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San Paolo Rift
 Ustica, Italy
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Max Depth: 81-90ft/25-27m
Entry Type: Boat
Bottom Composition: Sand/Rock
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Summer: 76-80°F/24-27°C
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This dive takes place along a sheer wall that plunges to a depth of 60 m. Following the wall from the point towards the bay will take divers through shoals of saddled seabream and saupes while groupers and moray eels poke out of their holes to see who is going by. Close-ups of amberjacks are more frequent here during the autumn.
Halfway along there is a deep crack in the rock (“spaccazza” in Sicilian dialect means “crack”, which is where the name of the dive came from) which threads its way some 40 metres under the island and reaches a depth of 24 metres. The ‘crack’ is visited in small groups, always in single file, being careful not to bump into the colourful sponge covered walls. The play of light that filters through from the surface makes this part of the dive particularly enchanting.
Divers follow the wonderfully colourful wall, which becomes less ripped, until within the bay where various varieties of seaslugs, ciprinids and quite often even a good sized octopus.
The safety stop regularly turns into a competition to see who is the first to catch sight of a perfectly mimitised pipe fish in the sea grass.