Ifoundnemo
Registered
sorry this is soo late..... its been a busy few months...
This is our report from our 2 weeks in Egypt 1 week shore based in Naama bay and the second a week on a liveaboard it was between may 12 and may 26 07. This is our first try at this sort of thing and I guess I may have gone a bit overboard so get yourself a cuppa, a sandwich, some chocolate perhaps a pillow so that you can stop for a rest half way through and please enjoy .
Our hotel Hilton Sharm Dreams very cool loads of security everywhere all really friendly guys say hello, good morning and smile and youll get warm welcome back .that goes for all staff not just the security food we ate in Le Jardin restaurant and we were ably and well taken care of by Mohammed and Hany on respective nights. Staff appear to work both breakfast and evening meals so tip well at evening meal you will have personal service without fail throughout and dont be cheap remember that 10 Egyptian is 1 British pound so tipping 15 Egyptian is appreciated by them and virtually nothing for you J.
Best advice I can offer? - Be upbeat even when things go wrong and youll get a much better resolution than stamping your feet and throwing a tantrum (I tried both so know which works) The people in Egypt appear exceptionally fair minded if you are fair with them give them a chance to help and dont go off on one they will do their best to help you.
We used Red Sea Diving College for our Advanced Open Water Diving course and thoroughly enjoyed our two days doing our Navigation, Deep PPB Naturalist and Drift dives.
We enjoyed their facilities so much we followed the AOW immediately by our Deep diver speciality which is a great course to do. I enjoyed my Deep dives never felt altered even at 40 metres but now Ive done it I have to say it will take a significant draw to make me consider a dive to that depth again (the bottom time is so limited ) its nice to know we can and to have the knowledge to do so safely. We then did a day diving in Ras Mohammed followed by a day diving the house reef to get used to the camera and housing we had brought with us.
End of the first week need to move to our liveaboard packed our gear from red sea college and dragged it all back to the hotel. Saturday was going to be a complete loss for diving what to do?... shopping J
Transfers were done by a local agent Travco who were really good although they werent best informed by the original holiday agent LIBRA/GOLDENJOY DIVE they still managed to get us to the places we needed to go and by the time we needed to be there.
Liveaboard We had booked on the Orchid and had asked Goldenjoy dive to confirm the week before we travelled that we would definitely be diving from the Orchid - they advised yes. On the day of transfer we were actually walking down the pontoon to the boats when we were met by the owners who advised us that we would be going on Snapdragon and that they had advised Goldenjoy dive (Libras diving branch) two days previously who had failed to contact us at all!! Suitably bemused but in affable frame of mind we took the Snapdragon as its actually a bigger boat and there was only going to be five of us on board no problem - no biggy for us.
We also managed to bag the master cabin when we got on board as the other three passengers were all singles so we were all suitably happy.
Dive Guide was Rami the guy from the bottles incident involving Peter Collings - if you dont know that story get a copy of Diver or Dive from March 2007 and have a read, Ive seen the video mentioned personally and question the quality of journalism in both magazines in that neither mention making any attempt to speak with Rami yet both spoke with Peter Collings.
Anyway, the crew were all as daft as brushes, very friendly and energetic fellows and a fun crew much to my delight, given there were 9 crew and five passengers they managed to stay almost undetected apart from when they were needed or it was time for a bit of a laugh. Dont know where they hid most of the time as the boat wasnt that big :0) we had an impromptu cabaret in Arabic on the bow of the boat on the Wednesday night with the cabaret master Hussien leading the sing along and teaching us the appropriate words for chorus (none of us have a clue what we were singing but the dancing and music was enough of a laugh)
Daily routine was up at 6:30 then first dive breakfast surface interval laughs and giggles second dive lunch surface interval laughs and giggles third dive afternoon snacks surface interval laughs and giggles night dive then dinner hot chocolate laughs and giggles and bed time. Food on board basic but good.
Now to the really good bit .the diving
Day 1
Aboard the Snapdragon we were doing a northern itinerary and start with our check dive at Ras Katy which is a really beautiful site and seems to be a bit dismissed but is definitely a dive in its own right so remember to enjoy the dive as well as dust off the old skills (not an issue for us as we had dived the whole previous week and with our number of dives our skills cant be called old J)
2nd dive was the Dunraven which is upside down but you can still get inside. Have to say wasnt overjoyed at the prospect of swimming around inside a wreck but once in, I was quite happy lots of small fish using the wreck as a home. We went along the reef and coral garden after we came out of Dunraven and saw a variety of marine life very cool.
3rd - Small Crack drift dive much enjoyed by the whole group loads of juvenile barracuda and the corals here are massive.
Night dive Okay this was our first night dive had to say we were both a bit nervous about the whole affair and when the dive guide decided he couldnt dive due to an ear issue but was happy for us to go ahead it was just a little extra pressure.
Only one of the rest of the group wanted to do the dive (also no night dives) so that made three of us and after proper consideration we decided we would go for it our navigation skills had been tested and proved the previous week our boat was the only one in the lagoon so we could use her lights as a ready reference when we were near the surface and our max depth for the dive was 10 metres dive time no more that 30 minutes so all in after talking about it we were quite happy to go for the dive un-guided.
We navigated out from the bow of the Snapdragon to the first pinnacle circumnavigated it picked up our start point on the pinnacle navigation took a bearing on the next pinnacle and moved to it (approx 70 metres away) located the stern mooring line from our boat picked up the reef took a swim round it avoiding the small group of lionfish that were now actively hunting in our torch lights and navigated back to our boat along the stern line safety stop done mid water which is much more difficult in the dark with no easy reference to hold your position with.
Three very excited divers climbed out at the end of that dive!!
Day 2
Supposed to be in Shab Abu Nuhas today but weather to tough to cross.
Kingston Shag Rock
10 minutes out on zodiac from anchor point negative entry strong surge on top of wreck so got down below 8 metres and it calmed out Theres a stroppy surgeon fish living here his three mates are all cool but theres 1 who just has a thing about needing his own space and will come and chase you off. Excellent wreck loads of fish and coral looped around the stern of the wreck and then drifted slowly along the coral garden. We saw some big bird wrasse and a few dory snapper on this dive which was nice. Pick up by zodiac was quite sporty due to the swell running at about 4 to 5 feet.
Dive 2 was small Danaba
Dropped from hot boat negative entry met at 9 metres went through a coral garden reef on left shoulder past a mast rounded corner and found strong head on current using reef for cover we swam along about 50 to 60 metres into current then swung out into current and swept quite quickly back along to the mast where we were dumped by the current and had planned to exit. Saw nudibranchs this dive which was on our list of objectives for our holiday
Dive 3
Kingston Wreck Shag rock again
Different route round the wreck swam through between the prop and the hull swam out to the reef wall and got picked up in a current for the drift part of the dive. The current was strong we were all moving at a fair pace three of our group had mistakenly finned for a short distance in the current and ended up drifting ahead of us at the very limit of our visibility. The dive guide did a yoga type hover position and drifted along looking serene while I lumbered along in my usual graceless way. One of the guys spotted a hawksbill resting on the reef having a munch we got some good pictures and ticked another of our big objectives off our list of things we wanted to see. Long trip back on the zodiac.
No night dive
Day 3
Three dives on the Thistlegorm
I have read a lot on forums about this dive and have seen a lot of comments about how it is past its best and not as good as it was Lets face it as we age none of us are quite as good as we once were and this wreck will obviously deteriorate such is the way things work but as a diver seeing this wreck for the first time . I have to say its a great dive a fascinating story the history of the boat and the impact of its sinking not just on its crew but on those men who would have been awaiting those supplies defies the imagination.
Last dive on Thistlegorm no guide again descended down the stern line to mid section had a little look around on the top deck across the bow and swam around a bit returned to the davit where our rope had been tied to discover that our descent line was no longer attached to anything on the surface however as we were not physically pulling ourselves up the rope we didnt realise until we were at about 8 metres. Hastily stopped our ascent looked around and saw an alternative mooring line realised of course it wasnt to our boat but in order to avoid a saw tooth descent to find our boats bow line we took hold of the secured line made our stop and ascended turned out we were at the stern of the Typhoon one of Tony Backhursts Boats (looked quite nice from our point of view but we did only see the props the rudders and the dive deck) signalled our boat we were ok and they despatched the zodiac to pick us up .turned out the line we descended on had cut through and had been replaced but attached further astern on the wreck I made my feelings known on the fact that the remaining line that was left on the original securing point should have been removed completely so that we would pick a different line all together or alternatively the new line should have been secured to the same anchor point so we could ascend where we descended as per the dive plan or alternatively line run from old securing point to new securing point!! not happy rabbits after this, the dive guide and crew made aware of my dissatisfaction and educated on my perception of the potential safety issues this could have resulted in particularly if we had been of a disposition to panic.
Crossed the Strait of Gobal it was a very exciting journey pitching about, the seats in the Saloon moved about a bit. The galley sounded like it was being destroyed with pots and stuff getting flung around.
Day 4
The Barge at Gobal Island
I suppose technically its a wreck dive but its not much of a wreck really its an oval shaped ring of steel which was once a cargo barge not much to look at but the coral here is quite vibrant there was a big scorpion fish lazing about on a rock surprisingly not very well camouflaged so got a couple of nice photos of him J
Next up for today was the Carnatic this was actually a very good dive which I was enjoying immensely when our group spotted a diver from another boat swim past us with a piece of the wreck in his hand it looked very much like a pulley block with some coral on it we took some pictures of him and his two buddies also and he decided to leave the pulley block on the wreck .wonder if that would have been the outcome if we hadnt been diving the wreck at the same time?
Last dive today was the Marcus ./ Chrisoula K wreck of the tiles
What a stunning wreck and theres a Giant Giant Moray living on her. We got a Video of the Moray having a swim around the stern deck and then disappearing into the stern most hold. Very wicked dive much enjoyed saw another Giant Moray not quite so big as the first on the bow section and also a big sea cucumber that was a first for me so deserves a mention J
This is our report from our 2 weeks in Egypt 1 week shore based in Naama bay and the second a week on a liveaboard it was between may 12 and may 26 07. This is our first try at this sort of thing and I guess I may have gone a bit overboard so get yourself a cuppa, a sandwich, some chocolate perhaps a pillow so that you can stop for a rest half way through and please enjoy .
Our hotel Hilton Sharm Dreams very cool loads of security everywhere all really friendly guys say hello, good morning and smile and youll get warm welcome back .that goes for all staff not just the security food we ate in Le Jardin restaurant and we were ably and well taken care of by Mohammed and Hany on respective nights. Staff appear to work both breakfast and evening meals so tip well at evening meal you will have personal service without fail throughout and dont be cheap remember that 10 Egyptian is 1 British pound so tipping 15 Egyptian is appreciated by them and virtually nothing for you J.
Best advice I can offer? - Be upbeat even when things go wrong and youll get a much better resolution than stamping your feet and throwing a tantrum (I tried both so know which works) The people in Egypt appear exceptionally fair minded if you are fair with them give them a chance to help and dont go off on one they will do their best to help you.
We used Red Sea Diving College for our Advanced Open Water Diving course and thoroughly enjoyed our two days doing our Navigation, Deep PPB Naturalist and Drift dives.
We enjoyed their facilities so much we followed the AOW immediately by our Deep diver speciality which is a great course to do. I enjoyed my Deep dives never felt altered even at 40 metres but now Ive done it I have to say it will take a significant draw to make me consider a dive to that depth again (the bottom time is so limited ) its nice to know we can and to have the knowledge to do so safely. We then did a day diving in Ras Mohammed followed by a day diving the house reef to get used to the camera and housing we had brought with us.
End of the first week need to move to our liveaboard packed our gear from red sea college and dragged it all back to the hotel. Saturday was going to be a complete loss for diving what to do?... shopping J
Transfers were done by a local agent Travco who were really good although they werent best informed by the original holiday agent LIBRA/GOLDENJOY DIVE they still managed to get us to the places we needed to go and by the time we needed to be there.
Liveaboard We had booked on the Orchid and had asked Goldenjoy dive to confirm the week before we travelled that we would definitely be diving from the Orchid - they advised yes. On the day of transfer we were actually walking down the pontoon to the boats when we were met by the owners who advised us that we would be going on Snapdragon and that they had advised Goldenjoy dive (Libras diving branch) two days previously who had failed to contact us at all!! Suitably bemused but in affable frame of mind we took the Snapdragon as its actually a bigger boat and there was only going to be five of us on board no problem - no biggy for us.
We also managed to bag the master cabin when we got on board as the other three passengers were all singles so we were all suitably happy.
Dive Guide was Rami the guy from the bottles incident involving Peter Collings - if you dont know that story get a copy of Diver or Dive from March 2007 and have a read, Ive seen the video mentioned personally and question the quality of journalism in both magazines in that neither mention making any attempt to speak with Rami yet both spoke with Peter Collings.
Anyway, the crew were all as daft as brushes, very friendly and energetic fellows and a fun crew much to my delight, given there were 9 crew and five passengers they managed to stay almost undetected apart from when they were needed or it was time for a bit of a laugh. Dont know where they hid most of the time as the boat wasnt that big :0) we had an impromptu cabaret in Arabic on the bow of the boat on the Wednesday night with the cabaret master Hussien leading the sing along and teaching us the appropriate words for chorus (none of us have a clue what we were singing but the dancing and music was enough of a laugh)
Daily routine was up at 6:30 then first dive breakfast surface interval laughs and giggles second dive lunch surface interval laughs and giggles third dive afternoon snacks surface interval laughs and giggles night dive then dinner hot chocolate laughs and giggles and bed time. Food on board basic but good.
Now to the really good bit .the diving
Day 1
Aboard the Snapdragon we were doing a northern itinerary and start with our check dive at Ras Katy which is a really beautiful site and seems to be a bit dismissed but is definitely a dive in its own right so remember to enjoy the dive as well as dust off the old skills (not an issue for us as we had dived the whole previous week and with our number of dives our skills cant be called old J)
2nd dive was the Dunraven which is upside down but you can still get inside. Have to say wasnt overjoyed at the prospect of swimming around inside a wreck but once in, I was quite happy lots of small fish using the wreck as a home. We went along the reef and coral garden after we came out of Dunraven and saw a variety of marine life very cool.
3rd - Small Crack drift dive much enjoyed by the whole group loads of juvenile barracuda and the corals here are massive.
Night dive Okay this was our first night dive had to say we were both a bit nervous about the whole affair and when the dive guide decided he couldnt dive due to an ear issue but was happy for us to go ahead it was just a little extra pressure.
Only one of the rest of the group wanted to do the dive (also no night dives) so that made three of us and after proper consideration we decided we would go for it our navigation skills had been tested and proved the previous week our boat was the only one in the lagoon so we could use her lights as a ready reference when we were near the surface and our max depth for the dive was 10 metres dive time no more that 30 minutes so all in after talking about it we were quite happy to go for the dive un-guided.
We navigated out from the bow of the Snapdragon to the first pinnacle circumnavigated it picked up our start point on the pinnacle navigation took a bearing on the next pinnacle and moved to it (approx 70 metres away) located the stern mooring line from our boat picked up the reef took a swim round it avoiding the small group of lionfish that were now actively hunting in our torch lights and navigated back to our boat along the stern line safety stop done mid water which is much more difficult in the dark with no easy reference to hold your position with.
Three very excited divers climbed out at the end of that dive!!
Day 2
Supposed to be in Shab Abu Nuhas today but weather to tough to cross.
Kingston Shag Rock
10 minutes out on zodiac from anchor point negative entry strong surge on top of wreck so got down below 8 metres and it calmed out Theres a stroppy surgeon fish living here his three mates are all cool but theres 1 who just has a thing about needing his own space and will come and chase you off. Excellent wreck loads of fish and coral looped around the stern of the wreck and then drifted slowly along the coral garden. We saw some big bird wrasse and a few dory snapper on this dive which was nice. Pick up by zodiac was quite sporty due to the swell running at about 4 to 5 feet.
Dive 2 was small Danaba
Dropped from hot boat negative entry met at 9 metres went through a coral garden reef on left shoulder past a mast rounded corner and found strong head on current using reef for cover we swam along about 50 to 60 metres into current then swung out into current and swept quite quickly back along to the mast where we were dumped by the current and had planned to exit. Saw nudibranchs this dive which was on our list of objectives for our holiday
Dive 3
Kingston Wreck Shag rock again
Different route round the wreck swam through between the prop and the hull swam out to the reef wall and got picked up in a current for the drift part of the dive. The current was strong we were all moving at a fair pace three of our group had mistakenly finned for a short distance in the current and ended up drifting ahead of us at the very limit of our visibility. The dive guide did a yoga type hover position and drifted along looking serene while I lumbered along in my usual graceless way. One of the guys spotted a hawksbill resting on the reef having a munch we got some good pictures and ticked another of our big objectives off our list of things we wanted to see. Long trip back on the zodiac.
No night dive
Day 3
Three dives on the Thistlegorm
I have read a lot on forums about this dive and have seen a lot of comments about how it is past its best and not as good as it was Lets face it as we age none of us are quite as good as we once were and this wreck will obviously deteriorate such is the way things work but as a diver seeing this wreck for the first time . I have to say its a great dive a fascinating story the history of the boat and the impact of its sinking not just on its crew but on those men who would have been awaiting those supplies defies the imagination.
Last dive on Thistlegorm no guide again descended down the stern line to mid section had a little look around on the top deck across the bow and swam around a bit returned to the davit where our rope had been tied to discover that our descent line was no longer attached to anything on the surface however as we were not physically pulling ourselves up the rope we didnt realise until we were at about 8 metres. Hastily stopped our ascent looked around and saw an alternative mooring line realised of course it wasnt to our boat but in order to avoid a saw tooth descent to find our boats bow line we took hold of the secured line made our stop and ascended turned out we were at the stern of the Typhoon one of Tony Backhursts Boats (looked quite nice from our point of view but we did only see the props the rudders and the dive deck) signalled our boat we were ok and they despatched the zodiac to pick us up .turned out the line we descended on had cut through and had been replaced but attached further astern on the wreck I made my feelings known on the fact that the remaining line that was left on the original securing point should have been removed completely so that we would pick a different line all together or alternatively the new line should have been secured to the same anchor point so we could ascend where we descended as per the dive plan or alternatively line run from old securing point to new securing point!! not happy rabbits after this, the dive guide and crew made aware of my dissatisfaction and educated on my perception of the potential safety issues this could have resulted in particularly if we had been of a disposition to panic.
Crossed the Strait of Gobal it was a very exciting journey pitching about, the seats in the Saloon moved about a bit. The galley sounded like it was being destroyed with pots and stuff getting flung around.
Day 4
The Barge at Gobal Island
I suppose technically its a wreck dive but its not much of a wreck really its an oval shaped ring of steel which was once a cargo barge not much to look at but the coral here is quite vibrant there was a big scorpion fish lazing about on a rock surprisingly not very well camouflaged so got a couple of nice photos of him J
Next up for today was the Carnatic this was actually a very good dive which I was enjoying immensely when our group spotted a diver from another boat swim past us with a piece of the wreck in his hand it looked very much like a pulley block with some coral on it we took some pictures of him and his two buddies also and he decided to leave the pulley block on the wreck .wonder if that would have been the outcome if we hadnt been diving the wreck at the same time?
Last dive today was the Marcus ./ Chrisoula K wreck of the tiles
What a stunning wreck and theres a Giant Giant Moray living on her. We got a Video of the Moray having a swim around the stern deck and then disappearing into the stern most hold. Very wicked dive much enjoyed saw another Giant Moray not quite so big as the first on the bow section and also a big sea cucumber that was a first for me so deserves a mention J
