It has become an annual tradition for us to meet at Pete’s residence for a weekend reunion, and this year was no different. Maria was flying in from Dubai to meet us at Alicante airport. I had arrived earlier that day.
After a leisurely dinner we decided that the evening was still young and made our way to Villajoyosa’s marina where Maria’s zodiac would be waiting for us. All of our equipment was set up at the pier and we left the marina at 20:15hrs on our way to Benidorm for a night dive at La Llosa.
Jumping into the water, I discover that the temperature is a warm 23 degrees Celsius. Descending underwater, everything around us is black. Our HID and halogen dive lights are creating beams of light, but shine on nothing. The only thing we can see are the outlines of the zodiac above us. We swim down to 8 metres and our lights reveal the corals, sea anemones and reef at night. During the day colours are filtered out by the water as we dive deeper underwater. Below 15 metres everything usually looks kind of blue-green. Now we see lots of bright colours on the drop off. Our lights reveal the colours that are always there, but can’t be seen unless you have a light.
On Saturday we made the short journey to Albir to meet up with an old friend. A Brit called Kevin now living in Spain and one of my former DM candidates owns his own boat and operates sport fishing trips as well as dive trips.
Today we would dive a site between Altea and Calpe known as La Galiana. A lovely site with lots to see, you can explore some caves, the remains of an old fishing boat, and its also a great wall dive.
Returning to the coast, we stop for lunch in the marina of Calpe at a great seafood place on the ports waterfront. After lunch and an unsuccessful attempt to finally meet the owner of Calpe’s latest diving centre Dive & Dive Calpe (it was closed), we left the marina heading in a north-easterly direction towards a dive site, which is locally accepted as being genuinely secret.
The steep drop off till 35 metres, just off the coast offers several big caves. Bigger types of fish, octopus and eel hide in these nicely vegetated rocks. Predatorial fish such as barracuda, frequently roam around the site, searching for the smaller fish types, which seek protection on the reef borders. Their speed and calculated approaches are beautiful to witness over the slightly vegetated and sloping reef walls. Varieties of grouper, crawfish, moray eel, and bream colour the top of the reef. The site is only known to a handful of people, and that is just the way we like it! Once you have been there you’ll understand why!
On Sunday we did a bit of pre-dive scouting for our next “reunion”. The plan is to continue with our previous exploration efforts and perform a series of dives off Villajoyosa. The coast of Costa Blanca, in particular, is littered with wrecks from both World Wars. Many of these were merchant ships carrying supplies and sunk by U-boats. Generally, the ships lie in deep water - between 50 and 100 metres. Sunday afternoon we hung out with old friends and former students and went out to eat.
Sunday evening was mostly spent packing the car for the 11 hour trip back to Nice, as Pete had to take Maria back to Alicante airport. So after saying goodbye, it felt strange being alone again after having a classic weekend with the old crew.
Basile Fournier - Nice
Co-founder costablancascuba.com
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