ropes trailing upwards toward the light – 23 03 10 – Morning

Got up early following dreamless heavy sleep. I took the time to make a few cheese and salad sandwiches for packed lunch before I heard my 7:30am 'wake-up' alarm go off.

I was dressed and outside the gate for 8:30 and Laurence, the dive centre manager, pulled up just before twenty to providing me a lift to work.

I was briefed in the morning and it was explained to me that from now on I am to assist in greeting customers as they arrive and help them to relax.  (My first tranche of responsibility).

It was made clear that I would be diving with Babs in the morning on a wreck dive. Customers included in the mornings dive were two guys, Colin and Andrew; Colin works in the armed services, married 25 years and has a 21 year old daughter, whilst Andrew is a white Zimbabwean living in the UK, working in London.

All the kit (BCU, fins, mask, wetsuit, boots, regulator and weight belt) was taken from the individual hangers and placed into white stacking boxes, the boxes were in turn stacked into the mini-bus and we set off from Costa Teguise (base) South West toward Puerto del Carmen where some time ago three Spanish fishing boats were sunk explicitly to provide wreck sites for divers.

However intentional, wrecks are haunting places.  

With large surge-swaying seaweed-festooned ropes trailing upwards toward the light; and abstract lines of sun cutting down from the surface, one can only reflect on the serene battle between industry and nature.  A battle we can rest assured, in the long run, nature will always win.

During the dive we saw:

•    Three barracuda
•    Cuttlefish
•    Damselfish
•    Ornate wrasse
•    Starfish (with a missing and re-growing leg)
•    Urchins
•    and a skeleton of a dolphin.  

Best bit of the dive:  I went into a small cave, the walls covered in yellow lichen-like coral.  As I turned and looked up, my eyes followed the ascending bubbles exhaled on every breath.  The bubbles, some small and some large, floated towards the roof of the little cave.  When they could go up no further, the bubbles travelled sideways, moving like quick-silver to find the highest point; before becoming trapped as miniature mercury lagoons where they could travel no more – all silver and wonderfully reflective. Inside the cave I floated for a moment watching the nature of bubbles under rock and there for a moment, I think I found peace.

Then I swam out again toward the group to look at more rusting wrecks, like an old elephant’s graveyard.