Banjole (caves)

The Banjole caves lie on a small isolated island a nautical mile southwest of Rovinj, ringed by open water on its seaward side. The long-fetch exposure window runs from south through southwest to west, out across the open upper Adriatic where the deep water falls away and fetch is longest, so the S, SSW, SW, WSW and W sectors carry near-full weight. The Istrian mainland and Rovinj old town lie to the east and northeast, blocking the E-ENE-NE arc. The SE and SSE are not open water: the island's own rock body sits immediately southeast of the dive-in point and the Crveni otok / Sveti Andrija island group lies about 2 km to the SSE, so even though a Jugo (Scirocco) drives waves up the Adriatic's SE-NW axis, they are partly intercepted before reaching the caves and the biggest sea actually arrives on southerly and southwesterly weather. A Bura (Bora) from the NE blows offshore and has little effect. The dive is shallow and tucked against the rock so it stays diveable in most conditions, but a sustained southerly builds surface swell that shuts down the boat trip.