Trips : Red Sea 201102/08/2011

Day 1

The day dawned with torrential rain over Crowthorne and off we jetted with the promise of 39 degrees in Sharm. As we left the aeroplane the only reasonable analogy was that someone had opened the oven door...and then we climbed inside. A truly impressive wall of heat and we scampered inside the air conditioned terminal, like ants under a magnifying glass. We were met by an exhuberant guide who insisted on escorting us through the airport (I'm not sure we needed escorting but he seemed to like being important). After a short transfer it was time to 'Rock and roll' (according to our host) and we boarded King Snefro 5. The boat is very impressive. Lovely air conditioned cabins, towels folded as scorpions and lots of different areas to sit, eat, sun bathe etc. Davo immediately cracked out a game of monopoly and I'm sure it's only a matter of time before he starts playing for money and Mrs Goldsmith becomes bankrupt. He has just demanded 18 million (monopoly has obviously had a high rate of inflation since my youth) from her and to be honest I'm not sure she can afford it.

Dinner was delicious and spirits are high for our first dive tomorrow. We hit the water at 7am (Callum is not happy about a 6:30 wake-up).

Let the adventures begin!

Day 2

The 6am dawn chorus came courtesy of the boat engine rumbling into life and we hit the water at 7am just a stone’s throw from the beach. For those who had dived before, a gentle refresher dive and for those doing their open water course, the first chance to see some fish and do some skills. Highlights were seeing a green turtle (pictured), moray eels, lionfish the odd stingray and some beautiful coral. We had a sumptuous breakfast and moved just up the beach to the second site. This dive  was centred around three coral towers and some stunning diving was had carefully moving through a wide crack in the rock. The third dive was a chance for everyone to relax and enjoy themselves rather than focus on skills and we drifted along with the current – a wall of coral on one side and the deep blue stretching out on the other. Now the diving is finished for today, the cards are out, the sunnies are on and everyone is quietly doing their thing. We did think we had seen a cloud earlier, but alas we were mistaken. The blue sky reigns – 40 degrees or so and crystal clear water.  Lovely.

Epic day of diving, with 5 different dives completed. Highlights were Davo’s underwater dancing (he gets a bit excited and has been likened to an underwater bumblebee), a night dive, plunging into the black water armed only with a torch each and some really long encounters with some huge turtles. Everyone has now finished their open water course and have started on the advanced course in preparation for the Thistlegorm wreck later in the week. There has been strong competition for the best coffee maker on board with Davo in third (poor memory of orders), Nick in second place (keen but doesn’t go the extra mile) and Eliot currently leading the way (excellent service and super presentation of beverages). Still all to play for though as many more days remain. The Egyptian deck hands find Davo hilarious and have clearly adopted him as the boat mascot, the confirmation ceremony being throwing him off the side. Callum wins the prize for the most graceful diver off the side of the boat (although graceful is used cautiously). Tomorrow we are diving the oddly named fiddle garden and doing a deep dive down to 30m! Photos of the day below.

Day 4

4 more dives today and everyone has now completed the advanced course, making it possible for us to dive the Thistlegorm later in the week. We have done a deep dive, drift dives, boat dives (rolling backwards off the little zodiac speedboat), a dive focusing on underwater photography and a navigation dive. Today we also had our first experience with some of the Red Sea’s sharks with two 5ft reef sharks cruising past. The group were half scared, half exhilarated but just as we thought they were going to show an interest in us, they disappeared into the blue. We also swam through an underwater cave which was a real treat and as I write some of the group are preparing for another night dive. We have moored tonight away from any other boats and towns so we are looking forward to some beautiful stars and another fantastic meal from the staff who have been simply faultless in the way they have looked after us and hauled us back onboard after each dive. Callum got the biggest laugh of the day when he was caught thinking he had been diving at altitude before realising that most diving in the sea is unsurprisingly at sea level. Davo continues to amuse with his diving style, he now uses bits of his equipment as an improvised steering wheel to stop him flapping about with his arms, Matt is the biggest poser of the group and even has his signature ‘move’ for the camera and Eliot was congratulated today on doing his 50^th dive and is the class act of the group. Mrs Goldsmith was very disappointed to be beaten on navigation by the dream team of Woollhead and Woollhead, but has made up for it with studious application to doing her homework and is the class swot. The group were asked to guide us back to the boat at one point, which of course had them all pointing in opposite directions! The bloodhound of the group was Alexei who launched himself at a rate of knots in the right direction. Everyone else had to work hard just to keep up! The ability of the group to improve their diving has impressed the instructors and tomorrow we will hopefully do our first wreck dive on the SS Dunraven. Still no clouds.

'Rush hour at the Temple' and 'working flat out'

Day 5

Today we fast forwarded to the SS Thistlegorm on account of some strong winds coming in the next few days. We motored for a couple of hours and when we got there we had the whole wreck to ourselves – not bad for the best wreck dive in the world! The descent was tricky and technical but everyone made it through the heavy swell and strong currents down to the calmer waters around the wreck. We immediately entered through the entrance into the bridge. We continued to explore all the hulls over the next two dives and everyone showed good buoyancy control to squeeze through the narrow gaps in the wreck. The hulls are stuffed full of trucks, motorbikes, ammunition  (still live), generators and even some wellington boots. A really interesting and impressive site to dive. We then moved on to Beacon rock and did a dive through the reef to another smaller shipwreck. For those that still had the energy (there has been a lot of snoozing today) there was a night dive and a great chance to watch some of the lionfish hunting and we saw an octopus and many stonefish. The evening was filled with a hilarious game of charades and after supper most have crawled to bed (it is 8:30pm after all). Alexei burnt the image of his crucifix into his chest and Callum was dressed up by our dive guide into an elephant (see photo). As the week goes on, Emma has to add to the list of fish that scare her, despite being able to happily enter pitch black hulls, swim through strong currents and cope with heavy seas. Tomorrow we are diving another wreck (SS Dunraven) before going on to Shark reef!

Day 6

We started the day with a nice dive of the Dunraven wreck which you could enter and swim through the large hull. We then moved on to Shark and Yolanda reef where apparently there used to be sharks but much to Emma's delight, there were none to be found. We saw a big swimming Moray Eel and a large trigger fish that gave Dr O'Loughlin a little chase to get the heart going. Next dive was Stingray station and after a short dive we sat down on the bottom for the debut performance of our new underwater band. After many hours of discussion and auditions we went with: Alexei and Callum on lead vocals, Matt on Piano, Nick and Eliot on lead guitar, Dr O'Loughlin on bass, Emma on drums and Mrs Goldsmith and Davo as the dancers. The video is hilarious and has caused much amusement. Davo was allowed briefly to drive the boat and within 30 seconds, we slowed down dramatically, changed direction and before we knew it dave was sitting back next to us. Our generators on the boat then packed up (I'm sure unconnected to Davo taking the helm)  so we had to drive through the evening to meet a mechanic and they took the zodiac off into the night with the faulty part. Dinner was served on the top deck (without air con the galley is like a sauna) and the chef still produced a wonderful meal without any electricity. Cards by candlelight and everyone settled down for a night al fresco on the deck. At 11pm the temperature outside was still 33 degrees. Finally at 11:30 the generator whirred back to life and we all skulked down to cool cabins.

Day 7

The last day of diving and the last day of the blog. We started today by diving shark reef again where the group saw a huge fan tail stingray, some 6ft across. We then went on to two more dive sites and everyone finished the diving having had their fill of diving, but having enjoyed it all immensely. Most of the afternoon has been spent swimming and diving in from the boat, flirting (Callum, Emma?) playing cards and catching some sunshine whilst we wait for our bodies to recover before we fly home tomorrow. The trip has been fantastic, everyone has got along brilliantly and I for one have enjoyed their company hugely.

They are:

Callum. The crocodile fish. Rarely moves, tries to stay asleep at every opportunity but everyone seems pleased when they see him. Great humour, takes the bellyflop well and showed us all some new dives that we will not try to repeat.

Davo. The Clownfish. Always busy, always moving. Happy to take on someone twice his size and frequently hides if attacked. Always cheerful, makes the captain’s chair his own and has caused us all to laugh underwater with his eclectic diving style always ready to dance at a moment’s notice.

Eliot. The Lionfish. A class act. Elegant through the water, never expending more energy than necessary. A top dive buddy. A consummate professional and studious with his Master scuba diver course. Always awake (does he sleep?) and is just chilled and nice to meet on any dive.

Matt. The Titan trigger fish. Seems like a nice fish most of the time but don’t upset him or he’ll go for you and throw you in (Is there anyone he hasn’t thrown in?). Started the week as the ‘human jacuzzi’ on account of the bubbles he made but has shaken this title off and has been the trip photographer for most of the dives.

Alexei. The Octopus. Some days he’s white the next he’s pink. Happy to chill out and stay put, but a powerful swimmer (don’t get in the way of those fins). The bookworm of the group (has he read lord of the rings twice?) and will devour calamari by the tonne.

Nick. The turtle. Super chilled. That blonde hair waves in time with the waves and sometimes he’s active and swimming and sometimes, if he wants to, he just flops onto the bottom of the coral. The undisputed champion of boat-side diving, perfecting the ‘front flip to pencil’ like no other.

Emma. The butterflyfish (if we had seen one, a Spanish dancer). Beautiful and like a ray of sunshine. Scared of almost every other fish. Doesn’t mind wrecks and rough water but put her near a moray eel and she needs a hand to hold. Callum’s? Nothing happens in Emma’s world until her batteries have been charged by at least 60 mins on her bed in the sunshine. She is solar powered.

Mark (Our dive instructor). Napoleon Wrasse. Big and friendly, a king of the underwater world. Has been brilliant at helping everyone learn to dive and ultra sympathetic when people have got it wrong or feel uneasy. Always a smile on his face when he spied white fin-purple-wetsuit woman (another random diver we kept meeting). Have they met before?

Catherine (Goldsmith). The Cleaner wrasse. Slim and beautiful and looks after the other fish around her. Always making sure we had our suncream on and that everyone had a drink she has been the mother hen of the trip. Another one in the ‘I don’t like big fish’ club but economical with her air often ends with more than anyone else (making sure she has some spare for the rest of us). Top dancer in the band and an allround superstar.

Ahmed (dive guide).  The blacktipped reef shark. Sleek in the water and quick to strike when our sign language was underwater gibberish on day one. Scared of nothing (except a trigger fish that tried to bite him). Eagle eyed, able to spot a crocodile fish at 100 yards. The captain of mischief on the boat always keen to throw someone in or pour cold water on us. Our revenge is yet to come....watch your back.

Julian (O’Loughlin). The Barracuda. Sleek in the water and attracted to shiny things. Keeps everyone on their toes, cruising from the deeper waters looking for his next victim (Davo?). The boss of the trip that no one wants to mess with but also very chilled taking part in crocodile dives,  ‘standard’ granny dives, the ‘classic’ corkscrew – you name it, he did it. A keen cards player who frequently tried to bend the rules and if he didn’t get his way put on a strop. He is full of stories from back in the day (when not swallowing  sodium chloride plus H2O) and together with his jokes (can we call them that?) he has amused us all. Oh and by the way, goes to sleep with one eye open. Super trip leader – everyone is extremely grateful for his work organising this trip!