- window
- With ten metres of water 310 m from the shore, the band where you meet the local orders is all of it right here. At Torre Sant'Andrea as anywhere else, the hours of the session are the hours of the sun. Whoever goes out in order is also defending the place for whoever comes next. The afternoon wind often closes the day before the light does.
- tide
- The current you will find towards the east will nearly always be wind-driven and not tidal. In a hard Levante the level rises more than any spring tide manages. If the current is faster than your easy pace, it is already too much. The ten-metre line, 310 m offshore, does not move with the level: it moves with the swell.
- shelter
- Under a cliff the offshore wind passes over your head and the water stays smooth, but the long swell arrives all the same. Look at the opening to the east before you look at the wind: in Levante the sea builds in a few hours, in Ponente it comes down just as fast. A metre of long swell from the east is worth more than two metres of short chop raised inshore. With wind from the east building, the window shuts fast: plan the way back with margin.
- conditions
- At Torre Sant'Andrea the clarity is built on the days without swell, not on the hours without wind. The slope is regular: ten metres about 310 m out, twenty at 500 m. In Levante the suspension stays inshore; in Ponente it is gone in half a day. Ground you cannot read is ground you leave alone.
- hazard
- Rock coming down from above is a real risk under a cliff, especially after rain. The marker has to follow you even when you are working 310 m from the shore: 50 m from the vertical below it is the legal maximum. Keep in mind the 30 m that separate you from the coast when you decide on the last descent. At Torre Sant'Andrea the real risk is not the depth: it is the combination of tiredness and swell.
- access
- Under a cliff the access is the real problem: you go down where there is a gully, not wherever you like. The distance from the shore, 30 m, is minimal: the limit is set by the sea and not by the route. Count the 270 m that separate you from the five-metre contour: they are the measure of the way back. With Levante strengthening the exit is brought forward, not discussed.
Low limestone reef; sea bream, mullet, easy entry, exposed to the E.
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