The following day, we once again headed into the harbor in our little hard boat, and out first dive was on the famous SS Excellent. The Excellent was a 1000 ton steamer that went down in 1888, and is remarkably well preserved, sitting upright on the sea bed at 27 meters. She’s split in two at the center, which makes for a fabulous and slightly spooky swim through. In one section, we were swimming along a pretty dark corridor and we came upon the biggest lobster I have ever seen! My buddy and I looked at each other, but agreed with nodding consent that we weren’t going anywhere near him!
Having explored Excellent, our dive plan was to drift with the strong current along the harbor wall, before sending up our SMB’s. I really enjoyed this part of the dive – drift diving is always fun, but especially when there is so much to look at. The bottom of the harbor wall is littered with debris which has been thrown over the sides of ships for hundreds of years. There are small ink bottles, large wine bottles, glasses, plates – a real treasure trove. This dive lasted 42 minutes and maximum depth was 26.3 meters.
For our second dive, we visited Makano, a tug of indeterminate age, which again had sunk upright. This was a challenging dive, as there was a really strong current running. We all opted for a negative buoyancy entry off the boat and headed fast down the shot line. We were able to get into the lee of the current once on the wreck, and had a good tour of the bridge and deck areas. Once again, we headed for the harbor wall to do some more rummaging. This was a 44 minute dive with maximum depth of 23 meters.
Visibility was better on our second day of diving in Gibraltar, and I was getting the hang of low viz diving in big currents. My log entry for the day states “Starting to enjoy myself now, but still bloody cold!” I also note in the log that I managed to lose a fin – a moment’s carelessness when climbing the ladder.
At this point, as we were diving on air, I had wracked up 26 hours of desaturation time in two days, but we still had one more day to go, and the two best and longest dives of the trip.
Check back here in a day or so for the last part of this story. Better still – sign up to get email updates, using the form on your left and we’ll let you know each week what has been posted. At the same time you’ll be entering a free competition to win a diving holiday to Lanzarote! Go here for more details.
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Aladin Prime Dive Computer - Review
Submitted by Scuba Mike on Sat, 14/02/2009 - 19:23.It’s no surprise that the Aladin Prime has become a staple computer of dive schools. It’s robust, fairly easy to use and keenly priced at the budget end of the spectrum.
The Secret of Buoyancy
Submitted by Scuba Mike on Sat, 28/02/2009 - 18:24.I was reminded about the importance of good buoyancy recently, when I accompanied a bunch of try divers as a guide. It was their first experience diving in the ocean – we were only at 3 meters – and of course, their buoyancy was appalling! Most of them ended up bouncing along the seabed dragging themselves along with their hands, then putting too much air in their jackets and popping up towards the surface. Of course we were all there once.
Scuba Mike's Dive Trip to Gibraltar - Part One
Submitted by Scuba Mike on Mon, 02/03/2009 - 17:19.Once again by invitation from a UK dive club, I was lucky enough to check out diving in Gibraltar a couple of years ago. The Brits all flew direct to Gibraltar from Gatwick, but my wife and I decided to make a trip of it, and drove down from Madrid.
Scuba Mike's Dive Trip to Gibraltar - Part Three
Submitted by Scuba Mike on Sun, 08/03/2009 - 11:04.
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