Diving the Red

Todays diving is one of those days that just HAS to be written about! To all you non divers out there who have no interest in the deep water please skip to the next Blog!

After my disastrous first dive in the Red Sea, things gradually picked up over the week. The second day of diving had me kitted out in well fitting wet suits and diving within the National Park.

Graceful red Spanish Dancers oscillated in front of us, pulsing polyp coral opened and closed its tiny 'hand' searching, finding and drawing in food from the surrounding water. 

A huge crown of thorns grazed its way through the towers of coloured coral while a Blue-spotted Stingray lay silently behind an outcrop. Lion fish cruised the depths in pairs,

a gigantic Black spotted puffer-fish looked warily at us as we passed, huge shoals of red hovering fish filled the caves we entered, a crocodile fish lay unmoving in the sand outside.

The water was still cold (22C) , the visibility poor but the abundance of life amazing. Our dives that day lasted 36 minutes and 30 minutes, any longer and I would have been too cold to have enjoyed them and so we returned to the hotel happy. That evening however we took the free bus into town and bought Peter some fins that fitted, size 11 with a 9inch width requirement was proving impossible to find aboard the boats and the poor boys were thrown into a panic every time they saw us. We came home that evening with a bag that bulged with new boots and strap on fins for Peter. I re-located his old booties in prepared anticipation of our next dive.

Our next day of diving began with a small hic-cup – no transport appeared at the designated time!

 In a way it did turn up, for we were greeted and acknowledged by our usual pick up guy, but because we were not on his list, we were left waiting while he phoned the main office to make new arrangements. An hour later we were still sitting on the step in front of the hotel waiting quietly as the heat of the day grew. We called George, our smiling price beating salesman, who quickly promised a taxi within the next 30 minutes. 20 minutes later we were whisked away by said taxi to Sharks Bay Beach not far from the hotel. Here we were handed fins and masks and escorted aboard a speed boat!!

As we hurtled our way across the rolling waves the dive boat came into view altering its direction to meet us. 

Royalty could not have recieved better service as sets of hands reached down to help us aboard, fingers reached down to take our bags, fins were handed over, strong hands and arms lifted us from our tiny craft and we were set for the day!

We waved goodbye to our personal lift, smiled at the wondering faces peering from the upper decks and set to work assembling our equipment. 

Two wet suits had been requested for me and two had been put in my box. Two Short Suits!! I queried the lack of a full suit – I would not dive without a full suit AND the short suit I informed the Instructor. 

A full suit was removed from another instructor and in a 7mm full suit plus a 3 mm short suit along with Peters old booties I hit the water.

True bliss!! Never have I felt quite so warm under the water, a total of 10mm wrapped around my body in 24C water and apart from a slight coldness in my head ( a hood has been requested for the next dive) I was in true heaven. 

Our instructor was in a wee bit of a rush as he headed off along our route, or maybe he has seen so much pulsating coral that it no longer holds any fascination for him, what ever the reason he soon rushed off into the distance with Peter kicking madly to follow. 

I grabbed Peters new fin just before he raced away and pulled him back. “Shanty, shanty,” I signalled, the instructor would soon come back once he realised we were not there. We dived slowly, looking and observing. The instructor did indeed return only to rush off again. I decided that he was simply fitter than us and one of his fin swipes took him 4 times the distance of one of ours. He got used to sitting in the water waiting for us as we nosed our way along the reef.

A tiny Ghost pipe fish nested in the lee of a mushroom leather coral. A huge Masked Butterfly Fish sailed past, shoals of tiny fish danced their rhythmic steps, turning first together, then crossing and merging, disappearing into the coral as we approached, re-emerging as we passed.

Everywhere we looked there was life. The visibility was still not good but in my warm encasing I did not mind. We dived for 40 minutes and I emerged smiling and muttering words of encouragement to the shivering Instructor wearing the short suit!

If the water is as warm as everyone keeps telling me then why do all the instructors wear a minimum 5mm, more usually 7mm full wet suits, with thick rash vests, hoods and boots!!!

I kept the wet suit on as we motored to the next dive site fully aware of covenant eyes that watched me pass. Our second dive of the day took place at Middle Garden near the shore. As we entered the water the noise was incredible. The sound of a jack hammer battered our ears, vibrated through our bodies. Thinking it was a miss functioning engine somewhere we began the dive hoping the captain would turn it off soon.

The noise continued, distracting us from the surroundings. The hammering vibrations intensified until the pulsating jolts could be felt inside every bone and deep within our chests. As we cleared a large outcrop of coral a sandy expanse came into view. There in the middle without a fish in sight was a work man with a jack hammer twice his size!! The noise now was deafening, did he have ear protectors I wondered? My whole body shuddered with each hammer hit to the sea bed. It is no wonder the dolphins moved away from the Irish sea when they began their oil explorations, my hearing was taking a beating and I had only been under the water for 30 minutes!

We gratefully returned to the boat, another day of unusual experiences completed.

Our fourth day of diving turned out to be the most adventurous of all out dives. We were to dive Gordon Reef again, an event we were mildly disappointed about as we had already dived this route twice. 

Our Dive Master suggested a drift dive instead of the usual circular route and we readily agreed. We ran through all the various scenarios and dives we could achieve dependant upon the current direction. We went over all the signals, pick up procedures and discussed what conditions we could expect.

At the reef the boat master informed our DM that the current was moving left to right and with a smile we dropped into the water. 5M below the surface we were whisked away by a current moving right to left. The three of us tried to swim against it but made only a tiny bit of headway. At one point all three of us stood still finning for all we were worth, the piece of coral below us unmoving.. Our DM instructed us to rest on the bottom while he surfaces to inform the boat of the new end location.

We dropped onto the sand between the coral, found hand holds and settled down to wait. And wait we did. We did not mind the passing time as the fish, aware that we were not moving, began to come to us curious to see what we were doing. All around us fish resumed their normal behaviour undisturbed by the few bubbles being swept away in the current. We did become a wee bit concerned after a good 5 to 10 minutes had passed and no DM returned but seeing how strong the current was we just figured it was taking him some time to find us again and so we waited alone with our fish at the bottom of the sea.

Eventually a yellow blur could be spotted in the distance, we swam quickly toward him and our group was together once more. We linked hands and thundered our way across the current in a diagonal direction before turning to ride the flow out to the left. We did not fin, we did not move a muscle, we just rode the rapid water enjoying the exhilaration of the speed and wondering where we would end up.

The current eventually slowed or more than likely we were thrown out of its path. We explored the reef seeing the biggest Emperor Angelfish I have ever seen and enjoyed the calmness after our tumultuous ride. Again fish filled the 'sky-line', corals pulsated beneath us and all too soon it was time to rise to the surface. I still had 120 bar after the 40 minute dive but both the DM, on his way to find us, and Peter had worked hard and were nearly out of air.

We surfaced far out to sea and well away from the dive boats. We began to head back in towards the reef but the surface winds and currents were having nothing to do with it. Huge 8 foot swells tipped and swallowed us up, hiding us from view while finning kept us in the same spot rather than moved us towards our boat or the reef.

It is times like this that you wish your DM had packed an inflatable marker or even had a loud whistle. He waved, he whistled with his mouth but the waves were huge, the wind was strong and after 15 minutes were were getting tired just finning to stay in the same place. I was reminded of the film Deep Blue and asked Peter if he remembered the film. It was not the most encouraging thing to say at this time he commented as the boat bobbed nearly a kilometre away in the opposite direction to the current and totally unaware or our DMs waving.

 

But the sun was hot, my wet suit was warm (a full 5mm under a short 3mm with booties) my BCD was full of air and I was content that it would not be dark for another 7 hours. We stopped finning so hard and just stayed together drifting slightly but in this swell I don't think it made much difference. Suddenly there was movement from the boat and it began its journey in our rough direction. Our DM waved more frantically and it turned to a more accurate setting, it had seen us. We relaxed and drifted freely as the huge boat powered down on us. It is amazing how big a hull looks when it is powering past less than 20foot away. I lazed on my back and was surprised to be hit sharply on the head by the thrown buoy attached to the pick up line – you can't fault their accuracy I suppose!!

Despite the huge swells, the racing current, the fact that we had nearly been lost in the vast Red Sea, the crew still stood patiently as I removed all my equipment in the water. I have learnt from experience that I simple can not heave myself plus BCD up a ladder in even the best circumstances. To achieve the climb with a 10kg weight belt in huge swells with a rocking ladder was impossible for me, so my ever patient DM took my weights, unclipped my BCD and waited while I heaved myself slowly up the ladder.

I do not understand Arabic but I do understand body language and it was not a happy reunion for our DM. Voices were raised, arms were waved, he dropped his BCD to the floor in an angry manner and disappeared only to reappear 10 minutes later with a cigarette and looking a wee bit calmer.

I stood on the back of the boat buzzing with adrenaline as we powered our way through the troughs and swells to the next dive site. The intro dives would take place here after lunch had been served and Peter and I would do our second dive of the day. As we rocked in the shelter of the cove letting our food settle, we discussed our various dive experiences with Islam our 24 year old DM. 84 minutes had been his longest dive, 76 had been mine. He used 150 bar an hour on a good dive, I used 100 bar and so the conversation continued.

We kitted up for our final dive of the day and dropped below the surface. Our dive was wonderful. No current to speak of, slow and relaxed, our fins moved in small movements more for direction than speed. 

A beautiful Lion fish clung beneath a coral overhang, in the next clearing an even bigger one glided down the coral wall and over the sand. I stopped all movement hanging suspended as it passed within 4 foot of my mask. The magnification of the water making it appear much much closer. Not a fin nor spine moved, no twitch of a tail, not even a rotation of an eye could be detected as it sailed past like a galleon in full sail.

Further on an octopus moulded itself to a rock changing colour as I approached. I called Peter back to see, signalling to Islam as I did. Together we gathered around the soft body noticing all the changing patterns as it worked it way up the rock only to shoot back down and into a hole as it realised we were there.

At a clearing Islam turned to lie on his back in the sand blowing bubble rings as he relaxed. I followed suit but mine were not as impressive as his. Kris still blows the best bubble rings I have ever seen though and this is not a mothers bias opinion, even his fellow dive instructors sing his praises and photos of his achievements eventually appear in the advertising of every place he has worked in!!!! Isn't it nice to have hidden talents no matter how unusual!!

There was no bone vibrating noise as we dived, a new mooring now lay anchored to the spot where our jackhammered workman had cleared the area of all the fish (and divers) two days before. The fish had also returned although there were few around the new site. A purple jelly fish hovered 3 inches above the sand and I amazed myself by being able to hover level 6 inches above the sand and follow its movement without disturbing it or the sand beneath me.

Peter reached 70bar and began to share our DMs supply. Another huge Lion Fish was spotted on the coral. Fan-fish, striped red and white, pulled in their umbrella spokes when we came to close. At first I thought it was another Loin fish so graceful were the delicate flat striped fronds that waved fractionally between the rocks. Their spontaneous withdrawal revealed a tiny tube opening and no matter how long I waited they did not reappear!

Islam asked how much air I had left, I was still on 130 bar. He signalled OK and the dive continued. At 110Bar he asked me to share my air with Peter, reserving what he had left for himself. We began to climb still swimming, still looking. Tiny iridescent jelly fish could be seen around. We settled for our 5m stop and the more I looked the more of these tiny iridescent shapes came into focus. I raised a finger to point at one but it shot of with a speed I had not anticipated. Larger jelly fish floated near the surface but my tiny shimmering ones were more beautiful.

With our three minutes over, we surfaced right beside the steps of the boat. This time I did not need to understand Arabic to know we were late! People looked at their watches, pointed to the sun, engines were started, moorings cast off and we were moving before Islam had fully climbed aboard.

57 minutes, the longest dive we had had since we had arrived. The water temperature was rising each day. I was getting more acclimatised each time we dived plus the wet suits I was wearing were getting better and thicker each day! The visibility had also cleared giving us wonderful views over drop off's and along lanes of coral teaming with fish and life.

We booked a final two dives as soon as we got back to the hotel. What had begun as a huge diving disappointment with cold waters, poor visibility and bad fitting equipment had transformed itself into a dive experience not to be missed.

Today I dived the Red Sea, with her currents, her waves, her rocks and her life force all gathered around. I had been truly blessed with what has to be some of the best diving I have experienced to date. I look forward to the rest of my life diving around the world and will never judge a country on its first dive again!

Thank you to my Dive Instructors for the use of their underwater photographs xxxx