Isla de Messina

The boat moors near the north side of the island and you drop onto the west wall at the rim. The first part is a steady descent along the wall to roughly 20 metres — gorgonians thicken on the deeper faces, wall holes hide moray eels and lobsters, nudibranchs sit in the shaded nooks for the macro half of the dive. From the wall you traverse into the south-side channel, the canyon-like gap formed by two rocky formations where the rock gives way to sand around 30 metres. The eastern flank is the open-water half. This is the part of the dive where pelagics appear: barracuda schools in the blue, amberjack hunting along the edge, occasionally bonito or a passing tuna. The return is a slow ascent along the wall back to the boat. The route looks linear on paper; the current can flip it part way through, so the captain's read on the morning matters as much as any plan in the briefing.

Local diver consensus nominates Illa Messina alongside Massa d'Or as one of Cap de Creus's most beautiful dives — community endorsement, not centre marketing. The site sits in the area's signature current-exposed trio with Massa d'Or and El Gat, and it carries the cluster's identity in a more approachable form: a defined south-side canyon between two rocky formations, walls of red gorgonian on either flank, and the open-water east face where pelagics meet the rock. It is the island variant of the Cap de Creus open-water idea — Massa d'Or is the deeper submerged pinnacle, El Gat the Cap Norfeu wall, and Illa Messina the island with a canyon you actually swim through. Veteran area divers tend to schedule it across multiple seasons; the day you get is rarely the same dive twice.

Current is the planning variable — not depth. It can be light or it can be strong, and the direction can reverse during the dive. Carry an SMB and stay close to the wall on the entry, then close to the guide through the canyon. Expect a sharp thermocline around 15 metres in summer: surface water at 21-25C drops to 14-18C below it, so a semi-dry suit pays off if you intend to spend time on the wall. Tramontana wind shuts the site for days at a stretch — particularly outside high summer — so build a flexible itinerary if Illa Messina is on your wishlist. Cadaqués-based centres offer the shortest boat transit; Roses-side operators include the site in the Cadaqués-zone rotation when conditions allow. Booking by name matters: ask for Illa Messina, not just "Messina", to avoid landing on the Reggio Messina wreck.