Cermona II

Roncadores are the first thing in view as the line reaches the hull: a thick school hanging around the bridge of a small trawler that sits on open sand, with most of its upperworks gone. The group descends and ascends holding the line, because the sand around the wreck gives nothing to navigate by if someone drifts. The wreck is small enough to take in whole on one dive, working through the bridge area, the holds and the engine room, with a resident group of trumpetfish under the stern and stingrays on the sand around it. The older wreck lies a short swim off, more broken than this one and reachable on a compass heading when the water allows.

The Puerto de Mogán tourist submarine runs its route over this wreck, so a dive here is also a few minutes of being watched from the submarine's windows, divers gathering visibly on the hull and waving at the passengers. That double life is the character of the place: a working dive site that is also a fixture on a tourist tour, a couple of minutes by RIB from the harbour. As the superstructure goes, the draw shifts from the hull itself to the life around it, the roncadores above all.

Built in 1961 at Zaandam in the Netherlands as the trawler De Hoop I, the boat reportedly carried several names and flags before it was registered as the Cermona in 1998. In 2000 it ran aground at Arguineguín and was seized in connection with the trafficking of people in African waters. The operator of the Yellow Submarine tour, running at Puerto de Mogán since 1997, bought it and sank it in March 2002 in about 16 m of water outside the breakwater. The sea had by then dismantled the first wreck, a storm-damaged hull that operators call the Alagranza. A film set of classical columns and a mock pirate wreck was later built nearby for the tour, and it is separate from the dive.

Give the submarine room. When it approaches, stay on the wreck and clear of its thrusters, and leave the crossing to the older wreck for another moment. The rest of the year the sea here is calm and clear, and the exception is the rare, very strong southerly storm, which is the weather that has been wearing the wrecks down. Hull and deck still hold their shape, while the upper structure keeps shedding, so keep trim controlled near anything that looks loose.