Cathedral of Portinatx

Ambiance Cave Deep

Ibiza's most northerly point, Punta des Moscater, is crowned by a lighthouse with black and white spiral stripes. This helps you locate a rocky staircase some 300 metres from the shore, which drops from 25 metres below the surface to almost double that.

The skill of the skipper, who should be someone with a good knowledge of the area, enables you to anchor next to a large hole in the seabed 28 metres down. Because of possible currents, descend via the anchor chain, and you quickly reach the sea floor covered with Posidonia grass which continues to the edge of the hole. Make a dizzying 'free dive' down from this to a sandy bottom 40 metres below. The entrance is roughly 8 metres wide and 3 metres long, and like the shaft of a well, draws you into the spectacular Cathedral of Portinatx, an impressive rocky crypt hollowed out by nature.

After having a good look around, leave the crypt by heading N and locating a passage with a sandy bottom and walls covered with colonies of anemone, yellow madrepore (yellow coral), and countless colourful organisms. There are also cavities that provide shelter to huge lobsters, brown meagre, and above all rare red coral, Corallium rubrum, whose white polyps can be seen down here at a depth of 48 metres. Further along you spot a large rock over 50 metres below the surface, but given your current depth, you should simply carry on, ascending via the slopes of the rocky staircase, and without further delays, heading for the boat's anchor chain, where you observe an obligatory stop for decompression.

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