First Angel Shark of the Season :-)

A great start to the week some sunshine!!!

We have just had a whole week of rain well ok I am exaggerating a little but that is how it has felt!!!
It was great to start the week on a high note.

Melissa headed off with Vic, Daniel, Claire Kevin and Lydia to Abades for two recreational dives, the sun shining down through the water makes Abades look gorgeous, well apart from for poor Kevin, whose mask was permanently flooding a testament to his recent training that he kept just clearing the mask over and over and at one point he even took the whole mask off to try and sort the problem…… now we have discovered that there is actually a hole in the mask!!!

At Abades we saw so much life, lots of different coloured Scorpion fish, some beautiful Red Backed Cleaner shrimp who came so far out of their little cave to see us on every visit!
It was such a welcome change to have such clear visibility after a week of grey skies.
Melissa enjoyed seeing new divers facial expressions when they discover something new hiding away.  

For Vic and Daniel the Visibility was amazing, as previously they have only dived in the quarries in England.
Claire a PADI Rescue diver was happy just to be back in the water and really enjoyed trying to help Dan with his buoyancy.

Pete meanwhile was off with the interns at Yellow Mountain on boat cover while Sam practiced his Leading skills, famously he managed to get lost on his way back on the second dive…. Not helpful to the interns who were trying to practice for their mapping dives!!!
Never mind plenty more time for that later.

It has been lovely to welcome back Nick and Linda regular customers of ours who have bought some members of their UK dive club out to dive with us this week, Marc, Eileen, and Tony.

Their first dives were at Las Eras and with the sun shining they all descended, almost instantly you can see shoals of fish and large Trumpet fish so close, as we explored the site in search of the small nativity scene we stumbled over a large glowing pinky blue Anemones, so gorgeous, as well as a small Black Moray hiding away.


A chance glance towards the surface had us all mesmerized by a shoal of Barracuda circling the Bream and Trumpet fish…… breakfast was clearly all that was on their minds.
On the second dive to the Pipeline there was a small round Ray with a lovely black spotted nose hiding away as well as the Brown Moray who takes such exception to being photographed.  Its such a great dive and each time you visit you are able to see new things hiding away.

Alice headed out with Louise for her Discover Scuba Diving open water dives, Louise was really excited but nervous about her first dives, and so was really happy with a very helpful Lydia and Alice by her side, new interns Moomin, Andreas, & Dennis joined Alice on these dives.

Another bright and sunny day dawned and off to Yellow Mountain, Sam practiced his dive brief and leading skills and was really happy that he not only got back to the boat with all of his group but that they had all had a great dive where they saw A Fangtooth Moray Eel, a Black Moray as well as a few small Octopus.
On the second dive to the swim through they had a great time and loved watching the Garden eels disappear from sight as you glide over them.

Lots of lovely exams this week for the interns, congratulations to Kevin and Perry for passing their Open Water Diver course!!!
They have done excellently in the few days that they have been here and so now they move onto their PADI Advanced course….. more reading!!!
Congratulations to Moomin and Angela for passing their Rescue Diver Exams.  They are all looking forward to starting their practical course with Lydia as well.

Not so great news for the EFR exams, each intern managed to fail at least one part of the exam…. More study for them before resitting.

A few quiet days for Melissa and the interns in the shop catching up with reading, watching the DVD’s and for Melissa lots of admin catch up time……  Next week Kevin and Perry will be starting their Advanced Open Water Course and Angela, Moomin and Lydia will start their PADI Rescue Diver course.

Alice, Moomin and Lydia with Linda, Nick, Mark, Eileen and Tony went off to Poco Naufragio where they had an amazing experience with a large Stingray who they all thought was around 4 meters wide, it came and hugged every one of the divers, and Tony was really happy with the video he took.

Poor Melissa out on the boat…… however best day this week to be out the sea was so calm and the skies were blue!!
Another new dive site to Nick and Linda was El Delfin where a small statue of a Dolphin sits at 40 meters, everyone loved this site where they saw they not only a Common Ray but also a  Duckbill ray, several Brown Moray Eels and Red Backed Cleaner Shrimp plus a huge Octopus.
Then they all headed off to Pequeno Valle, this was also an amazing dive with Brown / Black and Fangtooth Morays, and a fabulous Butterfly ray at the end of the dive who did not want to wake up.

Saturday dawned bright and clear and Alice headed out to Poco Naufragio due to popular demand from Tony, Eileen, Nick and Linda.  They had an amazing first dive, where they saw a Duckbill Ray, Two Large Atlantic Rays, Common Ray and the first Angel Shark of the season.
They all enjoyed it so much that Tony and Eileen chose not to do the second dive as they felt that nothing could live up to the last dive, and wanted to end their diving holiday on the best dive ever!!!
Nick and Linda had such a great time they chose to go back to the same site for the second dive, where once again they were surround by a group of Rays.  It the most amazing experience the Rays are so large yet so graceful in the water.

Melissa meanwhile gave up her day off so that new interns Kevin, Perry, Moomin and Angela and Lydia could go for some recreational dives.  Lydia completed her first dive brief which was excellent , clear concise.
Then Lydia was off to lead her very first dive.  She did really well and Melissa was really pleased with her performance so much so that due to sinus issues she even let Lydia lead the gang all by herself on the second dive!
They headed out to Abades, completing 2 dives on the reef.  Amazing dives where they saw, an Octopus, A Black Moray Eel, lovely Feathered Star Fish as well as all the usual aquatic life at Abades, Wrasse, Bream, Damsels, Parrot Fish.

A blissfully quiet day on Sunday for Pete, Melissa, Sam and Lydia who were all off .

Alice, Moomim, Kevin and Perry were at the shop.  Their day dawned bright and clear and then headed off to the pool for skill practice, learning to demonstrate a skill is completely different to being able to perform a skill!!!

Then a day cleaning and tidying the shop after yet another very busy week.