Pico is one of the nine islands of the Azores archipelago and in August 2022 I dived there with Frank Wirth’s Pico Sport. I was there primarily to boat dive Condor Bank but could not pass up on the opportunity to shore dive Pico.

Covid 19 had caused my original Azores trip to be postponed, when the Azores reopened, Australia’s closed borders prevented me from travelling there. Finally, when I was able to go, there was travel chaos. Baggage handlers around the world had been laid off due to there being so little international travel, now getting the worldwide luggage transport system up and running again was not going well. While I was able to get to the Azores easily enough, my checked in luggage became stuck at London Gatwick airport and then at Lisbon airport, finally arriving in Madalena, Pico on the penultimate day of my stay there. Fortunately for me, Frank Wirth generously gave me a credit for all my cancelled dives and although I had to leave the Azores for a family commitment, I left my checked in luggage with Frank to return a week later, knowing that all my dive gear and camera equipment was already safely there.    

Once back Pico Sports took me to four shore dive locations, Calheta, Fonte, Sao Caetamo and Sao Mateus, all on the south coast of Pico. It was at Sao Mateus that I was excited to see Redlip Blennies for the first time. Although they were right by the dive site entry/exit point, due to strong surge, getting shots of them was not easy. I also really enjoyed seeing Black Moray eels, to me their faces looking like Spiderman’s Green Goblin’s face, albeit not green! And although I wasn’t in the Azores to photograph birds, I could not resist taking a shot of a charismatic Muscovy duck.

By the dive centre I noticed some unlikely graffiti “FIND MALCOLM’ – quite a coincidence I thought.

Diogo Boa Alma, Elfie Atruz and Nair Almeida were my Pico Sport dive guides for eight shore dives, each being friendly and really helpful.