Prologue and first days with not much diving
This, like my Florida trip, started last year: I went to the Scuba Santas event to NDAC for a dive, a laugh and to help raising money for the RNLI! It was a great day, Lloyd clearly put a lot of effort into it and it showed. I bought a fair amount of raffle tickets and was quietly hoping to get one of the T-shirts on offer. But all the prizes gone without any of my numbers coming up and everybody was getting a bit cold and bored, when out of the blue I have heard one of my numbers shouted out for the main prize: a week diving in Spain! I was over the moon, as I gave an impromptu interview all my buddies were visibly jealous...All I knew at that time that it will be with an outfit called FleetDive in Northern Spain.
The next day I contacted Gary and Ian and they could not have been more helpful. After a few email exchanges we settled in a date which covered the may half-term holiday as it was clear they are not only geared up for divers but for families as well. I quickly got in touch with our friends in North Wales, who were very happy to accompany us, together with our other friends in Cardiff. Booked the tickets when an email came over: Ian managed to double book us with another group of divers for two days...However they have offered to refund the charges Ryanair would impose us for changing the date! And they stood to their promise.
Finally we were all set to go! After coming back from Florida it was a very nice prospect to go on holiday after another four weeks: it certainly helped with work being silly as always. In the meantime I have learnt that the setup is geared primarily towards single tank OC divers, Ian and Gary were not very familiar (to say the least) with all this techy stuff going on TDF. With this in mind I knocked up an Ali plate+OPH+wing combo for myself with a long hose on one of the second stages, while packed the standard PADI recreational setup for my wife and many bits for my friend.
We had two checked bags: one was full of dive gear, the other contained all our clothes (2 adults, a 6 and a 2 year old) the hand luggages were a mixture of dive and personal gear an I carried about 15kg in a vest with many deep pockets...
On Tuesday morning we set off and got to Bristol in about an hour: just in time to drop the car (I always book valet parking if I travel with the kids) and the bags, get through security (they got me unpack one of the backpacks full of dive gear) and get a bite before we were off.
The flight was an uneventful Ryanair flight, my little one a bit tearful before take-off, but daddy holding her hand was good enough and soon she was giggling as we took into the air. I got the entertaining seat next to them, so the two hours went in a flash, while wifey had a sleep.
Girona is a small airports the bags appeared quickly and we got out of the terminal in no time. Ian was waiting for us in the big car (luckily for us it was his day-off) and we were transferred to the Fleetdive HQ in Santa Margarita, Roses, which was about 45 minutes drive mostly on the motorway. On the way mostly I chatted to him while the others had a snooze and we covered a wide range of topics from general living in Spain, weather, across being a pilot at Ryanair to human factors in aviation, medicine and diving…
We got to the apartment, unpacked and went to the nearest supermarket to stock up with some food. Unfortunately the clouds from the UK followed us and we got completely drenched on the way back, which wasn't fun packed with carry-bags and with two kids! And the rain started really badly just after we got back to the apartment….Nice start!
Branch 5 from Liverpool were the previous visitors and they came to pick up their bags before they were taken to the airport. We had a quick chat and they offered some valuable advice on dive sites etc. We have mulled over the afternoon, read all the info leaflets on the diving and other activities around Roses, put the kids in bed and waited for our friends to arrive: luckily they were on the flight which took the scousers back so arrived late but still this side of midnight. We had a quick glass of wine and went to bed. Next morning we woke up to a clearing sky and it was much more like it! We were not in a rush, had a nice leisurely breakfast and in the morning we picked up some kit for Walid from the local diveshop. Ian also showed us the boat and kindly offered to come out with us to show the sites (and probably to check on me that I can really drive it :P ) As only Walid and myself were diving the plan was to drop off the girls and kids on a beach while we went diving Trencat. By the time we got there the wind picked up a bit, so it wasn't very nice on the beach and we decided to drop the non-divers back at the marina, where they will be picked up by Ian's wife. We headed back to Trencat, tied the boat in the drizzling rain and got ready to kit up, when my first stage decided to piss air. That was the last straw and we decided to abandon the dive and glad that we did. On the way back we encountered high winds blowing sleet and hailstone, to the point I had to put my mask on to be able to see where we are going. No diving, but still great fun! Back at the HQ Ian's kids and my kids made instant best buddies and from then on they were inseparable.
Next day the weather was even better and we went out again this time with my friend as boat cover and did a really nice reef dive at the site called Ferrara. The site is marked with a permanent buoy where you can tie the boat. We jumped in and were greeted with 15m viz but only 15C water. I was glad I was in the drysuit and Walid was glad that I lent him the thermalution heated vest under his wetsuit! Ferrara is a typical mediterranian reef, with full of life, many different species, octopuses, a nice little cavern an abandoned fishing boat, so a dive for everyone. We circumnavigated the reef and to the greatest amazement of me and Walid got back to exactly where we have started. 22m 63min an enjoyable introduction to Roses diving!
TBC
This, like my Florida trip, started last year: I went to the Scuba Santas event to NDAC for a dive, a laugh and to help raising money for the RNLI! It was a great day, Lloyd clearly put a lot of effort into it and it showed. I bought a fair amount of raffle tickets and was quietly hoping to get one of the T-shirts on offer. But all the prizes gone without any of my numbers coming up and everybody was getting a bit cold and bored, when out of the blue I have heard one of my numbers shouted out for the main prize: a week diving in Spain! I was over the moon, as I gave an impromptu interview all my buddies were visibly jealous...All I knew at that time that it will be with an outfit called FleetDive in Northern Spain.
The next day I contacted Gary and Ian and they could not have been more helpful. After a few email exchanges we settled in a date which covered the may half-term holiday as it was clear they are not only geared up for divers but for families as well. I quickly got in touch with our friends in North Wales, who were very happy to accompany us, together with our other friends in Cardiff. Booked the tickets when an email came over: Ian managed to double book us with another group of divers for two days...However they have offered to refund the charges Ryanair would impose us for changing the date! And they stood to their promise.
Finally we were all set to go! After coming back from Florida it was a very nice prospect to go on holiday after another four weeks: it certainly helped with work being silly as always. In the meantime I have learnt that the setup is geared primarily towards single tank OC divers, Ian and Gary were not very familiar (to say the least) with all this techy stuff going on TDF. With this in mind I knocked up an Ali plate+OPH+wing combo for myself with a long hose on one of the second stages, while packed the standard PADI recreational setup for my wife and many bits for my friend.
We had two checked bags: one was full of dive gear, the other contained all our clothes (2 adults, a 6 and a 2 year old) the hand luggages were a mixture of dive and personal gear an I carried about 15kg in a vest with many deep pockets...
On Tuesday morning we set off and got to Bristol in about an hour: just in time to drop the car (I always book valet parking if I travel with the kids) and the bags, get through security (they got me unpack one of the backpacks full of dive gear) and get a bite before we were off.
The flight was an uneventful Ryanair flight, my little one a bit tearful before take-off, but daddy holding her hand was good enough and soon she was giggling as we took into the air. I got the entertaining seat next to them, so the two hours went in a flash, while wifey had a sleep.
Girona is a small airports the bags appeared quickly and we got out of the terminal in no time. Ian was waiting for us in the big car (luckily for us it was his day-off) and we were transferred to the Fleetdive HQ in Santa Margarita, Roses, which was about 45 minutes drive mostly on the motorway. On the way mostly I chatted to him while the others had a snooze and we covered a wide range of topics from general living in Spain, weather, across being a pilot at Ryanair to human factors in aviation, medicine and diving…
We got to the apartment, unpacked and went to the nearest supermarket to stock up with some food. Unfortunately the clouds from the UK followed us and we got completely drenched on the way back, which wasn't fun packed with carry-bags and with two kids! And the rain started really badly just after we got back to the apartment….Nice start!
Branch 5 from Liverpool were the previous visitors and they came to pick up their bags before they were taken to the airport. We had a quick chat and they offered some valuable advice on dive sites etc. We have mulled over the afternoon, read all the info leaflets on the diving and other activities around Roses, put the kids in bed and waited for our friends to arrive: luckily they were on the flight which took the scousers back so arrived late but still this side of midnight. We had a quick glass of wine and went to bed. Next morning we woke up to a clearing sky and it was much more like it! We were not in a rush, had a nice leisurely breakfast and in the morning we picked up some kit for Walid from the local diveshop. Ian also showed us the boat and kindly offered to come out with us to show the sites (and probably to check on me that I can really drive it :P ) As only Walid and myself were diving the plan was to drop off the girls and kids on a beach while we went diving Trencat. By the time we got there the wind picked up a bit, so it wasn't very nice on the beach and we decided to drop the non-divers back at the marina, where they will be picked up by Ian's wife. We headed back to Trencat, tied the boat in the drizzling rain and got ready to kit up, when my first stage decided to piss air. That was the last straw and we decided to abandon the dive and glad that we did. On the way back we encountered high winds blowing sleet and hailstone, to the point I had to put my mask on to be able to see where we are going. No diving, but still great fun! Back at the HQ Ian's kids and my kids made instant best buddies and from then on they were inseparable.
Next day the weather was even better and we went out again this time with my friend as boat cover and did a really nice reef dive at the site called Ferrara. The site is marked with a permanent buoy where you can tie the boat. We jumped in and were greeted with 15m viz but only 15C water. I was glad I was in the drysuit and Walid was glad that I lent him the thermalution heated vest under his wetsuit! Ferrara is a typical mediterranian reef, with full of life, many different species, octopuses, a nice little cavern an abandoned fishing boat, so a dive for everyone. We circumnavigated the reef and to the greatest amazement of me and Walid got back to exactly where we have started. 22m 63min an enjoyable introduction to Roses diving!
TBC
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