Lars Hemel: Logbook

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Diving at Island 9 in Vinkeveen

This was my first dive in my home country the Netherlands. I was very excited and was looking forward to experience what the diving is like here in Holland. The weather was great, warm and sunny, but we still had to wear 5mm suits and a 5mm topsuit on top of it. Our dive boat had to relocate twice before we found a nice spot without dive boat. We stopped at island 9 where we could see a nice concrete sailing yacht. I am not sure if that yacht had ever been able to sail or if it was placed here for the sole purpose of scuba diving. I dove with the boat captain so he should know the way. Unfortunately, his compass didn't work and we had a hard time following the right path so we found the concrete wreck by accident. We swam through several thermoclines with very cold water. We saw a few lobsters defending their home and eventually hiding under rocks. At the end, when we swam a bit shallower, we saw a huge school of small fishes. Very nice. Although we didn't see any large fish such as brasems or snooks, I enjoyed the diving nonetheless.

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Porto Marie Shore dive with dive buddy

After my snorkeling adventure at the TugBoat a few days ago, I was not expecting much of the reefs just offshore Curacao. Porto Marie Beach turned out to be great. I was relaxed; setting up the gear went easy, I remembered everything well and at the time of diving we were the only ones in the water. My dive guide was busy removing a very long fishing line, and he was interested in lion fish, which had just been discovered and are a danger to the juvenile fish living of the reef. He was wearing a sharp stick to kill the lion fish with. We didn’t found any so luckily no kills today. I agree on keeping their numbers under control as they don’t have any natural predators, but I doubt killing them just because they are there is right.

We saw a scorpion fish, well camouflaged, some sort of eel which I mistook for a sea snake and two really huge pufferfish. Although you might not be blown away by the colors of the coral, you will be because of the amount of fish. Thousands of smaller coral reef fish and bait fish were surrounding you in groups. Parrot fish were eating from the reef.

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Turtles at Playa Paraiso

The bay at Playa Paraiso was quiet and entering the water from shore was not hard. It was not the coral and not the amount of marine life that made this dive interesting. It was the family of turtles. We played with them, they swam around, followed and investigated us. It was nice to see them from this close.

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First dive in Tenerife

After a short excursion by car we arrived at a small quiet bay. The shore diving here was pretty cold. We enjoyed it, but didn't see much marine and coral life. I guess we were expecting dive sites to be like in Egypt.

It was nice though. We were with a small group but some great guys.

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Petra with our Russian course director and kissing fish.

The dive on dive site Petra was long and extremely nice. We saw baby morays and kissing fish transferring food with one another. The owner of the dive shop, the big Russian, was our dive leader. He was making a lot of signals underwater and seemed like making whole conversations. He also made many pictures of his Russian comrades. A very nice dive.

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Less impressive Erg Talata

Erg Talata was not one of the most impressive Erg's or coral heads I have seen here. We saw some fish but nothing spectacular. The cold current and warmes shallower areas were the most interesting sights on this dive.

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The relatively new wreck El Mina

The wreck dive El Mina was nice but since she was a relatively young wreck, you should not expect much coral and marine life or you might get disappointed. You should dive here to see its bombs and turrets. I also saw a toilet and at the back there was a huge school of lion fish, 9 at least.

Unfortunately, Brigitte couldn't go because as an open water diver she is not allowed to dive this deep yet. She was very disappointed and the master scuba diver said that I could go and tell her all about it afterwards. Lucky me since Brigitte and I had only paid for two dives a day and this day I was going to dive three times.

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Gota Abu Ramada

A very nice dive again. Brigitte and I dove hand in hand which saved her a lot of time. We had plenty of time to look around. We saw a huge moray eel, 2 stone-fish pointed out by Brigitte and a blue spotted stingray digging itself into the sand. I think it was the first stonefish I have ever seen.

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Abu Ramada South

Abu Ramada is one of the better known dive sites near Hurghada. Lots of pinnacles, where you could swim around. At the end of our dive we saw a small fisherman's wreck. Brigitte needed buddy breathing so that we could both be diving longer. I think my last buddy breathing experience was while doing the DiveMaster course. And it is definetely not something I recommend. But we were shallow so nothing really could go wrong. It was really fun diving with her.

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El Aruk and Expedition dive

The first dive was nice. We saw two huge, more than half a meter long, moray eels, probably a couple. Clownfish, lionfish and smaller inhabitants were there as well.

The second dive looked more like an expedition. The captain stopped somewheer in the middle of nowhere and we all went down. We saw a lot of strange shaped pinnacles, but not as many fish as the first dive.

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Turtle Bay with great views on Giftun Island

Turtle Bay was a much nicer dive than Fanus. It was beautiful situated just before Giftun Island. More fish, moray eels, lionfish and clownfish. There was a saddle-point to get over so it was a great test for our buoyancy skills.

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First dive since 16 months at the laguna Fanus or Fanouse in Hurghada

This was our first dive in more than 17 months. It was Brigitte's 6th dive and she was worrying about all kinds of things, but mostly about not remembering what she had learned in Belize. She bumped up and down a bit, but then again it has been a while ago so we considered it our refreshment dive. The main sight was a huge blue-spotted stingray.

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Temple of Doom Cennote cave system

The Temple of Doom was a great cennote dive. You have to enter it by jumping from a height of 5 meters.  The cave system was narrower than other cennotes I have seen and much more grilly; resembling moon-like landscapes. The salt warm water at the bottom and sweet cold water on top created a murky layer, a window to another universe a mirror to another world. It was wicked, one of my best dives so far.

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Wicked thermocline dive at Grand Cenote near Tulum

This cenote, and cenotes in general, have extremely high visibilities. Grand Cenote was a great and cold scuba diving.

We were navigating through simple 'cave' systems, coming back each time into the main hall. There was a yellow line for finding the way back. When coming back into the main hall, I was overwhelmed with the light and beauty; like arriving on another star.

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Diving with my girlfriend Brigitte as buddy.

This was the first dive Brigitte and I did together as buddies. With her dive shop she went to a local reef just outside Caye Caulker. Unfortunately, the coral was disappointing with a lot of brown stuff. We saw a small nurse shark sleeping under a rock and a few purple shrimp.

The second dive of the day was again on the reef near Caye Caulker. Unfortunately, I couldn't even dive with Brigitte because her group went down suddenly while I was still gearing up.