2006: KORCULA, CROATIA
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Dan and I had a very enjoyable and relaxing holiday to Korcula in May. We had booked 10 dives with Dupin Diving after reading glowing reports on the BSAC website. The plan was to get all the diving over and done with in the first week, but due to a thunderstorm and a boat malfunction, it spread over the fortnight and worked out much better in the end. For the first week, it was just me and Dan on the boat, and then we were joined by 3 members of Watford BSAC in the second.
The landscape underwater was mainly rocky with sandy patches. The life was plentiful but small as I believe it is rather over-fished. There are lots of anemones, sea fans and urchins everywhere. We saw several huge ancient anchors, and dived a 2000 year old Roman Galleon, all of which is left is the terracotta cargo. Many pieces are still fairly intact and the seabed is covered with the broken pottery.
Two other sites included a small room like cave which had a fairly large opening, and another large gully that led to a cave through a very narrow passageway. I got halfway before I decided I'd stop and wait for Dan and Steve, the dive guide, to collect me on the way back out. I'm such a wus!! The gully was much more interesting to me anyway as there were lobsters and tiny squat lobsters hiding in holes in the walls.
We dived the wreck of the Boca, which stands proud of the surface, twice. Most of the second dive was taken up with Dan pointing out all the stuff I'd missed the first time round, like the spare propeller. Well, I was looking at the fish! Apparently, the captain was below deck playing cards when the freight ship hit, not one of the many small and rocky islands, but the Croatian mainland itself.
One of the highlights was coming across an octopus that had come out of his hiding place. He wasn't very pleased to see us so after a while of having 5 divers bobbing around in front of him, he raised himself up, gave us a hard stare and then lazily jetted off. Luckily Dan managed to get a good photo otherwise he'd have been sent back down there until he did!
It was no-deco diving so the typical profile was descend down to the deepest point then slowly ascend throughout the rest of the dive, ending up swimming the last bit at 6m back to the dive boat anchor.
A surprise addition to the holiday was litter picking in the Korcula Town west harbour on the last day. We were handed net bags by a bloke in a rowing boat and we spent an hour or so picking up glass bottles and other rubbish. There was lots of life to see and being at only 3-4 metres meant it was bright and clear, and overall rather good fun. I think we must have attracted quite a crowd but unfortunately I fell up the beach on the way out! Humm. After regaining my composure we all went for lunch courtesy of the Town Council.
Thanks Steve and Jan for looking after us so well, we really enjoyed both the diving and Korcula. I'm sure we will be meeting again in the not too distant future!
LP