Country: Italy
Region: Tuscany
Depth: 1 -40 meters
Difficulty: Easy
Diving center: Punta Ala
Date: July 17 2021
My rating: 6/10
Here I am, reviewing my first dive ever!
I took my Open Water certification last week at the Isola d'Elba and of course I was eager to dive into the sea for the first time on my own showing off my shiny new certification.
We started from the Punta Ala Diving Center, a new diving center opened a few months ago by a group of young people who set out on their own for a new entrepreneurial adventure. As far as I can understand (hey, it's my first dive I'm talking about!) those guys know what they're doing and are doing a good job; they seem to know well all the local diving spots, all the equipment is brand new and the divemasters seem very experienced.
Luck didn't help me on my first dive; the weather was uncertain until the last moment, the destination should have been at the "Picchi di Pablo", a renowned diving spot on the Island of Elba, but in the end the weather was not suitable for the crossing and the guys at the diving shop decided to divert to Cerboli, a location less "glamorous" but more suitable and sheltered for the weather conditions of the day. During the 40-minute crossing, with a rather calm sea but under an annoying rain, I had my first welcome greeting from the sea: a small group of dolphins approached the boat for a few seconds, as if to greet me and wish me good luck for my new activity as a diver, from which I have great expectation (at least I interpreted it as a good omen...). I had never seen dolphins in the wild... 10 minutes out to the sea and I've already marked my first flag on my sightings list!
Shortly after, we landed in a small and protected bay facing south east and after the usual briefing by the guide I got ready to dive; a few seconds of hesitation for my first dive alone ("did I open the tank?" "do I have the regulator in my mouth ??" "did I inflate the BCD?"), I looked around and saw my dive buddies looking at me and smiling quite amused and three, two, one... a back flip and my field of vision was flooded with hundred of bubbles! Let's get this journey started!
A couple of words about Cerboli
Cerboli is a little rock in the Piombino channel, about 8 km away from the Island of Elba and 6.5 km away from Piombino. The island once belonged to the writer Carlo Cassola and was sold by his heirs 20 years ago. Now it's part of the National Park of the Tuscan Archipelago and it's a special protection area. The only signs of the distant passage of man, are a small disused quarry and some ruins.
Cerboli is home to octopuses, lobsters, scorpionfish, morays, yellow and red gorgonians. Going up and turning towards the blue of the open sea it is possible to meet barracudas, dentexes and other pelagic fish.
Cerboli is right in the center of Italy, the climate is fairly mild here and the average water temperature in summer ranges between 23 and 28 degrees Celsius.
My experience
On the day of the dive, the conditions were not ideal: the visibility was quite low, the water temperature was cold for the month of July (19 degrees Celsius), the rainy sky did not contribute to an ideal underwater light and a thick mucilage covered the seabed (the guys from the diving center said that in recent weeks it has been a common problem in the area); nevertheless I was enjoying my first dive, with a minimum of inevitable beginner's anxiety, but the awareness that, all in all, I had everything under my control. Did I mention that the sea seemed to give its welcome to me? Well, while I was intent on looking under the rocks in search of octopuses and moray eels, my guide was a few meters ahead waving in the vain attempt to attract my attention ... apparently, while I was lost in search of not so relevant life, a huge eagle ray was passing a few meters from me, unnoticed! My dive buddies spent the rest of the day teasing me, mimicking the flapping of an eagle's wings. Can you imagine: the first ten minutes of diving in your life, the sea offers you a magnificent and rare sight and you miss it looking for an octopus ... I will torment myself for a long time for this ...
Today I've learned my first lesson as a diver: when you're at the island of Elba, always keep an eye to the blue... you never know what you could see!
But my day wasn't over! On the second dive I had my first taste of cave diving; don't be too strict about it... it may seem imprudent for an OW diver to venture inside an underwater cave on the first dive, but the passage I am talking about is extremely easy and my divemaster invited me without hesitation to cross it: a short "siphon" of rock, at a depth of about 10 meters, leads from the bay where we anchored to the open sea on the other side of the island; as a newbie it was another thrilling experience and, indeed, free of real dangers; the passage lasted a few seconds, during which I also saw a small red scorpionfish moving along the rocky wall on my side, apparently annoyed by my passage, until it lead us to a kind of natural amphitheater that slopes down to 40 meters deep; my fellow divers, with a more experienced eye than I have, re-emerged enthrilled from the sight of numerous species that I could not notice; as far as I'm concerned, in addition to the adventurous passage through the underwater corridor, I was able to appreciate the rather majestic scenery of the seabed where among other things lies a gigantic anchor maybe 6 meters long. On this second dive the current was stronger, but nothing an OW diver can't handle.
As the hours passed, the sea had begun to swell and as soon as we left the protected bay that had hosted us for the whole day, we found waves 1,5 meter high accompanying us on our way back; the navigation, in any case, was quite pleasant; the tailwind made the dinghy glide over the waves rather than pitching and the emotions of my first day as a diver soon gave way to a strong drowsiness that left me only upon arrival in port.
My diving life has begun and I don't think I'll leave it anytime soon! Stay tuned for the review of more diving spots!
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