In September 2008 Eve and I enjoyed a Mediterranean cruise aboard MY Emerald Princess. The cruise ship’s itinerary included seven hours moored off the Greek Island of Mykonos, just enough time for me to take a tender ashore for two dives!

Mykonos belongs to the Island group known as The Cyclades, so named as they form a rough circle around Delos, one of the religious centres of ancient Greece. I had pre-booked two dives with Dive Adventures, a Mykonos diving centre based at Paradise Beach in the south-east part of the island. Amer El-Dakkak, Dive Operations Manager of Dive Adventures met me from the Emerald Princess tender, quickly drove me to Paradise Beach and introduced me to my dive guide and buddy Sven Wilms. An experienced dive instructor and underwater video operator with more than 8,000 dives, Sven proved the prefect buddy. We waded out from Paradise Beach to board Rescue 2 and meet skipper Petros. After a short trip to Paradise Point, Sven and I were wasted no time getting underwater for my dive 1563. The dramatic underwater topography and clarity of water was breathtaking and ideal for my Tokina 10-17mm wide-angle lens. Admittedly fish life was sparse relative to some dive destinations but the underwater scenery was spectacular. Sven’s buoyancy control and understanding of how best to model for underwater photography was amazing and I thoroughly enjoyed this dive.

After a short surface interval in which I switched to my 60mm lens, we dropped back down onto the seabed. We had intended to move onto a different dive site where there would be more chance of finding macro subjects but time was short. The last tender back to MY Emerald Princess was imminent after which Emerald Princess would depart to Istanbul. With or without me! Sven looked for subjects for me while I photographed Bream, Painted Comber, Red-mouthed Gobies and Small Rockfish. It was soon time for us to ascend and for me to quickly board the final Emerald Princess tender.