The voyage continues... :)

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Sao Miguel, Azores, Portugal 23/7-2014

Back from offshore diving and pelagic waters we get opportunity to do some more coastal diving as well as enjoying the beautiful green scenario of Sao Miguel...

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In between the time out at sea it´s nice to become a "flower-troll" and to purely enjoy the green surrounding filled with flowers, green leaves and singing birds :-)

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Though even after only a short time on dry land somebody seems to get a huge urge and an increasing need of spending yet more time in the water... ;-)

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But no worries, the next couple of weeks I´ll be surrounded by it again, the deep blue sea and the secretful, infinite horizon __/)_

From Sao Miguel island it is now time to head for another green island.

It´s time to sail north towards Connemara at the west coast of Ireland, a place which truly is magical to me and I am now really looking forward to pay a visit to this spiritual coast again!

Approx 1200 nautical miles of pelagic water and sailing are waiting us ahead. And I´m getting excited as I recently talked to Poseidon and through him I got to book both good sailing wind and plenty marine life on the stretch north... ;-)

Let see what reality shows up with!! ___/)_

Remote diving at pelagic shallows

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Ponta Delgada, Azores, Portugal 20/7-2014

Pelagic shallows, blue water, diving, free diving, film, photo and fishy friends in different shapes and colours...

As our sailboat is equipped with everything we need including diving gear, compressor etc. we are able to stay out in field for longer periods. And so we do when the weather cooperates.

Below you find some pics from our recent stay at Formigas, a shallow that consists of nothing else but some bare rocks and a lighthouse, surrounded by Atlantic waves and the underwater world :-)

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During the last weeks I´ve had limited time on my computer and mostly been out of reach for modern communication.

Back to civilisation I see that my inbox is growing with an increasing speed and I´m very happy about all the feedback I get. But I also feel sorry for the inconvenience my late answers might cause...

As there are more weeks to be spent out at sea, my answers to many of you probably will need to wait a little bit more... Sorry about that!

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Now we have a few days more in civilisation to prepare the boat and other things that are needed to be done. Thereafter the deep blue sea and more sailing are calling for us again!

I´ll try to put some more pics and some more written lines on the blog before the Ocean gets its grab on me. Let see if I succeed doing so... ;-)

Diving in Hydrothermal Vents

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Sao Miguel, Azores, Portugal 4/7-2014

A small blogpost with some photos from our recent dives at Sao Miguel's south side where we have been diving in hydrothermal vents - volcanic gases emerging from deep under the earth.

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Our new dive spot is situated close to the small village Ribeira Quente. Here we don´t need to make deep dives. At a depth of only 6-7 meters we find ourselves totaly surrounded by the impressive active volcanic scenario. There are gas bubbles a little everywhere! :-)

The gas bubbles feel warm when touching them and I start to enjoy my new activity when feeling a bit frozen in the end of the dive... ;-) ... but I better be a bit more careful as I soon get to experience that it really hurts to get burned by this bubbling beauty...

Auuch!! ;-o

More dives are waiting ahead and I´m now looking forward to get back to Formigas, a pelagic shallow about 50 nautical miles south from Sao Miguel.  More pics from Azorean waters in the next blogpost... :-)

Back to boat, wreck and Atlantic dives :)

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Sao Miguel, Azores, Portugal 23/6-2014

At the end of September last year, we left our sailing boat in the Azores. The 10th of June, almost 9 months later, it was finally time to finally fly back to our "floating castle" again... :-)

Once on the island of Sao Miguel, we see the boat lying so peacefully in the little harbour of Vila Franca. Such a lovely sight to see her again! And yes, I think she got really happy to see us too! ;-)

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Before being able to board the sailing boat we need to pump the zodiac...

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With the zodiac ready in the water it doesn´t take long until we are back on board on our "floating castle" again. What a wonderful feeling to be back!!

The boat seems to be in good shape and we are very happy to find her without any bad surprises.

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We spend some days in Vila Franca to make some major maintance on the boat, thereafter we head a bit further west to Ponta Delgada. Here we collect our diving equipment which have been stored at our friends place during the winter.

And so it gets time to check the diving gear...

Splash!!.. and we are back underwater again... :-)

We early got to know that there are many jelly fishes around in the waters this year... Indeed, we meet plenty of them...

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We also dive on Dori, a wreck located just east of Ponta Delgada. This wreck lies on a sandy bottom and offers protection for a great variety of fish and other small marine animals.

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At the moment we have 17-18 °C in the water which is colder than normally in the Azores during this time of year. But regardless, it is great being back diving in the Atlantic again!

Back in the Azores!

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 Sao Miguel, Azores, Portugal 10/6-2014

We just made a little "flying jump" over to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge... In other words, we are back in the beautiful Azores!

It feels so cozy to be back in our "floating castle" again. As the sailboat has been in the Azores over winter, we have now lots of boat work to do to get her ready for new film adventures...

I guess it´s not very difficult to figure out who is playfully happy to be back in the Atlantic waves again... :-)

More from me and the Azores soon...
 

Diving the Gullmar Fjord

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 Gullmarn, Sweden 1/6-2014

During the last weeks, we have been diving and filming in the Gullmar Fjord at the Swedish west coast.

In this blogpost you find some pics from our last dives in "Gullmarn".

Guess who is happy when it´s time to get in the water! ;-)

The Gullmar Fjord is the only "real" fjord in Sweden, or to explain it better, it is the only threshold fjord found here.

A threshold fjord is a fjord that is shallower at the mouth (the opening toward the sea) and with deeper water inside of the fjord, which creates great conditions for a peculiar marine environment.

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The Swedish official name of the Gullmar Fjord is "Gullmarn", a name derived from Old Norse and means God's ocean. 

This is a fjord with great diversity of marine species and there is much to see in both shallow and deeper waters.

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Gullmarn is 25 kilometer long, 1-3 kilometer wide and has a maximum depth of ca 120 meters. The average depth of the threshold is about 20-40 meters.

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I really enjoy diving here in Gullmarn which contains a varied and diverse marine environment and is a home and reproduction area for both fish and shellfish.

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For the last few weeks, we have had poor visibility in the water but this doesn´t stop me finding many curious fish friends.

The water is slowly getting warmer in the fjord which results in more fish activity in the water as well :-)

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Imagine what a wonderful marine environment there is along our Swedish coast! 

I always find it so exciting to put my drysuit on and then slowly slip into the water, you never know who or what you is awaiting you down there in the darkness... 

More drysuit dives are waiting ahead and thereafter it is soon wetsuit time again :-)