Once again I began a week with my favourite dive site, El Puertito. This was another chance for me to prove myself as I was given the chance to lead the dives.
Melissa usually leads these dives and if I’m honest we usually see more when she leads, but this is in no way a criticism of me as just about anyone here will tell you I’m pretty professional and not to forget perfect, or maybe they would disagree?
The first dive really couldn't of gone much better we descended and within five minutes were playing with turtles. Another brilliant experience and I truly believe it is impossible to become bored of this dive site. I mean even if you don’t see the turtles, just as we didn't on the second dive, there is always plenty to see.
As usual for the second dive I aimed for the sea anemone, alone this is beautiful, but as I've previously mentioned it is also the home to sexy shrimp. There is also trumpet fish, cuttlefish, cleaner shrimp and parrot fish on this dive, which just makes for some of the best diving around.
More dive leading! I never should have mentioned to Alice it’s something I felt I’d struggle with.
This time we went to Yellow Mountain with George, Allen, Sue and Stuart and Alison. The first dive site was Alien Rock which is one of three dive sites at Yellow Mountain. This one went well with the usual fish about, such as damsels and bream.
However, it wasn't nearly as good as the second dive. After briefing I would lead the group to Crocodile Rock I decided to unintentionally go to Swim Through, but in all honesty the dive was so much better because of this, and thus I still maintain that it was a success. After heading through the big hole in the rock (I think this might be why it’s called swim through) we ended up swimming close to crocodile rock where we saw a baby common ray, which was a first for me, and another great experience.
Shore diving to Las Eras with Julia and Frank and for once I didn't have to lead the dive so I was already happy. This dive site is quickly becoming a favourite for me, mainly because of the massive diversity of fish you can see here, if you head left out of the bay you can see an abundance of shoals of bream, barracuda and even my personal favourite sexy shrimp.
However, if you head right to the pipeline you can see the big things like morays, rays and octopus. This is exactly what we saw on our dives, the first dive was brilliant, but for me, it can’t compare to the second dive. To start with the brown moray hiding in the pipeline was stretching a fair way out of its hole to try and snap at Melissa. Then there was the two rays sleeping in gaps and not to forget the octopus in the rocks that were incredibly grumpy if you moved any of their rocks.
Last diving day of the week and I was instructed to lead a dive without any supervision, so it was my first time flying solo, just like Maverick only better looking. The first dive was to Alien Rock and it went off without a hitch and we managed to get all the way round and even see a large colony of sexy shrimp on an anemone.
The next dive was to swim through and after obviously going to crocodile rock on the way back I managed to get lost around five to ten meters from the boat. So we just swam around in a big circle, after about five minutes I was relieved to find the anchor line and finish the dive in perfect timing.
If I’m being honest and I usually am, it’s becoming fairly tough for me here. After seeing me work for five weeks everyone just expects me to be my usual perfect self, which is a big burden to carry, but I do have off days, obviously not as many as everyone else, but it does occasionally happen.
To round the week off I had a day off, and after heading to the pub to watch the formula 1, I quickly realised the pocket where my keys usually are, was feeling awfully empty. Thus I was locked out of my apartment, as the keys were actually on the table inside.
So to finish the week nicely I slept on the sofa of Kevin and Perry (new interns) and forgot to close the balcony door and am now covered in mosquito bites.
Sam (Popeye)
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