Shake down dive outside the dive centre. Everyone a little bit disappointed that it wood be a 13 metre bimble but it turned into a 90 minute epic where we were swimming constantly!! Lots of octopus around here tugged into various holes and crevices. Saw one walking across the seabed behind kat and Katie before inking at me then hiding. Very cool. Lots of pretty coloured ornate wrasse, baby puffer fish and red parrot fish.

Short drive around to a little fishing port (had been running past it in the morning) and jumping in off the slip way. Nice dive overall with some good fish including a forkbeard hidden in a cave plus then another cave filed with vast numbers of shrimp. Very cool seeing then splashing around in the torch light. Bit of a tough dive for rebreather divers as lots of depth changes but nice clear water and Ken and I lost the rest of the group as was quite a rapid pace set by Richard again but we weee fine as one of the locals picked us up and showed us the sights. Pretty cool topography underwater. Just amazing to think it's not man made in places as they look like huge structures and walls. Also it's easy to spot collapsed caves all over the place.

Cracking dive. Followed the flow of two massive collapsed lava tubes. Through a great arch and then down into a sandy patch leading down to 45 m. Bit chilly down at depth but a wonderful inviting drop off into the deep with some fantastic large black coral. Ken pointed out a pushy cuskeel which looked like a very deep sea fish hidden in a cave. Back through the arch there was a big Green moray and a large conger eel too. Had a good point near the entrance where I just clipped in my legs and arms to sit and watch the fishes. Damsel fish and ornate wrasse nibbled on my fingers whilst lots of other little critters swam in and around my loop.

Possibly the least rebreather dive ever. Over and under a tonne of lava fingers. Saw a cave full of shrimp again but mainly I'll remember this dive for constantly blowing out and filling in my counter lungs.

Sao caetano A drive over the top of the island to the north coast . Diving from a harbour with quite a bit of swell which led to lot of surge underwater. The topology looked quite different here with lot more black sand and huge pebbles. Followed the slope down hill.... Once again precipitous sand covered slopes. Reached a pair of huge black coral bushes at 45 m but saw a big old Scorpion fish just beyond that I needed to have a look at (might have been driven by narcosis a bit!) down deeper to see it. Then worked our way back up via the section where sand met rock. Michelle played with the puffer fish.... Mimicking the goat fish by churning up the sand for food. Nice dive overall for such a deep shore dive.

Team was separated today so open circuit guys on a different boat. Meant it was nice and quiet underwater!! We ended up diving on an underwater volcano. Dropped into sand originally but a swim East for ten mins meant we found it. Was really cool structure. Worked our way around the circumference looking up at the wall at the point where the sand ended. Saw a couple of sting rays in the sand. Lots of cute little puffer fish dotted around as usual. Barracuda catching fish and then a few more in the distance. Escorted around a lot of the dive by various groups of trigger fish some who were especially interested in the painter once it was dropped in the water.

McDonald's arches Another nice ccr only dive. Through two arches next two each other and then following some sand and reef wall down into the depths. Similar wildlife to most other dives but also a huge grouper hiding in a little cave.

Sao jorge Trucked over to the other island for diving today with the plan to do two dives then have dinner (more to follow later). First dive was underneath a pretty epic overhanging broken volcano right on the coast. Dropped in and swam through into a wide cave which was more like a big overhang. Quite a big of surge underwater but fairly manageable as profile quite flat. Worked our way along the wall which was mighty impressive along to the end of the wall where there are some enormous boulders. Hunted around under and around the boulders but not much life apart from the usual fire worms, ornate wrasse, parrot fish, selema, cuckoo wrasse and sea bream. When we reached our turn around point we worked our way back. Spotted a couple of barracuda hunting mackerel and susharu in the shallows and then was hounded back to pickup point by a couple of pelagic trigger fish..... Almost every time I looked behind me there was one there with a group of sea bream! Back to under the cave then a nice ascent. Chilly on the boat when back up top but a very nice dive overall.

fibre optic reef Remarkably good dive in this reef just off sao jorge. Dropped down the reef and followed the fibre optic cable (covered in un-clipped cable ties). Great drop off and into a massive shrimp cave which also had two forkbeard and four moray eels. Lots of nice fish to look at plus warm thermoclines to keep yourself warm in. Managed to find an intact urchin shell and recover to the surface. At about 45 mins I had a huge tummy rumble and thought how much I was looking forward to food. Sadly turned out that the other boat we had seen from underwater was the maritime police who had been unhappy with us diving there.... So we didn't stop for dinner and headed back to pico. very hungry when we arrived!! Good days rib diving though :-)

Not sure that words can particularly describe the diving out in the middle of the Atlantic. This sea mount comes up from 2600m to 35m and is just a haven for life. At 100 km off shore required a 3 hour journey on a catamaran which I spent quite a bit of time sat on the bow getting my toes wet as we pitched along through the ocean swell. Boat was anchored up and with a fair bit of current we pulled ourselves down the shot line to the bottom. Visibility was incredible.... Easily 50 metres. At the bottom on my own was circled by a huge tuna eyeing me up. Not long after a ray came cruising by me, Ali and Michelle. Spent a fair bit of time on the top of the mount before working back up the line to be amazed by various different fly bys of rays and tuna. Hopefully some good video come out to demonstrate the experience a bit but was incredible. Like something you'd see on the TV. Definitely won't be forgetting that dive anytime soon.

As if the first dive couldn't be topped.... The second definitely did. Descending the line we can down to a school of barracuda that must have numbered at least 200 or 300. As we reached the bottom three rays came cruising by to check us out. The current wasn't so strong in the afternoon which affected the viz but made for a much more pleasant hang on the line. During our stay in the water we saw a big face off between a huge school of tuna versus the barracuda before being wave upon wave of fly bys from the manta rays. Phenomenonal! One point we had at least twenty swim through in one direction as then another huge group came through from the other direction. Wow. What a special dive. Truly is a once in a lifetime experience.