The life of this wreck is very abundant, loads of large trumpet fish (as in the photo), also spotted stone fish, little baby puffer fish and the occasional moray too. If the crew had not fallen asleep, she would not be here!

The site itself had a sandy bottom, surrounded by the grey volcanic rock of the island and
with 15 to 20 metre visibility. As you can see club members soon began to relax and enjoy the site.

Hurray! Finally it’s time to go diving. We were all picked up as promised bang on 08.45 and transported to the dive centre. A tidy and user friendly centre, especially for those who like to try a lot of suits on! We were quickly ferried to the old fisherman’s refuge of Las Galletas, where the RIB Valador Escose (flying Scotsman) awaited. She was well equipped for diving and relatively new, with the added bonus of a four stroke engine. After a good brief we all dropped off the side at 10.50 on the site of the Condesito shipwreck, an old transport ship carrying cement bags. She is quite broken up, but a good gentle start to the weeks diving.

Back on the boat after a nice 50 minute dive we headed back to shore. Where as would be the routine for the next week the cylinders were unloaded and we went for lunch right on the promenade. The restaurant staff were most accommodating and soon had a table for the entire dive group out in the sun. The food was excellent, all manor of dishes were on offer, some more than once, which was nice, well for the fish anyway.

With the cylinders soon back on the boat it was time to reassemble the kit and go diving again. At 14.15 we arrived at Coral Arch. This site consisted of 4 large volcanic arch ways with a sandy bottom. We also found a couple of plaques offering well wishes to dolphins and another, a prayer to Jacque Cousteau.

This was a good site, however there was a
good two knot current and all felt it should
have been conducted as a drift dive.

Thursday at 10.15 we dropped onto the Steps. Tide was nil and the sun out. Happy faces all round, Ahh this is what we came for and soon discovered countless creatures to interact with.

Andy Bennett the resident MDD photo guru was very busy; you got some awesome shots to mate. The cuttlefish is my personal favourite.

In the afternoon we went to a site I remembered well. “The Rays” so called for obvious reasons. This site also has an old wreck and a soft coral reef. All armed with sardines and instructions not to touch the rays with gloves on, we dropped onto the sea bed at 21 metres to feed the rays. As we all grouped around in a semi-circle we saw a lovely ray come gliding along the sea bed.

The ray drawn by the oily smell of
the sardines was eager to entertain
and even more driven to be fed!

Everyone got a chance to feed the
ray, but the most caring of the
group made sure all the creatures
got a fair share...

After about 10 minutes we started to head towards the remains of an old cargo ship. The hull still remained as well as a few door hatches. Once this was explored we headed off towards the coral reef.

The arrow crab with its orange legs, white
stripe down the head and most luminous
yellow elbows. This little critter
was around most corners.

MDD member Graham Kerridge
with the soft coral reef in the
back ground on a pleasurable dive.

On the way back to the boat we spotted a Portuguese Man of War, only a small one, but these are still the world’s second most deadly jelly!! Thankfully we were all on the boat.

So far the diving had exceeded expectations of almost all the group, except as always, some are never satisfied!

“Where can we see a nudibranch” asked a team member. “All over, I’ll put in an order for them” replied the owner of Tenerife Dive.

Day three started with a deep dive on the Garlic Mushrooms. This site was 32m and offered lots of red and black coral overhangs. This site was home to a lot of moray eels, Dorada and amberjack. After a short but sweet tour we had no choice but to ascend for lunch!

After our staple lunch of hot chocolate and ham and cheese toasties, all were eager to get back in the water. So off we went back to the steps, as this had a nice gradient from 6 downwards to allow us a long bottom time. As the water was 19 degrees with 20 metres of visibility, was the reason for giving the countess a well deserved break!

Low and behold what did our MDD team photographer find??????

Again the steps were bristling with life. We also encountered shoals of Mullet and a sneaky appearance from an Octopus or two as well.

The following dives were also excellent, the last of the holiday being the best for some. Each of the team members seemed to highlight a different part of the holiday as being their favourite. However we did all agree on the total variety being good enough to warrant a return trip.

It was my first diving holiday too, and took at least two days for me to stop the ingrained mothering instincts of Divemasters, suppose I deserved the nick name of “Mum”.

I would like to thank all of those who came on MDD’s first club holiday, who were not only a pleasure to dive with, but also gelled as group out of the water which to me outlines the reason for MDD being the best club I have had the pleasure to be involved in.

I would also like to thank David and Yvonne, the owners of Aqua Dive Tenerife who managed to get the balance of laid back but professional just right to allow all of us to enjoy our time in Tenerife. Also thanks to Jose the instructor and dive leader.

Special thanks to Andy Bennett. All pictures in this article were taken by him and are the sole copyright of Andy Bennett. Thanks for that photo; it was definitely worth the trade mate.

Take care and hope to do it all again very soon out in the Red Sea, details to follow shortly.

Adam Grumett

Underwater Explorers
Millennium Divers Dorset