Dolphins and more Dolphins

Time still flies by, where have all those weeks gone?!

On Monday the next new intern arrived; Carl, a PADI Master Scuba Diver from England. 

The morning began with a skill session in the pool, which for me, was quite a while ago. Melissa, Chris, George, Carl, Pete and I got into the pool to see where our skills were up to. 

For Melissa, it had already been more than a year since her last skill session, for Chris and George this was all still new and for Carl it was also difficult, because he learned his skills a different way at another dive center and with another instructor. 

The session went very well, and after a welcome cup of tea, everyone except Pete and Carl, who had an induction morning, went to Abades, where Chris and George were doing to do two dives. 

I unfortunately had to skip these dives because my arms and legs were completely covered with a horrible rash, and I was afraid to make it worse. Whether this is due to an allergic reaction to my last week's antibiotics, something I ate or the cleaner for wetsuits (as it is only my arms and legs) I don't know, but hopefully it will get better soon. Melissa and I enjoyed some biscuits and hot chocolate on the terrace, while studying our Encyclopedia of Recreational Diving. 

Meanwhile, Chris and George had to really lovely dives and claim to have seen an Angel Shark and Stingray. However, as we all know: "No Picky No Believy".

The next day we left with the whole group for two dives, again with the exception of Pete, who stayed behind in the shop. We had heard of a beautiful dive site, El Poris, but didn't exactly know where that was. 

After a long drive we found the little village 'El Poris', where we discovered that it would be a long walk on the beach before reaching the water. It was a small bay that looked very shallow, which meant that had to do a long surface swim to actually get to the dive site. So we decided that is would be better to go to an other dive site to have more valuable dive time. 

We went back to Abades, where Chris and George had seen a lot of beautiful things during their dives on the previous day. For me this was only the second time to this dive site. The last time was with Rachel and Helen. Although it was a cold, cloudy day, it was a lot warmer than last time so we got in the water to explore this beautiful dive site. 

The first dive was to the right side of the bay, where we followed the rocks on our right hand side. I had never been to this side of the dive site and was pleasantly surprised by the abundance of the aquatic life. We saw a pink colored Octopus, a Black Sea Hare, a lot of common Sea Hare's, numerous Nudibranch, Annulated Brittle Stars, Blue Starfish, Lightfoot Crabs and much more. After 40 minutes we had seen so much despite the fact that we had only swam out about 30 meters. 

For the second dive, we decided to go to the left side of Abades, where we soon found ourselves surrounded by Jellyfish. Melissa, who led the dive and wasn't wearing gloves or a hood, decided it was best to get out of the water as quickly as possible, to avoid anyone to get stung. We had only been underwater for 12 minutes, so this 'dip' was actually not a dive, as it was shorter than 20 minutes, so we could not log this dive in our logbooks.

Wednesday I got the chance to conduct another PADI Discover Scuba Diving experience for Rebecca and a PADI Scuba Tune-up for her boyfriend Andy. Both sessions went well. Immediately after we were done in the pool, it was time for the real thing, the dives itself! These dives were, as we usually do for new divers with us, to Yellow Mountain. The first dive went fine, although the sky was filled with increasingly darker clouds and Rebecca didn't feel well and decided not to do the second dive. 

During the dive, towards the end, I took a photo of the group divers underwater, and the flash suddenly went off even though I had turned it off. I looked up to the surface, and it became clear that it was a thunderstorm, even though the sun had been shining when we left. The flash appeared to have been lightning, and during our trip back to the Marina, rain and hail was pouring down on us. Chris, who had stayed on the boat during the dives (as there always must be someone present on the boat) had not taken his wetsuit with him on the boat. We found Chris laying down on the floor in fetal position wearing only his shorts. 

We think next time he'll probably remember to take everything with him, as Pete always says: 'All the kit, all the time'...

Thursday we got into the water again, this time with Alvaro, a PADI Open Water Diver and Livio, a PADI Advanced Open Water Diver with over 300 dives experience. Livio dived in a drysuit, something Chris, George and I have not seen before. The difference between a wetsuit and a drysuit was not as big as I had imagined, and the difference in exposure protection seemed to be only slight, as Livio still felt cold. The dives itself went fine, Chris led the first dive, to Alien Rock, where we spotted a huge Brown Moray Eel, a Snake Cucumber and Red Reef Lobster. That was the first lobster I have encountered here in Tenerife. The second dive was to Swim Through followed by Crocodile Rock, where we saw a Sea Hare and Nudibranch, plus all the fish that we literally see on every single dive, like the Parrotfish, Ornate Wrasse, Trumpet Fish, Blue-fin Damselfish, Atlantic Damselfish, Arrow Crabs and many more.

Friday morning we practised our pool skills again in the pool, and Chris and George are doing very well, their skills are really improving, keep it up guys! The rest of the day we did some work in the shop, as well as some more studying.

Saturday Sophie and Marie were back, to finish their PADI Advanced Open Water course. Philipe and Livio also accompanied us on this dive and Melissa stayed on the boat. The first dive was the PADI Deep Dive, Adventure dive, to Poco Naufragio. Since Philipe was a PADI Open Water Diver, and thus limited to 18 meters, we split the group in half and I stayed with Philipe and Livio above 18 meters. 

We spotted a large Octopus and a Common Eagle Ray. Halfway through the dive we were joined by the rest of the group; Sophie, Marie, George and Pete. After a quick change of tanks on the boat, we were off for the second dive, the PADI Drift Dive, Adventure dive. 

During our trip to the dive site, we suddenly saw a group of dolphins in the distance! Pete did not have to think twice and immediately decided to turn the boat to have a closer look.

It was a group of hunting Dolphins, that had 2 or 3 babies with them. For about 15 minutes, our boat was surrounded by Dolphins and we were able to see them up close in the wild.

After this pleasant surprise it was time for our dive to Nelson's Point. It was a beautiful dive, and very different than what I'm used to, since we were at a depth of 15 meters, swimming mid water in water of about 50 meters deep. Pete had his SMB (Surface Marker Buoy) up throughout the dive, and at the end of the dive I also let my SMB up and we were picked up by the boat.

That evening we celebrated George's 19th birthday at Big Al's, where George, whose nickname is Zippy, got a Zippy cake with a rainbow on it that Melissa got him. Later that evening we went back to the karaoke bar where we had a really nice evening.

Sunday was my day off, and I also got Monday off to visit Teide Divers in Puerto de la Cruz. Sunday morning it was very early in the morning when it was time to go to the North of Tenerife together with Jackie. I spend the majority of the day in Loro Parque. It was very special to see the park again. It has been exactly 2 years since I've done my 4 week internship there.

I had a beautiful day and tomorrow I am going to do two dives with Teide divers Jackie and Phil!

Keep reading, more next week!

Love, Alice