El Barco del Arroz (El Delfín wreck)

The wreck sits in shallow water on an open, unprotected stretch of the Alboran Sea coast at Torrox Costa, with the hills of the Axarquía immediately behind to the north shielding everything from WNW round through N to NE. There is no true ocean swell in this basin, only wind-sea over fetch: the exposed window is the open sea to the south and, above all, the east, where the strong Levante wind drives the longest fetch down the Alboran Sea and produces the site's biggest, most damaging waves; Poniente (W-SW) winds add a secondary sea grazing along the coast. Because it is only a few metres deep, any easterly or southerly blow reaches straight to the wreck, stirring the sand and killing visibility, which is why operators dive it only in settled, calm weather.