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.

Arriving Home - and reflections 18-19/01/2009

Days 22 and 23 18th and 19th January 2009

The trip home was long and tedious but easy. The taxi arrived at the hotel a few minutes early to take us to the airport, the roads were empty (it was a Sunday), the queues at the Airport were short, the plane left on time and arrived on time 15 hours later etc etc.

The thing we noticed most when we arrived in the UK was that it was dark and damp and miserable! After all, over the past few weeks we have lived in up to 24 hours of daylight, hot temperatures and cold temperatures, rough seas, calm ponds, snow and ice but never 14 hours of darkness and constant rain.

We had left the central heating on continuous but lowish whilst we were away so the house had not suffered with the low freezing temperatures (only -7C in Bishops Stortford). This of course means a high gas bill but it also means no burst pipes - something which would have been a certainty.

Thinking back on the past few weeks:

We were delighted with Buenos Aires, its architecture, its vibrancy and the friendliness of the people we met there. It really has become one of our favourite cities and we do want to go back there sometime - and ideally get closer to real city life. We would also like to get out into the countryside and see more of the country.

If we manage to go back, then we shall try to learn some Spanish before hand, it was most embarrassing not having any facility in the language and having to rely on the kindness of strangers to get by.

We felt very privileged to be able to go to Antarctica, to see the landscape and observe the animals and we now appreciate why it is a very special place.

These few weeks have provided us both with physical and mental challenges and also the opportunity to pass certain important milestones in our lives.

We have had a wonderful few weeks and are looking forward to the next trips - watch this space for blog updates or subscribe to the RSS Atom feed at the bottom of the blog !

Tigre and the Delta 17/01/2009

Day 21 Saturday 17th January 2009

Today we went to the town of Tigre which is a one hour train ride north of Buenos Aires and part of the Rio de la Plata delta.

The air conditioned train went from Retiro station and the fare was one of the great bargains in a country which recognises the need to price public transport low in order to encourage its use (2.7 pesos return (about 54pence)). Because we left early, it was not too packed. One is used to buskers on London Transport but never a Harpist! This one entertained the carriage with a medley of traditional Argentinean tunes.

 
This is a snatched photograph of him seated a few seats away, taking a posed photograph was not possible. There is also a constant stream of people selling things you did not know you needed. We were offered handbags, socks, sweets, a strange squeaky toy, fortune telling etc as well as being asked straight out for money.

Tigre is a working town in the Delta above Buenos Aires which also uses tourism as a significant source of income. The river is very busy with not only Water Taxis but also tourist boats. The taxis carry passengers inside and

their luggage and dogs on the roof.

All boats zoom around the waterways at breakneck speed - the wake of this taxi indicates how fast it is travelling. Cutting up other drivers is the norm unless you are overtaking the police (who also travel by boat).

The museum

and the Boat Club (of course)

 

front onto the river. Ship building and ship maintenance are major users of the river

although some ships seem beyond repair

Being a delta, the waterways take the place of roads and therefore everything travels to the houses on the waterways. Some boats travel around stopping at house jetties for the

 

owners to come down and select their daily

food needs etc. This one has stopped near a house which used to be lived in by the seventh president of Argentina, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento (1811-1888) - it is now preserved as a museum. Others are moored and you go to them by your own boat to shop.

 

as in this shop and petrol station (for boats - no cars). To get to the local park, you go by boat

as you do for the local restaurant.

The houses vary in grandeur from great

 

to simple

to wrecks - some of the wrecks are very picturesque.

A surprising number of houses are up for sale.

Tigre operates a large arts and crafts market

for the numerous BA residents who visit the town, a speciality of the area seems to be reed based products, probably because of

 

the large number of reed beds which fill the delta. The train ride back was equally as easy as that going although by then, the temperature had risen to 35 Centigrade (a bit of a shock when we were used to zero or less) and the humidity level was very high.

In the evening we went to Tango Porteno as a last evening out. This was a well produced Tango Show (rather than dance) in a historical theatre in the centre of town. Upon arrival, we were both asked if we would "pose in an intimate manner with two Tango Dancers and have our pictures taken". I think something was lost in translation there. The show in general and much of the dancing in particular, was very good and we think the general plot was to narrate the history of Tango and the role of the Theatre. The theatre provided a pick-up and return service to our hotel as well as drinks and snacks to keep us satisfied during the show.

if you are interested in seeing exerts from the show, the costumes etc, click to the Tango Porteno name above and you will go to the theatre web site.