The safety protocol

The rule above all rules

The boat never enters the caves. You do — on a board, with a guide in the water beside you, and only when the sea allows it.

Every other boat on this coast drives inside. Ours waits outside with the engine ready and the skipper watching. That is not a flourish: an engine in a confined space, with swimmers and rock, is the single most avoidable danger here.

If either crew member has any doubt, at any moment, the cave entry is cancelled and the day becomes the coastline route with longer stops in sheltered water. No booking, no occasion and no amount of disappointment overrides that.

Who decides, and when

Angelo does, and his word is final — before departure or at any point during the day. The decision is made twice: the evening before, so you hear from us early, and again at the marina before we cast off.

We read the forecast, and then we read the water. When the two disagree, the water wins, and it wins in the cautious direction.

What has to be true before anyone paddles into a cave

There is a written go / no-go list, and every line has to pass. Any single failure and we take the coastline instead:

• The swell at the cave mouth is low, with no surge visibly rising and falling at the entrance.
• The wind is light and steady, with no onshore component and no gusting.
• The forecast is stable or improving. We never paddle into a worsening one, even if the water is calm right now.
• There is full daylight at the cave. Il Tramonto takes its cave entry early in the itinerary, never at dusk.
• The cave mouth is clear of other traffic. We never share a cave with an engine — we wait, or we move on.

The swell limit is deliberately conservative, because the exit becomes dangerous before the interior does. By the time it looks wrong from inside, it is already wrong.

In the water

• A buoyancy aid is worn by every person on the water, the guide included. There are no exceptions and no waivers for strong swimmers.
• Every board has a coiled leash, attached before you leave the boat.
• A guide is in the water with you: in first, out last, positioned between the group and the exposed rock.
• No more than four guests are in the water with a guide at a time. A full boat goes in rotations — never everyone at once.
• Angelo stays aboard, outside the cave, engine ready, never anchored across the mouth, eyes on the group the whole time. He is never in the water while guests are.

Inside, we move as one group behind the guide, single file through the entrance, hands off the walls, voices down. The guide goes in alone first to check the surge and the exit line before anyone follows. Ten minutes inside, at most, and the group that goes in is the group that comes out.

Who can paddle into a cave

• Eight years old and above. Younger children are very welcome aboard and watch the cave from the boat, at a safe distance.
• Able to swim fifty metres unaided — you confirm this when you book, not on the dock.
• Children between eight and fifteen are paired with their own adult on the water, one child per adult.
• Nobody who has been drinking. This is why the aperitivo is served after the cave entry and never before.

Nobody is ever pressured to paddle. Staying aboard with a cold drink while the others go in is a perfectly good way to spend that half hour, and we mean it.

What is aboard

• Buoyancy aids in every size, including children’s
• a spare board
• first-aid kit
• VHF radio on channel 16
• lifebuoy with line
• rescue throw line
• waterproof torch for the cave interiors
• thermal blanket
• drinking water
• a ladder, down for all water time

Boards are inspected weekly — fins, valves, pressure — and the first-aid kit monthly. Masks are sanitised between departures.

The briefing you will actually hear

Two minutes, before any board touches the water, on every departure — including the confident ones. Roughly this:

“Three things keep this beautiful. One — the vest stays on, the leash stays on, always. Two — in the cave we move as one group behind me, hands off the walls, voices low; the silence is the whole point. Three — if you hear one long whistle, we calmly turn around and paddle out together. If you fall in, hold your board, stay with it, raise one arm — falling in is normal and the water is warm. Kneel on the board any time you like; kneeling is not failing.”

If something goes wrong

• One long whistle means everyone turns and leaves together. Both crew count heads out loud against the manifest, every time, even with two guests aboard.
• If someone is separated from their board, the guide reaches them, or a throw line comes from the boat. The engine is in neutral whenever anyone is within ten metres.
• If a guest panics, the guide brings the group to the entrance and takes that guest out first — kneeling or towed on the board. The rotation ends there and nobody re-enters that trip.
• Beyond first aid, we call the Guardia Costiera on 1530 or VHF channel 16, then 112, giving our position from Lama Monachile or Cala Ponte.

If the sea says no

A cancelled cave entry is not a failure and we do not apologise for it as one — it is the sea deciding, and you get the time back at the swim stops instead.

If the whole departure has to be cancelled, you choose: a full refund, or another date. No penalty either way, decided by 07:30 that morning, and we write to you first.

How this stays honest

Every departure is logged in two minutes: the sea state observed, the go or no-go decision and why, and any incident — including “none”, which is most days. Both crew re-read this protocol at the start of each season and after anything that gave either of them pause.

If you want to ask about any of it before you book, write to info@elysiumseaexperience.com or on WhatsApp at +39 340 841 9052. Nobody has ever annoyed us with a safety question.