Re: Portugal

Excellent help thanks for that.

Really appreciate all the help.

Thanks again.

David.

On 20 Jun 2003 19:05:41 +0100, Rui Pedro Mendes Salgueiro
<rps@rena.mat.uc.pt> wrote:

>Georgina Wiersma & Peter Verhoog <gwiersma@caiw.nl> wrote:
>> On Wed, 18 Jun 2003 08:48:19 +0100, David Chambers
>> <david.chambersREMOVE@power.net.uk> wrote:
>
>>>I am off to the Algarve in Portugal
>
>There is a list of dive centers in Algarve at:
>http://www.scubaportugal.com/Contine...tml#section300
>
>I asked David where in Algarve will he be staying and he is going
>to Vilamoura. Which means that his choice of dive operators is
>limited to:
>
>TORPEDO DIVING
>
>Aldeia do Mar
>P. O. Box 931
>8125 Vilamoura
>Algarve. Portugal
>Tel/Fax: (Int) 289.314.098 (Home)
>Cel: (Int) 917.332.661
>
>One of my buddies is in Vilamoura this week and he has asked their
>prices. Each dive would cost him 35 euros, or 40 in the case of
>a wreck dive (the WWII plane at 7m ?). For compairision, last
>year, the prices at Scubado in Sagres were 20 euros (-10% since we
>did 5 dives or more). This was for boat dives with tanks and weights
>supplied by the dive center (which we didn't need).
>But Vilamoura is a luxury area with luxury prices.
>
>Albufeira is not too far away from Vilamoura (about 10 km, but see
>the comments about traffic below) and there are a couple of dive
>centers there:
>
>http://www.atlantic-diving.com/
>
>and
>
>ESTRELA DO RIO
>
>Montechoro Beach Club
>(Praia da Oura)
>Areias de S. Joao
>8201 Albufeira
>Algarve. Portugal
>Tel: (Int) 289.588.486
>Fax: (Int) 289.589.332
>E-mail: mop19114@mail.telepac.pt
>
>>> and would very very much
>>>appreciate any pointers on the diving out there.
>
>> Just returned from the Algarve.
>> Dived with Blue Ocean Divers (Lagos,
>> http://www.blue-ocean-divers.de/English/english.html), a very nice
>> diveshop.
>
>Informations about Lagos or Sagres might not be very useful for
>David, since in the summer travelling between Sagres or Lagos and
>Vilamoura can take more than 2 hours. Me and a friend were in Sagres
>in August of last year and we thought of going to Armação de Pêra
>(a few km west of Vilamoura) for dinner. We left Sagres before
>20:00, and we arrived at Armação de Pêra at 22:30. Looking at the
>map, the distance is around 80 km, but a large part of those 2
>hours were spent stopped in traffic (and red traffic lights),
>specially we passed Lagos. So, if you are staying east of Lagos,
>forget about moving about, at least during August.
>
>> They organize shore dives and boat dives (boat dives mostly
>> on Monday and Friday, Lagos and Sagres).
>
>Maybe because the high season has not started yet ? In Sagres, they
>had boat dives everyday, but that was in August.
>
>> They are located in Motel Ancora, Lagos, and have a big swimming
>> pool with deck chairs, so non-diving partners can enjoy the sun
>> and restaurant while you're diving.
>
>In Sagres, I stayed at the Baleeira Hotel:
> http://www.sagres.net/sagres/baleeira/
>
>It is only 3 stars (and it shows in their breakfasts, but only in
>that). It has a swimming pool and 5 minutes away there is a nice
>beach. The nice thing for diving is that it is very near the port
>(just climb down some stairs) where there are two dive centers:
>
>http://www.scubado-algarve.com/
>
>http://www.oceanox.net/
>
>I dived with Scubado (I think just because we didn't manage to phone
>Oceanox when we booked our reservations). But a nice thing about Scubado
>compared with Oceanox is that they took the heavy gear from the dive
>center to the pier in a van. We saw Oceanox's clients carrying their
>equipment down the stairs and to the end of the pier.
>
>> We were pleasantly surprised by the diving. It's not world-class, but
>> worth the trip. Water temperature last week was around 17-18 degrees
>> Celsius, viz max. 12 metres.
>
>So this year in June it is already warmer than last year in August,
>which was atypically cold. In my log I have bottom temperatures
>between 12-14ºC, but we were told that in some years it reached
>20ºC in Sagres (further east it might be warmer). It looks that
>this year might be one of those, since the air temperature has
>been above 30ºC for the last few days.
>
>> Dives are in general quite shallow (shore dives around 10 metres,
>> boat dives max. 20 metres). Nice nudibranch, gorgonians in all
>> colours, giant spider crabs, conger eels, giant squid (up to 3 ft),
>
>Don't you mean big octopus ? Squids are not bottom-dwelling and are
>quite rare to see when diving (I only saw them once and that was in
>mid-water). Octopuses and cuttlefish are much more frequent.
>
>> lots of fish life. The caves near Sagres are great!
>> They're are two wrecks, but do not expect great wreck diving.