Trip report – Tenerife – 27/10/06

[Steve Sub]

We (partner Ruth & self) have been wanting to go to Tenerife for a while, and finally got round to it. I booked the plane tickets direct with Excel Airways, two returns for just over £200. Excel offer an extra 10kg baggage allowance free to divers, giving us 60kg in total between the two of us, which would prove useful!

The diving and accommodation were booked through Tenerife Scuba. We stayed in a really nice apartment in the Westhaven Bay complex in Costa Del Silencio. The apartment was on a self-catering basis, and there’s a very good little supermarket on site. Sarah from Tenerife Scuba collected us from the airport and delivered us to the hotel at 23.00 on the Friday evening, and provided us with a small goody bag of tea, coffee, sugar, milk & water to get us started.

Sarah was back to pick us up at 09.00 the next morning to take us to the dive centre, where we signed the usual disclaimers etc and Chris (Sarah’s husband) gave our logbooks and cards the once over. Ruth had not taken her regs with her, as the first stage had flooded and was at the menders, so they loaned her a set, plus a computer (as Ruth’s is an air-integrated Suunto Cobra). We climbed into our wetsuits and loaded the truck with tanks etc for the three-minute drive to the harbour.

Our first/check dive was at The Steps, five minutes rib-ride from the harbour. This was my first dive using a steel cylinder, and I wasn’t sure about the weight I would need. The advice from Chris to try 6kg turned out to be a bit on the heavy side, so for all subsequent dives I used 4kg (all with a 5mm full suit). Fish life on this first dive included arrow crabs, urchins, morays, wrasse, roncadores, shrimp and a cuttlefish, a pretty normal collection by Tenerife standards! The rock formations that make up this area are volcanic columns, reminiscent of the Giant’s Causeway, quite spectacular.

After lunch at a harbour side restaurant, dive two would be The Rays. A short distance from the harbour is a small wreck on a sandy bottom in 20m of water. Dropping to the seabed, we were surrounded by at least a dozen rays, many other fish and a small but very persistent turtle. The sandy seabed was also home to many garden eels, and the odd flat fish (flounder, I think). I had problems with my buoyancy on this dive, and afterwards discovered a small cut in my BCD. Chris came to the rescue by loaning me one of centre’s for the rest of the week. By the way they didn’t charge us for any of the borrowed equipment, a pleasant change from most other dive centres!

Day two started with some drizzly rain showers, a rarity in southern Tenerife. We followed the same routine as the previous day, one dive in the morning (The Mushrooms), lunch, then back out for a second (Bob’s Hole). By the evening, the weather had worsened, with several heavy downpours.

Day three saw my deepest dive to date, 40m to Ali Baba’s Cave, followed by a swim to the wreck of the Condesito. The afternoon dive was to The Arches, where Ruth was stabbed by a sea urchin! Day four, first to the caves at Palm Mar, second to Caterlufo (sp?). Another heavy downpour in the evening.

Day five dawned bright and sunny, so we headed out to wreck of The Meridian. Lying in 30m, this former WW1 minesweeper only sank a year ago and is fantastic condition, complete with portholes, radar unit and crow’s nest. We went into the bridge and down into the engine room (tight-ish squeeze). Exiting, we saw an Eagle Ray down on the sand. In the afternoon, the skies darkened and the rain started. We postponed the second dive, and headed back to the hotel to sit out the storm. Four hours of torrential rain took its toll, cutting the electricity in the hotel, but luckily not to the restaurant where we sought refuge in the evening!

Our last full day on the island saw us diving The Steps again, but deeper this time, to a small cave. We saw a huge Atlantic Ray and several tuna, along with all the usual suspects…

Our thanks go to Sarah & Chris, for giving us a great weeks diving.

Steve