Conil de la Frontera, commonly referred to as Conil in short, is a small coastal town in Southern Spain. I finally managed to convince the dive centre to take me diving in Conil after many months of chasing! Conditions are hard, strong currents, similar to what we get in Los Picos (Gibraltar), and a visibility of 4-5 metres! Their diving is mostly done in Tarifa, a short drive away, where conditions are much better. I’ve already dived in Tarifa many times before, what I was interested was diving in Conil.
Three miles out from the fishing port of Conil, is a dive site called Pierda Que Revienta. Here at this Sea Mount (Bajo) lies the remains of what is believed to be from a ship from the Spanish Navy, Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. With the top of the Sea Mount lying in 7m, it is believed that escaping the nearby battle at Cape Trafalgar (a few kilometres away), she was pushed towards this sea mount during a strong levante storm. The ship was heading towards Cadiz, when all her cannons and munition etc. was ordered to be dropped off overboard here, making the ship lighter and avoiding getting caught in the seamount.
Here you can find 61 18th Century Cannons, as well as 3 300KG Anchors and one larger anchor (no idea of the weight). You can also find some cannon balls if you look closely on the seabed around the cannons. On the opposite side of the cannon site, you find a small drop off/wall with the top of the seamount at 7m and the bottom at 25m. Some nice corals can be found here.
Futher out, we find a wreck named “Marcelo”. What do we know about this wreck? Absolutely nothing! It's named after the fisherman who found this wreck; Marcelo. No one has been able to ID the wreck yet. It lies 4 miles off the coast of Conil in 25M, and is massive. A lot of coal has been found on the wreck, it is unknown whether the coal was the ships cargo or the fuel for it's steam engines. Although very much collapsed, it's large Boilers stand up proud on the seabed. The bow is also standing up, with a rather large anchor on it! The wreck is full of marine life. I saw 5 congers, spider crabs and thousands of yellow-striped sea breams all over the wreck!
Four Miles off the coast of Conil, stands large pinnacles forming a reef (similar to our Cortijo Reef in Gibraltar). Natural formations such as arches can be seen here. The whole reef is covered in Orange Cup Corals! Again strong currents here! This dive site is called “El Arco”, due to a large arch that can be found here.
