ADVENTURE IN THE BLUE AROUND THE AZORES

by Magnus Lundgren

Adventure in the blue Azores

Finally here, and ready for an adventure in the blue around the Azores. After a night in Lisbon, we were all suddenly there, at the foot of the beautiful volcano on the island of Pico. Finally arrived with our high expectations in the small picturesque village of Madalena. Our adventure in the blue Azores was just in the starting pits.

The azores, in the middle of the Atlantic, has blossomed as one of Europe's hottest marine experience areas. And as summer draws to a close, the summer-warm sea teems with life. After seven successful expeditions, Magnus had a huge wish list for this eighth. Diving here in the middle of the Atlantic is truly an adventure in the blue around the Azores, which lie like small pearls scattered in a clear blue sea.

On the list were dives along the coastlines of Pico and Faial, pelagic blue sharks, mobula rays over a mythical offshore bank, eagle rays patrolling a cave opening, fat sea bass, dolphins and sperm whales and a little more... All in an area where you almost always find dive sites, tomi bad weather. But we also wished for fine weather to do all the most challenging dives in the blue with sharks and rays. How would it go?

Shark and scuba diver exploring the vibrant underwater world.

Vibrant bioluminescent squid with iridescent colors swimming in the dark ocean waters.

Boat with scuba divers preparing for underwater exploration in clear blue ocean waters.

Dolphin swimming underwater in clear blue ocean waters.

Scuba diving boat crew preparing for dive, ocean adventure, marine life exploration, tropical destination, scuba travel abroad.

Colorful scorpionfish hiding in coral reef, vibrant underwater marine life for scuba diving and snorkeling.

CETACEAN WATCHING in WAzores, Portugal, with a friendly group on a boat tour.

Giant manta ray swimming in clear blue ocean waters.

Serious man enjoying whale watching adventure at sea with volcano in background.

On the same day that we arrived, Magnus held a consultation with Martijn, Dania at the diving center CW Azores and a preliminary plan was drawn up for our diving days based on the weather outlook. The diving center are real experts on their sea weather and the program is always "tweaked" day by day so that it will be as good as possible with the conditions that are offered.

A check dive is always a check dive. After Magnus's lecture and Martijn's briefing, it was finally time for a check-dive at Pocinho, southern Pico, which can be compared to a so-called "pinnacle". We descended into large Alien-inspired arched vaults housing sea bass, grunts and schools of blue-shimmering ladyfish. The insides of the impressive vaults were covered with a carpet of yellow-orange anemones that were in full bloom even like this during the day. Visibility was fine and we got to know that it might be a bit current. It was nice to be up and diving.

We drove over to Faial for a second dive where we found shelter next to the wall at Almeida which led us to the cave formation (“cavern”) Ilheu Negro. The water of the Atlantic is magically blue. Especially when one like us swam into the cave formation and then turned around and swam towards the blue blue light. Outside the cave there was a black moray in every other hole and many bright red scorpionfish. Two of them were fighting over territory and once I left the scorpion fish it was still a tie in that fight.

Dive day 2 it was quite windy but we found lee on the Faial side and dived on the reef pillar Baixa de Feteira where red and yellow parrotfish guided us down to the beautiful formation. The whole dive was marked by gray pressure fish nibbling on the dome ports and lenses of our cameras.

We also managed a cave dive ("cavern") called Ilheu Negro. The road leading in reminds has a really cool passage with steep walls close together and light play from above. Sacred. After the cave, the lava landscape undulates down towards a beautiful sandy bottom where stingrays hide. The dive was calm and we had fun checking out all the schools of fish, sea brush worms and some colorful nudibranchs.

A stated goal before the trip was to meet the graceful blue shark. One of the world's most beautiful sharks with its deep blue color and white underside. When the sun shines, the blue shark gets an electric blue glow. And yes, we can say that it went improbably well in achieving that goal.

As soon as the weather allowed, it was dive day 3, so we hit it off with our first shark diving day in the open sea. We went out with the zodiac to one of the Azores' safest blue shark areas just 20 minutes from the port. It was a dividend immediately. The whole group was treated to a long 90-minute dive with sleek blue sharks swooping by with their long, graceful pectoral fins.

Me, Magnus then, have dived with blue sharks in many places around the world but never experienced near such large and so many blue sharks. Here a number of magnificent specimens appeared, including "Scarface", probably three meters from tail fin to nose. One shark dive kind of surpassed the other and one of the days we counted a slightly improbable 17 blue sharks on one and the same dive. It was a hectic 90 minutes. Even Martijn, our salty dive guide, shrugged his shoulders with a big smile. A real adventure in the blue here in the Azores.

More blue shark dives & mako shark in sight

All our shark dives were carried out in close proximity to the boat, at a depth of 5 to 10 meters, with line reference but with the seabed sometimes 100s of meters below us. The participants behaved in an exemplary and stable manner and this was a strong contributing factor to our success. The cameras ran hot, the memory cards filled up, and the sharks come in really close.

Almost everyone chose to make a so-called "extension" and stay extra days for various activities after the trip's original program was over. Of course, we then struck with even more shark diving days and we "scored" blue sharks on all occasions. 100% dividend.

There was also a small chance that the sharks' own Ferrari would show up. And sure enough, when we got going anyway, we got to see three mako sharks on one and the same dive. It was a kind of double bonus. The mako shark, or mackerel shark as it is also called, is grey-blue and steely. It has a terrifying smile as its teeth protrude from its mouth even when it is closed. It is one of the world's fastest sharks, able to swim at 40 km/h for long distances.

Utsjöbanken Princesa Alice is a legendary and mythical diving site located a long long boat ride from the islands of Pico and Faial. It is when the water is post-summer-warm that the devil rays (mobula rays) gather for their annual summer gathering out there. Many believe it is a kind of mating dance.

We packed and briefed everything the night before departure and set off at dawn in fine-fine relation to the home of the mobula raccoons. It was a long day at sea. The dive site, which is also called Princess Alice, can be compared to the top of an underwater mountain, which extends from a depth of 1000 meters up to about 30 meters from the sea surface.

Instant Jackpot!

Barely a gust of current and already on the way down along the rope large mobula rays (Mobula tarapacana) swam past us like a flock of colossal birds. A memory for life.
Some went deeper with Martijn and encountered huge stingrays closer to the bottom. It wasn't long before we were all gathered on the rope. Spiny mackerel, small tuna and barracuda took turns as we hung out waiting for more manta rays. Towards the end of the dive, a mega flock of more than 30 rays passed by on several occasions and it was not without a bit of a party atmosphere on the boat after the dive. Jeez!

The second dive was nice but it had a hard time matching the action of the first dive. Again a pair of impressive stingrays rose from the bottom, pelagic shoals showed up and a bunch of gray pusherfish hung out with us for a while. We had several mobula coats politely come by and look at us on the line. A couple of days earlier a diving group had seen a whale shark out here so we scouted intensively, but a bus-like shark with white dots did not appear this time. Many people wonder why the giant mobulas are so curious about us divers. They often pass at close range, check us out and sometimes swim without mercy right through the divers' exhalation bubbles.

One of the days we went "all in" on the mammal front. It was a magical morning where we saw sperm whales. The first female was friendly so when Michael, our skipper, turned off the engines she just kept getting closer and closer until it felt like she could almost capsize the boat. It rattled quite well with the camera shutters. We saw several different whales after that and the entire morning of whale watching ended with two sperm whales diving at the same time and waving at us with their tail fins.

In the afternoon we set off in wetsuits and with underwater cameras for dolphin snorkeling. CW Azores works with professional scouts who are stationed on the island and report to us on the boat what is going on. There was a pod of dolphins far to the south, that was all. We bet on it and it was a long run and once there the herd was shy and they didn't want to keep up with us despite several attempts. So we were close to giving up and retreating when a lone dolphin appeared as the old man in the box.

We jumped in and suddenly the dolphin was replaced. It swam with us, it leapfrogged around us, came back, dived under us again and jumped again. And so it went on. We even got on the boat and then it started all over again. Michael, the most experienced skipper on the island, just shook his head. He had never seen that before. We all realized that day that we are on the "epic" Azores trip.

So good that we got away

There are always a lot of other things happening on these trips. I, Magnus, usually arrange extra diving activities and other fellow travelers also did the same. We did night dives, we dived in the harbor, we did an "epic" black water dive far out there, some climbed the volcano, others cycled, people rented cars and discovered both Faial and Pico. The atmosphere was great and it was sad to go home. When it feels like that, it's been really good.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Dania, Martijn and Michael, and the whole team at CW Azores with boat drivers and everything. They always give a little extra and try to make us enjoy ourselves and be active. Most of all I would like to thank the group that was there. A completely, completely irresistible collection of individuals, skilled divers who were all hungry for that little extra.

Photo: Magnus Lundgren