Gibraltar 2006
 

Photos by Sue Tuckett, Peri Stracchino and Geoff Steel. Special guest photo from Ian "David bailey" Hodgkinson .

For the full trip report and details of dives, see Chris Skelton's write-up in Bottom Times
Above: Europa Point: 12 miles from Africa

An off the beaten track dive trip organised by Sue, this trip was signed up almost as soon as it went on the board. Gibraltar is not well known as a dive destination for British divers, but we were lured by reports of prolific wrecks, good viz and hordes of marine life - enough to keep both the wreckies and the kelp huggers in the club happy. And at the end of a long grey winter, the idea of diving in warm (well, ok, warmer than the North Sea - 15 to 18 degrees) water and basking under blue skies and hot sun was irresistable. We were a bit disappointed when we arrived to find the blue skies covered by persistent cloud - a local weather phenomenon called the Levanter which sits over the Rock for days - but by midweek the cloud had gone and we sweltered in mediterranean sun.
Are we nearly there? Nope, we're still in the airport bar

Left: Chris, Cathy, Ian, Gary.

Right: Emma, Leo, Geoff, Peri, Nick
We dived for four days on various wrecks and a reef. The fish life and coral was prolific . Octopusseses, (surely thats how it is spelt) were to be seen on every dive, and although the viz was not up to expectation it was still good enough for a good view of the wrecks looming up around us. There were also eels, lobsters, and spider crabs on every dive, and the nudibranches were spectacular enough to impress even the most hard line wreckies. However as we found out, the currents were very unpredictable, and with most of the wrecks near to the busy harbour mouth these were definately not novice sites.
Some of the old wrecks. And some shipwrecks.
Chris on the Seamaster Inside the Seamaster Gary on the Rosslyn Octopus on the Seamaster
The sites we dived were: Ark/Seamaster/Bash (three close together wrecks forming an artificial reef), Batty's barge, The Rosslyn (a wreck absolutely covered in soft coral and more nudibranches than you could wave a macro lens at), the Sea Hawk (a small but upright and largely intact wreck), the Excellent (a huge wreck, excellent by name and by the quality of the dive), Europa Reef (a brilliant scenic dive) and Inner and Outer. Or rather Outer - we did not reach Inner due to the current changing direction mid dive and sweeping us across the harbour mouth. Some sorts of excitement you can do without on a dive. See Chris Skelton's report in Bottom Times for more details about the dives.
Sea life (Wreckies look away now)
Two Banded Bream Octopus (Europa Reef) Another Octopus Rockfish

Close up of Pink Coral (Rosslyn)

 Close up of White Coral (Rosslyn) Blue and Yellow Sea Slug on the Rosslyn Close up of soft coral (Inner wreck)

 

We did not dive every day, so we had plenty of time to check out the rest of the rock. A day or so on the beach was had, when Ian kindly allowed the seagulls to use his head for target practice, scoring five direct hits, and then a day looking round the Rock. The southern point of Gibraltar is only 12 miles from the African coast, and we were thrilled to be able to see the Atlas Mountains in Morocco clearly. Quote of the holiday from a club member who shall remain unnamed to protect the guilty was "Is that Africa over there to the North West?". We introduced ourselves to the Barbary Apes, who were unimpressed and peed down Nick's T-Shirt. The apes were skilled pickpockets, and we quickly learnt to keep our hands on our wallets and ice-creams. Then we took a look around St Michael's Cave - a huge cave with spectacular rock formations - and finally went for a wander round the network of tunnels inside the rock carved out during the Napoleonic Wars.

Beach days
Emma, Sue, Cathy, Peri Gary, Geoff, Emma, Cathy, Ian

Rosia Bay :Where Seagulls Dare (to target Ian's bonce)
Exploring the Rock
Knobby Tree St Michael's Cave View from the Funicular Railway Station Peri,Geoff, Cathy, Ian, Skelly, resting sore feet The easy way up
Hey Hey Hey, We're the Monkeys!
'Ape' in natural surroundings Ape massage parlour? 'Ape' with ill gotten gains after ambushing a tourist for her ice-cream Gerroff!
And People Say We Monkey Around..
Nick and the Monkey NO, you cant have your fancy bottled water back! Cathy and Ian's version of the Buddy Check
The military history of Gibraltar was everywhere, from ancient Moorish forts, to the cemetary with the graves of sailors who died of wounds received at Trafalgar, the Napoleonic War and WW2 tunnels, and gun emplacements and fortifications scattered all round the rock. Not to mention the present day battleships parked in the harbour. This could throw a spanner in the dive plans sometimes. We spent a few days with our fingers crossed hoping an American warship was going to leave, as we were not allowed to dive our most coveted wreck site (The Rosslyn) until she did.
My, those are big weapons!
 
1905 gun emplacement facing out to sea The "100 ton Gun"  
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