{"id":2387,"date":"2012-07-19T02:40:57","date_gmt":"2012-07-19T09:40:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/?p=2387"},"modified":"2013-12-10T19:11:59","modified_gmt":"2013-12-11T02:11:59","slug":"scuba-diving-albania-porto-palermo-bay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/?p=2387","title":{"rendered":"SCUBA Diving Albania: Porto Palermo Bay"},"content":{"rendered":"

July 13, 2012*<\/strong><\/p>\n

After a two hour surface interval to off gas, we found the kids with the peddle boat to drop us off on the other side of the bay.<\/p>\n

The boat had sprung a leak and was taken out of the water.<\/p>\n

Idit talked the owner of the bar on the beach, and hired their fishing boat to take us for 500 LEK.<\/p>\n

The boat we hired for our second dive.<\/p>\n

This was the boat with the rock as an anchor.<\/p>\n

Again, we were to swim back to shore; the boat was only transportation there.<\/p>\n

The boat took us to the spot, I inflated by BCD, threw the gear over board, grabbed my fins and fell into the water.<\/p>\n

I put my fins on and dawned by BCD jacket.<\/p>\n

I swam over to Idit and tried to take a compass reading of where shore was.<\/p>\n

“Where the fuck is my compass?”<\/p>\n

“Where did you lose it?” Idit asked.<\/p>\n

“It’s got to be in the water, I must have dropped it putting on my BCD.”<\/p>\n

We surface swam in 20 feet of water, looking for my compass, and thanks to the clear blue water, I found it within three minutes of looking.<\/p>\n

If this was a typical Southern California dive, my compass would have been sacrificed to the sea gods.<\/p>\n

We descended.<\/p>\n

Logged SCUBA Dive #418<\/p>\n

Dove with Idit<\/p>\n

Porto Palermo Bay
\nHimara, Albania<\/p>\n

Air Source: Private fisherman’s compressor in Saranda
\nIn With: 2800 psi
\nOut With: 200 psi
\nMax depth: 99 feet
\nWaves: Flat
\nVisibility: Up to 50 feet
\nWater Temperature: 73 degrees
\nAir Temperature: 96 degrees
\nTotal Bottom Time: 40 minutes or so<\/p>\n

Some kind of sea shell.<\/p>\n

Some kind of sea shell.<\/p>\n

Another ancient wine vessel.<\/p>\n

What’s left of another ancient wine vessel – I picked it up to see if I could find “Made in China” on it; nope, it is probably really old.<\/p>\n

I left it where I found it.<\/p>\n

Idit was getting bored of me taking pictures.<\/p>\n

Idit was getting bored of me taking pictures.<\/p>\n

Again, we got really deep, really quickly.<\/p>\n

This dive was mostly over a grass reef, better documented in the video footage I took.<\/p>\n

At slightly under a half tank, we swam back, under the Port Palermo Pier to an easy exit at the bar.<\/p>\n

Hamburger and steak wander all over Albania.<\/p>\n

Hamburger and steak wander all over Albania.<\/p>\n

On the way to our next diving spot, we stopped by the old Communist Submarine Base.<\/p>\n

The Secret Communist Submarine Base.<\/p>\n

Let me see if I can remember the story accurately.<\/p>\n

During the 1960’s Albania had purchased some submarines from the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n

When Enver Hoxha broke ties with the Soviets, for not being communist enough, he started to cuddle up with China’s Mao.<\/p>\n

Fearing an invasion, he started this tunnel to shelter his submarines.<\/p>\n

Apparently, it was all dug by hand over a course of 30 years and never completely finished; many people died in the construction.<\/p>\n


\n*Due to time constraints, lack of reliable internet access outside of Tirana, power outages in Tirana and the strength of Albanian beer, posting of this article has been delayed.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

July 13, 2012* After a two hour surface interval to off gas, we found the kids with the peddle boat to drop us off on the other side of the bay. The boat had sprung a leak and was taken out of the water. Idit talked the owner of the bar on the beach, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,14,34,9,3,31],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2387"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2387"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2924,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2387\/revisions\/2924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychosolodiver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}