PADI Divemaster certification and time for a break

This week amazingly Melissa and Pete have had a well deserved break for 5 days, and So Alice has been in charge, while they have been relaxing, sunbathing and enjoying a few drinks, all the interns have been really busy.

They started off diving at Abades, they had 3 fantastic dives in the afternoon sunshine they were able to see Octopus, Cuttlefish, and a Black Moray as well as seeing lots of Starfish, Wrasse, Bream and Damsels.  So after the nice relaxing dives they were back at the car and then disaster struck the car key  had got wet on the dives and wouldn't work!
An hour later still not working……. Oh the joys, at least the recovery company arrived quickly and repaired the problem!

Another bright cloud free morning and off to Las Eras,  Lydia, Mahmoud, Andreas, Dennis and Alice all piled into the car heading off for some fun dives.  On the first dive despite a very strong current they had a great time and were really impressed by the over hanging rock formations.  On this dive they saw Cleaner Shrimp large shoals of Bream and groups of Trumpet fish.

On the last dive Alice managed to go on a small detour around the bay, but they did eventually head out to the pipeline after doing several circles of the bay.  On the dive to the pipeline they were able to find a large Brown Moray that was being particularly brave coming out to have his photo taken. Surrounding the pipeline were groups of Bream and Damsels and they were also able to spot some Plainhead file fish which is a nice find as we rarely see them.

Everyone was really excited to complete another Project AWARE dive this time they selected a Dive Against Debris dive at EL Puertito, and amazingly got to see the Turtles as well as bring a lot of rubbish out of the ocean.

El Puertito seems to attract a lot of rubbish, largely due to the number of sightseeing boats and large numbers of campers during the summer months, but each time we have completed clean up dive we have bought glass bottles, plastic bottles, items of clothing, fishing line and much more out of the ocean.

Next onto a new dive site, this was another shore dive site now named Sunset Bay.  It’s a nice easy entry point in calm weather.  All of the interns were really excited to be able to try a new dive site.  They really enjoyed their mornings dives, on the dives they saw Octopus, A few Moray Eels, Star fish and Feathered stars as well as the usual suspect's Ornate Wrasse, Blue Fin Damsel fish and Trumpet fish.

In the afternoon they were off to the sea to do some more snorkel practising and unfortunately unlike every other afternoon that week the clouds rolled in and it started to rain!  However they were still happy to head off and enjoyed getting wet!

All week Alice has been running competitions prizes such as a bottle of wine or for those non drinkers a bottle of coke.  Andreas won the first prize for spotting the most interesting species of Aquatic life at Abades, Mahmoud won the competition for the person who got the largest amount of debris out of the sea.  Lydia won a competition for a quiz on the PADI Instructor Manual.
So well done interns for winning prizes this week.

Saturday was a great day everyone back at the Dive Centre, it was time for Dennis to complete his final sections for his PADI Divemaster Course.  Congratulations he has passed!  And then off they went on some nice dives.  A fun morning had by all.

Then a great evening with a BBQ and drinks at Melissa and Pete's house, much to their dogs delights who got fed lots of treats!

It was even more special as Dennis got his Guitar and both him and Andreas played different songs for us all to sing along to an impromptu Karaoke session!

Melissa headed off to Las Eras on Sunday with Sergay, Dennis, Andreas, Moomin and Lydia.  They had 2 really great dives.  On the first dive they were fighting a strong current but were still able to see 2 Octopus, a small Common Ray, Cleaner Shrimp and several Cylinder Anemones.

On the second dive the current felt even stronger but again another fabulous dive where they were able to see, three Moray Eels, although they were definitely feeling less brave, Octopus hiding away in the holes and Lots of lovely Hermit Crabs taking shelter among the cracks.

We are all especially proud when a non certified diver makes it to the heady ranks of PADI Divemaster and Dennis has been a pleasure to train and what a lovely surprise nice drinks after work!