Shark Bank August 2016

Rarely do we manage to visit Shark Bank during August due to the strong SE Trade Winds  but this Saturday  was  so calm that we just could not resist the temptation. Although a bit bumpy  on the ride out it was well worth the trip . See the photos below to prove it!!

Yellow snapper  form a massive cloud

Marbel ray and divers

Marbel Ray head on!!

Heather just happened to look up and saw this! A passing whale shark 

Whale shark sightings have been so very poor for the last few years that it was a great surprise to see this  one just swimming  by

Check out our COOL Post Office in Victoria

Our post office deserves an award for the most interesting burglar window bars ever ........With an island and underwater theme I am naturally very bias but they are gorgeous and I would give them house room if needed!! There are 4 windows and each one is different. I particularly like the ones with the turtles ....VERY cool!

This one is my favorite

This one is also my favorite!!!!

Recognize any fish species?

Great fun with anti  burglary window bars

Also cool outside the Post Office are the bronze statues ......so life like you regularly say ' HI' or 'OOps sorry '

Giant Aldebaran Tortoise

Giant Co Co de Mer nut

Local man playing the Moutia  drum. Note the windows behind

Repair of Dive Centre vehicles continues

A very big problem with having Dive Centre vehicles is the immediate location to the beach , salt air and salt water...it gets everywhere. Naturally this causes rust to spring up all over and needs regular attention to keep it in check  . This year has been the BIG year for  major work  on both vehicles and boats ......not just the annual repairs and maintenance

Our 15 passenger seat bus is used regularly during the NW trade wind season  and for hotel pick up services

The Black grills are getting painted white  and every scratch removed !! 

 

 

To date she has had replacement seats and is in the paint laboratory for a complete spray job. 
Check out the Green 4 x 4 after her paint job below

S 7733 .Always look for the DIVE SEYCHELLES - UNDERWATER CENTRE  logo 

 

 

Views of old Victoria

Most divers take a day or two off and go visit Victoria and tour around Mahe Island or Praslin  or  La Digue.
 So in Victoria it is possible to see much of the old and new  town.. Look out for :

Corner of Market Street

Local shops 

Clock Tower in central Victoria

Statue of Queen Victoria from 1901 outside old Court House

Queen Victoria Statue

Afternoon dive to TWIN BARGES on 16-08-2016

 Today the afternoon dive was quite busy . A request from certified divers was for the wreck of the twin barges .....Open water certified Jessica and Carsten  descended on to the wrecks that slop from 12 meters to 18 meters ( depths  on top of the wreckage .)

View of the  side of the open barge wrecks

Encrusting corals and lots of  Lion Fish are inside the  open wreck 

Other first time divers were able to descend onto a 6 meters reef for their first ever experience with SCUBA . 2 families joined us today : one from Spain and the other from Germany . Both had a great time  and have booked for more dives !!
 Also on board were our snorkel team with snorkel guide  Arnold . They have booked for Thursday's trip to the Bay Ternay Marine  National Park .................so you can tell they had a good time  snorkeling over the Corsaire Reef and Danzille Rocks .

Another good day of diving and snorkeling

Today has been a good day with  both divers and snorkelers on both boat departures .
 Snorkelers can choose OPTION A  .4 hours in the morning  with 2 different sites @ euro 40 or
OPTION B an afternoon trip with only one site @ euro 25
Today we went to the Bay Ternay Marne Park and Park Bluff

Bat Ternay Marine National Park .....a great dive or snorkel site 

Another pair of fantastic sunglasses !!!!

I had previously shown you a set of sunglasses that were amazing.............. .but have a look at these. The shinny bling is amazing  with the winged Bug and  Butterfly

Fantastic set of new sunglasses 

Bling with winged bug

Bling sunglasses with butterfly

Previous amazing sunglasses with flower decoration

A busy weekend at the Dive Centre

Aaron graduates to Advanced Open Water diver course

Lots of students and certified divers this weekend

certified diver checking equipment before the dive .Rescue course underway!

Rescue Diver Skills

Lots of Introductory  to SCUBA courses with boat dive

Rescue Course on Final day of water skills learning 

Open Water course  theory session

Open Water class final dives

AAron masters the PADI e RDP ml

Aaron has decided to learn to SCUBA dive  and is going all out for both Open water  and Advanced Open water   certification during his Seychelles holiday .
   Open water was completed today after he mastered the  PADI depth and time tables  . He found the e RDP ml the best way to master this skill and was delighted to get the correct answers in his final exam !!   Go Aaron !!!

Smiles all round  after gettig to grips with the e RDP ml 

 

 

Seychelles Turtle Festival Saturday 6th August

Every year the TURTLE FESTIVAL is arranged on a Saturday afternoon to introduce as many youngsters, family and friends to the work done by many organizations.....just see the Sponsor list on the main sign#

Protecting Seychelles Turtles is important 

The MCSS table  teaching the young about Turtles
 

What has been seen this last week on our dive sites

Time to show some fish  and corals  seen on dives

White Gorgonian fans are seen at  L;Ilot  05-08-2016

Table corals seen at Bay Ternay  on 04-08-2016

Indian Ocean Walkmann hunted for by Ralf !

Walkman seen on Aquarium

Geometric Morey ells seen on many dives .

Hawksbill turtle seen to day 05-08-2016

Green Turtle seen on several sites this last week

New signs for Underwater Centre - Dive Seychelles

It has been a quiet day so staff are busy doing maintenance and extra jobs. The day started with cleaning the hull of REEF DIVER 11 ..then move on to putting up a few new and extra signs

Wash area at the front of the Dive Centre

Parking area to the rear of the Dive Centre

Kevin is up the ladder . Nickerman is making sure the lines are straight . Hopefully divers will enjoy taking  holiday photos with the SEYCHELLES  signs in the back drop

Todays dive sites 03-08-2016

Today we had 3 dives. 2 in the morning 9am till 12.30 pm and 1 in the afternoon 2.30 pm - 4pm

daily dive plan

We like to mix up the different dives so started with a granitic rock site with lots of encrusting corals. First dive is the deepest of the day getting shallower as the day progresses . GROUPER POINT  is on the south edge of the NW Bay and so many pelagic fish are often seen.
Next came the coral reef  site of SCALA  before returning back to the Dive Centre .
 After lunch break the boat goes out again and this time to the Aquarium site so called because of the large numbers of reef fish seen here. ...Great dive!!

New Seybrew promotional logo and poster

Driving past the Seybrew factory today I noticed their new logo and poster.
 The logo is fantastic .....see if you can find...........

1 ..A Turtle .( just a bit  obvious)
2...A Moutia drum ( used for local dances)
3...Two schooner ships with full sails
4..A Coco De Mer  nut
5..Two sail fish  ( also seen on our money and statues around Victoria)
6...Two Fairy Terns ( as seen on Air Seychelles)
7..The double S of Seychelles Seybrew as a big heart

A brilliant piece of design........well done Seybrew

Find this bottle on our Dive T shirts for sale in  the Dive Centre

New Dive Master trainee

We are pleased to welcome Heather  Berry all the way from Australia as our newest Dive Master trainee . She has been working hard and has managed to complete the reading for almost all of her theory .

Heather with this weeks dive list

Theory with IDC staff Instructor Tony

Exams come next  but no problem for Heather!!