Túneles de Port Salvi

Drop down the line off Punta de Garbí to about 18 metres and the 2-metre sand corridor opens toward the first cave mouth. Above two of the cave entries, a compass-rose sculpture sits on the seabed; locals use it to confirm position before committing to a tunnel run. Cova del Dofí is the main gallery. An iron dolphin stands at the entrance. Inside, the ceiling drops to roughly 1.5 metres at the low points and rises to about 3 metres elsewhere, with daylight visible at the exit on most days, so divers traverse without artificial light. The ceilings are covered in delicate sessile life: any careless fin kick or trapped exhalation bubble damages a swathe of substrate, which is why the centre briefings call out buoyancy and bubble management as critical. Between the cave mouths the route opens into pre-coralligenous rock at 26-29 metres. Scorpionfish wedge into cracks. Lobsters back into wall holes. The terrain between entries is wide enough that the cave-to-cave transit becomes a depth-management problem before the next entry shows up. Túnel III is the shortest cave but holds a 3-metre internal drop that needs a controlled ascent. The dive ends back at the line for boat divers, or via the rope-assisted exit at Eden Rock for shore divers.

This is the only complex on the Costa Brava with multiple connected overhead environments at recreational depths reachable from a single entry. Most cave dives in the region are deeper, boat-only, or properly technical. Here the combination of tunnel transit, two underwater sculptures, and a shore-or-boat option in one moderate dive is unusual. The dolphin statue is a recognisable artefact among Catalan divers regardless of how recently they last visited; one 2014 forum reply on a photo set noted simply that it had been a while since they had seen photos of that dolphin. Port Salví has the status of a local rite. Forum threads from 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2014 all describe the same dolphin, the same compass rose, the same crustacean-laden ceilings. The shore-access drama is part of the lore: divers grumble about the parking and the rope exit and then say the dive is worth it. That cycle is what regulars are signing up for.

Two named installations define the underwater identity of the site. The iron dolphin sits at the mouth of Cova del Dofí. The compass rose rests on the seabed above two of the caves. Sources do not give a precise placement date or sculptor for either; both are simply present in trip reports going back to 2006, when forum users described the cave system as already established and visited routinely. Cova del Carretó takes its name from a cart that sat at the entrance for many years, referenced as a historical detail rather than a current feature. Earlier site names track the use of Hotel Eden Roc as the shore-entry landmark, with Catalan-language usage centring on Coves de Sant Feliu and Cova del Dofí. No wreck or shipwreck connection appears in any source, despite the sculptures.

Park early to claim a spot near the beach. In peak season the hotel restricts car access, so the alternative is the roundabout further out and a walk down with full kit. Entry uses a frog-jump technique; exit is rope-assisted and harder in swell. A torch helps in Túnel III's 3-metre drop and on any low-visibility day. Plan exposure suit for the in-tunnel temperature near 17C, not the warmer surface reading. Cave-to-cave transit happens at 26-29 metres, so nitrox is standard and gas planning matters more than usual. From Túnel III, the surface return runs longer than at the other two caves; carry compass and SMB and watch for a north current on the swim back, especially at night. Three centres run the dive: Piscis Diving, SubLimits and Varadero Dive operate boat trips around fifteen minutes from the marina, with Varadero closest to the shore-entry beach.