Absolutely Fab, with wrecks.

by by Frannie Aston and Andy Moll

This year after a number of false starts and people changing their minds, we finally had 12 who wanted the clear warm waters of the South of France for a week.
In the end we came from four different airports and a host of different flights to the Espadon, on Sunday 17th August. The we, being, Frannie, Chris & Robin, Ellen & Matt, Rob & Ania, Rob (Bratchell), Tim, Al (Guest), Ed and Andy, who was first on board having been in Cavalaire the week before.
Philippe Evezard, the new owner of the Espadon, met us on board. Some of us had met Philippe and Sylvie his wife, at the end of our trip last year with Charly Olivero, the previous owner. We also met Gil, the second skipper/chef and crew. Philippe is an experienced diver who knows all of the wrecks as a diver and met Gil while taking his French Masters ticket, a four-month course!!!
Those that had planned their flights with drink and food in mind, left the boat at about 19:30, for a pre meal cocktail at the Blue Anchor, followed by a very nice French meal, followed by Glace avec Alcohol, again in the Blue Anchor where we were eventually met by the rest of the party.

Monday Day 1 saw us in Cavalaire bay diving 'L'Espingole'
Details of the dive and the wreck.

Philippe and Gil are excellent chefs, we were soon to find that every meal would be a delight and very filling, (though, note for next time, make sure that Sylvie is told of any dietary needs, i.e. vegetarian or celiac). So after a large lunch and a little siesta, we were off to dive 'Le Prophete'
Details of the dive and the wreck.

Once all on board we were soon underway to the Iles d'Hyeres, a group of islands some 15 miles south east of Cavalaire. We had agreed at breakfast to spend three nights/ four days diving on the Islands with a return to Cavalaire to allow us to dive the Rubis and the Togo at the end of the week.
There was a stiff wind, giving those of us at the front of the boat a great experience of being dropped from the top of waves through a wall of warm water every five minutes or so with the bow wave regularly rushing up over our feet. Some 90 minutes later we found ourselves coming into berth in what to start with was a berth for a boat half our width but, with not a little skill and gallic charm, Philippe had us moored up for the night in the charming port of Port-Cros, on the ile de Port-Cros which is a complete national park above and BELOW the water line.
After a large meal we found ourselves yet gain in a local hostelry. After a few beers we headed back for an early night.

Tuesday Day 2 saw us on the first of 6 new dive sites of the week. Le Tantine locally known as the Barge aux Congres.
This was an excellent dive, on a very small wreck, but with masses of life, especially Congers. This was originally a barge with a crane. She now lies in 44-48 m and is renowned for the number of congers, we saw at least 20 but suspect many more are hidden underneath. Frannie spent some 5 minutes just looking at a 'family' of seven. The wreck also had a huge red scorpion fish and a number of large morays.
This was also the dive that Robin was seen kissing Andy at 50m, some say it was narcs, some say it was because Andy had just stopped Robin's free flow, by providing his AAS and turning off Robin's only cylinder effecting some minor technical adjustments to the second stage, whacking it against the cylinder, before turning supply back on. Chris just said that he always does things like that:)
Details of the dive and the wreck.

After lunch and a lazy time in the sun we were on La Gabinière, an area of L'ile de Port-Cros renown for the under water cliffs, barracuda and huge groupers. All of which we found within the first five minutes of the dive.
You can pick your depth from 6 to 60 m though there is only white sand at 60, though that did not stop Tim and Frannie clocking up two at 50 for the 50X50's. The rest of us enjoyed a stunning dive with a swirling shoal of Barracuda hand feeding and feeding hands to large groupers, Ed discovered that groupers have rows of very small but very sharp teeth, and great sucking power hand feeding Moray eels , lots of nudibranchs, shoals of fish, no octopus.(
This is a beautiful dive that you can start deep and then play the computer to always stay at 10 minutes no stop time, by ascending a few metres each time you get close to 10 minutes no stop left. Most of us did over 50 minutes underwater. Al 'Martini' Guest, lived up to his new name, by swapping dive buddies not once but twice on the dive, any buddy anywhere, anytime my first buddy needs to go up :)
The French Mediterranean is often described as devoid of life. It is a sad fact that if it can be reached by snorkellers most of the inshore life has been spear-gunned into oblivion. However in the National Park the true potential of the fish population can be seen. Stunning quantities of fish. This year's abnormal weather has had positive and negative effects, a turtle was seen on the Donator the week before we arrived and a small Manta Ray, however there has also been in increase in a choking green algae that has covered some of the gorgonian that once festooned the rocks between 30 and 35 m on La Gabinière.
The water temperature was 26°C at 6m, and 17°C from 30m down
Details of the dive.

That evening saw us steam east for a further hour to ile de Porquerolles, and Port Porquerolles. Here we experienced French organisation at its best, not. The visitors' berths are allocated on an as yet unknown basis, so we had to wait for a couple of hours before finally being allowed to come alongside an unserviced berth. However we soon had fresh water and electricity hooked up and were free to enjoy as many showers as we wanted. Not that we had not been till now.
Once berthed we were off in hunt of the mandatory ice cream to keep germs away, before getting back on board for 7:45 for a Pastis moment, before dinner at 8:00
Sleeping, in what are at best described as functional cabins, for two of the party was impossible and Robin N and Al took to sleeping on deck under the stars. Much cooler they claimed.

Wednesday Day 3 saw us up for breakfast at 7:30 and off to the Donator, but even then we had to wait for two boats to depart before we could dive and as we were coming up so another 40 from one boat were going down !!!
However we enjoyed this spectacular wreck in relative isolation. Andy, following in the suds of Rachael and Pete from last year by having a bath in the captain's bathroom, but being greedy did not allow Al to join him, 'well its not often you get a bath in France, let alone one in such a spectacular setting'
The wreck is prone to strong (French strong) currents, which are a seasonal feature, not present at all in July, but are caused by the changes in water temperature and going down the shotline we experienced the current at different strengths and in different directions!!
Details of the dive and the wreck.

Again lunch in a secluded azure blue bay under a clear blue sky, with snorkelling, sunbathing and snoozing in equal measures.
The afternoon brought us to the Le Sagona (also called Le Grec / the Greek)
We had planned two waves to dive the main section with a breakaway group to try and get to the bow section, which lies some 60m from the main body of the wreck. However the currents which were not present at the start of the dive were there by the mid point and prevented the plan, however the dive was still fabulous with Al and Frannie meeting the biggest grouper of their lives in a small cabin off one of the companion ways
Details of the dive and the wreck.


Then back to Port Porquerolles. This time we were soon along side a fully serviced berth, once again we were off in hunt of the mandatory ice cream to keep germs away, before, a nice early evening dip, then back on board and showered for 7:45 for another Pastis moment, before dinner at 8:00

Thursday Day 4 again breakfast at 7:30 before a short journey to another new location for us this the wrecks of the Ville de Grasse, and the Michel C.
This saw only 8 of us diving, as Tim had succumbed to 'The cold' along with Ania and her resident carer.
These two wrecks lie on a sloping sea bed with the Ville de Grasse at 48m and the stern of the Michel C at 39m some 60-70m NNW of the bow of the Ville de Grasse.
This was a cracking dive for those that did both, not quite so good for those that swam off in the wrong direction. The Ville de Grasse was a paddle steamer and the two large paddles are very much in evidence along with the boilers and a what we think was the furnace stack. While the outline of the steamer is still evident there is not much else to see, well there might be but we were intent on finding the Michel C. Off on the compass heading to see a large dark mass appearing at the edge of visibility only to find that it was a large rock mass with another just to the left, then in the distance again a hard straight edge that can only be wreck. We came to the bow of the Michel C with a large hatch allowing entry to the empty chain locker. The wreck is over on her starboard side with a very long swim through which Andy did with Ed following.
Then all too soon we were up on DSMB's as our time was up. Cracking dive.
Details of the dive and the wreck.

Again lunch in a secluded azure blue bay under a clear blue sky, with snorkelling, sunbathing and snoozing in equal measures, pattern emerging here :)
Then the promise of an unusual location, discarded submarine nets, that formed small mounds on the sea bed that attracted a host of conger, moray, lobsters and octopus, as well as large shoals of fish.
However we had been idly chatting during lunch about something silly to do. Well all of us had again bought with them or had purchased sarongs, so it was decided to do a dive complete with sarongs. The idea was also to get a 50 out of it so the idea was to form an L underwater for the Roman numeral for 50.
Robin was master photographer so it fell to the rest of us to ensure that he could get a shot of us forming an L in mid water, well dangling off the anchor chain in reality. In order top to bottom left to right, Al Guest, Andy Moll, Matt Roberts, Robin Bratchell, Chris Ingham, Ed Bailey, Frannie Aston. (Sadly the picture of the L did not have the Sarongs visible and just looked like a bunch of divers hanging on to each other)

After some 8 minutes dangling Robin was happy so we continued on down only to find not a net but a wall of breeze blocks at 35m. Some individual or other group had made a wall out of stacking blocks some 5 layers high by 20 across, but no large mound of a net.
Unfortunately the majority of the party made the wrong choice and swam along a chain to find a huge weight and a bit further on an even larger anchor. At the anchor we spilt into two to scout and see if we could find anything else, Robin B and Matt had by now decided to swim back in the opposite direction.
The rest followed another anchor chain back parallel with the first. By this time Bottom Time was up and no nets in site. In swimming back towards where the anchor should be we came to a huge wall of fish 50m across, that was just over one of the nets. There we met Rob and Matt. The very brief look we had revealed large conger, lobsters and morays, before we had to head back to locate the anchor, shame, maybe next year.

Then we were off leaving the islands, this time with the wind behind us, making for a much calmer crossing back to Cavalaire so we could dive the Rubis in the morning.
The Pastis had run out the previous evening so the opportunity was taken to get some presents and a fresh bottle, after the important ice cream stop. Cocktails at the Blue Anchor were also partaken of by some complete with the cocktail stick with spike the hedgehog for Chris.

Friday Day 5 we had agreed on an early start to try and get to the Rubis before the local dive boats to give us the wreck to ourselves. So after breakfast at 7:00 we were underway and the first pair dropped in to the water just before 9:00am as the Rubis is a good 90 minutes from Cavalaire.

We had by now explained to Philippe about the meaning of 'absolute bad', and we had been informed that we were to have 'safe sex' with the Rubis, i.e. no penetration, as you might have guessed. The previous evening we had had a long discussion about DiR, we had decided that we were not DiR divers but Do It Wrong DIW, some were seen to disappear through the forward hatch only to reappear some minutes later gesticulating about large congers, but not as large as the one that they had disturbed and had swum around the outside.
Frannie had two weeks earlier been on the Normandy Trip, where she had watched the whole of 'Das Boot', one evening, 'I felt like I was inside das boot' Not content with swimming through the large hatch Frannie also decoded to stick her head down another smaller hatch, only to find that it would not come out again, 'oh dear me' she was heard to say. Fortunately Ed was soon at hand and unhooked the offending hoses from around various handles.
All too soon our time was up and we were on our way up, but not before Chris accosted Ed and Robin B to tell them time to go up, only to get some very strange looks from a couple of French divers, who were just starting their dive as we were finishing ours.
Details of the dive and the wreck.

Our Plan had been to dive the Rubis twice, however we were caught by the only bad piece of weather this trip as a NW 6-7 came up that sent us scurrying to the lee of a large headland. The only option open to us was a dive on the Ramon Meumbru, or a dive again on Le Prophète. This got the vote and we had another excellent dive , followed by a wave crashing trip back to the calm and tranquillity of Cavalaire.

We were in Cavalaire in the peak holiday season and we were also there at the celebration of Liberation day, where we had a week long set of events and evening activities in addition to the normal hubbub of the holiday town. The previous evening we had had a grandstand view of a magician act, complete with ladies, swords and mountain lions, tonight we had a troupe of dancers wearing not a lot of very tight clothing. Some amongst us could not resist the temptation of a closer study of form with the captain's binoculars. Ed was most distressed to find out two days later that Gil, knew three or four of the young ladies......
So we had Pastis through the rehearsal, and then after yet another lovely meal, this time joined by Sylvie, Philippe's wife, then we were off to the Blue Anchor. Quite why we chose the most expensive bar is beyond me, but it did have Wendy for Al to drool over, his regular SoF drool and a cracking jazz quartet from the USA.

Saturday Day 6 our final day's diving. the Togo as sponsored by Sudafed, as there were now quite a few sniffles present. This was a goal for some of those that had been before as it had not been dived for the past two trips with Charly, unfortunately Matt was just too bunged up for the morning dive. This is the biggest and deepest wreck in the area. On a slight slope the tip of the superstructure is at 45 m with the front section
An excellent dive was had by all, Tim's comment:
'Rob Bratch and I did a flawless dive. There was no current and we felt totally comfortable. We popped down over the side festooned with gorgonian corals to get 50m then went through some of the open structure at the broken stern end. We then did a tour of the deck area, but not quite as far as the bow. Lots of gorgonian corals on all of the companionways and rails. Very spectacular wreck. C'etait les covilles du chien! (rough translation - dogs dangly bits)'
Frannie coined what was to be the new phrase of the week and had a much more succinct description of her dive, 'Absolute Fab'
Then after a lunch of turkey and pasta in a pesto sauce, in a secluded azure blue bay under a clear blue sky, with snorkelling, sunbathing and snoozing in equal measures, yes I know - just like the Penzance trip.
Details of the dive and the wreck.

Then we were off for our final dive Torpilleur 178 (T-178). This was a torpedo interceptor !!. We could not work out how it intercepted but it was a new wreck to all of us, Philippe included, so he joined us for a quick look round.
A deep dive as a second dive, 48 m to the sea bed and the wreck is a cigar shaped vessel some 20m long by 3-4 m wide. Its now an empty shell with little to see, and even less after Ed had swum around it !!!!
Details of the dive and the wreck.


Homeward bound
This had us in three groups - the early mob who left at 5:00am while most of us slept, the midday group who took a late breakfast together and finally Andy who took a leisurely bus ride to Toulon airport for his trip home, like any good dive marshal, first to arrive last to leave ;-)
We flew by a combination of EasyJet because of their diver friendly weight allowances and BA as they flew to Toulon. Transport was arranged by Phillipe at the other end at an additional charge and we booked direct with Sylvie.

ESPADON CROISIERES PLONGEES
62 Allée Manon des Sources
83420 La Croix Valmer
+33 (0)4 94 55 22 74
+33 (0)6 73 47 31 99

Espadon Plongee
mailto:contact@espadon-croisieres.com