Divewise Curry Nights

On Sunday night, Dive Life who have come over to dive with us from Manchester went out for a curry, Divewise style.

We do curry nights a lot for diving groups. We take the groups to the local curry house called the Emperor of India. The curry there is fantastic and they have a great range selection of both meat and vegetarian curries and you can request how hot you would like the curry.

I think the curry was a bit too hot for some . . .

The service is a bit slow sometimes, particularly on weekends because it is so popular however we have got around this problem by ringing in the orders of food at lunch time so the food is ready to be eaten when all the hungry divers arrive after a long day out diving.

If you fancy a curry night with us when you’re out here diving then just let us know and we can arrange it for you.

A Full Pool Means an Empty Kit Room!

The new canopy went up on Monday that will shade the wetsuit and BCD basin. The extra shade will be greatly appreciated in June when the temperature soars for the summer months. Now our unprofessional building team can relax from the building work . . . no wait forget about relaxing we have more diving to do!

We had 14 DSD’s yesterday in addition to our normal mix of pleasure divers. So the pool was full . . .

And the Kit room was empty . . .

Mondays boat trip to the Beaufighter was a great experience for everyone.

Mark and Les put all their training to the test doing the Deep wreck dive on Nitrox so they had more time in the wreck.

Lots of Diving = Lots of Food + Lots of Sleep!

We had another birthday to celebrate yesterday. Little Frans! (also known as the Cookie Monster) It was really just another excuse to eat cake and given she’s Italian there has been lots of cake the last couple of days!

Darrell spent yesterday doing his Emergency First Response Course with Howard. Steve comes to the centre to help out where he can on the weekends I don't think playing dead for a day was really what he had in mind . . .

Fran had a relaxing day yesterday in the sun teaching a Discover Scuba Diver course.

While Stanislas came in to complete his Open Water Diver theory. He has a bad back at the moment but is hoping to get back in the water again on Tuesday to continue his course.

On that note, Olaf completed his Open Water course yesterday and went on to start his advanced. He spent a lot of time in the confined overcoming anxieties about the mask skills during the course. We don’t have a photo of him at the moment because he’s determined to get a haircut first. Given it kept getting caught in his mask during the skills training I think he has a valid point!

Les and Mark are in for a treat today . . . Now they have completed their Deep, Wreck and Nitrox Specialities they are being treated to dives on the Imperial Eagle and the Beaufighter from the boat. Obviously it makes sense after doing these specialities to go for two deep wreck dives on Nitrox! Fran’s been bouncing around all morning, she’s so excited to be the one taking them. They are actually feeling a bit rough this morning . . . No they havn't been out drinking last night, all the deep diving and classroom sessions they've been doing are starting to make them feel sleepy! There's nothing like taking a nap in the Maltese sun between dives to sort that out!

Soon to Be Instructors Face All Sorts of Challenges!

The candidates on the IDC are progressing well. Nev’s been working them hard to make sure they’re ready for the Instructor Exams. They had some pool training the other day where lucky Darrell got to have Pau and Ed as troublesome students.

They had plenty of problems for him to sort out.

But with a bit of practice and some wise words (and awful jokes) from Nev . . .

Darrell got the hang of solving their problems and getting them to master their skills.

Yesterday they had some more videos and discussions in the classroom with Nev. Darrell was having a great time . . .

however Sini is still determined not to have her photo taken . . .

Then it was off to do some practice teaching in the Open water with Fran as one of their problematic students . . .

And the Maltese Summer is Here as is a New Hotel!

Jacks been greased up. Viv’s covered him in serum to protect him from the pesky mosquitoes and sand flies that are starting to come out in force following the sand storm the other day that marked the start of the Maltese summer.These pictures were taken during the day would you believe. It went dark enough for the street lights to turn on!

The dive centre was dominated by Al Hewitts Kit yesterday as it was all hung out to dry ready for them heading home in the early hours of this morning, after a hearty meal at the Emperor of India of course!

Howard and Pau have been working on the basins and the canopy. This is probably the cleanest they will ever look!

We have a New Hotel for 2011 available to view on the Divewise Website. It is call the George Urban Boutique Hotel. If you fancy staying here we can usually organise slightly cheaper prices than those advertises on their website.

Click the link to see it in our list of hotels . . .

http://www.divewise.com.mt/Services/DivewiseRecommendedHotels/tabid/101/Default.aspx

Four Wrecks in one Day – Think You Can Handle It?

Fancy a bit of a diving challenge on your next trip to Malta? Or maybe you only have one day free to go diving and want to see as much as you can of our underwater world before you leave because you don’t know when you’ll next have the opportunity to dive here?
Yesterday the boat went to 4 wrecks.
First was the Imperial Eagle. A ferry that carried 70 passengers and 10 cars between Marfa Harbour on Malta and Mgarr Harbour in Gozo in the 1960’s and 70’s. The statue of Christ is also located a short distance from the wreck. Next was the Charlotte Louise. A vessel belonging to Captain Morgan Cruises featured in a number of films, including the Count Of Montecristo. The cause of its sinking remains a mystery. It was found sunk in its moorings at the Strand, Sliema on 4th Nov 2007.

Followed by the x127. A water lighter sunk in WW2 when the submarine base it was moored at was bombed.

Finishing off with the Maori. Launched in 1937 the Maori assisted in defending Malta in the war and attacking Rommels supply lines. It is of Historical importance as the British committed every possible unit to hunt down the German Battleship, Bismarck in their determination to avenge the sinking of their battlecruiser, Hood. The Maori was the one who located the battleship and was involved in the pursuit and destruction of the ship in May 1941.
The Maori was later attacked by enemy German aircraft and sank at her moorings in the Malta Grand Harbor on 12 February 1942 with the loss of one of her crew.
See our website for more information on these wrecks:
http://www.divewise.com.mt/DiveSites/tabid/72/Default.aspx

We even managed to have all the divers back by 4pm! Many of the divers joined on two of the dives including Big Al’s group who did the Imperial Eagle and the X127. A number of divers did 3 of the dives. We have yet to welcome a group of diving enthusiasts who want to take on the challenge to do all 4 dives in one day. Think your up for it? Give us a ring, or an email and let us know!

Jacks Hording Addiction

Jack was occupied all yesterday with hording Nev’s shoes . . .

‘Now all I need is one more and I’ll have one for each foot!’

‘Oh yeah and some socks!’

Here’s what Jack currently hording . . .

Big Al’s group went to Comino today. They brought some banana for the fish. Apparently the infamous fish at Comino have got so used to being fed they have turned into fussy eaters and weren’t to impressed with one particular banana.

Darrell went along with them to help on the boat and relax drinking tea at the Blue Lagoon.