Still on holiday in Corsica, just a couple quick updates and reference for non-continental folks that might be researching an upcoming trip.
Ajaccio:
The largest city and airport on the island. Booked a day of diving with
E Ragnole as recommended by
@Florence C. Great operation, the entire staff was extremely hospitable and accommodated my non-existent French/Corsican and help sort out my weighting with their 12L steel tanks and exposure suits. Two boat dives a day, the first departing at 9am and the second at 2pm. The club is on the beach and you take a short surface swim in your gear to the boat.
First site in the morning was Guardiola. Visibility 5 meters due to some recent rains, water was 23 deg C at the surface decreasing to 15 deg C at 32 meters depth with very noticeable thermoclines. A 7mm wetsuit would have been more appropriate than my 3mm shortie worn over buoyant neutral thermals. The first part of the dive the DM was mostly catering to a newer diver, who surfaced twice before calling the dive and heading back to the boat. The DM then took the newer diver's cylinder and took me on a deeper dive, and I did buddy breathing from the DM's pony to complete the dive. Overall not a whole lot to see, lots of sea grass and some sea fans past 25 meters. The DM knew where to find a female octopus guarding eggs and some tiny nudibranchs, I got handed an urchin to play with and I didn't have the heart to tell the DM we have thousands of them in California.
Second dive in the afternoon was Sette Nave, across the bay from Ajaccio. Water was a little clearer here about 7-8 meters visibility. There was more fish than in the morning. DM had us go into a couple air-filled chambers in the rocks and go down and up through some crevices which was touristy but good practice to try not to stir up silt.
Bonafacio:
A small harbor town on the south coast of the island. Booked two days of diving with
Bonafacio Plongee. Surprisingly there aren't many dive ops on the southern tip of the island. Fortunately the staff here was also really great and communicated updates leading up to the days I was scheduled to dive. The staff take your BC, regs, and tank to the boat, and you walk from the shop to the harbor with the rest of your gear to hop onto their RIBs. I wised up and rented a 7mm wetsuit.
All 4 dives over 2 days were at the Lavezzi Islands nature reserve. Much better visibility than Ajaccio at roughly 10 meters. First dive of the morning is deeper about 25 to 35 meters, followed by 45-minute SI and shallower dive. There are some gorgeous sea fan gorgonians and sponges at 30 meters, as well as some large groupers.
The DM relocates to Egypt in the winter to host dives in the Red Sea - very tempting!
I will have at least one more day of diving in Porto Vecchio on this trip.
