, so if you are on your own you could be sharing the cabin with 7 other people. Along with the accommodation we are also building a 3 metre deep dive pool. This is next to the 3 apartments. This will help us for our courses but it will also be available for hire so clubs can come down, finish training that needs to be done in the pool and then have their first sea dive from the shore, only metres away. We could create the perfect package, to include accommodation, pool hire, kit hire, lecture room etc! We are also planning to start using the pool to get more of our local community involved,. Te pool will also enable us to do children’s Bubblemaker and Seal Team, which we haven’t been able to offer before. We have added to our camping area, landscaping an area overlooking the sea on the slope on the left down towards the beach. It will be a lovely area, not far from the facilities and a great view. It will comfortably fit about 6 – 8 tents. We have been running all three boats throughout the year, the Cat, the Kitten and the Rib. This will be the same for next year too. During the winter months we do take the boats out of the water but this doesn’t mean that we can’t run. If you fancy a winter dive or two then we can launch the Kitten and if the weather forbids this then we can run the Rib (within reason). So if you have any dates in mind give a call and we can pencil you in.
SEALIFE This year wasn’t so good for the Basking Sharks. Although we did run quite a few successful trips we didn’t see them in such large numbers as 2010. So, fingers crossed next year will be a good one! Word according to the experts is that 2012 is going to be an excellent year for basking sharks. As many of you will have heard we did have a rather special visitor at the beginning of September – An incredibly friendly dolphin. Remarkably it stayed with the Celtic Cat for the whole 5 hours of the trip. When they reached their first dive on the Volnay, just 5 minutes from Porthkerris, the dolphin played with the divers on the surface for 45 minutes before escorting each buddy pair down the shot line before going back to the boat to escort the next pair. Even playing with them on the seabed. When the boat returned to Porthkerris in between dives, the dolphin obviously noticed that there were more diver playmates on the shore dive ‘Drawna Rock’ so made its way there for a good half an hour to the excitement of a lot of happy shore divers. Snorkelers too were not ignored, and at times the dolphin came in to about 3 metres of water just off the beach where it enjoyed having its underside rubbed!
BOOKINGS We are always on the end of the phone or email for bookings. Either 01326 280620 or info@porthkerris.com. We are taking bookings for 2012 so if you have any dates in mind, please do get in touch…….. Contact us if you are interested in boat dives, shore dives, courses, camping and we’ll book you in! The Celtic Cat is getting VERY booked up at weekends during the season…so if you have got a particular date in mind, especially for the CAT, we suggest that you get yourself penciled in to avoid disappointment. We tend to have more availability on the kitten as we can run up to 6 trips a day on this boat. She is also proving to be an incredibly popular boat especially with her new diver lift. Divers also particularly love the fact that they only have to handle their kit once as they get kitted up on the beach and walk straight onto the boat.
NEXT YEAR Over the winter our staff have a break and go off and do other stuff. Dave spends every waking hour on his surf board, Finn is busy pulling down and rebuilding his house, Jeremy continues with his ‘normal’ job with St Austell Brewery, Darren will be helping us build the house and we stay at Porthkerris holding the fort, taking bookings, charters, air etc etc as usual. Dave, Jeremy, Darren and Finn will all be back working here this year. Darren is currently learning to be a Skipper. As well as already being a PADI instructor, Dave is also becoming a BSAC instructor so we can offer BSAC courses as well as Padi courses here at Porthkerris.
FACEBOOK Keep an eye on our Facebook page for news as it happens, courses and boat spaces. Some of the divers have put some wonderful Porthkerris pictures on the site.
SAD GOOD BYES After 3 years working at Porthkerris, Sarah has decided to go off and travel so won’t be back this year. She is currently off doing the ski season! Sarah has been a fantastic part of the Porthkerris team and a great friend to us all and we will all miss her terribly. She started as a non diver, but whilst working at Porthkerris she got up to Rescue diver level and has completed some of her dive master course with us and has proved to be an excellent diver. She finally got to see her first basking shark last year and hasn’t stopped smiling since!! We wish her all the best……After a season at Porthkerris, Jules has decided to have a career change away from catering so will not be running the beach café next year. She is a good friend and lives locally so she’ll be around. We wish her well with her new ventures…
VACANCIES FOR 2012 We will be looking for someone to run the beach café next year. We can either employ someone on an hourly basis throughout the busy season (Easter to October). If we do this then we would need the person to be able to multi task and do other jobs as required (i.e. air fills, L&R etc). Alternatively someone could rent the café off us. They would then be their own boss and all we would require is that they open the café at set times and 7 days a week, unless agreed otherwise (i.e. bad weather, quiet days etc). We will also need someone to work in the office/shop. This job is full time, seasonal (March to October) working flexible days and hours. We ask that they have experience with computers and diving, although this is not essential as training can be given. As usual we will be taking on dive master internships all throughout the season.
Anyway, that’s all for now folks! We gladly welcome feedback from everyone who has visited us here at Porthkerris, and if there is anything which we could improve on here to make your experience better then please let us know.
Best wishes from Jo and Mike ( and all at Porthkerris……)
