Sharm El Sheikh Blog

Coral at Ras Um Sid

Fiddle Garden - Stonefish

Tuesday 30th September 2014

Up at 6am, really 5am UK time. Got to retrieve passports from reception as need to take with for diving. Picked up at 7:45 outside gates at end of hotel drive, security would not allow OC bus to drive in. Taken by bus to dive centre in Naama Bay for the obligatory admin.

All dives today are local, started with Temple, a nice little bimble to 29m. Lots of life including a large Bat fish, various Puffers and the ubiquitous Lion fish, along with the usual little stuff.

Next up was Ras Um Sid which was a nice drift along a wall. Lots of Fan coral, Parrot fish and Puffers. A long dive at 55 mins and max 24m.

The final dive was at Fiddle Garden and was distinguished by seeing some tiny Cleaner Shrimp and a large Stone fish resting vertically, head down, on the coral. Back to hotel at 6pm feeling tired and ready for some light refreshment!

Having some difficulty uploading my latest blog using the free wifi in the hotel. Turns out their firewall blocks outgoing ftp for 'security reasons'. Have to call hotel IT out, a guy called Osama, each day to log into another wifi node to do it! He's pretty helpfull though and always seems to be there, heaven knows how many hours he puts in each week.

Wednesday 1st October 2014

Day two takes us to Gordon Reef & Jackson Reef near Tiran Island and the final dive, Near Garden, close to Naama Bay. Not all that interesting, much the same as the previous day, but some nice Blue Spotted Rays, some large Puffer fish at rest on the seabed, a Scorpion fish hiding in the reef and a very large Grouper at Jackson.

The highlight, though, was a White Tip Shark resting on the seabed (24m) mid-afternoon at Near Garden, no doubt after a busy morning hunting. From 10m away prudence was the better part of valour and I used the camera zoom to snap 3 good pics before it got disturbed by our rude intrusion and swam away. There followed a hard swim against a strongish current to go from 24m to 5m ready for our safety stop and exit as air was becomming an issue after 40 minutes at depth! Ras Mohamed and the Dunraven tomorrow. A nice wreck. Yippee.

Near Garden - white Tip

Eagle Ray

Thursday 2nd October 2014

Shark and Yolanda reef was first up, sea was very lumpy and the wind was up. Never the less, in we went to start what turned out to be an eventful dive. We needed to get some depth on this dive as the next dive was the Dunraven at max 28m. Deepest dive first and getting shallower on subsequent dives, etc, etc. Not sure that this maxim holds up now according to recent research but that was the dive guide's requirement. We all dropped down to around 29m and then an Eagle Ray appeared in the blue.

I moved towards it to snap a memory with my trusty box brownie and got two or three lovely shots, but when I turned around something was wrong. Another diver was in trouble! Checking my depth I was at 30m and the guy was the same about 4m away, however, his bcd was fully inflated and he was finning hard to ascend but, nevertheless, sinking fast. I caught up with him at 33m, grabbed his tank valve and finned hard to assist his ascent, pushing air into my bcd as I did so. Happily we were soon at 29m and the dive guide arrived to take over whilst I got my breath back.

Getting back in the boat was another event, the sea was surging and the ladder evasive, Halfway up my foot slipped off the rung. One of the crew grabbed my tank and took the weight whilst I sorted myself out and then I was back on board, legs bruised nicely from the experience.

Preparing for the next dive on the Dunraven I connected up a cylinder and turned on the air, immediately blowing the 'o' ring on my wireless pressure sensor. No doubt the crewman's efforts to take the weight when I got out had loosened it somehow. Still, the dive goes on as I still have the standard, hose connected, pressure gauge.

Day two takes us to Gordon Reef & Jackson Reef near Tiran Island and the final dive, Near Garden, close to Naama Bay. Not all that interesting, much the same as the previous day, but some nice Blue Spotted Rays, some large Puffer fish at rest on the seabed, a Scorpion fish hiding in the reef and a very large Grouper at Jackson.

I've dived the Dunraven before but it is still a good dive to do and its home to lots of life, although I didn't see the Moray that lives inside it.

The final dive was an hour long lazy drift along a wall reef on the way back to port. A turtle briefly came into view, quite a lot deeper than us, and that was the highlight of the dive. Unfortunately it was too far away to get a decent picture.
Diving over now, sadly, but as always I've enjoyed it to the full. Snorkelling off the beach tomorrow.

Dunraven - thru Propeller & Rudder

House Reef

Friday 3rd October 2014

Had a lay in and a late breakfast this morning. OC promised to deliver my diving equipment this morning to their dive shop on site at our hotel, Sensatori. Went along at 10am to collect it but, guess what?
"Your dive bag is here but your diving equipment is still at our Naama Bay office. It's the colour of the crate it's in that's confused them," they said.
"But I have to go snorkelling with Mrs C," I said, "there'll be ructions if I can't."
Anyway, they apologised and promised to get it here tomorrow. In the meantime they lent me some boots, fins and mask. Well, it's the least they could do!
Another thing. I asked the dive guide to sign up my logbook on Wednesday but he said he was far too busy at that time and would do it tomorrow (Thursday). Needless to say, there was never a convenient time on Thursday either. I should have known from past experience. Good job my buddy signed it, although I didn't always have one, only the dive guide. Rant over.
Still, we did our snorkel so Mrs C was happy which was the most important thing.

The hotel provides a pontoon walkway out to the house reef which was a cordoned off area safe for snorkelling from the speedboat fraternity, some of whom don't seem to care about running snorkellers and divers down during their quest for easy thrills. The reef is quite pretty with plent of life, nemos, coronet fish, masked puffer, parrot and butterfly fish, to name but a few. Most likely return there tomorrow - hopefully with my own snorkelling gear! :-)

Saturday 4th October 2014

By 7:30am most of the sunbeds had been taken but we did manage to get one of the couple that were left, not in an ideal spot but beggar's can't be choosers. Went to the OC office around 9:30am to check if my gear had arrived and it had. Brilliant. Also got collared to settle my bill whilst I was there, almost as much again as the original booking in sundries, supplements and charges for Nitrox, Ras Mohamed National Park and the Dunraven, as well as an additional third dive each day.

Snorkelled again on the house reef in the afternoon and took Scuby along to get some Scuby Snaps as I didn't get chance to take any of him on the dives. At least one other snorkeller took advantage of the photo-shoot to snap her own pics or video (not sure which), so Scuby may turn up in unexpected places on the net. The marine life on the reef mostly approached Scuby with caution to see if there was a possibility of him being food, but mostly kept their distance and a watchful eye on him lest he thought they were edible!

Mrs C and I are off to watch a Motown tribute artiste, J'NAY, tonight in the large auditorium attached to the Hotel. Should be good, especially with a few Gin & Tonics under my belt.

Black Spotted Puffer Fish