The Travelling Divemaster: Finally I can upload again...let’s hope I did not speak to soon.

Yes, once again it happens. Just as I start it all goes away, no more internet. It looks like I will be up late to try and get this sorted.

17 Dec ‘10

It has been 3 days since my last blog and I wonder why. It seems like the gremlins are still crawling around inside internet, maybe they are hungry and eating up all the bandwidth.

The last 3 days the weather has been absolutely wonderful, not that cold in between dives and no wind to talk about, just perfect conditions to dive. I feel sorry for all the people whose holiday is almost finished and have to go home to the cold in Europe. L

Let’s get down to business, today started with 3 DSD’s and 2 divers. I opted to take the DSD customers while Pedro was left with the certified divers. So after all the paperwork was sorted Pedro set off with the divers while I started the classroom session for the DSD candidates. As soon as we were done we set off to the dive site, we arrived as Pedro exited the water. The timing was just right as another diver arrived that has not dived for an entire year and needed a Scuba Tune-up, Pedro offered to help and I accepted. We work so well as a team, thanks buddy.

Magali who previously dived with us had to see the Cedar Pride before she returned to Oslo, mission accomplished.

Andy from England at the Cedar Pride, he was very impressed with the condition of the wreck. This is why this is a very popular dive site.

Hamza a local from Jordan who has not dived in a year, he is a natural in the water.

Linda Watson from England on the DSD, she has been in the water on a resort course before but never been explained much, she loved it.

Johan Jorjegatd from Malmo, Sweden on his DSD dive, I hope I spelled his surname correctly.

Vanessa Sternborg also from Malmo, Sweden blowing some bubbles and looking very focused.

Johan and Vanessa after the water skills was completed, ok let’s go explore.

Look how happy they look, I told them in the classroom that the worst that can happen to them is that they can love it, this is exactly what happened as I already heard them talk about doing the Open Water course.

Hamza looks glad to have been back in the water.

Magali Hytten and Andreas Pettersen from Norway are happy as always, I have to apologize to Andreas for not posting his name last time they featured as I only referred to him as her boyfriend.

Andy and Linda looks very happy, I wonder if it was the diving or the fact they are not back home freezing their butts off.

As we got back to the village we saw that Graham has set out 4 cylinders, this was for another 2 DSD’s and one of the Marine Parks guides that wanted a dive. So Graham set of on his dive while we washed all the gear.

16 Dec ’10

Yesterday whoa, what more can I say it was just a lovely day with lovely people, it felt like time was standing still.

The day started with 4 Spanish customers still on a high after winning the Soccer World Cup, singing the whaka whaka song. We had 2 certified divers and 2 for DSD, the only problem was the certified divers has not dived in a very long time so we had to do a Scuba tune-up for them. We decided to take the group together; this was a lot of fun. Pedro did the lectures as he speaks Spanish and I assisted in and out the water.

Here Pedro is doing his stuff with everybody paying close attention.

Pedro and Mireia Leon ascending a little bit so Mireia can equalize during the dive.

I am so lucky both girls wanted to hold my hand, I am glad there was no fighting.

What is Mireia showing 20Bar or peace, I really hope it is peace otherwise she might rest in peace.

Ah, I think it is peace as Anna Miro is also showing that sign, I feel better now.

Elena Correa and Nacho Baro are posing for the camera; it looks like they want to go up. Maybe my underwater Spanish is not so good, as they meant they were good.

Mireia is ok, and she only did her DSD this morning.

Lost in translation, Anna is good she does not want to go up.

This is the biggest Stonefish I have ever seen and it is on the sand in the swim zone, hope nobody steps on it. We actually found 2 of them about 5m apart on the sand in 2m water.

I almost forgot, Anna spotted a new species of fish and named it the Blanket fish, so while driving back we discussed this and considered calling it the Magical Arabian Flying Blanket fish. This would have been a brilliant name if it wasn’t called a Blue Spotted Stingray, sorry Anna I know you would want to strangle me now. This was a very nice sighting as it was fully grown about 1m and was covered in sand as it just left it feeding area.

From the left we have Elena Correa, Anna Miro, Mireia Leon and Nacho Baro all from

Spain

Just look at the sunset, picture taken from the village.

15 Dec ‘10

Yesterday Peter and Jacki did a dive with us at Japanese Gardens and we planed to go to The Tank for today’s dive. This was not possible as there was road works preventing us from using the turn off to the sight. We changed our plans and went to the Cedar Pride instead.

Sunny joined us for the dive; this is him at the Cedar Pride.

As I stepped away to take this picture Sunny Tiwana from Warwickshire, England quickly moved into the shot. Also featured in this picture is Peter Buros from Sarasota, USA, Jacki Buros from Boston, USA and the famous Pedro from Cow Fish Dive Centre.

Say hello to Zorro the Masked Puffer fish.

Sunny at Japanese Gardens in front of 2 large Cabbage Corals, when I say large I mean LARGE.

The live around Japanese Gardens is just unbelievable. It looks like this on the entire reef from 5m down to 24m.

Sunny spreading his wings and ready to fly, looks like a pro.

We decided to go into Aqaba to look around and be tourists and buy some supplies as we were running low.

Wow wow wow, this is the sunset as we headed to town.

This is what the sunset over the Aqaba Fort looks like using the sunset setting on the camera.

And this is what the sunset over the Aqaba Fort looks like using the portrait setting on the camera.

The flag of The Arab Revolution, it is the 2^nd larges freestanding flagpole in the world at 137m tall, the flag itself is 20m x 40m.

This is the entrance to the Aqaba Fort with Pedro at the gate.

The Fort was build in the 12^th century and rebuild in the 14^th century and it lies in ruins today. It is open to visitors free of charge on a daily basis.

The main beach in Aqaba viewed from the flagpole.

Just too beautiful not to show, I will name this beautiful 1.

And beautiful 2

This is just to show how close we are from Eilat, Israel.

Typical buildings in down town Aqaba

This is the boat of my friend Samer who lost his anchor, luckily they found it and brought it back to the surface.

Main beach Aqaba, just look how clean it is.

This beach is so well setup it caters for anybody wanting to spend time at the beach; it has build umbrellas, mats, playground for the kids, vendors seating areas and you would have to lie to yourself if you thought it was not beautiful with amazing sunsets. Did I mention how safe it is, people don’t take other peoples stuff.