Dive 14 – Abu Galawa Soraya

This was an early morning day dive firstly to the sailing boat wreck and then back to the area of the boat, and up

shallow to go through the canyon into the amphitheatre, out to the back to see the Nemos then back the same route through the amphitheatre to the boat.

This is one of my favourite dive sites and I have not met anyone who thinks it is anything other than beautiful.

The wreck is that of a large sailing boat which foundered on the reef in the late 1990s. The skipper was eventually rescued and taken to the mainland but when he got back to his boat three days later to effect a salvage, he found that the local fishermen had been there before him and not much was left. Sometime during the following winter, the boat slipped of the reef and sank.

As you proceed around a coral pillar, you suddenly come

across the hull of the yacht. It is surprisingly large and must have been quite a luxurious boat at

the time. By now the wooden rear deck has rotted away

 

but the Toilet remains on the sea bed

 

something which seems to have had no attraction to the looters.

The inside of the boat is always full of Glass

Fish and when the light is right, they are clearly visible.

This is the base of one of the two masts – both were sawn off when the wreck was being stripped – they could have knocked out a holding pin and lifted the mast off but chose to saw them both.

The original anchor chain hangs down, the anchor is long gone. There is coral

everywhere on the wreck and it will not be too many years before it is totally encrusted.

Having visited it a few time now, I can see growth changes over the past few years

The coral blocks are surrounded by clouds of

fish and it make for a lovely experience

to swim through them or just remain stationery

in a shoal and let the fish flit around you.

Some of the coral growths are works of art.

A reasonably large Blue Spotted Ray

is hiding under a coral table

A guppy is still on a hard coral

and the inevitable Nemos defend their home.

It is quite amusing to be challenged by such a small and cheeky looking fish.

There are a number of Bat Fish in the area

 

The hard corals go from close to the surface

down to the sea bed at about 20 metres

and are enormous.

  

and the surface structure of some types of hard coral has grown (over evolutionary time)

to be one which maximises the amount of surface area within a given space thus enabling it to absorb as much sunlight as possible.

The hard corals have many large clams living

on them and it is always a pleasure to see them close as I swim over them.

I always enjoy this site – the currents are easy and the corals and fish are great.