On Friday my girlfriend arrived in Malta to come diving with me. It’s been two weeks since I last saw her and I couldn’t wait to go diving with her.

The dives with my girlfriend were the first pleasure dives that I have done on this trip to Malta. Yes, technically the last two dives could have been classed as pleasure dives but there was a job to do on each of them, so they don’t count.

So that we could get in as much diving as possible she came straight from the airport to the dive shop. There she kitted up and we went for a check dive. Divewise likes to make sure that everyone who is diving with them cam dive. I think that this is a good policy, having seen some divers who have no idea how to actually dive. This then gives the dive leader some idea of what they will be dealing with and what dive sites may or may not be used.

So as soon as she got off the plane, she was picked up and whisked off to Divewise. Her kit was sorted out and we went for a bimble on the house reef. Unfortunately there isn’t that much to see there but it was a nice little dive that took us around the reef. Then we got back out the water switched our cylinders and headed to the boat.

Skipper Danny was taking us to the HMS Maori. Amanda and I have both done this dive separately, so it was nice to be doing it together. The boat only took about 20 minutes to get there. Alan buddied Amanda and I with Malcolm. I was seemingly put in charge and led the three of us around the wreck. The water was quite silty making the visibility quite low. It is possible to penetrate the wreck in two ways. There is a long penetration that runs the length of the wreck and there is a short penetration that is just the width of it. After we swam around for  a bit, I suggested that we do the short penetration. Malcolm wasn’t keen on the idea so he agreed to meet us on the other side, Amanda was up for it. So we swam through. It didn’t take more than 4 kicks and we were out the other side. As the visibility was poor and I didn’t know all the “cool” features of the wreck we decided to head back up.