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There are no wrecks in the Bay of Pollença!
So imagine my delight at being able to dive two this season. I have to say that neither of them compared to our own Channel wrecks but wrecks nevertheless.
Following a storm I was taking four students on their fourth and final open water dive. Diving a site called “The Pinnacle” we took a route we don’t usually take and a shipwreck loomed up in front of us. It was a small sailing dingy of about five metres in around twenty five metres of visibility. It had clearly broken it’s mooring from somewhere, hit the rocks, holed itself and sunk, sliding down the wall and settling in eight metres of water.
Divers being divers - the two certified divers on the dive started to dismantle it!
It has since been recovered and now only the aluminium mast marks the spot.
On 2nd August a plume of black smoke was seen rising over the Port. Amid much pointing and photography one of the local boats was going up in flames.
On the way out to Punta de l’ Avançada we passed the action. The burning boat was under tow from the local lifeboat from Alcudia and the environmental boat was using its firefighting monitor to fight the fire.
We left them to it and went off to do some open water training.
After surfacing from a dive the boat had sunk and the environmental boat was still in the area applying detergent to combat the fuel slicks.
Sebastian, our captain, said he thought he could find it and that we should go and dive it. After some searching, following fuel slicks etc, he found it laying it ten metres of water. Not bothering with wetsuits Sebastian and I dived to the remains of the boat. It was a 15 metre high-powered pleasure cruiser sitting upright on the seabed. It had burnt down to the waterline with nothing left of the upper decking but melted fibreglass, everything below the waterline was intact.
After a hunt round nothing of any interest was found apart from a golf club and the burnt remains of a local chart book.
So after a season away from the UK all I can boast of are these two small and really insignificant wrecks, but I suppose it’s better than nothing.
Looking forward to a beer in the “Clubhouse”.
Best regards,
Sid |