Diving 2009

Diving

     

Photoalbum Epidavros and Lesvos

 

Tuesday June 23, 2009: Two dives

Timo wakes up at 06:00 and sits on the balcony to complete some of the travel reports and at about seven the others are waking up too. We see each other downstairs on the terrace of Hotel Mike for breakfast, the same as the day before. It’s not a lot, but we like it and enjoy it, also the location and the sun. It is already hot, because Timo was in sweat in the morning sun. We walk to Pascal to arrange all paperwork and try on the suits and the vests. All the equipment is well maintained and looks very nice, no comment on that. When we tried it on, we get a briefing with all details of the dive. We need to sail 20 minutes and then we will anchor and then we enter the water, dive along a wall to the depths we want for ourselves till we reach 100 bar and then we return shallower to the boat. Everything is OK at a bit past nine. We take our stuff to the boat and the tanks and we can leave on time.

So we go. Maurits, Betty and Peter also come with us on the boat, because we’re the only two divers and there still is some room for them, no problem. We sail out of the harbor to the left side, but only a few kilometers: it indeed takes 20 minutes to reach the dive site. There is almost no wind, so everything will be OK. We prepare ourselves and have some time to chat and then enter the water. Never forget buddy check and then first Eef, then Timo, both with a back roll and then Pascal, who comes into the water with a jump. We immediately go to a depth of 10, 12 meter and see the wall then. We follow it on our left hand side and arrive at a depth of 35 meters. There are some rocks you can dive underneath. Along the side there are still many nets, lost by fishermen and it’s really a special sight. We see a lot of sponges, soft, black ones under water and also yellow ones that form branches. Normally we should also spot moray eels and octopuses, but we’re not lucky at this moment. Hundreds of damselfish accompany us under water, many painted combers and rainbow wrasses, really very beautiful. At 100 bar and 25 minutes we turn back and go swim a little bit shallower to go back to the boat. Here we see the sun again and the visibility is better.

We love the next half hour diving and then we spot a special species: the planehead filefish, the first time ever we see this. Also beautiful are the white and brown ‘nudibranches’ that are attached to the rocks. These are very frequent here and we’ve never seen them before. We need to lookup what species this is: the leopard sea slug. Pascal picks up some rocks from time to time to see what is under them and that way we see a brittle star and he puts it on Eef’s hand. Then we reach 50 bar and need to go up. Peter is swimming and he’s surprised when we put our head above the water. He first climbs on board; we give the camera and fins and then also climb on board. A few moments it is chilly, but we quickly dry in the sun and it’s warm again. We don’t need to complain about the temperatures, because it has been very good all the way. After 20 minutes we arrive back in the harbor and eat something small: choriatiki, spaghetti, patates, moussakas with a bit retsina, water and Mythos. We rest and hour and at 15:00 it’s time for the second dive.

There are already five divers present; they need to come off from the boat again, because first we have briefing. The diving site is on the head of the small peninsula where the small theatre is located, but the dive site has no name yet. Nobody has ever been diving here, because it is very close to a protected site, protected for the sunken city. We leave the harbor with a lot of wind and we arrive in less than 10 minutes. The wind blows strong and everyone has some trouble. Timo’s tank is not OK, is leaking. The third time he’s assembling his gear it works without leaking. Was this some dive stress? Once we’re under for 3 or 4 meter we no longer feel the waves and we can start the dive. This wall is not so deep, maximum 32 meters, we see a lot of fire worms, one moray and an antique vase: or have they placed it here? A couple of large worms. Again we dive to 100 bar and then return to the boat, a bit shallower and we see many damselfish and wrasses. Also cages from fishermen are left here with iron wires. We need to watch out for this. At the end of the dive we again see a filefish. After almost 50 minutes we come to the surface again. One diver did not join us, two others had problems and had to come back up after 20 minutes; a problem with the regulators. The British lady also had problems and Timo had a bleeding finger. A lot of things went wrong this dive, it’s a nice spot, but it would have been more beautiful in better circumstances.

We take a shower and get ready to go to the hotel of Linda and Patrik. Betty, Maurits and Peter re already there, Patrik picked them up from Epidaurus centre. We drive there although we did not really know exactly where the hotel was. We find Hotel Aristoteles rather quickly, drink two Alfa and stay here for an hour. Lots of swallows are flying here over the pool and we amuse ourselves. We see the islands of Angistri and Aegina here very nice. We drive with the van back to the hotel, everyone gets ready and we see each other at the restaurant and we arrive there all almost at the same time. Today we all have fresh fish: three melanouri, one lavraki (sea bream) and one scorpion fish. Patrik takes an octopus in tomato sauce, we all have choriatiki, tzatziki and we like it. For drinks we now take white and rose wine. Timo pays the bill and the total is 150 Euro, not even that much for seven people with fresh fish and plenty of wine. At midnight we return to our rooms, drink Mythos and then go to bed. We are really tired, because two dives in a day is really exhausting. Sleep tight fish and vases of Epidaurus.

 

Sunday June 28, Dive at Korakas Cape Wreck

After a bad night of rest for Eef and a better one for Timo, we get up at 07:15. The shops are not open yet, so we skip breakfast. We quickly buy something at the bakery to eat during the walk to the dive shop. We have fins, snorkel, mask and dive computer with us and the rest we will rent there. Jorgos said we should meet at 09:00 and his colleague said at 08:00. So we arrive in the middle at about 08:30.  They’re already there and we can start looking for our equipment, try it on and put it all together in one spot. Kate and Sigi decide not to join us, indeed 30 Euro to go snorkeling is a bit too much. They did buy some fruits and bread which we can take with us, thanks a lot K and S. At 09:30 we leave. Fist we drop off two Belgian girls in Molyvos (they had missed their boat) and then we sail to Korakas Cape Wreck. Everything looks very nice.

Aagje had some trouble with her suit, but finally everything is OK and we descend for our first dive, a wreck dive. The deepest point is at 27 meters and the highest is at 12. Roelis has problems equalizing, so Eef (good rescue diver) stays with him until everything is OK. The wreck is cool; it is our first wreck dive too, so it’s special. In total there are ten divers: instructor Jorgos, a divemaster dontknowhisname, 2 Italians, 1 Brit and us five. Below the wreck Eef sees a mouse fish (we need to check what the name is), further we spot octopus, damselfish, starfish, wrasses,… and we can see 30 meters far; this is great! It’s a nice dive, little less than an hour; especially Jurgen, Aagje and Roel are really impressed since this is their first boat dive abroad. When we’re back on the surface it’s time to prepare for the second dive. We stay here 1,5 hours on the boat, eat something small (bread with bio-cucumber from the captain and fruit) and then prepare siga siga for the second dive. We dive on the same spot, but away from the wreck. We see a moray, again about the same fish, vases and again it’s worth going under. Roel hasn’t got a tank of 15 liter now (he did for the first dive) and after 47 minutes he goes up with Jurgen and Aagje. As they should they make their safety stop, well done. During the second dive everyone was a lot more relaxed and Timo and Eef had a lot of time to take pictures. Eef arranges with Jurgen that he’s taking the camera next time.

After the second dive we swim a bit in the water and then at 15:30 the boat sets sail for Molyvos and Petra. We walk to the dive center and fill out the logbooks and make some appointments for our next dives. We don’t need to pay yet, that will be arranged at the end. Total coolness. We look for a good terrace, find Sigi and Kate and drink Mythos and ice-tea. We quickly fee the alcohol in our head and go to our room and have a shower.

At 19:30 everyone is ready and we go to the women’s cooperative to have dinner. We order some retsina, apsro krasi and megalo nero and also different stuff to eat. Three barbouni (red mullet), tsipoura (Gilthead Sea-Bream), choriatiki, dolmadakia, feta saganaki, keftedes, louloudia, pajdakia and taramasalata. We take a bit of everything and we enjoy it. We return to the apartments at about eleven, drink some more ouzo and Mythos and at midnight we go to sleep.

 

Tuesday June 30, 2009: Two dives: Feggamenee reef and Mirmigi

The alarm goes off at quarter to eight, Eef is immediately ready, Roel too, but Timo has problems waking up. Jurgen is also awake, but also Aagje has problems. Sigi and Kate say in bed, because they’ll stay here today: rest a little bit and enjoy their presence in Greece. Aagje has a backache and is staying home; diving will not do her good. We have a small breakfast, because it’s best to eat not too much before diving. Roel, Jurgen, Eef and Timo are diving today and walk to the Cavo Bay Watch where the base is of Lesvosscuba in Petra. On our way there we buy some fruits and water. We see that there are some tanks in the pickup, so we’re not alone today. We take our suits, regulators, BCD and help to load everything. They drive to the harbor and Eef, Timo, Jurgen and Roel walk there and see there is a Flemish girl and Portuguese guy (couple) and three Brits on the boat.

We left late at the base, so we leave immediately to Feggamenee Reef, only ten minutes away from the harbor to the small island just in front of the coast of Petra. On the right side (seen from the land) there is the dive spot and we anchor here. Jorgos takes all five divers and Eef and Timo lead the dive with Roel and Jurgen. We keep the reef at our right side, we don’t make it to the end, because we dive between two huge rocks and that brings us to the wrong direction. We saw a moray eel there, so we had to turn and we should have turned back, but we didn’t. We see the usual damselfish, wrasses, snappers, the cone worms, starfish, morays; it really is a nice dive, very calm, even though Eef and Timo are guides. At 100 bar we return to the direction of the boat and start diving a little bit shallower. We see some fire worms and what is really striking in the water is the blue pink suite of Jurgen. It’s really great and we call him the super-gay.

As always between two dives we need to make some time to get ready for the second dive, we put our tanks together again, drink some water, swim in the sea, because there is no toilet on board. We eat some little things, chat with Jorgos and Sofoklis, he is the co-owner of the diving club and also a diver, but now only captain. We move to a smaller rock, this dive spot is called Mirmigi (ant). We have to follow a kind of underwater tongue in front of the boat. We make sure we can follow Jorgos for a while and almost all the time we can see the bubbles of the people in front of us. We go with the tongue at our right side, see some morays right a way and some cone worms. The damselfish come to greet us and the wrasses are busy protecting everything they love. A huge fire worm passes us by, we see three species of starfish; the normal one, one with peaks on top and another one who does not have actual arms. We reach the end of the tongue at 32 meters. That is not really correct, because this is deeper than our first dive. A scorpion fish hides in the holes in the rocks. Totally we now see five moray eels, really great. Some kind of blenny does not want his picture taken, because he swims between the rocks. Here at deeper level we see the snappers and the large mussels.

We turn back and Timo rushes away, because it is not really clear to him what direction to take and he can’t see the bubbles of the rest anymore. The others follow at a little distance and then Timo reduces speed, because he can now see the others in thirty meters. We then take some more time to look at everything, but we don’t see special things. Jurgen and Timo make their safety stop together and Roel and Eef stay under for a few moments more. We come on board, prepare everything and are immediately ready to go back to the harbor. Sigi, Kate and Aagje arrive just here with the car and already drive to the Lemon-bar. There we have two beers and enjoy the view, the good weather and two more nice dives we had.

It starts to be time to take a shower and to eat something, so we go back to the apartments. Today we don’t eat at the Women’s Cooperative, but try something at the restaurant Sunset. Normal drinks: retsina, aspro krasi and water. Roel does not want to mix and has a Carlsberg. Everyone prefers for this time his own plate, no problem. We order tsipoura, swordfish and mackerel for Sigi and Timo, Eef ahs chicken Mexican, Jurgen has T-bone with pepper sauce, Roel and Kate take Lam Sunset and Aagje has something I can’t remember. She took bifteki. We all enjoy the food and don’t drink too much, because tomorrow is another day of diving. We all sit on the balcony of Eef and Timo and have ouzo and Mythos, in the end Sigi and Kate are not diving, so they don’t have to bother about the alcohol. We go to bed at a little after midnight. The heat can still be felt at this time of the night. It is becoming hooter day by day; in the meantime we already have peaks until 37°. This is fun!

 

Wednesday July 1, 2009: Two cave dives and party

We get up pretty early; have breakfast with Jurgen and Aagje in their kitchen. With the mega-Trajet we race to Mytiline, because we want to dive there twice today. We’ll be diving with a smaller boat this time, probably with an oversized zodiac. Jurgen is driving, Timo leads the way and it takes one and a half hour to get there. We drive twenty meters too far, but we reach the beach rather easily. Luis and Tjalina are here already. They will go with us for two cave dives or one cave and one reef dive. We need to try the suits one, difficult because the sizes and brands are different than the Scubapro equipment in Petra. Everyone needs to try the suits back on; the same with the BCD’s and then put it all together. For the first dive all men get a 15-liter tank and the ladies 12 liter. That’s very good, because men usually use more air than ladies. It takes a few moments, before everything is OK and can load everything on the zodiac and leave. Everyone needs to walk twice with tanks and gear to get it all there.

All OK and there we go. We first speed to our first diving spot on a marvelous location, even above the surface. It has been named after the saint Santa Claus (Agios Vassilikos) and it is beautiful you can’t describe. Crystal clear and blue water, a small island with rocks and a lighthouse on top. The gulls and the swifts ask themselves what these stupid tourists have lost here. That will be diving. We all go into the water and everyone helps their buddy to lower the tank and BCD into the water and put it on in the water. Aagje has a little bit of trouble, but with the help of Jurgen, Timo and Eef she’s good to go. Everyone is ready pretty fast, tests if he or she has enough lead; that’s OK for everyone, so we can dive. Jorgos needs to freedive for a moment, because two dive lamps have fallen to the bottom, luckily not too deep, but only eight meter or so. In the end we can go and dive tot hat eight meters. Here we need to watch out primarily for the sea urchins, because they are present everywhere.

After a dive of ten minutes we come to a plateau of ten meters and then it is The Abyss to a depth of eighty meters. We need to be careful we don’t tend to go deeper, because the entry and exit of the cave is from 23 to 40 meters, very deep and wide, but very beautiful. We can enter the whole group, but Aagje and her buddy Jurgen stay in front of the entry. The others enter via the shallowest point and watch their eyes out. The walls are full of soft coral, sponges; it really is unbelievably beautiful. Jorgos has his underwater camera with him, but not to film, rather to give light, a bit more than the small torches we had with us. We can only stay here for a short time, see some shrimps in the dark and some mouse fish. Eef had seen this fish earlier at the wreck and now everyone gets to see him, also Jurgen and Aagje because there is one at the entrance of the cave. Once we’re inside of the cave it gets narrower and it’s busy, so we don’t stay here too long. We dive out of the cave at its shallowest point and then dive along the wall. We spot nudibranches, the blue ones that we saw earlier and also the species with the white tips; those little animals are really the most beautiful things in the world. Small red fish are spotted here too, together with the anthias that we know from the Red Sea. Only now after 25 minutes Eef and Timo can take pictures, because the cameras were damped. Back at the top part of the reef there is a school of thousands of damselfish and they are OK with us taking their pictures.

An octopus is hiding between the rocks and a moray eel finds shelter in the wall. After three quarters of an hour we perform our safety stop and then we see a big yellow-blue nudibranch. We’ve never seen anything like this, it’s 10 centimeter big. After our safety stop we go slowly to the surface and climb on board of the zodiac and immediately change tanks. This dive was already the best, but there is a second one still coming. Jorgos has problem releasing the anchor, so Eef and Timo help him a bit. It is stuck and we can’t get it loose. Timo holds it while Jorgos sails around the anchor in circles. Then Timo pulls the rope and suddenly the anchor releases and Timo falls back with one leg in the ‘hold’ of the boat. He’s a bit hurt, but not too serious so he’ll be able to dive still.

In order to stay on the surface for enough time, we sail to the beach of Tarti, but we have to stay on the boat, because Jorgos was going to pay a coffee, but he did not bring any money. We stay here for a moment, swim a bit and then go to the next dive spot of the day: Fara. Also here a cave dive. We had the choice between the cave of the reef and the most people wanted a cave dive. We do the same as the first dive, BCD in the water and then put it all on. We anchored in a cool small bay without wind or current, so we swim twenty meter and there go down to about 6 meters. We swim around the rock and see a big hole in the wall. A large mussel is located at the entrance and it is a beautiful sight, the mussel and in the background the divers and the blue water. We swim on, see again a moray, some see squirts (Jurgen calls this beer bottles) and arrive at a depth of 18 meters, where the entrance to the cave is. The deal was we were not going to go inside all at once; so first it is Jorgos, Timo, Eef and Roel. They enjoy the mouse fish; an unidentified fish and again the walls of the cave are beautiful. Timo can take some pictures no and also Eef is OK. Timo comes out of the cave and only has 100 bar left, so he goes to a shallower part and wait until the other three – Aagje is not going inside – return from the cave visit. We all have control over our buoyancy, so the sight was still OK inside the cave.

Almost everyone is to the limits of air, so we swim on to the gorge between the two rocks. On the left side this is where the boat lies, the other side is the one we swam around where the cave is. Again this was a great dive and on our way back we again see some nudibranches. We do our safety stop and go up slowly and prepare to return to Haramida Beach. Jorgos is speeding and we’re back rather quickly. We unload the boat and everyone helps and goes for a drink. We don’t stay too long, because we have something to celebrate. According to our calculations today is the day that Eef and Timo are a couple for ten years. Timo starts a race home and is not getting cooperation from the Greeks in Mytiline. We loose about half an hour due to traffic here and arrive half an hour late at the cooperative. We create a big party, eat some fried zucchini, olives, shrimps saganaki, midia (mussels) saganaki, feta saganaki; with all that three mackerels, one souvlaki, choriatiki and some meatballs. We have retsina and wine with it: it’s very good. Today we close at the lemon-bar with some cocktails and Metaxa. After a while the owner offers us tequila and we order ourselves (and him) another one. It’s very good and with a little bit too much drink we return to the apartments to sleep. For Sigi and Kate it’s the last one.

 

The most important things we saw during the dives are: many damselfish, Black-faced blenny, cardinal fish, Swallowtail seaperch, wrasse, scorpionfish, goatfish, saddle bream, painted comber, sea bream, octopus, moray eel, striped blenny, tompot blenny