Derek’s Dive Domain

My god, its finally arrived, and I am finally in Tenerife.  My brain is screaming at me, as I am driven along the TF1 motorway from Abades down to Torviscas, to head to Michael’s dive centre.  This trip has been 6 months in development, as regular YD’ers will know from being completely tired of the thread!

I had arrived in Tenerife the previous evening, having flown from Birmingham to Tenerife South, and being picked up by Michael and taken to our accommodation.  Various people had flown in from all over the country, and we were now all together in the dive bus for the first time, heading towards our first dives - my first every warm water dives.

We stopped off at the dive centre, and sorted out kit and tanks etc, and then it was time to suit up and get into the bus to be taken to the first dive site at Mar Azul (the old Tuna Factory)

We arrived at the site, down the bumpy old road, and had the dive site to ourselves, apart from some local fishermen and campers.  Kitted up and dropped in off the top of the steps on the pier, and after checking everyone was OK, dropped down to the bottom.  I was buddying with Gareth (Spacehopper) as I would be for most of the week, and we headed off following Michael.  Although this was technically a checkout dive, we went down to 29 metres, and had a total dive time of 44 minutes.  This was my first saltwater dive in 9 years, and my first ever warm water dive, and I was left marvelling at the fantastic vizibility, and the 21 degree water temperature.  Saw lots of interesting wildlife, most notably to me at the time were the Starfish, Damselfish and the Pencil Urchins, which abounded on most of the dives over the holiday.

All too soon, it was time to surface, and get out of the water back at the steps, but fortunately we had a second dive planned for the same site, and after a surface interval it was back into the water for more of the same, this time heading over to the left of the area, and into shallower water.  I took in with me on this dive a cheap camera from LIDL’s dive bargains the week before at home, and had a fun time taking some photos with it.  Whether they come out remains to be seen, but I’ll find out soon, I guess!  Saw a nice little rock cave environment with some colourful sealife at the back of it, as well as a cuttlefish, and fireworms for the first time.  After almost an hour on this dive we resurfaced and climbed back up the ladder and steps, and it was time to head back to the dive centre in the bus, where we had a nice relaxing pint of decojuice, and lots of chatting and excitement about the dives.

Dive Data

Dive 1 (58)  29.2 metres, total dive time 44 minutes

Dive 2 (59) 7.3 metres, total dive time 57 minutes