Pete, Alice and I all got geared up and headed down to Gijarro Aricefe with Hannah, where we dropped in and explored the relatively new dive site and showed her some more of the underwater world.
The Dive went well and we bumped into an Octopus along the way, as well as some beautiful Sea Slugs and plenty of the usual suspects.
After dropping
Hannah off, we went back out for a cheeky dive to Pequena Valle. This is one of
my favourite sites and I was taking some references and points that I could
recognise, so I would be ready to lead dives there and hopefully not get lost.
Alice, Zippy and I found a Portugese Bag’O War (inside joke), a bunch of Trumpet
Fish and a rather hostile Moray Eel.
As we were
heading back to the marina, we were stopped by a man on a sailing boat that had
rather clumsily managed to get a static rope trapped around his propeller (silly
man). He asked if we could help and helpful people as we are, I got kitted back
up and spent the next half an hour freeing his boat from a massive tangle of
rope.
Note to self; If
I ever buy a sailing boat, don’t let that man drive it!
Today was
strangely a day of no diving… There was plenty of cleaning to do though so it
was still a busy day. The boat got a good scrubbing in the morning, the shop was
cleaned thoroughly, the cars were treated to a mini valet and the customer kit
was all cleaned and greased up.
With everything
tidy, Zippy and I sat our PADI Divemaster final exam papers. Both of us did
really well and only got 3 questions incorrect out of 120. GO US!!!
Tidy
Friday.
Saturday was a
day off for us, but we had the option to go diving (just for fun) if we wanted
to. Zippy and I chose to go diving. Phil from Teide Divers had stumbled across a
rather interesting pipe line at Las Eras, so we went to meet him and Jackie with
Melissa, to go and check it out. It proved to be a great untouched site, with
loads of life to see including Rays, Octopus and Nudi Branch. We did a couple of
dives and then headed back to enjoy the rest of our day off.
Late on Saturday
night, a group of 11 divers and 1 non diver arrived, ready for 5 days of diving
shared between Dive and Sea and Teide Divers. They were all met and checked in
to various apartments and would be ready for diving early Sunday morning.
Sunday was the
first day of diving for the group now named ‘The Stirling Posse’. After a
welcoming brief from Pete and Melissa at the shop, I was going with 5 of them
and the Teide crew back to Las Eras for a couple of dives, including the newly
discovered pipe line. Plenty of Sea Hares, Nudi Branch, massive Scorpion Fish
and a cheeky Ray made the dives great fun and everyone seemed to enjoy. The rest
of the afternoon was relatively quiet, but it was the calm before the storm as
this big group would be providing us with a busy week.
Monday I was off
with Pete and an Instructor by the name of Felix for a PADI Advanced Open Water course with the Monroe Family. Mum, Dad and their 3 children had chosen to do the following adventure dives; PPB - Peak Performance Buoyancy, Navigation and Deep
Dive. Not long after entering the water, Mummy Monroe alerts us to the fact that
one of her fins had fell off. I was already in the water so dropped down to go
and retrieve it, but after a 30 minute search I came back empty handed. Bye bye
fin… I did spot a big Sting Ray when I was looking for the fin in question but I
wouldn’t like to strap that to my foot and try to swim with it! I gave one of
the girls my fins (how nice am I!), then joined Pete on the boat while Felix had
the family swimming through hoops.
Later that
afternoon, I was back out on the boat with Pete, Melissa and 5 of the Posse.
Zippy had forgot to include a mask in one of the kit bundles so I forfeited mine
and sat the first dive out. Zippy got a beer fine and had to walk down to the
marina with a spare! I went down on the second dive at Starfish bay which was a
nice conclusion to a long day!
The next morning
the entire group were being taken for a couple of dives at El Puertito.
Everybody except for Pete and Alice headed off for a couple of dives to try and
find the Turtles.
Find the Turtles we did and they were fantastic. Diving with such beautiful creatures is an amazing experience and everybody really enjoyed it. There was plenty of Starfish, Anenomes and Cuttle Fish to add to the list aswell. Phil and Melissa were leading these 2 dives and Jackie, Lauren Zippy and I were holding the fort at the back of the pack. There were a lot of divers in the water but it was a great day out none the less.
Find the Turtles we did and they were fantastic. Diving with such beautiful creatures is an amazing experience and everybody really enjoyed it. There was plenty of Starfish, Anenomes and Cuttle Fish to add to the list aswell. Phil and Melissa were leading these 2 dives and Jackie, Lauren Zippy and I were holding the fort at the back of the pack. There were a lot of divers in the water but it was a great day out none the less.
Later that
afternoon and well into the evening, Melissa, Zippy and I had the privilege of
washing all 18 sets of kit, which was great fun and not tiring at all, followed
by a nice, cold, pint.
Next day I was
down in the pool nice and early with a family of 4 who had come in for a DSD - Discover Scuba Diving experience. Felix was back to instruct the course and
Melissa and I were there for support. Pool skills went well and we headed off to
Abades for the Open Water dives. Shortly after descending though the daughter
had a problem with equalizing so I surfaced with her and headed back to shore.
The second dive I made it down and helped Felix show the family around.
The afternoon
was spent back out in the water with Felix and the Monroe family who were back
for the Deep Dive part of their PADI Advanced Open Water course. We dropped down
to deeper waters, they performed the tasks required and that was that.
Congratulations Monroes!
Thursday Morning
- the morning I would be leading my first dive! Pequeno Valle was the
destination, 3 of the Sterling posse were kitted up and on the boat, Zippy was
following behind and my memory of the site was being put to the test! It went
really well, I didn’t get lost and was a good confidence boost. Seeing things
from the front of a group of divers is a lot different to following others. We
were treated to a variety of critters including Octopus and a Moray Eel.
The second dive
of the morning was at Starfish bay, where there was quite a strong current. We
found a nice Round Ray on the way to the site and once we got there it was easy
to just drift round the rocks and see what we could find on the way.
In the afternoon
I got to lead even more dives. Being joined by Zippy, Karol and Monica, it was
back out to Pequeno Valle and then Alien Rock. They are diving with us a few
times and really enjoyed this afternoon, so smiling faces all round!
After another
busy, busy day, a few well deserved cold ones at the Aberdeen went down a
treat!!
Bungle / Chris
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