"Azores again" - OR - "No Mako... again"

I'd like to share some highlight from my recent trip to the Azores.
This year I did not have much luck with my health and the weather.
Paranasal and frontal sinuses been blocked and I had no chance to
enjoy the pre booked boot trips as I would have loved to.
And additionally the weather was not the best for that that time 
of the year. 

We did two trips for seeing the Mobula's and two for the Blue shark's / Mako's 

1. Mobula = 3 Mobulas
2. Mobula = 41 Mobula's and a small Whale shark

1. Blue shark = 2 Blue, one around the boat for over 3h!
2. Blue shark = stayed nearly 8h on the boat and not even one. 

This year is by fare the worst year the local operators saying.
3 Mobulas on one trip is one of the lowest rates they ever had
for a very long time and the dropping number of sharks...

For sure we all know why the number of sharks is decreasing.
If not, there are plenty of papers and articles to find online.
Just one which is related to the Azores and which will help to find the right
busswords to dig deeper into this wil be this one.
http://www.sharkproject.org/
But after hearing different opinions from local fisherman, I guess
it could be a mixture of some more factors, all coming together 

1. El Niño / North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO)

• We know 2015 could be one or the worst El Niño's as recorded till now. And we also know that El Nino can effect NAO.

• Water temperature is warmer around the Azores as normal the locals say.

• Fisherman say sad this year is a low for Tuna fishing. Especially The Number of Bluefin Tuna catches around the Islands was very low this year. 

2. Shark Fishing 

• We know the portuguese fisherman are catching more sharks then ever.

3. Birth cycle of Blue sharks? 

• I heard a couple of story from spearfisher's that they encountered many baby/juvenile Blue Sharks around the Islands this year 

At least all of this points make sence and are very interesting from a
science perspective. I would love to get some insight into some science data
about this points and hopefully someone is releasing some papers about this soon. 

But now enjoy

(Thanks to Rike for the first Picture)

Muscle ache...damn volcano ;)

Yesterday we tried climbing Mount Pico and we succeeded.
Mount Pico is a stratovulcano and with 2351m the tallest mountain in Portugal

To be honest, I don't know if i had done this alone. There are 45 marks on the trail and i think i had my very low between mark 17-26. Sadly we had clouds all around us. So no nice view to Faial and over Pico itself. That was a bit frustrating, but there has to be a reason doing it again ;)

As I implied, climbing up was the hardest part for me, also others are thinking its climbing down. No doubt, it was hard too and because I had five big blister due to ill-fitting socks, it was really painfull the last 8 marks, but not as hard as the ascend ;)

Today the muscle ache in my thighs started, we will see how hard it will become in the next couple of hours. I hate muscle ache when it get's slowly stronger. I prefer going to bed, waking up and nearly can't move anymore. ;)

Anyway it was a great training and i would recommend doing this 

at your last day if the waether allow's it.

No Shortfin Mako...

...but Blue Sharks all around us ;)

I had no time time to write till now. The day before yesterday, Greg and I were on a trip with 4 other

freedivers, including Fred Buyle, french friends of him and a "local" dutch guy, Gjalt. Meeting Fred was quite nice, because I really love his work as a photographer and also his conservation work he did with his friend William Winram.

Even less than five minutes when we arrived, we had the first blue sharks circling our boat. Not easy to go into the water as quickly as possible, when there is only one small deck-entrance and everybody wanted to be the first one ;)

The first one was very curious and I was surprised how calm and relaxed it was. The conditions were absolutely perfect! Best weather, clear and calm water, and after some time we had 5 sharks around us. I only saw one female, forgot to ask the others. After over 3 hours spending in the water in my 3mm wet suit, I needed a break to warm up, for me it was also enough. Maybe if I had a photo camera with me, I had spended some more time, but with my gopro I had a lot of good sequences to cut in the next weeks ;)

But now some pictures, enjoy! (Thanks again to Greg for most of the pictures)

Later Fred invited us to his house were his french friends prepared some parrotfish Polynesian-Style (mhh I love it!!!) and me cooking some spaghetti (my special azores edition ;)). We had some nice talks about freediving, local problems (rabbits) and other misc stuff. The Clock was ticking very fast and we had to take the latest ferry back to Pico. Hopefully we will do this again. Nice people and an awesome day!

Thanks!

Mobula rays

Yesterday...

We both were still happy about our Sperm whale pictures and didn't expect something like this one day after ;)

Mobulas all over the place, but only for the snorkeler and freedivers, because the scubas were hanging on a rope between 5-15 meters and just saw what was approaching close to them.

Freedivers 1 - Scubas 0! hrhrhr

We saw them over 20 times and collected over 1 hour of video material (I hate cutting). I think they just saw them 5+ times ;) Also they didn't saw thousands of Yellowmouth Barracudas and Atlantic Bonitos.

Today you felt getting payed back for all the hard training's, unbelievable experience. A big thank you also goes to Greg for some nice pictures he did. He had also one of his lifetime freedives, when he went down, looking around and in the meantime 9 Mobula approached over his head when he started to ascend again, lucky guy ;)

No vacation without work
Anchor-rope got entangled in the ship's screw.

At the moment we both think that it it not possible to even top this day, BUT we still have one bonus tomorrow ;). And for me, if it will work out as i hope it will, it would be worth more than the rest of this trip.

"One" Picture is Worth Ten Thousand Words

No time to go into details, maybe tomorrow...

Enjoy!

Good things come to those who wait!

Yesterday we did some spearing again.

At the first spot we arrived, the current was the hardest I ever had to deal with. Full leg and arm work and you were nearly able to stay at one point. No chance to relax and prepare for diving. Also we did not saw any fish at all. Second spot the current was strong but manageable for diving and staying  around one place, but also no fish. Visibility was also bad, the water very murky.

After trying two other spots and spending about 2,5hours in the water, we went back to the first spot were we started in the morning. Current was now OK, Third dive, shot my first White trevally. Changed place again and couldn't load my gun as fast as i wanted. Surrounded by hundreds of White travally all size.

After they disappeared, the Yellowmouth Barracuda arrived. I saw something rushing between them (maybe atlantic bonito, shape could match) and tryed to shot one of this. I had only one good chance to shoot and I missed :(. Meanwhile your guide told me, that my friend Greg couldn't shot any Barracuda at all.

Challenge accepted!

First and second shot ;) I think Greg was a bit frustrated about yelling him that I shot two during my first attempts.
Maybe he will need some better glasses for his mask ;)

Later I saw one Rainbow Runner, didn't know that they were common in the Azores, but Pedro told me, that he also saw them in the past.

All in all we spend over 340 minutes! in the water (yes, 3mm wet suit will work) and at the end I had over 80 dives, mostly between 12 - 22 meter. Could do this every second! day ;)

Thanks again for guiding Pedro

Catch of the day

Today we went out with Pedro from www.bluewaterspot.com. Nice guy, nice boat and a good day to start.

First dive, first shoot, first fish ;)

Greg did a better pre-selection, second dive, first shoot, first fish ;)

Some good spots Pedro guided us though, but the current was strong an the fish stayed deep.

Awesome day! Thanks again Pedro.

Almaco Jack, Amberjack and Bluefish

Ready for the Azores...

... at least mentally for a long time ;)

Tomorrow my friend Greg and I will take the plane to Lisbon, doing a small sightseeing and hop-on at the evening flight to Sao Miguel.
Stuff is nearly packed...

And Except my paranasal sinuses (not the best for two weeks of an intense "training/freediving/spearfishing"-trip) everything looks good. On Tuesday the maximum depth was 2,4m! and i hope till Sunday morning it will be fine  again. Thats just not possible that Greg will shot his new Speargun before I  can get a chance ;)

What do I expect?
Mh, freediving with blue sharks (Prionace glauca) and hopefully mako sharks (Isurus oxyrinchus) on Condor Banks. Apart from that, freediving with mobula rays (on Princess Alice Banks) and whales/dolphins (there are more than 20 species of cetaceans around the Azores including Orcas!), developing better  spearfishing skills and preparing my own catch ;), some freediving improvements and of course, enjoying the volcanic influenced nature. What I've seen so far, seems to be like the cold version of the South Pacific ;) We will know in two weeks

Our Route will be:
ZRH - LIS - PDL - PIX - TER- LIS- ZRH











Zurich - Lisbon - São Miguel Island - Pico Island - Faial Island (Ferry) - Pico Island - Terceira Island - Lisbon - Zurich

Flying with TAP Portugal and SATA Air Açores, with which I've never flown before. It can't be worse than flying Lufthansa ;) Both are 3 Star Airlines (http://www.airlinequality.com/) It's one less than Lufthansa, but for me 4 Stars for Lufthansa, compared to e.g. Malaysia Airlines (5 Stars), Oman Air (4 Stars) or Bangkok Airways (4 Stars) are definitely overrated.

Back to the roots...
Except the training, this trip will be a kind of a test trip, preparing for my RTW-Trip starting in November 2013. Travelling
with an extra bag just with Spearfishing/Diving equipment to see how it works and how to take all stuff with me, preventing damage during travel.

Enough for today