Day 1 - Dive 1. the Canyons

Seahorse Dive Club in the Medes Islands ( 6 th to 11 th Oct 2017) By John Orr

We took 5 club members and 2 guests on this trip, namely, John Orr (Organizer), Mike Scott, (Club Chairman), Paul Cole, Ian Gale, Chris Smith, with Guests, Gemma Owen and Gwynne Roberts. With thousands of Ryan Air flights cancelled and an Independence revolution threatened by the Catalonian separatist movement, what could possibly go wrong? The expedition started with five of us meeting up at John’s house on Friday morning at 08:00 to get a V Cars taxi to Bristol Airport, meanwhile Chris travelled independently to the airport with Gwynne flying down to meet us from Edinburgh. All went well and we met at the airport as planned. The Ryanair flight also went pretty close to schedule, and after a swift transfer through Girona Airport we were met by our taxi driver Mike. After about an hour we arrived at L’Estartit and checked into our accommodation, The Rocamaura IV through the Ceigrup agency. We had 3 double rooms, a room with 4 bunks, a bathroom with toilet, bath and in-bath shower, a separate toilet and hand basin with a washing machine, a good-sized lounge with flat screen TV, a fully equipped kitchen and two balconies, also the building had lifts which were useful with all of our gear. Although it seemed closed for us in October the complex had a good sized swimming pool. The accommodation was ideal for a diving expedition with sufficient storage, facilities and space to rinse and dry the equipment. It also included a free parking space were you to do this by road. Once we had settled in the accommodation we went over to Calypso divers to sort out the next few days diving. What was noticeable at this point is that all the facilities you require are within a very short walking distance, dive centre, supermarkets, cashpoints, bars, restaurants, pharmacy and of course the beach. About the diving:. The dive operators run to an allocated timetabled schedule to control the number of divers on any of the Medes Islands sites at any one time. So, there is a choice of ‘Medes’ or ‘Coastal’ dives.

Day 1 - Dive 1. ‘The Canyons’ This was a ‘Coastal Dive’, which was a good shake down dive especially as some of us were using unfamiliar kit configurations. This was a good dive with around 15 metres of milky visibility. We saw Bream, Grunts, Wrasse, Morays, Hawkfish, Damselfish, Snappers, and many others. Not bad for dive 1.

Day 1 - Dive 2. ‘Tascons Petit’ This was a Medes Isles dive, we saw lots of fish on this one, very large Groupers, lots of Morays (some free swimming), Hawkfish, a shoal of Baitfish being chased by Barracuda and Large Snappers, Scorpionfish, Damselfish, Emperorfish, Fusileers and what looked like Tarpon, also saw some Grey Mullet and lots more. Also noticeable were the abundance of Fan Corals etc, as they had not been ripped up by careless fishing etc. This dive was pretty much why we were here. If the Medes had Pelagics as well then it would be a match for the Red Sea albeit a very small area of conservation.

Day 1 - Dive 3. ‘Tascons Petit’ Same site base as before, although we went on a different route. With much the same to see as earlier and though we were working against a fair bit of swell, still a great dive. Day 2 - Dive 1.

La Vaca Cave near Bara Del Sastre, a Medes Isles Dive.

This was on the opposite side of the island and consisted of several caves and swim throughs. Main sightings were the now familiar large Groupers and a shy weird looking fish possibly a Catfish. At one point, I had a large Grouper following me.

Day 2 - Dive 2. Bara Del Sastre. This was the same sight but again we took a different route. We went a bit deeper on this one to 36m to some colourful Sea Fans, followed by more caves and swim throughs. We also saw Nudibranchs.

Day 2 - Dive 3. Calla Pegrosa a Coastal Dive. We swam a short distance in the shallows, and then dropped to about 22m where we saw the entrance to a large cave. We went through this and it came out on the other side of the island. Main sightings were Nudibranch, Lobster, a couple of Catfish and more Morays, also the now familiar sightings of Damselfish and Grunts.

Day 3 - Dive 1. The Reggio Wreck. This ship used to be a train transporter and was sunk on purpose as an artificial reef. On this dive, there were two groups one group stayed pretty much near the stern of the wreck whilst the other group went along the whole wreck at just above 30m and returned shallowing up as we went, to avoid going into deco. The wreck had a very interesting, complete mast, with a ghostly looking ‘crow’s nest’. The dive then finished up with a shallow wall dive, with some small yellow Blennies and lots of Anthias. Not a massive amount of large sea life on this dive but a great massive wreck. We all agreed that if we do this one again it will be on Nitrox 34. Most fish were small like Single Bar Bream, Anthias, Hawkfish and Cleaner Wrasse.

Day 3 - Dive 2.

Dolphin Cave.

This was with all 7 of us diving together. We started with a cave dive to surface within the cave in a fresh air enclosed cave. We did a few more caves, caverns and swim throughs, which were very good but not an awful lot in the way of fish life, with a few Breams and Grunts. Although there were a lot of very colourful yellow Sea Fans.

Day 3 - Dive 3. In the vicinity of Dolphin Cave. We started by getting towed out to a couple of small islands across from Dolphin Cave. Basically, we went down to 23m and kept the wall to our right side; we went around the islands and shallowed up as we went along. We then got back to a heading which would take us back toward the boat whilst doing the safety stop. This was a very nice dive with lots of life to finish up on a high. The main sightings were lots of Groupers, Morays, Bream, a few Grey Mullet, Jacks, Hawkfish and lots Grunts and large Snappers. Day 4 - Dive 1. SIGHT TO BE CONFIRMED. Gemma and Gwynne our guests were the only two on this but they had also had a fantastic dive to also finish on a high with several Eagle Rays sighted. In fact the Skipper Pete had said “no Eagle Rays then I will refund the cost of this dive”. Our return journey back to UK was fortunately uneventful. All of our divers thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience and we all agreed that we would like to do this one again. Most dived in Drysuit with a couple in Wetsuits/Semi Dry. The lowest in water temperature recorded was 16 Degrees C. The visibility ranged from 15 – 30 metres.

Our costing summary was as follows: Transfers in UK, Lyneham to Bristol Airport return £225 between 5 = £45. Return flights Bristol to Girona around £160 - £170. Transfers in Spain, Girona Airport to L’Estartit return 170 Euros between 7 = 24 Euros. The accommodation worked out at approximately 90 Euros each for 5 nights so 18 Euros per person per night. This was 6 sharing a self-catering apartment. Single occupancy was also available. Towels were not provided so you either brought your own or hired a large and small one for only 4 Euros. The diving was 25 Euros for a Medes Islands Marine Reserve Dive and 20 Euros for a Coastal Dive. So if sharing accommodation in October, flying from Bristol with Ryanair and having 6 Medes Dives and 3 Coastal Dives the approximate totals not including food and drinks are: £205 - £215 plus Euros 324. We self-catered breakfast and lunch and ate out well, each night for approximately 15 to 20 Euros for a meal and a drink.