Bau de la Ferrera

Bau de la Ferrera's crown sits barely a metre below the surface, the shallowest point on a shoal whose two flanks fall away from there in different directions. To the east, a boulder field settles into a comfortable band around 10 to 14 metres. To the south, a near-vertical wall drops through the site's 12-to-25-metre working depth to a base around 28 metres, with the wall's foot placed by some accounts closer to 30. There is no current to work against here, an unusually calm profile for this stretch of Cap de Creus, so the descent and the swim along the wall are more about reading the rock face than fighting the water.

A local maritime-history account records that the Phedom, a Greek steamer, sank at the base of this wall on 25 March 1933 while carrying cereals and legumes from Barcelona to Marseille. Her own captain owned the vessel, and the insurer investigating the loss found enough evidence, from the wreck itself and from local fishermen, to suspect the sinking was staged for the payout; the claim was refused. The crown that keeps this reef so shallow has an older reputation of its own, blamed historically for numerous wrecks along this stretch, of which the Phedom is simply the one with a name and a date attached. Seahorses share the same ground, at the depths where the boulder field gives way to the wall.

This dive already sits beyond Open Water limits: come certified to Advanced Open Water, or with a guide who can manage the profile for the group. The shoal's crown, barely a metre under the surface and marked with its own depth contours on the park's dive chart, has a long history as a hazard to boat traffic rather than to divers: give it room on the surface if another boat is working the same spot.

Diving independently, without a centre organising the trip, needs prior notice to the park authority and is capped per boat, not per diver: six dives a day, thirty a week, a hundred and twenty a year.1