Diving - The adventure continues!
2022 Diving - An unplanned bonus! Red Sea Liveaboard - December 2022
The reason for that regulator reconfiguration was to reduce some of the weight in my bag for a flight.
Andy had planned to go to the Red Sea early in 2022, but had contracted COVID, so he now booked a liveaboard in December.
Fellow club members, Dawn, Julian and Paul had booked to go too and I was invited, but initially I decided against it.
I had dived most of the sites the liveaboard was to visit a few years ago and I fancied going somewhere different, specifically the Caribbean.
Mandy and I discussed some options for that, but none fitted her desire not to have to wear a mask anywhere during the trip and in the end we gave up.
I looked again at the liveaboard and discovered that the single supplement was only 35%, rather than the usual 100%, so I booked myself onto the trip.
Time passed and then it was time to go.
8th December
Paul picked me up and we arrived at Gatwick at exactly the same time as Julian and Dawn, who walked up to the same car park bus stop as us a moment afterwards! Andy had elected to go on a couple of days ahead and would meet us at the hotel we were staying in for a couple of days before making our way to the boat.Check in for the EasyJet flight was relatively straightforward and we went and got some breakfast and wandered around the shops before boarding the flight.
The flight, too, passed painlessly. I spent most of it watching films and reading books on my iPad as well as eating a lunch I'd purchased from Boots in the terminal.
As we approached Sharm El Sheikh airport, we could see the coral reefs below us in the clear blue sea and we started to get a little excited.
We didn't have any real issues at the airport as I recall (or so we thought) and a mini bus was waiting to take us to the Shark's Bay Umbi Resort.
Umbi Resort by night
The resort is basic, but far from uncomfortable. Most of us had elected to pay a little more for one of the rooms away from the beach and I was impressed by mine, which had two beds, plenty of room around them with chairs should I have wanted to lounge, a view down to the seafront and a decent sized bathroom with a reasonably powerful shower.
My room
Like much in Egypt, especially on this trip, everything was a little shabby, but not dirty.
After finding my room, I wandered down to the beach and found Andy sitting in the seafront bar.
The others arrived a little while later and we enjoyed a few drinks, dinner and talking to Andy about his experiences so far.
9th December
Next morning we ate breakfast on the beachfront and then headed to the pier at the next door hotel to board our boat.
Seafront at Umbi
The sky was blue, the temperature that of a nice summer's day in the UK, just about perfect.
The first dive of my trip was at Ras Bob.
Bigeye Emperor
There were just the five of us and American woman, Julie, who I was buddied with.
Great vis and light in the shallows
It was a generally pleasant first dive, with good vis and lots of life.
Notable were hunting Needle Fish, an Eel Garden and a large Napoleon Wrasse.
Fusiliers were a common sight
Julie had her weighting wrong and the guide, Julian and I ended up holding her down on the stop!
We relaxed for a while and then headed to one of the famous reefs in the Straits of Tiran, Gordon Reef.
The reef was alive with fish, Snapper Fish, Trigger Fish and a couple of large Napoleon Wrasses.
Trigger Fish
The Striped Banquillo is always a favourite fish of mine
Needle Fish
Another lovely dive in 30+M vis.
After lunch, we headed over to Ras Ghamila, which was on the way back to Shark's Bay.
It was a fairly gentle dive, but we saw our first Turtle of the trip, typically just as the battery in my camera expired.
Paul examines some coral
Parrot Fish and friends
Still, it was an enjoyable dive with plenty of life across varied underwater landscape, reef and sandy area, with large coral heads.
As we ended the dive, we spotted Jacks cruising on the surface.
Andy had been at Shark's Bay 3 days by now, but not dived on the local reef. We asked the guide if we could have a fill to explore the reef on a night dive, but he said it wasn't allowed without a guide.
Only Andy and I wanted to do the dive and the guide was clearly reluctant, but agreed and we headed out as darkness started to fall.
It turned out to be a great dive.
Within moments of descending onto the reef, we spotted a Dog Faced Puffer Fish, quickly followed by a Blue Spotted Stingray with a truncated tail.
Our guide got quite excited when he found a couple of Cuttlefish and then again when he found a Spanish Dancer, something rarely seen on the House Reef apparently.
Video from the Shark's Bay night dive
We were followed by a decent sized Lionfish for a while as well, obviously hoping to use our torches to spot prey.
It was a highly enjoyable night dive and even the guide seemed happy when we came out.
After a day's diving we adjourned to the bar and had dinner again and a few drinks and my day's buddy, Julie joined us for a while.
10th December
The next day we headed out on the boat, but only did the two included dives this day, conscious that we were doing plenty of other dives over the coming week.
There were just the 5 of us and a Dutch woman on the boat this time and we returned to Tiran and started at Jackson Reef.
Julie had departed, so I joined Paul and Andy in a 3.
Jackson was probably our favourite reef of the whole trip.
This, our first dive here(except Andy, who'd already done most of the reefs in Tiran over a couple of days before our arrival) was a good one.
Divers over huge coral garden
Gorgonians
Turtle
Huge Napoleon Wrasse
It's a very colourful reef, with abundant life.
It was quite busy, with a couple of other day boats on the reef and the guide got a bit stroppy about me stopping to video a Moray Eel, but I could clearly see the group amongst all the other divers, thanks to Andy's vintage Buddy Commando BCD!
Finally, during our stay at Shark's Bay, we dived on Woodhouse Reef (they're all named after surveyors here!)
This was the least enjoyable dive at Shark's Bay.
It was a bit gloomy and the reef seemed rather barren after Jackson.
It wasn't terrible, but certainly a more disappointing dive than the first of the day.
There was a fair amount of life, but nothing that I recorded as notable. If I'm honest, it seemed a bit of an anti-climax after the other dives, especially on Jackson.
We settled up for our stay and diving and then were picked up by a coach that took us, via a couple of other pickups, to what I called Travco Harbour, but is now has a less industrial sounding name and the title of a Marina.
To be fair, there are a few shops and a cafe or two, so it is less like a commercial port and more like a yacht marina now, especially as it's full of day and liveaboard boats.
Boats at the Marina
There was lots of paperwork to be done on the boat that first evening and a couple of issues arose, most notably that Paul hadn't been given the appropriate Visa to leave the Sharm area. This was resolved by him being driven back to the airport and the correct stamp added to his passport. Why he was singled out is a mystery, the rest of us did have the correct stamps.
All the cabins, except a couple of grand ones on the upper deck, were much the same as each other and as I'd experienced on other liveaboards. I had two bunks and small shower room with a toilet.
It was comfortably large for a single person, but would probably have been cosy with a stranger, so I was glad I'd paid the extra and a couple of other people had done the same, so the boat wasn't quite full.
11th December
We had stayed in the marina overnight, but set off after breakfast for our first dive, the typical 'check-out dive'.
They always tell you it's a chance for you to check your weighting and I guess that's something you can do, but in reality the point is for the guides to see if you're going to be a liabilty!
Our guide for the week, Osama, got a group of dive guides from Bermuda and five BSAC Advanced Divers to look after and it's probably fair to say none of us was a liability, most of the time...
The first dive was pre-breakfast and at Temple Reef.
Colourful and full of life
It started quite barren and rocky, but improved as we went deeper (unusual in this respect).
One of a shoal of Barracudas
Moray Eels a frequent sight on this trip.
We spotted lots of Glass Fish around a coral head at around 30M, then worked our way back up the reef, spotting a school of Barracuda in shallower water.
A very enjoyable first dive on the liveaboard.
Breakfast was pretty good too, as all the food was on the boat - Not haute cuisine, but tasty and plenty of it, usually with a selection of meat/fish and vegetables/salad at dinner time. We didn't go hungry, even the slim Hungarian woman who went back for seconds every time!
After the fairly tame 'check out dive', we moved onto Jackfish Alley for our pre-lunch dive.
This dive was a drift along the wall of the reef, much as I'd done on dives in the area before.
We initially passed through a very short cave, a little like those at St John's Caves in the south, but far shorter. We then continued over dense coral, including some Staghorn Coral (although it was never as impressive as we'd seen in Indonesia, being shorter in its stems).
Passing through the cave.
There were also a few coral heads on a sandy bottom towards the end of the dive.
I took my full light set up in, but found them quite 'draggy' and used more air than normal as a result.
Stonefish
Colourful Parrotfish
We did see some interesting life, notably Glass Shrimps, but it wasn't as colourful as many dives.
The afternoon dive was at site called 'The Alternatives'.
Apparently, there are a selection of routes through, hence the name.
This was a slightly cloudy dive, probably due to the current.
We swam around the reef.
About to be picked up.
On the dive, we spotted Bat Fish, Moray Eels, Coral Wrasse, Sand Eels, a Blue Spotted Stingray and loads of the familiar reef fish.
As we moved away from the boat, the vis improved, but it was probably the poorest we had on this trip.
When darkness fell, Paul decided to skip the night dive, again at the Alternatives (the pattern tended to be to do a night dive at the same site we did the afternoon dive on), so Andy and I went in as a pair.
We followed a line from the boat to the reef and then swam around a small outcrop reef.
We quickly spotted a couple of Squid, although sadly I didn't get a decent photo of them, the lights scaring them away.
Another Moray Eel
A little later we saw a bigger group (10 or so), which sped away as we approached.
We passed by a Lionfish and a couple of eels (one swimming in open water).
We also saw a strange worm swimming upwards and also another Blue Spotted Stingray.
Blue Spotted Stingray
We were passed at one point what we both thought was a Tuna and there was a huge shoal of fish by the boat as we completed our safety stop, presumably attracted by the lights.
It was a good night dive and we both enjoyed it.
The next day was to prove very eventful...
12th December
The first dive of the day was on the Dunraven and the reef alongside it.
We descended onto the wreck from the bow, headed along the port side to Propellor, then entered near sea bed.
Dawn enters the Dunraven at the stern
Propellor and rudder
Our guide, Osama, checks the rudder and prop
Over the boiler.
Some Lionfish inside, headed up/through wreck looking up to see propellor shaft.
Passed engine and other machinery astern of boiler, under floor plates.
Over boiler, glass fish here and another larger Lionfish near the exit.
XXX
Headed up onto reef and explored there for rest of the dive, loads of life and colourful coral.
Beautiful reef on which the Dunraven foundered.
It had been a good dive on a wreck and reef as I remembered, although there was more to see in the wreck than I recalled.
Heading away from the stern of the Dunraven.
We returned to the boat for breakfast and the boat headed the relatively short distance to the Thistlegorm, possibly the most famous wreck in the world at least within recreational diving range.
First sight of the Thistlegorm
Paul and I had dived the wreck before, but everyone was looking forward to it.
We dropped down to the deck and then in through opening in the wreck just forward of the explosion and headed into hold 2.
Motorcycles
Lee-Enfield Rifles stacked in their crates
As I remembered, there were lots of lorries with motorcycles and some with airfield lights.
I spotted the crates of Lee Enfield rifles as we swam through, knowing what I was looking for was definitely a help, though, as some of the others didn't spot them.
Lorry in the lower holds
Vehicles parked in the holds
Deck winch and plenty of life
Locomotive tender, still on the deck, unlike the Locos
For'ard deck
I think we ventured up to the upper cargo hold too, but I'm not 100% sure.
I felt the trucks etc were more eroded and covered in silt than on my previous visit and Paul agreed, but my photographs don't really seem to bear this out.
We did see the kitchen and wood lined fridge room.
We finished off the dive by exploring forward deck area before joining the rope back to the boat in a moderate current, certainly lighter than I'd remembered from my previous visit.
It had been impressed upon us that we were strictly forbidden to touch the wreck at all. This led to a nasty incident.
Unfortunately, trying to stop myself swimming into someone who suddenly stopped after passing into a new hold, I swept my left hand away from me and out to the left and caught a razor sharp piece of metal (I assume, I didn’t see it), which left a deep cut between two fingers.
It immediately gushed blood, but I clenched my fist and it seemed to stem the flow, so I continued the dive like that.
Back on the boat we took a look and Paul, a EFR, said it needed stitches.
There was no equipment on board, but one of the other two boats on site, did have a suture kit and sent it over for a Turkish doctor, luckily on board as a guest, to stitch the wound.
The guides wanted me to stop diving altogether, but I just missed final two dives this day initially.
Luckily, there was a doctor onboard to stitch my wound.
The others went in again after lunch and dived the upper holds and forward deck again and then back in for a night dive on the deck (I was gutted to have missed this, but it was probably the sensible decision).
I had already given Andy my GoPro to use as his action camera had flooded the previous day, so he got some footage of those dives.
The second dive on the Thistlegorm, which I sat out.
The Thistlegorm night dive - Maybe I'll get back to it at night one day...
13th December
The guides were still telling me I shouldn't dive, but I had paid a significant amount of money to come on this trip and felt they were being over cautious. The doctor advised I should keep the wound dry, so for the rest of the week I dived with one hand in a surgical glove, taped to my wrist each dive and protected with a regular dive glove. This worked amazingly well and the wound eventually healed very well.
We had stayed at the Thistlegorm overnight, so our first dive of the day was back on the wreck.
I was glad to be back diving for this one as we focussed on the rear of the wreck, where the guns are, but started by descending to the seabed and taking a close look at one of the two locomotives that was blown off the wreck.
The remains of the port side Locomotive
Locomotive from the front
I had seen these from the deck before, but not gone down to them.
Video of the locomotives and Stern section
We dropped down onto deck again, near break, but this time swam down to seabed on port side and visited the locomotive there.
Then we returned to the wreck and travelled along the port side, passing the debris field and then visiting the stern, with both guns and propellors.
Divers around the stern.
The stern gun, the other points up to take on aircraft, but failed to save the Thistlegorm
I got some photos here of the stern, similar to the one I took on previous visit, but possibly due to preoccupation with my hand, I was disappointed with the photographs I got on this dive.
We then swam up to examine the guns in more detail, before exploring debris field more closely, seeing 2 Bren Carriers and a load of shells, including the polished one and a couple of huge shells (How big?).
Maker's plate on the AA gun
Our group explore the area where the bomb went off.
A Universal Carrier - One of three.
Then, as NDL was getting close, we headed back, crossing the remains of the engine room, and spent a few more minutes on the fore deck area before heading up to rope and back to boat after safety stop – Zero current on this dive....
Shells, large and massive!
The top of the engine, just visible under wreckage
It was a shame to have missed the night dive, but everyone agreed that the two dives I had done on the wreck were their favourite ones, although whether that was true or for my benefit, I'm not sure.
After this dive we moved on to a site called Shag Rock, where a shallow wreck called the Kingston lay.
I think we all agreed this was one of the highlight dives of the trip.
We dropped in some way from reef and as we swam towards it were passed by two sizable pods of dolphins, the second closer than the first.
A pod of dolphins started our dive at Shag Rock!
The wreck, from 1881, is lovely, still recognisable as a ship with a notable stern with Propellor in place. It is, though, totally overgrown with coral.
Being shallow, the light on the wreck is excellent
Andy gives his opinion.
We scattered a bit on the wreck. I swam along the starboard side from stern and then turned into the wreck and swam through it.
As I did this, I spotted a Scorpion fish resting in a dark corner.
Scorpion Fish lurking in a corner.
I swam to the stern inside (it was busy as there were 17 of us and another boat put their divers in at exactly the same time!) and then turned around and back through wreck, below upper deck level and then turned back towards the stern and rejoined others near propellor.
A wreck AND a reef in one!
After regrouping here, we headed out onto the reef.
Julian comes through the wreck in the opposite direction to me!
This was very colourful and full of fish and lots of different types of coral with a lot of table coral.
Still clearly a ship.
Our post-lunch dive was on the same reef as the Dunraven lies.
This time we did a drift from the Zodiac, ending with a pass through the reef (called Small Crack, yes there is a Big Crack too!) back to the main boat.
We dropped in and swam down and away from the reef to 30m, presumably looking for some of the big fish that can sometimes be seen here.
We didn’t see any, so headed back into shallower water and drifted along the reef, which was very picturesque.
Another giant Napoleon Wrasse.
I spotted Porcupine Fish, Moray, Blue Spotted Stingrays and a huge Napoleon Wrasse.
Blue Spotted Stingray
At one point, Osama, our guide, swam out into the blue and we followed but he didn’t find whatever he saw the shape of.
Porcupine Fish
Finally, we reached the Small Crack and headed through the narrower passage.
Scorpion Fish
The reefs all looked in great condition
Here there were very pretty reefs, as shallow as 3m in places, With loads of reef fish and table coral.
I eventually reached the sandy bottom of the lagoon, with 50 bar and followed Osama back to the boat.
I had dropped my primary mask on boarding the Zodiac, but luckily the other group found it on their return, which was just as well as cheap spare steamed up badly, especially in the shallows of Small Crack making keeping with the guide there difficult and limited air made it impossible to continually flood mask to clear it.
It had been a very pretty dive, but I got cold, so elected to miss night dive on this occasion.
Moray Eels on the night dive I skipped, courtesy of Andy
The next day, we started a long string of reef dives, some familiar, some not - Continue to the next page for more.
