Important notice
We have closed our dive operation for the month of September. This is the worst month of the year with windy, cold and wet weather conditions. Our harbour is closed more often than not due to adverse sea conditions.
Beulah and i have taken this month time out on a far away island. Here we have limited internet access and will only answer our mails every Monday and every Friday.
Please be patient when making your inquiries. I will answer every single mail but i might need a couple of days to do so.
From October everything is back to normal again.
28.9. 2015
Our perpetual holiday is almost at it’s end. Tomorrow is our last day. How sad…
Adios, lovely Maldives, adios wonderful people. We are really sad to leave here.
On wednesday we fly to Dubai where we will spend the night at the airport hotel as always. This breaks the journey and makes is a lot easier. After all, i am now travelling with a senior citizen and have to go easy on her…!!!
Then it is shoes on again and forever filling cars up with petrol….tssssss
Living in South Africa, on the beach in a lovely climate makes the home coming definitely a lot easier than if one has to dive into a rat-race. So what am i mostly looking forward to ?
My dogs of course are foremost on my mind. They will be so happy to have us back and will run round and round us as we enter the driveway. They’ll go completely mad, that’s for sure.
Of course our lovely house is something to look forward to. We will still have 12 days to chill and enjoy our home before work starts up again.
And also work, diving with sharks on Protea Banks is well worth a great big joy.
The hammerhead season should be starting soon.
Our Diver Villa has been modified significantly. I can’t wait to see the result. Karen said, it is amazing !!!
In November i will be starting with my rebreather. This is probably one of the main highlights at this stage. I can’t wait to go silent and hopefully right amongst the sharks.
Also we have added the revolutionary ENOS system to our divers’ safety portfolio.
We will be checking ENOS out properly and will document it here in detail.
Also we will do further tests with the Australian shark repellent wetsuits which is a really exciting project.
So yes, many exciting events coming . Life in Margate has never a dull moment…
23.9. 2015
One week left in paradise… Today went on a whaleshark trip but unfortunately we did not find any. For us this is not a problem. We have seen so many whalesharks in our time. It would have been a bonus but was not meant to be. On the other hand, the boat trip of four hours was lovely. We passed so many interesting islands which kept us quietly dreaming…
When we got to the whaleshark destination there were tons of boats and hundreds of people all looking for the elusive animal. It reminded us of Mozambique. When we first went there, we could give a money back guarantee to see whalesharks. It was a sure thing. After years of promoting whalesharks in Mozambique there were so many boats chasing the animals that eventually they disappeared. What we need to understand is that the animal does not go to a specific place to play with humans , but to be undisturbed. Once we disturb it, it moves off….
So, one week left and then it is back to work. Lucky my work is mostly fun. We are in for the hammerhead season, starting next month. This is an exciting time on Protea Banks.
Karen has told me that September was quiet, bad weather and the base in Shelly Beach was more closed than open. So this confirms, we did the right thing by going on holiday this month.
14.9. 2015
We have been here on the island of Vilamendhoo for two weeks now. It is brilliant when you have an endless holiday….still 16 days to go.
We decided that in future we will take a holiday every September…no matter what happens…and even if we will have to live like paupers in our old age !!!
I do my e-mails every monday and every friday. Got to keep the ship afloat. But honestly, the longer i am on this island the less i feel like working.
We have our little daily holiday routine. 80% of the time we are in the horizontal position ( deck chair, bed, water ) 5 % vertical ( when we move from beach to bar and restaurant ) and 15% sitting. Life is good.
I have devoured already 3 books which is about as much as i read a year !!! I have studied the manual of my rebreather and i play with the camera.
The weather has been perfect for the last 10 days. It is hot as hell, actually rater humid than hot. I am sweating 27/7 Just like in our February in South Africa.
But what the hell, i run into the sea when it gets too bad.
Beulah snorkels for hours at the time. She can’t get enough and loves it like a child. She has discovered my GoPro camera and brings back hundreds of photos and video clips. I am the poor guy who has to edit all that stuff. Some of it is on Facebook… Water has 29℃ !!!
The food here is out of this world. Every day they have a different nationality theme. Yesterday it was European night and we even got German Spaetzle. What a treat !!
Beulah is the worst. She loads her plate and eats while she walks from one station to the next on the buffet. Then she proudly shows me how little food she has on her plate…..heeelloooo….
So we are having much fun and a really good time. Not a minute of boredom.
Another 16 days to go…halleluiah…
4.9. 2015
We are in the Maldives, on Vilamendhoo Island. Today is day 4 of many still to come…
We love it here. The plan is to chill and do nothing we don’t feel like doing.
Se we read, talk, snorkel, swim, sleep and indulge in food and beverage. Love it !!!
The weather is crazy here. One minute the sun cooks you, the next you get all but blown off the island by a huge wind. This one brings rains of such strength that even us Africans are baffled. And a few minutes later it looks like nothing happened.
We enjoy this because every moment has its own atmosphere.
We have decided that in order to have a bit of a holiday, we will only do our e mails every Monday and every Friday. Can’t be on the internet all the time, else we never switch off.
From Shelly Beach we hear that the weather is upside down. The base has been closed for the last three days now. This just confirms that we are doing the right thing by closing our dive operation for the month of September.
That’s it for now. Back to my book and a lovely glass of whiskey…..