{"id":616,"date":"2017-04-23T13:51:44","date_gmt":"2017-04-23T12:51:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.josephcaruana.co.uk\/diving\/?p=616"},"modified":"2017-04-23T20:58:54","modified_gmt":"2017-04-23T19:58:54","slug":"tech-dive-at-the-inland-sea-tunnel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.josephcaruana.co.uk\/diving\/2017\/04\/23\/tech-dive-at-the-inland-sea-tunnel\/","title":{"rendered":"Tech dive at the Inland Sea Tunnel"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Inland Sea tunnel at Dwejra in Gozo happens to be one of my top favourite dive sites in Gozo, so I am always\u00a0happy to return to\u00a0it for a peaceful hour beneath the waves. \u00a0Moreover, venturing deeper\u00a0in these waters one encounters a feature that I had not yet visited, namely a nice swim-through at around 50m.\u00a0Therefore, Brian suggested that we plan a dive around this, to which I happily agreed.<\/p>\n

The setup we used was the same as on our last few\u00a0dives: 12L air-filled doubles for our bottom-time and 51% Nitrox for our decompression.<\/p>\n

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Making our way out\u00a0through the tunnel of the Inland Sea.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Once we were out, we kept descending and making our way to the swim-through.<\/p>\n

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Proceeding to the swim-through.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After a few more metres, we arrived at the destination.<\/p>\n

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Finning through the swim-through at 50m depth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Upon making our way out from the swim-through, we proceeded to ascend to shallower levels to start our off-gassing.<\/p>\n

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Inspecting the nooks and crannies of one of the tunnel’s walls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On our way back we encountered a fair amount of marine life, including some fervent activity by painted combers (Serranus scriba<\/em>) that were darting around an octopus. \u00a0The reason for this was simple:\u00a0painted comber tend to aggregate near\u00a0an octopus nest as they wait for any left-over shellfish that an octopus might be feeding on. \u00a0Indeed, upon our approach, the octopus swiftly retired to its well-hidden home deep inside the rocky wall.<\/p>\n

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Spot the octopus<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Throughout our\u00a0pleasant swim back through the tunnel, we slowly ascended to shallower levels until it was safe to switch to our deco gas at 21m.\u00a0 We finally arrived at the entrance to the tunnel where we finished our last decompression stop and then made our way back into the Inland Sea.<\/p>\n

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Hovering during the last decompression stop at 3m.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A screenshot of the dive profile is found below.<\/p>\n

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The Dive Profile<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was a very pleasant and calming dive, and I had the opportunity to further test the GRALmarine light which I tried for the first time the previous day. \u00a0I can’t wait for the next dive already!<\/p>\n