Derek’s Dive Domain

Well, the final days diving dawns, and we only have one dive planned for today, as we need to allow time after this before the flights the following afternoon.  We get down to the Orlando and collect the kit, and then head up the TF1 all the way around to Punta Prieta.  I remember this dive from the first trip to Tenerife, as it was my first ever proper deep dive, and I also remember almost measureing my length on the pebbly beach

We kit up and enter the water in the bay, over the pebbles, and it is quite lump on the surface, so we quickly drop down to the bottom in 3 metres.  We head out over what is to start with a very slow incline down, around some pots that have been laid out, and out into the sea.  We head around a headland and then descend a little more quickly down to 23-24 metres, then we drop over a wall, down into an area outside a cave at 30 metres.  From this area, the seabed slowly shelves away along the rocky wall, but we stop at around 33 metres, to look around some rocks and kelp type stuff, and we see two moray eels hanging around there, protecting their domain.  This is the best view I have had of morays, in their own habitat and made a nice picture if anyone was able to get one.  We had a look around the cave which had some nice plant life at the rear, and hovered and watched a very large shoal of fish moving around outside the cave.  It is a lovely little sheltered area around the cave, and I like diving there, now that I am more comfortable with the dives.  We then make our way back up the wall onto the gentle incline back to the beach, and slowly make our way back, stopping to take photos on the way, and to look at wildlife  hiding in the cracks in the rocks.  We carry out an extended safety stop at 5 metres, as the deco has pretty much disappeared from the computer (although Gareth’s come up with about 15 minutes at 5-3 metres, so I hang about with him at 3 metres while he clears it, before we both exit.  Thats it.  Thats my diving done for the week now, and as usual I’m sorry its all over, but we have another day to be social yet, so we head back to the Orlando for beer, and wash all out kit, and set it out in the 30′C sun to dry, so that we can pack it the following morning.  I do the paperwork for the Deep Specialty card, ready to send off, and then we go back to the hotel and start to pack the dive gear away.

Dive 12 (106) - Max Depth 33.1m, dive time 53 mins.

Finally it is down to the Blue Bossa for a final nights fun and beers and a really top social to end another fantastic week in Abades and Tenerife.  We (myself, Paul and Kirstie) flew back the following early afternoon, and by late evening I was home in Leicester, wondering if it really happenned..

I really can recommend Tenerife as a diving location, and with someone like Michael leading the dives you are guaranteed to see something, and even if you don’t the craic is great around the pool and the diving is nice and warm, we had 24′C water in early October, which is a little different to the UK, thats for sure.  Here’s to the next trip out there!