Diving in Ibiza - October 2003 - Page 5

Dive 8:- Llado Norte

Max Depth:- 26.5m
Average Depth:- 16.2m
Duration:- 48 mins
Visibility:- 8m
Water Temp:- 23c
Water Speed:- slack
Weather:- Air temp 24c, cloudy, Swell of a few feet

The second dive on Llado Norte and followed a storm the previous day. As a result the sea was still fairly churned up both on the surface and underwater reducing visibility to a "mere" 8m.

A strong surge was noticeable above 10m depth which resulted in dives being moved forward and backwards maybe 3 meters in synch with the wave period. This did make the safety stop somewhat nauseating. Below 15m it was fairly dark and a torch was definitely needed to make the most of this dive. The route was near identical to that detailed for Dive 1 so wont be repeated here.

The boat ladder bouncing about made getting onboard harder than normal and a few people did fall off the ladder a couple of times.

It was still an enjoyable dive and the conditions combined with visibility had me logging this as "Britain on a good day after global warming".

Dive 9:- Llado Sur

Max Depth:- 21.0m
Average Depth:- 13.1m
Duration:- 56 minutes
Visibility:- 10m
Water Temp:- 24c
Water speed:- slack
Weather:- Air Temp 24c, clear skies, slight swell

The sister rock to Llado Norte.

I was buddied with a German called "Wolfgang" for this dive who although seemed friendly enough didn't speak much/any English. That combined with my German which I haven't used for 6 or 7 years made the pre-dive a bit hard going. The dive information chart stated this was a 35m dive working your way
anticlockwise around the rock before hitting the anchor line after 1 orbit. It also promised a small cave at 25m.

My actual dive differed from this brief somewhat mainly due to my buddy. First a brief description of him.

He was roughly 5ft 9" tall and had apparently completed his 100th dive. He owned a pair of XL size fins (to be mentioned later) and a very large Kowalski torch. Oddly, this expensive torch was not secured to him by a lanyard or clip but rather by a 2m long blue piece of nylon rope clipped to his BC. As he'd dived this site before we agreed he would lead the dive.

We dropped in and immediately descended to around 18m. During the descent I noticed his mask filling with water. For reasons only known to himself he opted not to bother clearing it. The Kowalski torch dangled from its rope below his feet and hit the rocky bottom fairly hard when we reached it. He did a quick look around and proceeded in a direction that was totally opposite to the pre-briefed one off the plan - we were going to do this dive backwards it seems which would mean we start off shallow and work our way deeper as opposed to the intended opposite.

As it turned out that wasn't an issue, the drop off at 20m down to the 35m sea bed was dark and the bottom couldn't be seen due to the reduced visibility. He seemed reluctant to swim over into the darkness so we continued at the 20m line along the reef. We paused numerous times to peer into holes and such. My little torch was dwarfed by his beam but for some odd reason he kept it turned on and dangling at the end of the rope for most of the dive meaning it got smashed off just about every rock nearby. At one point I was attempting to photograph a moray when I was nearly blinded by the light. It seems he'd seen an interesting starfish and to grab my attention decided the best course of action was to shine the light brightly directly into my eyes. He repeated this trick several times effectively blinding me for large periods of the dive. Every now and again he'd bang it against some more rocks and drag it through the
sand to another hole to look in.

After 25 mins or so he decided to stick closer and signalled he's swim in front and for me to follow. As this had been agreed I did. The problem was due to his sudden course changes, stops and depth changes I was kicked repeatedly by his XL fins and spent several minutes close enough to read the manufacture date stamped on the heel.

After a somewhat up/down saw tooth profile he decided to begin to shallow out the dive and we started to ascend face to face up a vertical wall. Above 10m there was a fairly large surge and for some reason he elected to play in this for some 10 minutes. It was like being stuck in a washing machine which he
seemed to enjoy. The torch was now regularly being smacked into rocks as a result of this but he didn't seem to notice or care. Eventually bored of the washing machine ride he signalled we should surface. Again we ascended face to face and for some inexplicable reason he picked up his torch, put the lens
some 10cm from his mask and turned it on staring into the light. Quite why he did this I don't know - maybe he was checking it was still working. The net result was him blinking wildly and dropping the torch back down to its maximum length of rope. When we reached the 5m trapeze and spare air tanks they were bucking wildly as the boat was moved by the wave action - heavy steel cylinders were flying back and forth travelling several meters in each direction before whipping around on their rope. Again for some reason instead of holding a safety stop away from this he elected to play "dodgy the tank", swim to the
trapeze and hold onto it like he was on a fairground ride. At that stage I decided I really didn't want to get smacked by a moving tank so kept my distance before surfacing.

All in all the dive was "ok" but made odd by a buddy with a light obsession and a love of being thrown about by the surge. It had potential to be much better especially as apparently the cave and deeper wall is very nice.

Maybe next time I can do it without Mr Kowalski and his amazing XL fins.

Dive 10:- Sta. Eularia Rocks

Max Depth:- 21.0m
Average Depth:- 15.5m
Duration:- 45 minutes
Visibility:- 20m
Water Temp:- 23c
Water speed:- slight current
Weather:- Air Temp 27c, clear skies, calm

The centre was quiet today with everyone holding off for the day trip tomorrow and as a result I was the only certified diver registered for the dive. As a result I found myself on "Pina Colada" - a 5.5m RIB. As far as RIBs go it was comfortable - seating, tank racks and dry which is a luxury compared to what i'm used to. The only other passengers were a family of 3 doing a try dive. Those 3, their instructor, the boat handler and my dive guide/buddy meant there was still plenty of room onboard the boat.

To save them charging an air cylinder the centre offered me the use of a Nitrox ( EAN30 ) cylinder that was unused from the mornings dive which I agreed to.

The dive guide was using a cylinder of EAN32 and with a maximum depth of 21m for the intended site posed no problem.

As an experiment for this dive I opted to try less weight, reducing to 2kg as a test.

This dive was a combination of a sandy bottom leading onto a rocky reef as it neared the cliffs. Apparently the flat sandy bottom has been home to Rays.

After rolling off the RIB and descending onto a sea grass type bottom at 8m we then headed off deeper along a flat course sandy bottom in a south westerly direction at a depth of around 20m. Visibility here was extremely good and the surrounding bright due to the sun and white reflective sand. A slight
current was tugging us in a southerly direction but this was not a problem for the dive. Eventually after some 10 minutes of swimming we came across the rocky reef. During the swum no rays had been seen and only a few large fish noticeable in the distance. Once on the roof it provided the usual holes and
areas to prod around in and yielded the usual wildlife including octopus and scorpion fish. The second half of the dive was done across the same sandy bottom but nearer to the rocks where some odd burrowing worm things provided some amusement. Back near the RIB anchor line there was another small rocky reef
to explore until air ran low and it was time to exit.

Not the most spectacular dive but enjoyable none the less.

Dive 11:- Espardell

Max Depth:- 33.2m
Average Depth:- 19.8m
Duration:- 36 minutes
Visibility:- 15m
Water Temp:- 23c
Water Speed:- slack
Weather:- 24c, clear, calm

The second full day trip and the second dive in the sunken fish farm platform of Espardell. For this dive I was paired with a guide (Angel) and a girl who was described as having "not done too many dives". It was agreed the guide and girl would operate as a pair and id just tag along as an extra person.

As we were arriving at the dive site several dolphins appeared and started following the boat in its wake and leaping out of the water alongside and in front of us. This continued for 10 minutes and they finally vanished just before we dropped anchor.

I attempted to photograph them however due to the delay with digital camera I ended up with 5 pictures of splashes in the water - I missed them all.

After jumping in the water and waiting 2 minutes for the others to enter we descended slowly down the line to about 3m. It was obvious at this point the girl had problems getting down despite carrying what looked like a lot of weight. The dive guide ended up dumping some air for her. When they reached me at
the 3m mark her mask was half full of water and she struggled to clear it. I was signalled to wait while the guide surfaced with her and some 4 mins later they came down to me and signalled to descend slowly. We paused briefly on the platform legs at 14m before descending right the way down the pillars to the sea bed at 33m.

On reaching the wreck the description is pretty much as before, plenty of collapsed metal and overhangs to explore. Several of the pipes contained very larger congers while a few scorpion fish lurked on the bottom. The bottom was stirred up and occasionally silty in places. As usual now, Barracuda were sighted off the wreck.

I did notice that throughout the entire dive the girl was "following" the dive guide by remaining nearly exactly 2m directly above him throughout. This caused him problems turning to check on her. This dive I only had my small torch so explored some of the narrow pipes and holes the opposite side to the previous time.

The area I found had a lot of thick wire and vertical pipes leading off the metal base and what I can only assume were connecting 2 small rooms when the platform was intact. Again, there were no sharp objects or real entanglement hazards on the wreck and visibility was excellent.

After 22 minutes with my computer showing 7 minutes of stops we decided to begin our ascent which we did up a pipe and pillar before pausing briefly at the
horizontal platform near 14m. During this time the guide maintained a tight grip on the girls BC. Moving then to the stop depth it was crowded with many other divers on the ropes, trapeze and area so my stop depth varied between 3.5 and 5.5m as I swum around.

Angel showed me his computer and it was telling him he had another 16 minutes of stops to do. Through a series of hand signals it was decided that once my computer had cleared, I was to surface with the girl and leave him to clear his computer stops.

After the dive he said the reason for the stops is that he'd done 2 dives the previous day, using nitrox but had the computer set to air. He'd also done a brief dive that morning before leaving hence the difference in stop time between our computers (both were vypers).

Another very good dive and after 2 dives on the wreck I still haven't seen all of it. Yet another one to add to my "must do again" list.

The dive completed it was time to head ashore for a lunch break.

Dive 12:- Punta Prima

Max Depth:- 25.3m
Average Depth:- 15.5m
Duration:- 42 minutes
Visibility:- 15m
Water Temp:- 24c
Water Speed:- slack
Weather:- 24c, partly cloudy, calm

This was my final dive of the trip before returning home to the cold, wet UK. Weather and sea conditions were near enough perfect for this dive.

I was asked before the dive if I minded buddying with Inma (the girl from the previous dive) as a pair as the guide had course students to take on a dive.

Again there was a language issue as I speak no Spanish and she spoke no English but with the help of the dive guides to translate we agreed a dive plan where I would lead the dive, we'd turn at 100 bar and be back on the surface with 50bar of air remaining. I was given a brief about which direction to head, what landmarks to turn at and roughly how long between them which was needed as id only dived the area once before and this was a slightly different location.

We kitted up and jumped in, descended to 2m where my buddy signalled she had a problem so we stopped. Again it seemed she had problems descending but after about a minute at this depth she managed to start descending and indicated she was happy to proceed.

Visibility was excellent with the large boulder field visible immediately from the surface. Dropped straight down to this at 22m and came across better ground than the previous dive here - the boulder fields and outcrops were larger with far more in the way of gaps to look in. The first hole yielded an octopus, a bit further along a Moray was sticking out of a dark hole and a scorpion fish on the sand nearby. The growth on the rocks was very colourful especially when illuminated with a torch.

Annoyingly my buddy decided that like the previous dive she would follow 2-3 directly above me meaning to check or signal meant have to roll 180 degrees.
Several times I signalled OK and got "OK" in return so eventually realised she wasn't unhappy with the dive.

At once point I attempted to signal a "side by side" which worked for 30 seconds before she returned to hovering above me.

Another reaction that confused me was the air check - I signalled to ask what her air was and was taken by surprise when instead of signalling as agreed she dumped all her air, hit the bottom in a cloud of sand, thrust the gauge in my face, waited for the signal then went back up to above my head quickly.
Again though she indicated she was happy.

We worked our way South West along the boulder field before a small swim through leading to the main vertical cliff wall. We zig zagged along this wall, stopping occasionally to look closer at some of the life before I got the 100 bar signal off my buddy so it was time to turn the dive.

Having been given the brief I knew the direction the boat should be in but must admit at this point I was slightly lost - I was expecting to see the anchor chain by now. We followed the wall at 10-15 meters in the direction I thought was correct but still didn't see the boat. Eventually however I recognised the 8m ridge from the previous dive and knew the boat would be here somewhere.

Just like the previous dive, everything at this 8m depth was green due to growth and spiny urchins littered the rock. Looking around I noticed the now familiar anchor chain and was quite pleased my random navigation had managed to blunder across the boat without suffering the indignity of surfacing to have a look around.

As we were both above the 50 bar cut-off I signalled I wanted to do a 3 minute safety stop at around 5m before surfacing. We managed to do about 1 minute of this before my buddy lost control of her buoyancy and started to rise. I grabbed and held onto her to arrest the descent until reaching 3m and then had to let go and she popped up.

The was no harm done and no risk - we were nowhere near deco and the ascent to that 5m depth had been very slow, nowhere near the rate limits.

As it was I surfaced from my last dive that despite some buddy problems was another enjoyable scenic dive

Summary:-

For a late season trip Ibiza was both nearby, not too expensive and provided good weather and diving. The dives themselves were fairly varied and good for wildlife especially when compared to my previous diving in Greece. I liked the method of being allocated a kit locker for the duration and from Sta Eulalia
the distance to dive sites was usually in the region of 30-60 minutes.

I didn't get a chance to dive the Isla Vedra nature park or the Tagomago areas which apparently also offer good diving but there wasn't really time.

I flew out with Air2000 who offered a free 10kg allowance for diving equipment provided the qualification book was provided at check in. There were no problems at either airport with this.

The photographs were taking using a Canon Powershot A40 camera with the Canon waterproof housing which is rated to a depth of 30m.

For more pictures, included the ones not listed in this write up please see this address

Richard Whitcombe (Web@whitcombe.org.uk)

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