Halkidiki, Greece

Day 1

Attended a conference in Halkidiki, Greece and did a couple shore dives with Triton Scuba. This is one of the three narrow fingers that stick down below Macedonia into the Aegean Sea. Hilly arid looking land. Karla of Triton picked me up at the hotel and we went to one of their bases 20 minutes away, got my rental gear, and then went to a nearby dive site for a shore dive. Triton Scuba will take any size group. In this case it was just Karla and I. We did a late afternoon and night dive at Porto Valitsa. Suited up by her jeep and then a short walk to water. A small cove from which we could do a sheltered beach entry or if no one was there, a giant stride off a cement dock. After dive we went back to base, they have a shower and changing room (a rather nice one), we rinsed their and my gear (camera, beanie, light), and Karla drove me back to the hotel. She is very knowledgable about the local floral and fauna. A brit who got tired of commuting on the London subway, quit her job, became a dive instructor, and moved to Greece. Fun to talk to.

A sand path goes out to some reedy grass beds. Shortly later at about 20 ft, it starts to drop off, and then there is a wall that drops to about 80 some feet. If you go out further there is another wall that drops further. To either side of the cove are rocky walls which plunge down into the water.

Surface temp was 78. First dive was to 71 ft and I saw 73 degrees. First along the wall and then back up through the shallower rocks along the cliff. Second dive to 51 feet was 74 degrees. Very comfortable in a rented 5 mm and a 3 mm beanie. Karla said the Viz was unusually bad but it was 45-60 ft so it looked pretty good to me! We saw several eels, three octupus, nice fire worm, lots of different small fish, school of jacks, not much coral but lots of sponges, and a giant doris nudibranch. Strangest things were these long pieces, up to a yard long, of black line with a little bit of black at the end. They are the tongues of an invertebrate. Weird to watch them retract with the ends fluttering. Fish were generally drab colors with a couple exceptions. There is a common small fish (cardinal fish) that is a bright red/orange. There is a reddish mullet that looks alot like the Carribean goat fish, There are also a lot of small (6 inch) fish that when then turn sideways reveal a big patch of bright blue-silver on their side (Painted Comber, a member of the perch family). A number of wrasses that remind me of the slippery dick we have in NC. Also some gobbies and blennies. Saw one grouper of decent size. Coming back in from the night dive the shallows were full of scattered small long fish that were a highly refective silver. Very attractive in our lights.

Very pleasant pair of dives.

We dove air in 12 liter lowboys. These are steel tanks but shorter and fatter than our steels. The 12 liter of empty volume works out to about 84.5 cubic feet of air at the 200 bar filling pressure they use. Nice tank especially if you are short. Figuring out the weighting in kilos was different. During first dive I sensed I was going to go light so added a couple rocks. Took an extra weight on the second dive.

Day 2

Plan was to dive a different site on the second day but high winds, periods of rain, prevented the other sites since they were more open. So we returned to the same site. This time Louis, another brit joined us. A good diver. Our sheltered cove now had 4 ft swells and viz of about 3 ft. But that was better then elsewhere. We went out on the surface for about 25 yds and then dropped when the water started to clear. First dive was out and around to the right. Viz opened up to at least 90 ft. From 25 ft you could clearly see the bottom which was 90 plus. Hadn't been to the right wall before. It was steeper, deeper, and very nice. Full of color and nooks and crannies. Highlight was I spied a young octupus. When I stopped and waited he came out to check me out. After the surface interval and a sandwich we went out to the left. Saw a nice large jellyfish. Did not appear to have long stingers. Interesting shape. Picture below not the best. Also some numerous other fish and sponges etc.

Strange thing was that going both right and left there was a current heading for the cove in the top layer of water. So we swam out against the current and drifted back. One thought was that the wave/wind action was creating sort of a rip tide effect centered on the cove. Don't know for sure but was curious.

Another enjoyable day of diving.

Day 1 Pictures

There are many nooks and crannies filled with sponges and other stuff. The orange fish is a cardinal fish.