(30-03-10) With better weather conditions, our reporter leads us to a platform like a submerged volcano, opposite the Natural Reserve of Corrubedo, a place full of life and colour, but with strong currents.

    Hi friends. This week the weather has not been so bad and we have been able to dive in a place to which, when a dive centre invites you, you make all the possible to go. 

    As you already know, all dive centres in Spain have some dives that, for one or another reason, cannot be done frequently because of the weather or the permits from the authorities usually. We are not different from the rest and there is some dive we only can do twice or thrice in the year. In this case it has been the place that the dive centre Hyudronauta calls “O’Volcán”.

    O’Volcán is in the open sea, off the Natural Reserve of Corrubedo, where the sea forms waves up to 8 meters high in strong temporal, and the common ones rise 1 or 2 meters high, 330 days per year. The closest land, Corrubedo, is about 2 miles far from it.

    To describe this place to you I want you to imagine you are on a ship at open sea. The sounding line shows an almost plain bottom with moderate changes between 65 and 45 m, and, suddenly, it rises up to 20 m. “There must be something there”, you think, and there is. O’Volcán, consisting of three big rocks whose interior walls fall into vertical cut, and whose exterior walls, helped by smaller rocks, fall up to 45 m.

    Inside, current is weak; you just feel the water flow in the entrance of caves. The interior has about 20 meters of vertical drop and about 100 m2. Here there are ballan wrasses, seabreams, all kinds of gorgonians… Outside we can see any fish we can think of: from seabass to sunfish if we are lucky.

STRONG CURRENTS BUT LARGE NUMBER OF LIFE

    On the contrary, currents are strong here. Moving two meters is very difficult sometimes, but it has the advantage that in those 100 m2 you can meet more animals than in 600 m2 in a normal dive in the ria, which is saying something…

    This is one of those dives where you don’t know what lens to use, as you can meet both a single fish or a dozen or different nudibranches. There is no problem, I have my compact camera.

    As I was saying, sun is bright, sea is calm and ambient temperature is quite good. Even wearing a T-shirt I feel comfortable. We meet at the port at 9 in the morning, today time is precious, we have to sail for 1.15 h with wind and favourable current, and we still have to check all those things we know: tanks, mixture…

    For this dive we all have EAN 32 as, although we would go down to 45 m deep, I think it would be a loss of time unless we wanted to see a specific animal. I’ll explain: 1.15 h going, 1.15 h coming, and only 10 minutes to stay on the bottom, if we go to 45 meters deep.

    I don’t know what you think, but I prefer 34 m depth with EAN 32 and try to extend the dive as much as possible. But, for every taste.

    At the port we met the usual people in these dives: Fede, Carlos, Aldrey, Jose, Guillermo, Jacinto and me. There aren’t some like Félix and Damián, but we will send them the pictures.

    Once in the boat, on the way, the joy of the day and fellowship are among us. There are some, such as Fede, recovered from his lumbar disease, we didn’t see since long ago, and absences are paid in beers. Jose is excited; he has passed to SLR camera and is going to use for the first time his new Oly.

    Aldrey, calm as always, Jacinto lead us and demands our attention among classic songs of our team, such as the famous “Nitrox de alcohol, corren por venas…” Would Ramoncín listen to us… My housing Ikelite has not been repaired yet and I try to imagine the pictures I will take with my G10 and the Inon.

A LOVER OF BIOLOGY FOR MATE

    Although I thought that Jose would be my mate today, Jacinto decides that it will be Aldrey, and it is great, we are friends and I learn a lot from him. As I already told you, he is a lover of Biology and teaches me a lot.

    Today there is a bit of outgoing current, what we can feel in the speed a feather of a seabird floating on the surface. When we jump into the water we have to get the rope very fast, since there is a lot of current and ending the 12 meters to the ending of the rope is difficult.

    We begin to go down, and down, and down… I am following the others and have the impression that we are not moving at all, but when I look at my watch I see we are going down, but by the wrong way. When finally we get the rocky seabed of the volcano we are 30 meters deep, and we wanted to be in the area between the 22 and 23 meters. It’s ok, we are comfortable because when Aldrey approaches me, I guess to say me that we could move to a different area, I show him a lay of nudibranchs.

    If you look carefully it is not one, but three different lays joined. Pay attention to the different shapes and colours. In case I am wrong, warn me please. The thing is that when there is a lay like this one… there are nudibranchs near, so without making any sign to each other we start to look for these tiny beauties.

    Bit by bit they appear. The first one to appear is the Cadlina laveis that, really, I don’t know how we have seen. After that series of pictures we go ahead and search more nudibranchs while I realize today is a bit strange: we seldom see any fish, and the ones we see are very small. On the contrary, the presence of sponges, gorgonians and others make the 13º C not be a problem

    Here, in the open sea, when sea is calm and offers you good visibilities, 6 or 8 meters, dives are extremely good, and if you can come and see it do it. Come. Each time you see around you get surprised of what you see. I don’t feel tired of seen such colourful scenes like this one.

NUDIBRANCHS ARE APPEARING

    Just looking a bit carefully we can see other nudibranchs we missed: Polycera faeroensis and Aeolidiella papillosa, which I wanted to see, which was walking quietly 3 or 4 meters far from its cousin Polycera, looking for food.

    Today, without realizing the time or the temperature, the dive has already finished in an area sizing 80 m2. Among 30 and 34 meters deep time on the bottom is very reduced, only 25 minutes, although if things go well...

    As I told you above, in a place like this one so full of life, and with such little time to see it, I feel myself like a small child at Christmas day: I don’t know where to see, everything is new, attractive, special…  

    What a good time I would have had with a rebreather… but it is ok, when it is impossible, it is impossible. But what we can do is to make good use of the time, enjoy it as you like. In our case, it is taking pictures and trying that this little time we spend underwater every week is the most satisfying and relaxing as possible.

 

    See you in two weeks. Your friend.

Text and pictures: Jacobo Alonso
http://fotosub-jacoboalonso.blogspot.com
We have dived with: www.hydronauta.com