Thistlegorm and the Barge

Day 5 Tuesday February 10th

Diving is an activity which, if done according to the rules, is always done with a buddy, i.e. you always dive with someone else and you take care of each other during the dive. This care starts with the pre-dive buddy check. For us, if we used all of our equipment, getting dressed for diving usually involves putting on: trunks; rash vest (or equivalent); wet suit; hood; dive socks; weights; buoyancy control device (bcd) with attached tank; mask and snorkel; fins; gloves; dive knife; dive computer; camera; surface marker buoy; dive slate; regulator and octopus. Although the total weight of all of the above is in excess of 25 kg, as soon as you get into the water you are virtually weightless.

Having got your equipment on, you then proceed to the important “buddy check” where you check that your buddies equipment is being correctly worn and works in the order: BCD; weights; regulator; air; and final check. Since you will depend on your buddies air supply if yours goes wrong, it is advisable to check properly and carefully. Also if any part of your equipment goes wrong during a dive, you may land up depending on some other item to keep you safe – so a wise diver checks his own equipment carefully.

Once in the water, you constantly communicate with each other via a sign language which consists of certain common codes (which can be understood by any diver) plus your own dialect variants. The whole of this was to prove valuable to us today.

Dive 11 – Thistlegorm (lat 27.81268 long 33.9194)

The Thistlegorm is dived by most divers when they visit the Northern Red Sea. It can be a challenging but straightforward dive, it can also be a challenging and difficult dive. There is much on the web about the Thistlegorm so I will not repeat this information here – if you are interested just click on the ship name above and you will be taken to another web site with detailed information.

In summary, it is a freighter which was sunk by German bombers during the second world war whilst fully laden. During the dive you get the chance to go into the holds and see much of the cargo. the bomb damage area, accommodation etc. We both dived the wreck last year when there was a strong current and visibility was not very good.

For this dive, the plan was to descend down a line tied to the bow, fin along the starboard side exploring Holds one and two, then back up the port side to the bow line and ascend.

Because the dive was difficult last time (strong current and poor visibility) and it is also a more complex wreck penetration dive, we asked for a dive guide to go with us.

Three other dive boats were tied to the Thistlegorm when we arrived, our boat tied of to the bow of the wreck (by sending down a diver with the rope) and then because there was a heavy swell of about 4 metres (not ideal diving conditions), three more ropes were attached. We suited up, Ben and the Dive Guide jumped into the water and just as I was about to follow them, three of the four mooring ropes snapped and I was stopped from going in whilst the ship repositioned. Ben immediately swapped buddies to the Dive Guide and followed standard procedures for hanging around in rough water – inflate your BCD, stay calm and stay with your buddy. There were also other ships near by which they could have gone to if things got difficult.

Eventually I was put into a rib and driven over to them and we dived (as a threesome) down through the swell (which was now even heavier) to the bow. Visibility down on the wreck was very good and we had an excellent dive through the holds and saw many things we had not been able to see last time including the railway engines.

On the way back up, the dive got a more difficult because the mooring line up which were were supposed to ascend was jerking a lot indicating that it was quite rough on the surface. The line managed to knock one of the weights out of my BCD but luckily I was holding on to the line at the time so I did not shoot up and Ben ascended with the weight in his arms for me to reaffix. Once on the surface, it was a matter of inflating our BCDs as fully as possible and putting up a Surface Marker Buoy to indicate our position and then awaiting the arrival of a Rib to take us back to the Blue Melody.

It was a great dive but it was marred by the surface conditions. Thankfully the planned second dive on the Thistlegorm was cancelled and we sailed off to quieter waters. We both felt that our decision to ask for a Dive Guide was absolutely correct in the circumstances although our training had covered all that we did during the dive.

Dive 12 was on The Barge (lat 27.67792 long 33.80543) and the lagoon area nearby.

The barge is located on the south side of Big Gubal Island and is a well known dive spot. We both dived it last year and were amazed at the variety of fish and the large Moray Eel (George). Rumour was that George had now been joined by Georgina.

The dive plan was to descend to the barge, have a look around it and then proceed north, go across a lowering of the reef wall and into the lagoon.

The dive proceeded to plan although the current was slightly stronger than estimated by the dive guide – this was said to be due to the fact that it was a Full Moon.

There is not much left of the barge now and

no-one knows of its history. Large shoals of

Crown Squirrelfish shelter against its walls although they are then prey to the many Lion fish who live in the

area. Georgina was hiding against the wall of

the barge. Particularly nice was the return from the lagoon through the gap because the

current was flowing out of the lagoon through the gap and it swept you past some very

nice coral and towards shoals of Scissor Tail Sergent Fish.

Dive 13 was planned to be “The barge by night”. Quite simple - off the back of the boat, head to the barge, around the barge a few times, look out for George (and even more Lion Fish), back to the boat, a quick shower and then dinner and a well deserved beer. The only thing we were warned to watch out for was that the current was said to be “a little stronger and running from the barge towards the boat”.

As soon as we got into the water it was obvious that the current estimate was well short of the mark. One had to fin very hard to make any progress against it and by the time we got to the barge I was worn out. We rested by holding onto the barge and floated in the current and then called off the dive (through sign language) and with a few current driven detours, headed back to the boat platform and the line hanging off the back to do our safety stop. Unfortunately we missed the line and then had to fin very very hard against the current to get to the line. By the time we were on deck I was exhausted, as were most of the other divers who went in at the same time as us. The general conclusion was that the current was increasing in strength all of the time we were in the water because of the moon.

Ras Mohammed National Park

Day 4 Monday February 9th

For most people on a live aboard, life is (unsurprisingly) focused solely on diving, food, sleep. A beer is only allowed when you have finished diving for the day and on many evenings we were too tired even for that.

The schedule for a typical day is:

6 am	Wake-up Call
6.15 am	Tank and gear check
6.30 am	Briefing
7 am	First Dive
8.30 am	Breakfast
11 am	Briefing and tank check
11.30 am	Second Dive
1.30 pm	Lunch
4 pm	Briefing and tank check
4.30 pm	Third Dive
7 pm	Briefing and tank check
8.30 pm	Supper
	Drink and Bed

During any gaps, you might write up your log book, read or snooze or repair any gear that is misbehaving. Hence the need for great varieties of clothes is small since most of the day is spent in trunks, shorts or dive gear.

There are times when getting up and going for an early morning dive makes you question your sanity. Your trunks are often cold and damp, the wetsuit certainly is and the water looks rather uninviting. But as soon as you get underwater, you remember why you are slightly mad and the buzz in the air when everyone is back on the dive deck is clear evidence of mad divers enjoying themselves.

Early in the morning we made our way to Ras Mohammed National Park to dive Shark and Yolanda Reefs followed by Nemo City. Divers think of the park as an underwater park but it includes nearby land and beach areas and the animals on them.

Last time we were here, we penguined off the end of the Boat at Shark Reef and then the current took us towards Nemo City (so called because of the numerous anemones on the reef at that point) and away from the dive hot spot near Yolanda Reef. Today the current was going the other way so we were hoping of getting to the Yolanda wreck site. Penguining off a boat means the boat reverses close to the reef and then slowly moves away from it. All of the divers are lined up on the dive deck as it moves away from the reef and they then enter the water as quickly as possible as soon as a clear spot appears beneath them - just like penguins going into the water off an ice flow.

 

Napoleon and other fish abounded

Yellow-bar Angelfish

A blue spotted ray

There were lots of small fish (Lyretail Anthias) living amongst the anemones

The reef is named after the ship which hit it. The Jolanda was on a voyage from Piraeus to Aqaba with a general cargo including toilets, wash basins, bath tubs, a BMW 320 motor car (apparently belonging to the captain), aluminium, plastic sheeting and several containers of general goods.

During a bad storm on April 1st 1981 the ship got caught on one of the southern reef mounts at the tip of the Ras Mohamed peninsula. After 4 days aground she rolled over onto her port side, her bow awash, and with her stern hanging over the abyss. The wreck remained in that position for several years, slowly toppling over until it was totally upside down. Then one day in 1985 the hawse wire holding it snapped and a great wreck was lost as it slid down the reef leaving behind only evidence of its cargo; baths, toilets and a car.

For divers, evidence of getting to and touching the toilets is one of the required pictures and experiences of diving in the Red Sea.

The next dive was towards Nemo City, again plenty of fish including

a Titan Trigger Fish

Some fish are very well camouflaged with their surroundings (a Speckled Sandperch),

others are much brighter (Red Sea Bannerfish).

Anthias

There were Wrasse and many large table corals.

plus other corals

We put up our SMBs before the Rib return. The amusing thing for us about the return was that the rib boy seemed determined to leave no-one behind for the second rib so we returned with 12 divers and their equipment plus the rib boy in a relatively small rib (rather too low in the water).

Off to Beacon Rock (lat 27.70503 long 34.12964) for Dive 9 (our first clean up dive) and Dive 10 - a night dive.

Beacon Rock is located on the south side of the Ras Muhamed Peninsula and is within the boundaries of Ras Muhamed National Park. In this area is the wreck of the Dunraven (we dived it last year), which was a steam freighter from the first part of the century. It is also said to have been a spy ship for T.E. Lawrence.

Too many dive boats toss their rubbish over the side and hence the popular dive sites land up with a lot of debris lying over the coral and sand. The objective of our first dive was to pick up as much rubbish as possible provided it had not yet become encrusted with coral. Ben carried the sack (the hard job since it meant constant buoyancy adjustments) and I picked up from the sea bed.

Our haul contributed to 4 crates of bottles, cans, metres of fishing line, lots of glass, numerous items of plastic and a large mooring rope.

Coral lecture three concentrated on threats to coral ecology – some human others marine.

During the night dive, we were followed by a Lion Fish - they have learnt that their dinner is attracted by our dive torches and therefore follow divers rather too closely and then try to grab dinner from within the torch beam. So Ben turned his torch off so that the Lion fish would go over to another pair of divers with a tourch! We also saw some big Jacks and rather nice Feather Star Anemones which closed up when a light beam was shone on them.

The wrecks at Abu Nuhas

Day 3 Sunday February 8th

Food on a liveaboard is quite important to divers – what we are after is good easy to digest food in reasonable quantities served often. From a meal perspective, the day starts with with Breakfast (for me, always a freshly cooked Spanish Omelette), Lunch was usually something salad plus a meat dish, Dinner usually started with soup, then a main course (turkey on the last night) and desert. Wine and beer was available after your last dive of the day, biscuits, soft drinks, tea and coffee were available throughout the day, and there was usually cake at tea time. The chef never had problems in creating a vegetarian option for the only non meat eater on board (me).

Abu Nuhas is famous for the number of wrecks around the reef (probably five). Two were to be dived today, the Giannis D and then the Carnatic.

The theory put forward for the large number of wrecks is that Captains get over confident having left the Suez Canal and misjudge their position with respect to the reef. Readers of ship wreck history may have formed a different opinion about the reasons for some of the wrecks.

The first wreck dive was on the Giannis D. This is a most impressive wreck. One story is that when the ship hit the wreck, the only people on board were the Captain and Chief Engineer. This was the second (of three) wrecks for the Engineer and we were told that at the official inquiry into the sinking, he commented on hearing “the familiar sound of steel hitting coral”!

Getting to the wreck required us to go out in one of the two zodiacs (also known as a Rib) belonging to Blue Melody. Entering the water from a rib is great fun – you get fully kitted up on the dive deck bar your fins, climb down into the Rib, then sit on one side of it and put your fins on as it speeds off to the dive site. Upon arrival, there is a count of 3,2,1 and then you all elegantly roll over backwards at the same time into the water, surface briefly to give the ok signal to the rib and then sink by letting the air out of your BCD jacket.

On this dive we sank down to the starboard side of the stern section, finned towards the stern going over one of the propellers,

then around the stern keeping on the bottom(22.3m) and looked into the engine room through an open doorway, then through the general area where the hold would have been,

up towards the bridge, past the funnel (where a big D is still attached)

then towards the safety line attached to the crane frame where we did our safety stop.

There is a lot of soft coral on the wreck

and a great variety of fish.

(a parrot fish)

It is a most impressive wreck which has the effect of making a diver feel very small.

Getting back into the rib is less elegant. Once on the surface, firstly you inflate your BCD, then locate the rib (or if it has not seen you, put up a marker buoy) and when it has come into range, grab one of the ropes on one side of the rib, hand up your weights, unclip your bcd (with the attached air tank) and push it up into the rib at the same time as it is pulled in by the Rib Boy. Then you fin like crazy so as to get yourself moving upwards and then haul yourself into the rib feeling a bit like a beached whale.

Whilst we were waiting for the next dive, some dolphins came and played around the ship.

 

The second dive of the day was on the Carnatic. Quoting from the Dive Site Directory website

“The Carnatic is one of the older wrecks in the Red Sea and after her sinking in September 1869 she lay alone on the reef of Abu Nuhâs for over 100 years before being joined by several others wrecks in the 1970’s and 1980’s. She is of iron framed planked construction and was a P&O passenger sail & steam ship, 90m in length with a beam of 12 metres.

On September 12th 1869 she began what ended up being her last voyage from Suez with an intended destination of Bombay under the command of Captain P.B Jones (who had taken command of the Carnatic in 1867). With 176 crew, 34 passengers she had a cargo of wine, cotton bails and £40,000 of royal mint gold. It is thought and widely reported that Captain Jones did most of the navigation and course plotting and with the inevitable lack of sleep certain bearings were not taken during watch changes. Whatever the reasons, the Carnatic struck the reef of Abu Nuhâs just after midnight where she did not sink immediately but became stuck on the shallow reef top. It was a clear night and the decision was made not to abandon ship, but for crew and passengers alike to remain on board. Captain Jones knew that another P&O vessel, the Sumatra was due to pass them in the opposite direction on route to Suez, and intended to seek her assistance. After a perilous night on the reef top the Sumatra had still not arrived on Sept 13th. The Carnatic appeared to be in fair condition and as nightfall approached for the second time, Captain Jones made the fateful decision to ride out another night on the floundering vessel. After some 36 hours on the reef the Carnatic finally gave up her hopeless battle against the elements and broke in half, late morning on Tuesday Sept 14th 1869. The passengers and crew abandoned ship, using the lifeboats which were not damaged and could still be launched. They allegedly used some of the previously jettisoned, tightly packed cotton bails as flotation devices, and the remaining 7 lifeboats then made for Shadwan (or Shaker) island, approx 2 miles to the south. The cotton bails were also used to keep them warm during the cold night experienced in this area in contrast to the heat of the day and to make a fire. The lives of 26 crew and 5 passengers were lost.”

 

The dive gave us the opportunity of a few penetrations between the decks. Last time we were here I dived the stern so this time we concentrated on the bow. We went in just before the deck section at the bow and finned towards the bow on two different decks. Having got to the bow, we came out through a hole in the port side of the ship’s hull. We saw millions of fish including this

Lyretail Grouper

and Ben looking back for his father.

The afternoon dive was at the Alternatives (lat 27.7302 long 34.1995).

The boat was moored some distance from the reef and even though there was a line from the bow to the reef, the currents were strange and it was exhausting getting to the reef. The front side has little to offer but the fish variety around the back was amazing including Unicorns, Napoleons and Lions plus the usual assortment of wall hangers.

The afternoon coral lecture surprised me by telling us that starfish are members of the coral family and that some coral can walk (slowly)!

We chose not to do the night dive because we were concerned about swimming the distance to the reef at night and the fact that no rib drop off or pickup was on offer nor was there a rib in the water to search for any lost returning divers.

Checkout dive and day one reef dives

Day 2 February 7th 2009

The boat (Blue Melody) was moored (lat=27.19550; lon=33.84620) just behind the Marriott Hotel in Hurghada and after our diving qualifications had been checked and we had received the boat safety and dive deck briefings, and we had okayed our equipment and customs had done their paperwork, at 9

am we set off for the check-out dive site. On the way we passed a number of large ships (for Sam) and numerous day boats tied up for the winter.

Unlike some other areas of coastline in the Red Sea, the Hurghada coast leaves much to be desired and shows the usual mixture of completed and half completed hotel sites.

The check out dive was at a place known as the Poseidon Reef at the south-west end of El Erg reef system (lat=27.29560; lon=33.83118). It is the usual practice for the first dive to be a check-out dive when you can check you weights, practise any techniques which you might feel are a bit rusty, get to know your dive buddy (if you have not brought one with you) and satisfy the Dive Guide that you really do know how to dive.

All dives start with a briefing from the Dive Guide during which, the general shape of the dive site is explained, currents are discussed, expected fish mentioned, and the maximum parameters of the dive stated (depth, time, return to surface air volumes etc).

What the above map shows is that this is a simple site, quite shallow and flat with a few Ergs (underwater coral heads) and a reef wall around which there will be some fish.

The check-out dive went smoothly. Because I was using a 15ltr tank (filled with air for the first dive), I compensated for the additional weight over the standard 12.5 litre tank by reducing my weights to 10 kg (five each side). At the end of the dive I purged the tank as much as possible in order to ensure that future nitrox fills were not diluted – 32% was on offer although from experience, we had few hopes of it exceeding 29%. Around the reef we saw large Brain Corals and many Angel Fish.

One of the memories I shall always have of this dive holiday is the Egyptian music which was always loudly playing in the main saloon after each dive. Having had lunch, we moved on to Abu Nuhas for the next dives. Here we were to do a mixture of reef and wreck dives.

Dive two (lat 27.5712 long 33.9258) was supposed to be easy, off the back of the boat, head for the reef and explore. However, having done the “giant stride” off the back of the boat, the visibility was not that good (that is our excuse). So after fining for a while we decided we might be going in the wrong direction and came up for a look around, worked out the correct direction and went down again towards the reef.

We saw lots of Fire Coral (so called because it stings / “burns” if you touch it), and numerous fish

Masked Butterfly Fish (yellow), Schooling Banner Fish (Black striped)

Longnose Parrot Fish?

Ben Diving Fish

Brain Coral

Some of the coral growth is extremely large

a Nudibranch, (a type of underwater slug).

Before the evening dive, we received the first of four briefing lectures on Coral, this one was on its origin and the role of algae in coral colour. Future briefings would be on the lifecycle, threats to and future of coral.

Later we did a night dive on the reef. There was cloudy visibility towards the reef but it was very clear around it and there was lots of interesting night life. Most of the daytime fish go to sleep at sunset and a new range come out at night. Diving at night is harder than diving during the day because you have fewer reference points and have to concentrate more on your dive computer for depth readings. In addition, the range and depth of vision you get is limited by the power of your torch. Never-the-less, it is great fun and the additional challenge is usually welcome.

Gatwick to Hurghada

Day 2 Friday February 6th

Luckily it did not snow during the night (contrary to the weather forecast), the snow fell further westwards. My fear was of being stranded at the hotel because of blocked roads and therefore waking up for an hourly snow check during the night, revealed nothing but the damp street outside.

Check-in went smoothly with no weight problems, then to landside M&S to buy lunch to eat on the flight, breakfast airside and then off to the gate in time for the scheduled Viking Airline 1015 departure. This very small airline (which possibly absorbed some routes of the collapsed Excel Airways) and does not have the greatest reputation (unfortunately) amongst the dive community but it seems to have cornered a large chunk of the market to Egypt. Although we passed through the boarding gate onto the air bridge for an on-time departure, we stood on the air bridge for a good 20 minutes before being allowed on the plane. The plane pushed back, stopped and then went back to the gate. A two hour delay was announced whilst something technical (rumour said the air conditioning temperature controller) was fixed.

The announced 2 hour delay was then displayed as 4 hours and was in fact 6 hours by the time we left because the spare part was stored off airport and the length of the delay also required a crew change. Although we were given a £4 voucher for lunch, it did not really make-up for the delay. Arrival in Hurghada was straight forward, and the transfer to the boat (Blue Melody) was short and easy.

The boat was built in  2007, it is 38 metres long and can accommodate 26 divers. Much of the boat is air conditioned (including the bedrooms).

The dining room (above) and our  bedroom (below) are all very comfortable.

Although we finally got on board around midnight, we had to set up and test our equipment immediately in case anything had got broken on the way out and spares needed to be purchased. After setup, we had quick dinner and then went to bed for a late 7 am get-up.

Clean-up Diving in the Red Sea

Day 1 Thursday February 5th

Today Ben (youngest son) and I (Paul) are setting off to the Red Sea for one week of diving from a Live-aboard out of Hurghada. Although we are doing the standard Northern Reefs and Wrecks itinerary out of Hurghada (which we did last year out of Sharm), the difference this time is that the week has been advertised as a reef clean-up week. This means that the cost is subsidised by the dive company (BlueOtwo) in return for which we are requested to devote some dives to picking up the enormous amount of rubbish which accumulates at popular dive sites when unthinking tourists simply solve their rubbish problem by dropping it overboard.

Although the flight is scheduled to depart from Gatwick on Friday at 1015 am, travel time around the M25 and M23 is so variable and unreliable that we are staying the pre-flight night at a cheap hotel near Gatwick. The weather in the UK has been very snowy in the week before the holiday with numerous disruptions to roads and airports so I feel somewhat relieved that we will be within two miles of the airport when we wake up on Friday morning.

Thursday is spent finishing checking our dive gear and packing the small amount of clothes you need on a live aboard. Divers generally get an extra weight allowance included with their tickets since (as in our case), the weight of all of the dive gear is quite considerable (about 20 kgms). My dive bag contains:

Assorted tablets for various possible ailments

Buoyancy Control Device (BCD)

Depth resistant dive case (for storing small things in)

Dive Computer

Dive Gloves

Dive Knife

Dive Log and Qualification Cards

Dive Shirt

Dive Socks

Dunking sack (for use when rinsing dive gear)

Factor 50 Suntan lotion

Fins

Fish Identification Card and Book

Log Book and qualifications

Mask Strap Band

Mask with Prescription Lenses (and case)

Regulator (1st and 2nd Stages etc)

Snorkel

Spare batteries

Surface Marker Buoy and Reel

Torch for Night Diving

Trunks

Underwater Camera

Underwater Camera Case

Underwater slate

Wet Suit

Wet Suit Hood

The weight of my clothes is considerably less (about 2 kgms)

Three pairs of socks (you do not wear socks or shoes on a live aboard)

Two shirts (one out and one back)

Two T Shirts (most of the day is spent in dive gear or in the sun)

Underwear (sufficient but not to excess)

Winter clothes for wearing on the way to the plane and again on arrival back in the UK.

Sun Hat

Add a few books, mp3 player, noise reducing headphones and other odds and ends and the travel bag itself and the weight gets close to 25 kgms.