Vacation with Blueye Pioneer at Gran Canaria

Saturday, April 15, 2017 / Anfi Del Mar at Gran Canaria

After plenty of dives in Trondhjemsforden, it was time to find waters with better visibility. This voyage takes us to Gran Canaria on a vacation to test out real recreational use. This is the first time the Blueye Pioneer has been diving outside Norway. The weather was perfect! 25-27 degrees Celsius air temperature and great visibility in the water.

We had several dives during the one week long stay. The first couple of days we were diving close to the small boat harbor by Anfi Del Mar. Here it was not much to see, but the whole family got to get familiar with the drone. Linn Emelie’s Grandpa (80) loved the drone, and had no problem controlling it after 10 min training.

"The Skipper" testing the underwater drone

"The Skipper"

The veteran skipper from Willhelmsen quickly gets the hang of flying the drone at Anfi Del Mar.

We soon realized that we had to find a better dive location because there was not much to see inside the basin. On the way home, we dropped by Scuba Sur Dive Center and booked a dive trip for the day after. We had to go as snorkelers due to insurance purposes on the boat. This was perfect, now we got to fly the drone together with other diving enthusiasts at some of Gran Canaries’ most famous dive sites.

The day after we met at the dive center at 9 o’clock and went straight out to the ship wrecks of Mogan. It was 20 minutes of a boat ride to the first site. This dive site was very popular, two other boats were already attached to the wreck’s buoy. After waiting for our divers to jump in, it was our turn to launch the drone. The water was crystal clear and we had about 30 meters of visibility. This was very different from flying in Norway. It was super easy to find the wreck and the other divers. But then, suddenly, a tourist submarine came out from the harbor, with a big tether and a buoy floating after it. We then realized that the smartest thing was to get our drone out of the water, before our tethers got tangled somehow.

Co-pilot Linn Emelie

Co-pilot Linn Emelie

Ready to lauch the drone at the first dive site.

Right after, we went to the next dive site. This was on a wall 10 minutes further north. Here we had a bit of surge, so it was a bit difficult to navigate the drone. But once we got under water, there was lots of beautiful fish on a pointy lava rock formation. When the divers were out air, it was time to go back. The divers were very excited about the drone and was wondering if we had some good videos of them. Back at the dive center we got to share photos and video and answer all the questions about the drone.

Voyage Destination

Anfi Del Mar at Gran Canaria