This year’s expedition was to Gibraltar. A place I have never visited before but always liked the look of. Our day started in the early hours of Monday morning as we made our way down to Heathrow airport. The mess about factor, when we arrived, was next to none. There were some confused glances when asked to weigh our bags, just to have them weighed again 5 minutes later.

The flight was a quick one so no entertainment was available but I managed to get a bit of Apocalypse Now on the go. When we arrived it was hot, it was too hot.

The first day was signing out kit and equipment, getting settled into the accommodation. A note on accommodation, or the hot box. If you ever find yourself a guest at the Devil’s Tower Camp barracks, come prepared. Our room was a four man room with two smallish windows and a ceiling fan, you got an instant sweat on just sitting down.

A typical day For those of you who think these dive expeditions are just a holiday, you’d be mistaken.

Our days start at 0630, we need to grab a quick breakfast and be out and ready to move to the dive centre at 0715. When we arrived at the dive centre each of us have a job to do. Be it filling cylinders with air, preparing the boats for the day’s activities or collating information on weather and sea states. Once the main jobs have been complete we then focus on our own kit. Making sure it was serviceable and working the way you’d expect it. The majority of these jobs are done three times a day and, as a few of the members found out, takes its toll. We would be working with the sun bearing down on us - the only available shade either indoors or a seating area with a canopy.

We would have a quick brief with a hand drawn diagram before every dive. A brief history of the wreck/site and the best way to explore it. Once the brief was over and we had a plan of what we would be doing on the dive we would gather our kit and load the boats. The boats on this occasion were two rigid-hulled inflatable boats (or RIBs for short). On each RIB we would have buddy pairs split down into waves so we would always have overwatch on the surface.

The first dive day Our first dive would be a standard shake-out dive in Rosia Bay. This was to get used to and test the equipment. There were a couple of faults but the staff were quick to replace/fix these before our next dive.

We underestimated the sea temperature on the first dive. On previous expedition experiences gave us a false sense of temperature. If it was hot on the surface then the water would be at least mild, Gibraltar was not the case… it was freezing.

But this is the reason why we have a shake-out dive so we can adjust to be comfortable for the next dives.

Our second dive of the day was much better. Our equipment was in working order and we had a more appropriate wet suit on. We planned to dive onto a wreck called Batty’s Barge, but my pairing never got to see the wreck. We did try and find it but in the end practiced some skills instead.

Due to time restrictions we would only do two dives a day. We could have had three but we had to take safety into account and the time it would take us to off gas before the next dive was iffy at best.

The following dive sites got better and better as confidence grew. Almost every site would contain some sort of wreck be it a small fishing boat to big steamers.

The Highlights The highlights for me would be diving around some of the smaller fishing boat wrecks and exploring in and around them. Whilst exploring these wrecks we would search out the weird and wonderful. Following an Octopus as it changes colour from cover to cover, hiding inside coral, covering itself with rocks until it saw us leave.

Diving on to the massive SS Rosalynn was an achievement. We would be fighting against the current. Pulling ourselves from rock to rock until we reached the wreck.

Learning how to hold a spider crab so it wouldn’t be able to attack you was an experience. I think the look of horror on another buddy pair is what amused me the most.

Amongst the weirder looking creatures was a sea slug called a Nudibranch. These come in a variety of different colours and shapes. The ones we saw were a brilliant blue with yellow spots/strips.

Some of the other creatures we saw were some big starfish, in particular the Red Comb Star (Astropecten aranciacus). Watching them move across the sea bed was fascinating. Moray Eels hiding out in the wrecks ready to strike. One of the most venomous fish found in the sea, the Stone Fish. These are well camouflaged so you have to be careful where you put your body.

Conclusion This has been my third expedition and I have enjoyed it just as much as the others. Looking back at my first expedition, I was expecting the hard work and the hot days. It was a shock for some of the other members of the team but to me, that is part of the experience. Each dive was a training exercise, be it revising skills and drills, leading the dives or on dive management and surface rescue.

We would work in both water and classroom to gain the experience needed to qualify for the next certification.

This trip saw two Ocean divers become Sports divers and a Dive leader become an Advanced diver and 5 individuals gaining their Boat Handler qualification.

As for myself, I was three dives short for my next qualification (Dive Leader).