Location: Morcone, Island of Elba, Tuscany, Italy
Time of visit: 24 Ocotber 2021
Average Water temperature: 20 Celsius
Daily average temperature: 22 Celsius
Diving suit: wetsuit 5 mm
Diving club: Mandel (my rating 10/10)
Diving spots: Capo Stella, Fonza, Remaiolo, Jacques Mayol.
My rating: 8/10
My journey into the underwater world continues. After my first dives in full comfort zone, in summer, with the sun warming the water and souls, the time has come to raise the bar and try to dive in slightly more uncomfortable conditions. And so here I am, again on the Island of Elba, to face the autumn sea.
The choice of the Island of Elba for now continues to be quite mandatory; it is the place in Italy with renowned diving spots, reachable in a few hours from almost every position in Italy; but above all Elba is perfect for diving because regardless of the wind direction it is possible to find a place with calm sea in no more than half an hour of travel. This time the choice fell on Morcone, a small town, relatively little touristy by the standards of the Island of Elba; in Morcone there is an extraordinary diving club: Mandel; not only are they extremely trained professionals; not only do they have an excellent park of boats and rafts for diving; not only is the club headquarters located in a small bay extremely protected from the wind; what's really great is that they have a series of apartments right on the beach, allowing you to get out of the water and rush into a hot shower in seconds! Priceless.
The weather for the weekend could not have been better: the wind was always quite low; the water temperature has always stayed between 19 and 21 degrees Celsius, more than acceptable for diving with a wetsuit; and during the day a lovely sun warmed the days making us forget that November is approaching.
The almost total absence of tourists (the high season has ended two months ago) and the slight cooling of the water, have brought back the fish in quantity. And so I was finally able to see my first, big, barracuda school, an immense amberjack that hunted by throwing havoc among a herd of damselfish, a magnificent octopus that did everything in its power to show itself threatening, many morays, four splendid brown meagres... What an experience!
During the weekend we visited the diving spots of Capo Stella, Fonza, Remaiolo and Jacques Mayol (so called because it is located under the house of the famous freediving champion). In particular, Capo Stella and Fonza turned out to be the most spectacular places.
The biting wind blowing in the open sea wasn't too much of a problem; it is enough to dry quickly and cover up with a sweatshirt to enjoy the view and the navigation (a diving buddy of mine had the keen eye to see even a swordfish jumping, during the return from a dive ... wow !).
I didn't miss my first night dive either! Getting on the dinghy and leaving the land while the sun sets, painting the landscape of reds and blues, is an emotion to take your breath away, but it is nothing compared to the experience of diving for the first time into the darkness illuminated by beams of light from the torches and witness with your own eyes the phenomenon of bioluminescence, the plankton dancing in front of the eye of the torch and ... the herd of squid that appears lightning fast to feast on plankton!
Like anyone born in the 70s, Steven Spielberg's Jaws disturbed my sleep for a long time and for years, diving where I could not see the seabed, the first image that haunted my mind was the subjective view of the shark observing the swimmers' legs from below. . So, as the time for my first night dive approached, I wondered "what will it be like to dive into the dark? Will I be overwhelmed by panic?". That's not what happened.
What is it that I like so much about diving? I am undoubtedly attracted to the sea, its smell, its sounds, its life, its scenery. But perhaps the thing I like most right now is spending time down there in silence; it's no coincidence if Jacques Cousteau titled his film "the world of silence"; well... silence so to speak, because when you're down there the noise of the regulator is quite deafening... but basically it's your breath you're listening to and nothing else. Immersing yourself in the darkness crossed only by the beams of light of the torches, only amplifies that sense of peace and well-being given by floating in a liquid surrounded only by the sound of your own breath; the comparison may seem obvious, but the feeling is not too different from what life in the womb must be.
For the moment the sea always seems to have some new spectacle to offer and I'm just starting to master my movements underwater and my buoyancy, but I just can't wait to be ready for the most beautiful dives in Italy: Pianosa ... Ustica ... Lampedusa ... stay tuned...
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