Fraggle Rock

A single large rock stands on the floor of Marina del Este bay, toward the right-hand end of the bay, with sand and rubble all around it. Boats leave from Marina del Este port, and the descent starts from a surface buoy known as Charlie's buoy, because nothing on the bottom leads to the rock. The approach is a swim on a compass bearing: descend to 15m, take a bearing out toward open sea and turn 45 degrees right toward the punta, then swim about 100m until the bottom reaches about 24m. The car wreck lies at 26m. On a rough day with 4m visibility a 240-degree bearing from the buoy passes the rock entirely and ends near the beach in 2m visibility, with only two large rocks and open sand to show for it. A diver without independent navigation experience does better with a guide.

Coral, anemones and sea grass cover the rock, and its crevices hold conger eels, moray eels and octopus, some of them very large. A cuttlefish of about 40cm changes colour on the rock surface and nudibranchs in blue, violet and white sit on the same stones, which makes it a slow macro dive. The main structure sits at about 25m, with shallower parts from 14m, and the wrecks are a short swim away on the sand at 26-27m.

Sunken cars and a small fishing boat lie on the sand a short swim from a rock crusted in coral and anemones, so one dive gives two kinds of subject: a living reef full of crevices, and corroded hulls that the same animals have moved into. A car lies at 26m, with a second car and a small fishing boat reported beside it and a truck also named. Congers and octopus use the rock as a home, and the macro life sits on its upper surfaces, a few fin strokes from each other.

Ocean sunfish turn up here now and then: two near the rock in August 2005, and one waiting beside the car wreck in March 2015.

Bring a compass and a surface marker buoy, since the bearing swim is the only way to the rock. Time on the wrecks is short, so decide at the rock how long the sand gets before the dive turns back toward the buoy.