[Mark]

A group of 9 of us set off to Malta, Daz had organised the trip and was the only one who had been before. 2 were going to do their Open Water & Advanced OW courses, the rest of us, a mixed bunch were just going to do the standard 5 days diving package. We get picked up at the hotel everyday and taken to the dive shop (Strand) to get our kit loaded then driven to the dive site.

The flight was fine, the transfer to the hotel was smooth, the hotel was a piece of crap. Palm Court Hotel at Qawra, it is appalling, no wonder it is cheap!! Our room (we all shared) had gaps around the door frame you could see through, a couple of sheets of plasterboard were badly fixed over what I have no idea. The patio doors didn't lock, or even shut properly. The aircon didn't work, even though we told them everyday and they said it would be fixed. The shower rail was held up with a bit of fishing line!! The food was OK, but if a basement room lit with hundreds of energy saving bulbs!! The milk was all sterilised and the corn flakes were worse than Lidls!! While we were there someone fell through a plastic roof and landed on their head!! The place has to be described as a fire trap, the maze like corridors would be impossible to navigate in smoke, several service ducts, which stank of sewage would also be great for transmitting fire.

So the first day, we were collected by Alex from Strand in an old Transit van/minibus. We went to the shop and sorted out our kit and set off to our first dive site, the tug Rosie. The 2 doing courses were left with Lawrence. Rosie is a shore dive with a 100m swim out to the wreck. We kitted up after messing about after 3 weightbelts fell apart and jumped in. Now I haven't dived with a single cylinder and a drysuit for many years, I tried to work out roughly what I would require but was wrong. After faffing about on the surface for a while trying to get Alex's attention they swam off without me so I ended up snorkelling back. The second dive I took loads of weight, and went with Sharky to dive the tug while the rest dived the reef (Chikcawa or something). The tug was upright and in fairly good nick and it was probably a lot better with only Sharky and I on it rather than everyone that were there in the morning.

Day 2. Started as day 1, this time we took the arduous journey to the El Faroud. I say Arduous as there were 9 of us in the truck altogether, with around 25 cylinders for 2 dives and all the kit. The Transit was pretty hanging, combine that with all the weight and my kidneys ended up seriously bruised. The El Faroud was a longer swim than the tug, we got to it, swam through it then were signalled to go back! That was short! The second dive was the reef at the bottom of the steps. It was exactly the same as the last reef, covered in brown weed with no fish, very unexciting apart from 1 John Dory and an Octopus that was squeezed into a hole. The Transit struggled getting up the hill.

Day 3. This time we were collected by one of those little painted boats and taken to Comino. The first dive was a reef, more boring brown weed. We headed down with the group following Alex, when all of a sudden he was signalling everyone to go up, we were at 44m and apart from a couple of us, no-one else was qualified or ever been to that depth before. A small chimney cave that came up under the boat was the only interesting bit, apart that is, from Alex's face when he realised how deep we all were. I asked Alex if he ended up in deco, he said yes 8 minutes, I asked what computer he was using as I only had 3 minutes, he said he doesn't use a computer and does it in his head. The second dive were some caves on Comino, small shallow caves, very picturesque. We could have spent more time in there really, but instead Alex decided to show us some more boring reefs!

Day 4. We took the ferry to Gozo to go to the inland sea. It's a small lake that is connected to the sea through a cave, loads of small boat shooting in and out taking sight see'ers around. Sharky, Alex and I were going through the cave then descending to the bottom, the rest were gonna swim along at 30m. Alex had a crab smasher today, so he did own a computer. The wall the other side goes down to about 62m, another boring reef! Sand at 62m, now why is that familiar? We deco'ed in the cave which itself was interesting, nice colours and photo opportunities. We didn't do a 2nd dive that day, we just drank wine and basked in the sun. As well as arguing about the fact that a PPO of 0.7 is fine at 36m, whereas Alex said it was hypoxic. He also ran his rich mix on the left
and lean on the right, I was taught the opposite and as far as I know, everyone is taught, lean on left, rich on right. He taught it the other way round.

Day 5. Today we were joined by the 2 guys doing courses, they had done their OW and were finishing their AOW. We originally were going to dive the HMS Stubborn, but the wind had picked up so we headed to the Imperial Eagle on one of those little boats. There was no dive briefing, on any dives during the week, we were surprised that the students weren't given a brief though. We briefed them about getting back onto the boat. We dropped down on the statue then swam to the wreck. Again a nice wreck, upright, props in place, but once again it wasn't long before we were ushered back to the surface. It was on the boat when we asked who got what depth, the students didn't have a depth gauge, they hadn't had one all week! It also transpired that they had only been doing half days. So basically they managed OW & AOW in 2.5 days, with no depth gauge. They weren't under any supervision for this dive! The second dive we were told was another reef, YAWN! There was a small wreck close, but very shallow, also a plane wreck, not much left but also shallow. I said either wreck, so we dived the reef.

So what have we learnt?

If you go to Malta, sort out your dives before you go. I don't think I would recommend Strand for anything. The hoses on the stage regs we borrowed were cracked to hell, they wouldn't give us 80% for a 2nd deco gas, only 60%. If you haven't got a depth gauge, nor have they. As for courses!

p.s. the weather was glorious and hot all week.