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BSAC Marina Alta
26/10/2011 Los
Arcos Dive
I arrived early
at Paul's place
for coffee, Chris
and George arrived
and we loaded up
pauls 4x4 and hooked
up the boat and
went down to Moraira
slip. RIB loaded,
Paul asked if I'd
like to take the
boat out . OK, just
as we were about
to leave the harbour
Chris announces
he can't find his
docs, turn around
and head back to
the slip. Slow approach
good handling practice.
After a bit of left
a bit right
a bit and
stop, a bit
like an eopisode
of "The Navy
Lark" , all
docs retrieved from
the briny.
We head north
to Los Arcos, George
is nervous about
the dive as his
last two dives have
been a stressful
time. Paul and George
in first, Chris
and I lounge and
natter, next we
decide to get our
kit together. On
letting air into
my kit I can hear
gas escaping from
the console, I try
rotating it to tighten
up the connection,
no improvement.
OK so what do we
do now? Obviously
wait until
Paul and George
get back on board
and borrow some
gear. I won't
go into all the
details but I ended
up with a valve
(I use a DIN connector)
insert from Georges
rig and Pauls BC
and regs. Paul decides
that my reg's configuration
is wrong so removes
the regs from the
valve and the "O"
ring vanishes. He
removes a ring fom
another valve and
reconnects the regs.
Now for the dive
with Chris, you
might expect after
all that faffing
about it might be
a short dive time,
in fact it turned
out to be a spectacular
73min dive without
even a safety stop
requirement. Los
Arcos is a great
dive.
Oh yes George
had a great dive
too.
SUN FISH SIGHTING
As they rounded
the headland off
El Portet bay after
a recent dive off
the RIB out of Moraira
Marina, the divers
spotted a large
sun fish in the
water.
Slowly bringing
the boat around,
the divers stopped
a little way off
the fish and several
slipped into the
water to get a good
look and to quietly
swim alongside this
spectacular and
very unusual fish
which was about
90cms long.
The sun fish
was quite relaxed
and swam with us
for at least 5 minutes
before gently swimming
out to sea.
The photograph
shown below of the
sun fish appeared
in the Costa Blanca
News on 8 August.
200 BARRACUDA
This August we
have seen Barracuda
off Calpe quite
often. One particularly
memorable dive when
four of our club
divers stopped their
progress along the
base of the Ifach
and watched in awe
as a school of approximately
200 Barracuda lazily
swam back and forth
infront of us. We
spent five minutes
looking at their
sizes, markings,
mouth shapes and
wishing we had a
movie camera with
us! Most were approx
60 cms long and
a few were a good
75 cms.
It was a delight
to experience this
once, and we were
even mre lucky to
see them again on
our way back from
our dive. Again
very relaxed and
swimming abut 180
degrees around us.
DOLPHINS IN
THE BAY
Our dive on the
enormous underwater
boulders, overhangs
and rock arches
on the Las Bassettes
side of the Ifach
was in water of
27º, flat
calm, 25 metre visibility
and fish of every
description with
only one small jelly
fish seen the whole
dive.Several non-diving
partners were on
the boat for the
afternoon out and
they swam, snorkelled
and had a chance
to drive the boat.
The day was made
for all of us when
we spotted a pod
of about 15-20 dolphins,
including 3 babies,
in the bay between
Calpe and Moraira.
Although the RIB
bow wave was not
to their liking
they swam around
the bay for about
half an hour and
gave us, and the
jet skiers who had
stopped to watch,
a wonderful experience.
A very unusual
sight so close to
shore. Like the
sunfish a few weeks
ago, we were very
pleased to see them
safely on their
way out to sea later
on.
Keep an eye out
as they may be in
this area for some
time.
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