May 9th, 2008 by divebunnie
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So off we went to the wreck today… and what a lovely flat day it was!! Seriously flat, so much so that the boats were able to moor up alongside each other. Those of you who have been to the Thistlegorm in the past will know what a rare event that is.
Having said that the Thistlegorm prides itself on never having totally ideal conditions, so just to challenge us, there was the strongest current I have ever encountered!!! Literally, if you did not grab the rope the second you landed in the water, you would be whisked 10M away from the boat. The new moorings are actually visible from the surface (sitting at only 5m or so), but despite this, it was impossible to swim down to it against the current, so George had to swim down to the bottom for shelter against the current, swim around and then drift back onto the line in order to tie it.
As we went down the line, we were like little flags hanging off it (not uncommon for here) and even the swim to the wreck itself was a bit daunting once we reached depth. Hmmm all good for a challenge I guess.
As always of course, the wreck was particularly spectacular, with big tuna milling around and all the usual stuff to see (although the dives proved to be a little on the short side, due to the current).
Back on the surface, the crew were there ready to help us the second our heads popped up, providing a drag line to the back of the boat. We had already watched a batch of divers floundering on the surface trying to get back to their boat after the dive. Ooo it was certainly interesting. Hehe.
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May 9th, 2008 by divebunnie
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I saw a whale shark!!!!!
Not a lot else to say really, except that I have lived and worked here for three years, having dived here on and off over the three years before that, and this was my first whale shark!!!
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May 4th, 2008 by divebunnie
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So the day after my return from a few days in the UK, I was back on a boat guiding a bunch of snorklers in Ras Mohammed. And, before you say anything, no we are not one of those centres that throw in a bunch of snorklers on Shark and Yolande reefs and watch them fend for themselves. We take them somewhere calm, which today happened to be The Alternatives. We had a great snorkel session, with enough current to bring all the fish out, but not so much that people were struggling. We had a few newbies, one of whom was totally gobsmacked when she put her face in the water and saw the aquarium below her. Always rewarding when that happens.
The next day was Tiran, however with the wind right up there, and white horses all over the place, this soon turned into Ras Katy and Temple (two of our most sheltered local dive sites). There was a stiff North Easterly wind, and with the president in town, we had to keep at least 3km away from the shore, which would have meant ploughing straight into the swell, after a good twenty minutes of driving across it, causing the boat to roll like a rocking horse, even while it was still in the shelter of the bay! Needless to say, five minutes of that, and a quick look up North made up our minds “let’s head for shelter”. And we still had a couple of lovely dives, without the seasick city that would have been Tiran.
Yesterday, we did manage to get a bit further afield. It was still swelly, but Ras Mohammed does have a few more options than Tiran when it’s coming from the North, so we had a great three dive day. The only disappointment being the behaviour of other divers on Yolande reef which you can read all about in our forum.
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April 25th, 2008 by divebunnie
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Well another week, another course!
I had been hoping to be diving on the reef on Earth Day this year, so that at the very least, I would be able to do a little litter collecting. But I was in the pool teaching. Malesh, as they say here in Egypt (never mind). I got my chance on our first open water dive, as this took place on Naama Beach where sadly litter gets blown into the sea from the beach. It is so sad to be taking students out on their first open water experience, only to find the sand and reef dotted with plastic cups, beer cans, newspaper, plastic bags, all sorts of junk. So, as usual I came up with a fair amount of stuff filling my pockets.
On the temperature front, we are enjoying a real taste of summer with temperatures rocketing up into the high 30’s even hitting 40+ around midday. It truly feels more like late June than April. But while we are melting on the surface, the sea knows better and is still stuck firmly at 23ºC hmph. So after about 30mins in the water, I am freezing my socks off (it’s too hot on the surface for my drysuit on local sites for sure).
Along with the warm weather, and despite the lack of change in sea temp. we are getting a huge amount of big stuff passing by. Regular shark sightings in the Tiran area, and Ras Mohammed too.
I had an awesome dive on Ras Za’atar last week! It was our last dive of the day, most other boats had headed for other sites, so we thought we would jump on Za’atar. Usually this is a site I prefer in the morning as the afternoon can be a bit shady (especially in winter) but you do get some cool visual effects as the sun casts beams of light down into the blue, through folding chinks in the reef plate. Well we had turned the corner, so as far as I was concerned, missed our chance of anything big, when along sidles a rather lovely grey reef shark! Hmmm very graceful and nice n leisurely. What a great end to the dive, day and for my guests, week.
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April 21st, 2008 by divebunnie
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Phew!! That was a close one!
I had begun to think that the entire BunnieBlog had been lost to the hackers that had trashed The Deepstop. Thanks to the guys on board, they got it all back up and running again, with no loss of our diary.
So what has been happening in Sharm for the last few days??
I guess the main thing is the heat! Summer seems to have arrived early with temperatures already in the high thirties. Although the water seems to be taking its time to follow suit. I guess it won’t be long before shorties are the order of the day and we are all basking in the glorious bath that is the Red Sea. Hmmmm
In the meantime, I am confined to the swimming pool, as I am starting a new course this week. No sharks to be found there sadly, but there seem to be plenty abounding elsewhere at the moment. Even local divers are encountering regular manta ray sightings and the other day, Janna spotted a whale shark in the Gardens area!!
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April 6th, 2008 by divebunnie
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So today we were in Ras Mohammed and I had a great dive on Jack Fish Alley.
This poor site does sometimes get a bad rap. I love the little swim throughs, I love the coral pinnacles and the satellite reef. Or maybe because it is not one of the really really popular sites, it has had a chance to flourish a bit, but today it was glorious! The current was reversed, which I always like because that way you get the alley and satellite reef first, and it was quite strong, so it turned out to be a great drift dive.
We started off by seeing a couple of crocodile fish, followed by a turtle, an eagle ray, the usual blue spotted rays, which was all great. But the really good bit was that the blue scale emperor shoal is back in town! These guys don’t normally turn up in their hordes until late April, but here they were in a nice big gang milling around the coral garden. Once the emperor fish start gathering, that is the sure sign that the sharks will be back soon. Wooo hoo!
In general, probably because of the current, the reef was heaving with fish, a great last dive for our little group. Even though the surface conditions had been a bit on the lumpy side. We could still feel the swell at 16m which wasn’t really ideal.
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April 1st, 2008 by divebunnie
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So we are back in the pool this week with a new course. So we have tiles and the odd plaster to look at for the next couple of days. Hehe.
At least it is nice and warm, a balmy 28′C in the water. And we don’t have to deal with the waves, that are for sure hitting the beach, with this wind (it is a bit blowy today).
All fun n games eh.
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March 29th, 2008 by divebunnie
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Wooo Hooo! It is warming up again!! The water has finally thawed a degree and is now 23-24ºC, which only really happens once the good weather is here to stay!! So, after a bit of a false alarm, summer should be just around the corner before we know it.
We had some awesome hot weather last week, but as expected (it was faaaar too early for that kind of heat) that did all cool off a bit this week. But that week of hot stuff was enough to get the water warming up, so that can only be a good thing.
We have had eagle rays, turtles and great big morays, and that has only been local. I did do another dive on Shark and Yolande a day after the last dive I logged here, and in contrast, the viz was great. I had a great dive, just bimbled with my buddy, who kind of inherited the giant napoleon wrasse as his buddy for a bit, and we just about circled every bit of each reef, so that was cool.
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March 21st, 2008 by divebunnie
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Actually, if I were to get pedantic, it has been more like six months since my last dive without having either students or a group of divers in tow.
So I thought I would take a dip in the water on Shark and Yolande reefs, and hang about on the bag of Hamada’s group on their dive.
I was followed for the bulk of my dive by one of the largest napoleon wrasses that I have ever seen, he really seems to be growing every time I see him (assuming that there is only one family of napoleons living in that location, I could be wrong). I saw quite a few morays, and generally had a very nice dive. The surface was flat, and currents minimal, so it was all very leisurely.
The viz was not quite as clear as it usually is, in fact there was a definite greenish tint to the water, a sure sign that things are on the brink of warming up. Great in the long-term, but that will mean a few jelly filled dives with murky viz for a week or so.
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March 17th, 2008 by divebunnie
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Ooo, so I installed a new system for tracking my web-stats a few hours ago, and even in such a short time, I have realised that we are a little bit global here at DB.
Already today we have had visits from the UK, Egypt, Thailand, Poland, the USA, Canada, Ireland, Malaysia and Switzerland… to name a few… not bad eh? Take a look at the snap shot of our visitor map taken earlier:
So keep up the good work girlies and spread the word, see how far we can take it.
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