Advice on the Azores please

[bythesea]

What when where, costs best sites, any advice or experiences gratefully received.

Thanks

[Eddie Clamp]

What when where, costs best sites, any advice or experiences gratefully received.

Thanks

The island of Pico is a good one for diving just do not go there in September like I did - inclement weather meant only one dive in a week. :o The whole island was closing down after the season as well. Nevertheless, we still had a great week walking and site-seeing.

[Regaldive - BSAC PTP]

What when where, costs best sites, any advice or experiences gratefully received.

Thanks

Hi, Regaldive have recently introduced the Azores to the programme. It's a fantastically unique destination with great diving - and offers great value for money too, so we're pretty excited about our new addition!

We're featuring Sao Miguel island for starters, and during the summer there is a direct flight from the UK (double touch from either Gatwick or Manchester) which only takes 4 hours.

The Azores is a summer dive destination and the season runs from April - October, but they best time of year to go for diving is either late June / early July before the August tides when visibility drops a little, or September / October for the best visibility.

For an idea of dive sites please visit our website (http://www.regal-diving.co.uk/home/?m=destinations&destid=74&resortid=140). A week in September starts from £678 pp based on bed & breakfast accommodation. Diving starts at £104 for 5 dives. We've got a January Sale running at the moment, so you could save an addition 5% on the package price I've just quoted.

If you have more questions & would like to have a chat with someone who's actually visited the destination, please give the Regaldive office a call on 01353 659 999 and ask for Kate.

I hope that helps!

All the best
Emma
Regaldive

[MattS]

I have been meaning to write this report for a while now. Thanks for the excuse.

I first got the idea of diving the Azores while chatting to some yachting types over a beer in Grenada. A small group of islands almost in the middle of the Atlantic, has to be worth a look. So I spent a week on Pico Island during June 2009. Fantastic place. Very much up and coming and still a little rustic compared to the bigger islands in the Azores.

Flavour
We arranged the trip for five of us ourselves. The cheapest way we found to get there was flying from Gatwick and overnighting in Lisbon, before flying on early the next morning to Pico. We rented a car for the week and stayed in a traditional cottage at Cas du Mourato, a few miles from the dive centre at Madalene. The accommodation suited me fine but was not to everyone's liking, being a bit basic on the amenities side. They have since finished building a hotel at Madelane for those that can't do without their creature comforts for a few days.

The Espiritu Santo festival, which ran for the first 4 nights of our stay, possibly didn't help the demeanour of some of our group. Kicking off at 11:00 PM with mucho music and dance, culminating in a firework display at 2:00 AM, there was a bit of sleep deprivation going on in our abode for the duration. Personally I love local colour and sleep like a log anyhow. I ventured down to the make shift bandstand on the last night and was struck by the hospitality of the locals. A bit of spirited folk music being a small price for the freshly barbecued sardines and other local dishes made available free to anyone passing by.

Diving
Diving was with CW Azores (http://www.cwazores.com/Default.aspx). A friendly, enthusiastic and laid back bunch, extremely well informed on the local wildlife and geology. There is also a BSAC Premier Centre (http://www.divetheazores.com/) on the island which was in it's first year when we visited. We ran into the Brits on the last night and quite a night it was too.

Pico being a small volcanic island in the middle of the Atlantic, the weather is changeable. The dive plans can be as dynamic as the weather. If you are prepared and happy to 'roll with it,' it's well worth it. Some of the best scenic diving I have done in years. Underwater you are rewarded with a stunning seascape. Although not as colourful as say the Red Sea or Caribbean, the vista is HUGE, as is the wildlife. Trigger fish the length of your arm, stingrays over 2m long, some of the biggest barracuda I have seen, even the hermit crabs look like they are on steroids. Don't be fooled by the scenic nature and relatively shallow depths, the diving is exhilarating. There is a constant current running which you need to swim against at the good sites. 15 Ltr single cylinders are standard and advisable. Most of the divers were chugging cylinders in around 30 minutes but the guides were happy enough to let me carry on for my obligatory 1hr. Inshore visibility can be variable but was never less than 10m and nearer to 20m. The water temperature was around 16C to 18C but the currents made it feel a lot chillier. A 5mm wetsuit was not really enough for me to stay comfortable on the afternoon dive and after three days I chose to do just the morning dive.

Other Attractions
On land there is a mass to see and do if you are willing to get out and explore a bit. I did the Whale watching and swim with the Dolphins trip. Hump back and fin whales, and bottle nose dolphins a plenty with some great photo opportunities for the holiday album. We also took the walk into the lava tunnels of the active volcano that dominates the island. The whaling museum was extremely interesting, challenging my view of a practice I held to be abhorrent.

The island is not exactly bursting with restaurants. Most of the bars serve snacks, one or two provide something more substantial but it is all basic stuff. The local sea food is excellent none the less and our Euros went a long way. A 'tumbler' of the local wine can be had for one Euro. By local, I mean fermented in the basement and served from a plastic gallon water container. A fruity number though a little on the young side, you really don't care after the first one. Outside the tourism centres there is not a lot of English spoken and even the Portugese have been known to struggle with the local dialect, but the universal language of hand waiving worked well enough.

Alice, Alice, Who the Flip is Alice
The highlight of the week for me was diving the Princess Alice banks. 40 miles offshore in the middle of the World's second largest ocean, it's always a privilege for the weather to be kind enough. All week it had been, "Maybe tomorrow." Until the last day, when finally there was a window. Some quick work with a decompression table later, I could definitely make the first dive but was tight on the second, to allow for de-fizzing prior to flying home. Thankfully I neglected to ask how much it was going to cost as the answer would probably have put me off what turned out to be one of the highlights in my 15 years of diving.

Stood on the quay at ridiculous O'Clock I was slightly worried by the local police stopping by to ask what I was doing, well I think that's what he was asking. Turns out we were waiting for him to get off duty as he was coxing the RHIB. I was reminded of the Whaling museum by the thought that in days gone by he would likely have been rowing a boat chasing a whale.

It took 2 Hrs at full chat on the RHIB driving into the mid-Atlantic swell to reach the site. Not the most comfortable journey but certainly an exciting one if you are into that sort of thing, which I am. The RHIB moored up and immediately hooked the pinnacle. Only once I was in the water did I realise what a feet of boatmanship it must take. The pinnacle is relatively tiny, surrounded by nothing but the abyssal blue of the Ocean in all directions. The visibility was awesome at well over 30m, which only helps to remind you how lonely the place seems. The gulf stream was making it's presence known, the water temperature a pleasant 2C to 4C higher than around the islands. I went down to the rock with the dive guide to check the shot was in tight at 38m and had a quick swim around the base at 52m. There is nothing much to distinguish the feature but a few small corals and weeds. Five minutes later I was heading back up the line, spurred on by thoughts of the isolation, a single cylinder of air and my flight home the next day. At 25m some trigger fish came by to say hello. They were even bigger than the ones I had seen inshore, approaching a meter long by the look of it. A solitary barracuda hung in the distance as I slowly ascended, stopping to retrieve the camera I had tied off on the way down.

Around 15m and just when I was starting to wonder what all the fuss was about, a squadron of Mantas appeared from the murk in the distance. There were 6 of them cruising toward us on the line but this turned out to be just the reconnaissance party. I pulled out the 3m jon line I always carry, tied it off with a sliding knot and let go of the main line to drift tethered in the current. Again and again the Mantas would fly past, edging ever closer until twenty or so were drawing lazy circles around us. Feeling the tide slacken a little I felt bold enough to unclip from the safety of my jon line. After drifting 10m off I maintained position with some gentle finning while the Mantas swam past just a few inches away. Within a few minutes the mantas started brushing up against me. I don't really do the gushing of Kate and Miranda when it comes to big fish, but this really was a quite magical experience. Mesmerised by what I was looking at, I was slow to notice the tide picking up again and the main line starting to drift out of site. It took some effort to swim back but I was soon safely attached to my jon line again. Fumbling in my BCD pocket I dragged out another 3m line and tied it off to get a bit closer to the Mantas that were continuing to circle. An hour and 10 minutes after entering the water, most of it spent shallower than 10m, I was down to 60 bar and made the final ascent to the surface. With due regard for my flight, the sensible and conservative thing to do would have been to call it a day. A light lunch and an hour later I was back in the water, my fag packet calculations saying it would be fine. I decided to keep it shallow and blasted off the remainder of my cameras memory card while watching the Mantas for another 70 minutes.

The journey back was interspersed with shouts of whale and dolphin sightings above the constant drone of the outboard. Then just when we were back in sight of the islands the RHIB decided to play up, which is slightly worrying when the tide next stops at Venezuela. It turns out the local policeman is a whizz when it comes to cleaning fuel filters in the middle of the Ocean and we reached shore just an hour late. Took a few more hours for the land to stop rolling though. I was left with the feeling of having just taken part in a fantastic adventure. As you can see, nearly two years later I am still full of the memory.

And Finally
My computer cleared for flying 1 minute before boarding the plane, when I finally admitted to my partner that I had done the second dive. Carol is not a diver but has spent enough years organising holidays for dive clubs to know I had been cutting it fine. The dive on Alice Banks cost 200 Euros. Was it worth it for 180 minutes of diving, without a doubt - YMMV. The rest of the holiday came in at under £500 per head.

So to summarise. If you want the predictable holiday brochure experience. The molly coddling of the Red Sea. The perfect constancy of the Carribean. The familiarity of the Med. You might not want to go to Pico island just yet.

If you want something different. Something exciting. Something a little rough around the edges. Which offers a true sense of local culture, adventure and excitement. My advice is get there now, before the masses find it and spoil it.

[bythesea]

Cheers Matt, sounds just like I imagine. Would you recommend a drysuit with a light undersuit?

[Eddie Clamp]

7th October 08 Diving Pico, Azores 2008 by Gary Fell

http://www.bsac.com/diverreports.asp?itemid=5441&itemTitle=Diving+Pico%2C+Azores+2008&section=1405&sectionTitle=S+Europe+%2F+The+Atlantic

This is the report from Gary Fell who I understand later went to set up the BSAC Centre in Pico.

[MattS]

I saw Gary getting on and off the boats in his drysuit and twinset. I also saw the sweat dripping off him :(

Personally I think you are better off keeping kit to a minimum and staying as streamlined and mobile as possible, due to the constant nag of the current. A 2mm rash vest with hood under my one piece would have made all the difference. The dive centre was renting two piece 5mm semi drys (10mm torso), while the locals and guides were all in 7mm one piece semis. I would think something like that would be fine.

The guides noted it was unusually cold inshore when I visited, due to the gulf stream having shifted a couple degrees, missing the channel between the islands.

[westcoast]

I use twin 7s in the Azores as its nice to be self sufficient to a certain extent. As for the dry suit, yes you’re right it is a tad warm for a dry suit on the surface but so is a wetsuit. When you are diving all season when the water temp drops even 1 or 2 degrees you can feel the difference, but a 6mm semidry or wet suit is more than adequate. Dive the Azores is a dedicated Diving Centre and do not whale watch although this can be arranged for you so our commitment is to you as a diver. Please feel free to drop me a message or have a look at our web site. This will now be our 3rd year and looking forward to another successful one too, along with the addition of NITROX with qualified BSAC gas blenders and even more spectacular dive sites to suit all grades. :rolleyes: www.divetheazores.com