Saturday 10th April and once again the pick up is 08:30 from the hotel. The wind had increased significantly overnight and we had to hide in Valetta harbour, which suited me fine as I find harbour dives quite interesting. We were to do two dives from the same entry point, the first a large loop around the wreck of the Maouri and the second the wreck itself. Today I was buddied with Graham from Liverpool, who did not bat an eyelid at being pared with a camera weilding drysuiy clad DIR diver. Which was nice. Entry and exit for both dives was at the foot of a set of stone steps and over a small rock hop. Air and water temps were as yesterday, vis down nearer 10m but still nice and blue. Dive one was best so far, and best of the trip for me. I found a cuttlefish hidden under the sand, some lovely fixed life feather worms, plenty of small bits and - best of all - a seahorse. To top it off I had my new camera (Olympus Mju 410 in the PT-016 housing) so managed to record some of it. Finished the dive rather pleased with myself and headed off for a very nice penne carbonaro lunch overlooking the harbour from next to the old police station.

The second dive was within the circle created by our first dive and was on and through the wreck of the Maouri. Quite beaten up but still ship shape, half buiried in sand and with a list to port it is another unspectacular but decent dive. There are bits of life on it, including another of the nudibranchs I got excited about yesterday. Apart from that the life was small fry, nursery sort of stuff. You can do a swim along inside the wreck - there is plenty of light and the swim is straight along the port side. We did a couple of laps went into what is left of the bridge and then headed back, another nice dive and another 50+ mins clocked up.

So, my first Med experience was a very nice one. Safe and easy diving in water that was neither too cold nor too murky (far from it) with enough to keep me occupied and just the sort of diving I needed to get really used to the new gear. Next stop Cyprus and then, according to the mail I got while over there I am booked on an intro to twins diving for May 7th. Hey, I'ma diver again!