Costa Brava · Spain · Reef
El Tubet
Low granite at 30 m, half a mile off Sa Palomera
Area photo: Xavigivax · CC BY-SA 3.0
El Tubet lies half a mile offshore from Sa Palomera at Blanes, at 30 metres, where the town's rainwater outfall pipe meets two areas of low granite rock. It is low rock rather than a pinnacle or a wall, and the interest is in the corners of it, where lobsters, morays, large congers and nudibranchs hide.
Where it is and how deep
41.6634° N, 2.7967° EPublished position for this site.
The dive
The site is where the Blanes rainwater outfall pipe meets two areas of low granite rock, half a mile out from Sa Palomera and 30 metres down. Low is the operative word: this is not a pinnacle or a wall but flat ground with structure in it, so the dive is a search rather than a tour, and a light earns its place at this depth even in the middle of the day.
What the rock holds is in its corners. Lobsters back into the deeper holes, morays and large congers use the cracks, and nudibranchs are out on the faces for anyone prepared to hover and look. The two rock areas are the whole dive, so the guide's job is to keep the group between them rather than to cover distance.
Being 30 metres deep and half a mile offshore, it is a dive to plan as an offshore one: a fixed depth from the moment you land on the rock, a gas-limited bottom time and an ascent on the line rather than up a slope. Little is published about the site beyond the catalogue entry, so agree the route and the profile with the boat before you go in rather than expecting to work it out underwater.
Marine life and season
- Nudibranchs
- Macro critters
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fair | Fair | Fair | Fair | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Fair | Fair |
Season follows Costa Brava: Water holds above 20 °C from June to October and tops out around 25–26 °C in August; winter dives run at 12–14 °C.
Know before you go
- The site sits at the mouth of the Blanes rainwater outfall pipe, so save it for settled weather rather than the days after heavy rain, when the pipe is running.
Sources
- El Tubet - Scubago — Scubago
More dive sites in Costa Brava
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Granite blocks from the surface to 22 m
Pinnacle
Underwater mountain five minutes out of Blanes port
Three granite arches on a 12 m shore route
Sixteenth-century cannons on a 3 to 17 m shore dive
Reef
23 m at the top, 35 m at the bottom, deep ticket required
Anchor line into the canyon between two rocks
Two route options from a 19 m anchorage down to 24 m
Reef
Rock steps from an 18 m anchorage down to 25 m
Similar dives elsewhere
Old fishing nets turned into a reef, with congers and groupers underneath
A reef from 1.5 to 30 m with a wreck at 40 m beyond, dived day and night
Canyons and a swim-through that fill with nudibranchs late in the season
The sheltered fallback dive when the Tramontane blows