Saigon Refresher with Olivier

Saigon Pool Training with Phuong

Rainbow Divers Saigon confined water diver training takes place here in district 2 of Ho Chi Minh City.  The pool is located just round the corner from the dive centre's Saigon office.

As can be seen, the pool is ideal for confined water diver training; quiet, clean, ample and well maintained.

Vietnam - Rainbow Divers

With a new chapter starting in Vietnam I quickly got in contact with the longest established dive centre in the country, Rainbow Divers.  They have centres all Vietnam; from the capital Saigon to Phu Quoc, Con Dao, Nha Trang, Whale Island, Hoi An, Hue and even in Hanoi in the north.

Jeremy Stein is a great guy and wasted no time in creating this poster so that I could promote the courses offered at the centres. 

Ornate Wrasse - Thalassoma pavo

Description
This is a very colourful and  extremely fast moving little fish.

Habitat

This species is present throughout most of the Mediterranean Sea and is one of the most common fish seen.  It is less common in the north-western basin as it prefers warmer waters and inhabits coastal waters near rocks and seagrass beds. It is also often found near man-made structures such as wrecks and piers.

Feeding
It feeds on small molluscs and crustaceans. The juveniles of this species often clean other fish.

Damselfish - Chromis chromis

Almeria - Las Negras

Almeria is a beautiful region in the south-east of Spain.  Cabo de Gata is renowned for its stunning sea and landscapes.  On a short weekend camping trip I managed to squeeze in the first dive of 2013 in Las Negras, a small fishing village in Cabo de Gata-Níjar Natural Park.  I dived with the small and friendly Las Negras diving centre.

My solitary dive was enjoyable and fairly simple to a maximum depth of 18m.  

Adventure Divers Team September 2012

Bajo de Dentro - Cave and Chimney

Bajo de Dentro

Bajo de Dentro is a rocky submerged pinnacle located in the Islas Hormigas marine reserve off the tip of Cabo de Palos in Murcia.  The marine reserve consists of 19 sq km of protected water characterized by an extremely high diversity of aquatic life.   

The pinnacle consists of a rocky outcrop which rises up from a sandy seabed at around 50 metres and reaches a depth of around 3 to 4 metres.  Its northern side comprises of a gently sloping platform some 20-30m in length which lies in 12-16m of water. Both the eastern & western sides consist of steep walls and the easterly wall is almost vertical & deeper.

We dived with the Naranjito scuba diving centre from the port of Cabo de Palos in a RIB.  Bajo de Dentro lies exactly 4 km from port, within the marine reserve of Islas Hormigas taking around 10-15 minutes to get there.  

Because of the currents that surround the pinnacle as well as its coveted protected marine reserve status, Bajo de Dentro is extremely rich in both marine flora and fauna.  Large schools of both sea perch, Chromis, Corva, Bream & Mojarra are guaranteed, which in turn attract shoals of Barracuda, Groupers & Dentex. Amongst the rocks lies sanctuary for Scorpion fish, Brotala, Lobsters, Moray and Conger Eels.  There is also an abundance of soft corals such as Gorgonias. You can occasionally spot eagle rays, sunfish & maybe turtles.

Common marine life: large groupers, moray eels, eagle rays, barracuda shoals, dentex, sun fish, slipper lobsters, bream, blennies.

Visibility: From 10 m to 40m
Min depth: 4m
Max depth: 50m
Experience level: Open water and above
Conditions: This site is situated in open waters so can be affected by some strong currents and a north easterly wind.

The Cave - Bajo de Dentro

The cave is at a depth of 20 metres.

The Chimney - Bajo de Dentro

Star Fish

Gorgonia

Jelly fish, Pelagia noctiluca, aka mauve stinger.

This jelly fish's sting was quite painful.  During the diving season I regularly saw this species in the water around Murcia.  I managed to successfully avoid its sting.  However one day on climbing into the boat I did feel an extremely sharp pain on my ear lobe. At first I thought my ear-ring had been ripped out.  The sensation was close to what I imagine the pain would be from a hammer strike on my lobe and an anvil!

Safety stop - 3 minutes @ 5 meters

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