Marbella Scuba Diving Club

El Menapier is a 106m long and 15m wide steamer now wrecked 4 miles south west of Fuengirola and 2.2 miles south from Punta de Calaburra in the coastal waters of Malaga province (Spain). She was constructed 1907 in England by William Doxford & Sons Ltd and at that time known as Lady Garrington. The owner on completion was Carrington S.S.Co Ltd (Williams & Mordey, Cardiff) but through various phases she was transferred to Lloyed Real Belga (LRB) and renamed to El Menapier. El Menapier sunk 17 November 1917 after collision with S/S Iddesleigh, while on passage from Villaricos to Gibraltar with an iron ore cargo.

The depth, often poor visibility and possibility for strong currents create conditions which make El Menapier suitable only for advanced divers. The dive can be done on air but the site is also popular amongst technical divers. The mooring line is connected on the deck on stern at the depth of 37m. Visibility is often just few meters and even on a good day it is advisable to connect your reel to the mooring line as the conditions here can change rapidly. Following the deck east towards the bow we are staying above 40m. The wreck is well preserved and the hole caused by the collision can be clearly seen on the hull. On the bow the seabed goes all the way to 48m. By limiting the bottom time to about 17 minutes we avoid long decompression times as the wreck is too impressive to be fully explored in one dive anyway.

The wreck gives shelter to a variety of marine species such as meros, sargos, congrios and centollos. Its proximity is flooded with schools of Anthias, but the real stars here are the big Capitones (Dentox Gibbosus) that often circle around the divers. On ascent it is advisable to keep your eyes open and you might spot some Pez Limones.The mooring line is installed and maintained by www.mundoatlantis.com who organise the dives there throughout the year.

References:

1 - Menapier by Capitan Garfio

La Laja de Almirante, also known as Laja de las Gorgonias for the abundance of the gorgonias found there, is located one mile off the coast, in front of Torre de Calahonda.

The dive starts with a descent to the depth of 23 meters following the mooring line. At the bottom we find a large rock formation in form of a curving wall. Most of the wall is just a meter or two high, at places reaching height of 4 meters. Continuing the dive following the wall we can see how it is cluttered with holes and crevices that give protection to many marine species, such as big meros, brotolas and langostas. The wall is covered with algae, some interesting sponges and beautiful sea fans.