DSD TO Advance Open Water Diver

Well it has been very busy 2 weeks we have had julia from Germany who came for dsd program and ended up working her way up to Padi Open Water Diver, and during that course she had some splendid dives her first 2 open water dives looked  bit flustered, but she grasped the skills and perfected them to the point were i am sure she was practicing in the bath!but as we went onto her open water dive 3 it all came together, so we took off down the reef in sliema to tug tuo(2), as the reef dipped down we tested her buoyancy, and she cruised off the reef at 14 meters and stayed there, hovered around the wreck looking down on her for few minutes and then headed back onto the reef,

Then few days later we meet up to do her final bits of paper work and exams and off we go! oh by the way 100% on the exam well done Julia, so we went to X-lighter 127  sunk during the WWII in the harbour just after refueling  and took a direct hit and caught on fire and sank she, and the only one left all the others have been totally destroyed, Built in 1915 for the admiralty during WWI, 200 support landing craft were built and this is the last one in the world, the hull was based on Thames London barge boats, with a ramp but X-127 was to be slightly redesigned to carry water, 35 meters long 6.5 meters wide she could car lots of water for the troops during the Gallipoli campaign.
 So 16 ended here in Malta and X-127 was one of them,WWII started and her duty's started again carrying fresh water this time from land to the war ships and submarines, then in the late 1941 she was converted to carry shale oil for the 10th submarine flotilla, at HMS Talbot Manoel island,
durning the night of 6th March 1942 while she was unloading, the harbour came under attach and 2 submarines P36 & P39 were damaged but X-127 was on fire shortly after she sank and remains in the same spot as she was in 1942.

Now loaded with knolage of the site we head off and do her final dive and one of the reasons we picked this site of all the clear water sites in malta because she will be diving in lakes and rivers back in Germany so to give her an idea what it will be like and to finish off her finals for the open water course, she excelled with hovering in 2 meters vis controlled her buoyancy perfectly and to finish her dive on the way back we found a piece of plate marked with the royal navy emblem 1941, what a way to finish you course on a historic wreck and to find a small piece of history!

Few days later now hooked she back to start her Advance, so off we go again and she must have been one of the luckiest girls i know, we plan her deep dive for the P29 ex German minesweeper, performs fantastic and on the way back around 22 meters i stop her, and signal to her to look in front and tell me what she can see? she looks at me as if i am crazy! ( i am ),

Followed by wow and then the tail fluttered and i was getting ready for the next shot! Bang just in Time!

So now she has got so hyped up i dont know what to find on the next dive so it wreck dive, we have our surface interval coffee and some food from good man Jason our snack man on the dive site and we do the briefing on the site and what we are going to do! so off we go in and heading down the reef and this moray appears out of nowhere looks at us and scurry's down the bank, just coming onto the MV Rozi and a battery of barracuda swim past then we find some Nudibranch wow.

 So now she left with 3 more dives and meet up and do her buoyancy & night dives, so we head back up to Cirkewwa and we had some tunnels at different depths and ledges to work from and she was great free fall from one ledge to the other under perfect control she mastered it, out we come and and we are joined by a friend for the night dive hanging about in summer waiting for it to get dark in Malta is like watching paint dry.....

You can imagine how her night dive was?
When than headed of few days later to finish off her final dive Navigation! and as she loved hiking ect how do you think it went! well stay tuned as she is doing the next blog called 'MY FIRST DIVE'
so stay tuned

and big thanks to DAWN DIVING MALTA for their help during the course.