alexmaclennan
10-08-06, 07:19
This reoprt is also posted on yorkshire-divers.com
Just done 4 boat dives with Divepoint Madeira in the Garajau National Marine Park. I chose Divepoint as they have been featured in reports in Diver and Scottish Diver, have a good looking website, replied quickly to emails and were the closest to my hotel. They are based at Hotel Carlton Madeira. The main instructors that I met - Rolf & Wilfried - have years of teaching experience in Carribean, Thailand and Red Sea. Both days Wilfried picked me up from my hotel. They are a German outfit with an irish instructor and a portugese marine biologist on staff. The language used is English, often even when talking to other Germans.
The similarities of each dive were kit up at either 10.00 or 14.30. They will hire you Aqualung gear if necessary. They use 10 or 12 l steel tanks with either DIN or A clamp fittings. Air or Nitrox. Fill is 200 bar. After kit up, quick brief about the site, walk 100m to pier, jump off pier and swim to boat. Get up boat via fin ladder. Reason for the swim from pier was the swell so they could not bring the boat into the pier. Boat is 20 foot, twin 50HP engines, Holds 10 divers with kit. Keep kit on in boat and drive 10-15mins to divesite. Each site has a fixed yellow buoy from which you ascend/ descend. The dives were generally to 28m max and lasted 45 mins. Water temp was 22/23 degrees. Visibility was at least 20m. There is almost no life on the rocks apart from barnacles so no anemones/soft corals/sponges/worms. The life to see is fish. On returning after washing and stowing kit, you rinse your wetsuit in a warm/hot shower. You are finished by 12.30 or 16.30. Plenty places locally for lunch betwen dives.
Divesites were:
Garajau - a easy angled slope/ jumble of boulders up to size of a truck reaching to 12m from a sandy bottom at 28m.
Galomar - a sandy arena at 28m ringed by rock teeth reaching to 14m. At the shore end of the arena is a 20 foot long swimthrough at 18m.
T-Reef - Two rock pinnacles from a sandy bottom at 28m. One pinnacle reaches to 14m, the other larger pinnacle to 12m.
Laxareto - Another easy slope/jumble of smaller boulders from 28m to 12m
Fish seen includes: Huge shoals of sardines; shoals of bream - common, two stripe, zebra; squadron of 6 stingrays, one came to within 2 feet, they were 4 to 5 feet across, one was missing its tail; lizardfish in sand; comb and dusky groupers; herds of goatfish; neon tipped bluefin damselfish; grey triggerfish, some of which bit divers; turkish and rainbow wrasse; parrotfish; a turtle on the surface; garden eels in sand; lots of black an a brown moray; madeiran scorpionfish; barracuda; arrow crab. On one site only was a patch of soft coral an another a couple of blue anemones.
Only bum note was that we ran out of petrol visiting the first site second morning. We waited until another diveboat - from Tubaroa divers - came and they towed us to the port for petrol. Made me wonder if the boat was equiped with VHF/mobile or O2 if no spare gas. Rolf`s explanation for running out was that a new tank had been fitted and it now holds 100 l not the previous 130 l. Rolf subsequently assured me that the boat carries a mobile and O2 on every dive.
Overall 4 good dives. Plenty fish to see on all dives. Divepoint seems well run and I would happily dive with them again.
Total cost for 4 dives 148 euros = 22 euros/dive + 13 euros/boat trip + 2 euros national park fee.
Alex
Just done 4 boat dives with Divepoint Madeira in the Garajau National Marine Park. I chose Divepoint as they have been featured in reports in Diver and Scottish Diver, have a good looking website, replied quickly to emails and were the closest to my hotel. They are based at Hotel Carlton Madeira. The main instructors that I met - Rolf & Wilfried - have years of teaching experience in Carribean, Thailand and Red Sea. Both days Wilfried picked me up from my hotel. They are a German outfit with an irish instructor and a portugese marine biologist on staff. The language used is English, often even when talking to other Germans.
The similarities of each dive were kit up at either 10.00 or 14.30. They will hire you Aqualung gear if necessary. They use 10 or 12 l steel tanks with either DIN or A clamp fittings. Air or Nitrox. Fill is 200 bar. After kit up, quick brief about the site, walk 100m to pier, jump off pier and swim to boat. Get up boat via fin ladder. Reason for the swim from pier was the swell so they could not bring the boat into the pier. Boat is 20 foot, twin 50HP engines, Holds 10 divers with kit. Keep kit on in boat and drive 10-15mins to divesite. Each site has a fixed yellow buoy from which you ascend/ descend. The dives were generally to 28m max and lasted 45 mins. Water temp was 22/23 degrees. Visibility was at least 20m. There is almost no life on the rocks apart from barnacles so no anemones/soft corals/sponges/worms. The life to see is fish. On returning after washing and stowing kit, you rinse your wetsuit in a warm/hot shower. You are finished by 12.30 or 16.30. Plenty places locally for lunch betwen dives.
Divesites were:
Garajau - a easy angled slope/ jumble of boulders up to size of a truck reaching to 12m from a sandy bottom at 28m.
Galomar - a sandy arena at 28m ringed by rock teeth reaching to 14m. At the shore end of the arena is a 20 foot long swimthrough at 18m.
T-Reef - Two rock pinnacles from a sandy bottom at 28m. One pinnacle reaches to 14m, the other larger pinnacle to 12m.
Laxareto - Another easy slope/jumble of smaller boulders from 28m to 12m
Fish seen includes: Huge shoals of sardines; shoals of bream - common, two stripe, zebra; squadron of 6 stingrays, one came to within 2 feet, they were 4 to 5 feet across, one was missing its tail; lizardfish in sand; comb and dusky groupers; herds of goatfish; neon tipped bluefin damselfish; grey triggerfish, some of which bit divers; turkish and rainbow wrasse; parrotfish; a turtle on the surface; garden eels in sand; lots of black an a brown moray; madeiran scorpionfish; barracuda; arrow crab. On one site only was a patch of soft coral an another a couple of blue anemones.
Only bum note was that we ran out of petrol visiting the first site second morning. We waited until another diveboat - from Tubaroa divers - came and they towed us to the port for petrol. Made me wonder if the boat was equiped with VHF/mobile or O2 if no spare gas. Rolf`s explanation for running out was that a new tank had been fitted and it now holds 100 l not the previous 130 l. Rolf subsequently assured me that the boat carries a mobile and O2 on every dive.
Overall 4 good dives. Plenty fish to see on all dives. Divepoint seems well run and I would happily dive with them again.
Total cost for 4 dives 148 euros = 22 euros/dive + 13 euros/boat trip + 2 euros national park fee.
Alex