Kalymnos - The Sponge Diver Island

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Kalymnos, Greece 21/11-2011

N36°57.054´
E026°59.187´

Sailing distance made: 5831 nautical miles

We have now spent a little bit more then one week at the island of Kalymnos and it is time to continue our trip further south. But before we set the sails I want to share some of our experiences from this lovely island.



Kalymnos is well known as ”The Sponge Diver Island” and here our aim is to film and document the hard work of the sponge divers.



The local people here are very friendly and helpful and are happy to take us out at sea showing their different diving methods.








We also make nice diving in the many underwater caves of the island...






It is always exiting to get inside and discover a new cave. Who knows what is hiding in the darkness...





Suddenly we see something bright moving inside the big dark cave. I can hardly believe what I see, but truly it is a monkseal! :)

Today there are not many Mediterranean monkseals left in our oceans, but even so there are fishermen still shooting this endangered species illegal.




The caves offer shelter and protection for the monkseals, therefore we leave the cave giving the monkseal the opportunity coming back to its home without to much disturbance.

I am really happy to meet this shy and rare seal species in such a close distance. :)




Great dark shadows, moving in the water, are always exiting...



And when the shadows also shows their curiosity, by coming closer and closer, it is a good reason to get even more exited!



This time the shadows are tunas, swimming with their great speed and fast movements. During the time filming those ”fast runners” I can not stop thinking of how elegant this fish species truly is.




After many nice experiences at this friendly island it is time now, to contine our sailing voyage to new places and new adventures! :)






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