Wrecks on Bermudas
Note: go with the cursor onto the name of the wreck - click when it changes to the hand. Information about the wreck will be displayed.
BERMUDAS and DIVING
Diving on Bermudas is really very varied - tunnels, caves, reefs, but first of all an enormous amount of wrecks.
All the tourist guides talk about more than 250 wrecks all around the island. There is now even more of them after the last year's hurricane Fabian. But there is 53 of them which are the most known and most visited. Between the most important are definitely CONSTELLATION and MONTANA - Constellation especially because of the ampoules with morphine. These 2 wrecks are not far from each other and can be covered by 1 dive.
You can find so called Certification program here - after the trip to the wreck you get certificate depending on the wreck visited.
If you have any special request the diving centers will try their best to fulfill it, in the case that the weather conditions are good. There are 3 of them on the island - Blue Water Divers, Dive In and Fantasia. BWD is the best one in my opinion - they are the only 5 Star PADI Resort on the island, owning 3 boats, running the branch office on the beach and having the staff ready to fulfill your dreams. From their branch on the Elbow beach you can do a beautiful dive to the wreck Pollockshield or nice dive to the reef using DPV.
Just for example - one of their advantages is also that they can store your equipment till the next dive for free (what is definitely not normal here) so you don't have to carry it to the hotel and back with you.
Approximate prices:
Single-tank dive 60 $
2 Single-tank dives 85 $
*Introductory dive with instructor (no certification needed) 99 $
*Guided dive 85 $
*Snorkeling trip 40 $
Rental:
regulator / wetsuit / mask / snorkel / BCD … 10 $
(you pay “each piece” by 10 $)
* = equipment included
Keep smiling and don't forget Bubbles :o)
Ondřej Hindl
Bermudas
Wrecks of the North Adriatic Sea
Environment of the Italian coast of the North Adriatic sea from the point of view of a diver.
One of the main characteristics of the Venetian gulf comparing to the other parts of the Italian coast is, that the bottom goes down so slow, that not before 20 miles away it reaches its maximum depth around 30 meters. This effect changes of course the visibility as well - generally we could summarize the data into the following table:
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The conditions of the dives here remind more different and much deeper locations on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The light diminishing very fast, low temperatures at the bottom, not higher than 16 - 19°C and the regular occurrence of the thermoclines - all these factors pose higher requirements on the divers. Other problems can be caused by the strong currents occurring always in this area. The fast currents (sometimes 2 - 3 knots) are able to snatch the diver away by 200 m in just 5 minutes if he/she is not ascending by the anchoring line or other fixed line. For this reason having the buoy is recommended. Because of the limited visibility also good compass and knowledge of the orientation details are very useful.
However the situation is each dive different - it is not abnormal to make 2 dives on one wreck during one week, the first time with the visibility over 10m and the second time with less than 3m just because of the changed currents. Comparing with other seas, sea in the Venetian gulf can be much better compared to the Baltic sea than to the neighboring Adriatic sea with its pellucid water, but these waters definitely exceed the both considering the rich underwater life here.
In general, two kinds of dives are organized here:
The first kind with the biological and natural aim, done on the locations called secca (sandbank) or tegnua (Greek root of the word). These are either rock formations composed by 0,5 - 1,5 m blocks, around 2 - 15 miles from the shore, or volcanic rocks in regular circular shape. These mount 0,5 - 3 m up from the bottom covered by dead or alive shells of the crustaceans, on the area of couple of meters up to 300 square meters. But definitely Tegnue represent something like the oases in the sea of sand and according to that the life is rich there as well.
The second kind of the dives is oriented on relatively high quantity of the wrecks in the Venetian gulf. The gulf has been always an important traffic artery known even from the antique ages. It is estimated that couple of hundreds of boats of all kind have sunk here over the centuries. From the antique wrecks all of the known have been either declared as the protected area or area with the prohibited entry, or protective nets has been put over them or they had been recovered. Both wars have even extended the quantity of the wrecks in the area, especially the 1st WW with its battlefront located on nearby Piava. What should be also considered are the very often changing meteorologic conditions and thick fog, which has "enriched" the gulf by other 2 big wrecks, the most interesting from the beginning of 90ties.
As a conclusion we should say, that definitely there is a lot to watch thus the reason to dive in the Gulf of Venice.
