The Bunnie Blog
Living and Diving in Sharm el Sheikh
Yep true to form we yet again get a taster of why this is one of the best dive sites in the world!
We did the dive as an early one on a dunraven day… always a winner, especially like yesterday, when you get the whole reef to yourself!!! Very rare at this time of year.
The current was a bit reversed, but the fish were all still there, although the snapper wall was in line with the saddle after Shark reef, so it was there that we had our moment of spectacle. Not only the wall (more like tree) of snapper, we had the schooling barracuda, and a lovely big feather tailed ray to add to the fun. Sadly the big sharks seem to be hiding this year.
We didn’t even make it to the Yolande wreck because of the counter current, but even without that, the dive was in its full glory.
The Dunraven was great too, bizarrely awful visibility outside the wreck, yet crystal clear once inside!!!
The final dive of the day also proved to be fantastic, a lovely drift on Ras Ghozlani… nice current, so we barely needed to fin. And we were graced with the presence of a turtle having its tea at the beginning of the dive, and towards the end, the biggest turtle I have ever seen turned up!!! I don’t think it was the usual hawksbill, but am not sure whether it was a leather back or green, I shall have to get my little book out to double check. It was massive, I reckon about 1.5M wide from fin tip to fin tip!!! It even had a little remora stuck to its head… cool.
So after getting no less than SIX missed calls the other day letting me know that over 20 hammerheads were seen on the back of Jackson reef the day before yesterday, you can understand how excited I was yesterday when we were headed out to Tiran and realised that whilst it wasn’t flat, we were going to be able to get around the back of the reef!! Woo hoo.. hammerheads here we come!!!
So it was all briefed, we were to stay as a single group (rather like a bait ball!) no one was to chase a shark if they saw one, we were not going to be rattling or making noise if we did either, (they don’t like noise) all the usual, stick to your depth, if they turn up, they are likely to come up to our level, but if we drop, they will stay deep etc. And in we dropped.
And there we stayed, and stayed and stayed! The surface conditions were a bit too rough for us to risk going too far away from the reef and we encountered a bit of a down current that caught a few of the divers unawares, so definitely decided to keep the reef in view. It was all looking so hopeful, but we were not to be blessed this time! So after 25 minutes of plankton and lots of blue stuff (amazing the tricks your eyes can play on you when looking for big stuff out in the blue) we headed back to the reef. Doh! I got very excited on my safety stop, only to realise that it was only a couple of giant trevallies passing by beneath us. Ah well. I guess nothing is guaranteed, and if you don’t give it a go, you definitely won’t see anything.
Woo hoo! I got my new BCD! OK I sound totally sad, but you don’t know the difficulty I have had getting the same one that I have now.They had gone out of production, so a friend of mine has ended up running around half of the home counties trying to find one for me. And it arrived (with my friend) today, all shiny and new. I’ve already given it a trial run in the pool (I had forgotten how fast a good low pressure inflator works!!!) and it’s great. So it’s off to get properly christened in Tiran tomorrow. Oooo, let’s pray to the wind gods to stay away…I guess this makes me appreciate how isolated we are here in Sharm. It really is like living on a little island. The mail service is dismal, so mail order is out of the question (added to which import tax makes it all sooo not worthwhile). We are surrounded by sea on most sides, with one road that essentially passes through the town as the only way in or out. The side that is not surrounded by water is desert, with a good hour and a half in either direction before you hit the next town!
Having said that of course, Sharm has become quite cosmopolitan in itself, so unless you want something specific, you can get most stuff here (at a price of course).
We don’t often get bubblemaker courses over here, as diving fathers tend to come out on their own, and do the family holidays another time. Anyway today was a different situation and I had a little bubblemaker course in the pool.
So after a little chat, we got the mini version of a diver’s kit lugged up to the shallow end of the pool and with a little help in went our newbie little fish. After a few fast, wide-eyed breaths, we soon got him to lie horizontal and have a little swim. And it was only minutes before he was lobbing the toy torpedo at us along with the frisbee. He didn’t quite progress to doing the breakdancing headspins that we were trying to demonstrate, but I think he had fun. He was a lucky young lad, as his dad is an instructor, as is my husband, and with all three of us playing in the water with him, so not only was there plenty of help there was thanks to us, a bit of underwater life to see. Hehe. He lasted 45 minutes before he started pointing to the surface out of sheer exhastion! Well, whilst he hardly breathed his air, he was like a little minnow nipping backwards and forwards to catch the toys, so I was hardly surprised.
I bet he slept like a baby last night. Before long we will be hearing of his progression to Seal team or junior Open Water before long no doubt. Another little fishee to join the shoal.
DiveBunnie Home
I can’t believe it!! Another tummy bug! I thought I had had them all and that I had all the antibodies in the world by now. Grrr. And to make matters worse, it meant that I couldn’t finish off the open water course I was teaching. All five students were doing so well, I was looking forward to their last day and seeing it all fall into place for them. Maleesh as they say out here…
Oh no!!! I had thought it would all be sooo easy.
My old faithful Diva LX bcd has gone and started falling apart on me. After six years of fantastic service, she really is showing the wear and tear. With new dump valves, numerous patches and a very large hole in the bladder, it is only a matter of time before she starts sinking once again like the Titanic. Yes… before the patches I left her floating in the pool only to find her ten minutes later sat at 3M! Of course it was I who had to jump in, duck dive down and bring her back to the surface leaking like a drain!
Ok she is now all patched up and working great, but we know what salt water does to glue, so I guess I have about 2 weeks’ service left!
The real pain is that I am now having a nightmare trying to find a new one!!! I very nearly bought a very basic version by mistake, and have found out that the Diva LX has been discontinued!!! That was the best BCD in the world (in my opinion of course) and there was nothing I would change about it (maybe I have just got too attached). Anyway, I foolishly asked a friend to see if he could bring one out for me, and think that I have been his worst nightmare! No where has it in stock anymore, and if they have a few leftovers, they are all in the bigger sizes! Oh no!
Anyway, my point is, that why on earth has Seaquest discontinued what must have been its most successful BCD to date?? It wasn’t cheap, but it had everything a girl could want… pockets, padding, small sizes, trim weights, metal D rings… what a shame.
So I guess I am in the middle of a bit of a sulk. I am sure I will get over it, especially if my DM manages to get hold of one for me, as that should see me sorted for another six years.
Ah today has felt like a proper Sunday for the first time in weeks!
I have been working on a bit of a strange shift for the last few weeks, often starting my week on a Thursday, so to have today off and chill out with the hubby… we even had a pub lunch with a bit of a beer n sport (how Sunday afternoon can you get??) and I think I am about to conk out on the couch.. hehe. Great stuff!
I haven’t really mentioned the cats n kittens around our place in recent weeks, so I thought a little update was in order.
We still have Boo our resident cat, who has now grown up from a tiny ball of fluff two years ago, into an impressive big, lady cat, with healthy, glossy fur and a quite bizzare but cute personality. Because Tigger always meowed for her, she never really developed a voice of her own, and even now, she barely squeaks. In fact will often open her mouth with a silent meaow unless she is distressed enough to force out the squeak.
Whilst we don’t have any other cats living with us, we have plenty of fluffy neighbours, and to our own detriment, we are a bit on the soft side, so occasionally have lapsed into a bit of sneaky feeding of the strays… ooops! Much to Boo’s displeasure.
There were a few kittens last year, who became orphaned and then adopted by their grandma who had a batch of her own babies… poor thing would be laid out with seven kittens attached to her belly! These kittens have now grown up a bit, and guess what yes.. two of them have given birth!!! Eeek! And again in a sad repetition of fate, the mother of three of them was knocked over a couple of weeks ago, so we have three orphan Tigger lookalikes hanging around their auntie who has just brought a batch of her own into the world (two tiny ginger toms and a patchy black, ginger and white girlie). No doubt she too will give in and end up feeding all six of them.
I can’t help but find them cuter than cute as they stagger around finding their feet in the big bad world. I haven’t succumbed to feeding them yet, and I am sure that their mum finds enough in and around the rubbish for that. What I will say though is that I would rather have a few neighbourhood kitties than some residential rats… eeek!
Today we were headed out to the Ras Mohammed National Park for a little spot of diving. I only had two student doing their advanced course and a couple of adventure dives, so things were nice and relaxed both on the back deck kitting up, and in the water.
True to form Ras Mohammed lived up to expectations, teased us a bit with some very cool currents, without actually showing us anything huge.
First dive was on Ras Ghozlani, a lovely drift along the plateau dotted with pinnacles heaving with fish. The second dive was the biggie on Shark and Yolande itself. Unfortunately the wind had picked up a bit, but the three of us hopped in fine. The fish were hanging around on the front of Shark reef as usual, all facing into the current as it hit the reef. The current was just right, enough for us to enjoy a healthy drift across the front of the reef, but not so strong as to cause a problem. The guys got to see some great life, a giant moray, blue spotted rays, a free swimming moray, heaps of coral, snappers, bat fish and loads of coral.
By the time we surfaced, the wind had changed direction and coming from the West, gave us great fun getting back on the boat (thankfully we had come up on the more sheltered front of Yolande reef). So once all were on board, we went to the cliffs near Ras Za’atar to shelter and have lunch(along with three other boats!). Our last dive was a surprisingly spectacular drift on Ras Za’atar. After a fairly normal start to the dive, as we neared the corner, the current began to pick up a touch… before… ooooh there we go… we were flying around the corner like superheroes!!!! Wooo hooo! I felt sure that this was perfect shark material, a quiet dive, later in the day, no other boats around, hefty currents, but.. sadly no, no one turned up today. Never mind, it was just great for the ride! Who needs roller coasters?
So I was happily bimbling along towards the end of a semi drift dive from Middle Garden towards Near Garden and as we hadn’t stayed down as long as I’d expected, I thought it would be wise to send up my SMB. How bizarre it went up and promptly sank back down again?? Eh?? I even tried sending it up again, thinking I had positioned my alternate air source incorrectly, but the same thing happened. So… up we went without our marker buoy. As anticipated, the boat was a fair way off having only just come off its mooring and of course we were left with only our arms with which to signal the boat.
Ok so there was no drastic danger this time, the boat saw us eventually, and it wasn’t as though we were surfacing in a dangerous spot. However when I took a look at my SMB (marked with the dive centre’s name by the way) what did I find but two perfect little circles cut into the top of the bouy?!!! You could even see where the plastic had been folded double in order to make a the two perfect holes (big enough to fit my fingers). There was no fraying or signs of an animal having bitten the plastic, and I don’t think a knife would even make such a smooth cut. I must admit, I am at a bit of a loss to understand why this has been done. The only opportunity would have been when I have used the bouy uninflated, to mark a weight belt bearing extra weights that I had left in the shallows at the beach when teaching. Now I can’t imagine that many snorklers or swimmers carry a knife or pair of scissors. Nor can I really imagine a diver that would do this, but that seems to be the only conclusion that I can come up with! To me, this is totally irresponsible, what would have happened had I been swept off the reef and needed to come up in the blue?? I would have needed the marker buoy to make a safe ascent and also to be seen by the boat! I can’t imagine a diver would be so irresponsible, or a swimmer have the inclination.
Whatever or whoever it was, it has left me without an SMB which are not easy to come across here in Sharm, and had I not discovered this on a local dive, could have ended up leaving me diving in Ras Mohammed the next day without a working SMB, and potentially with an incident on my hands. Need I say more? Of course those two round holes could have been bite marks from a parrot fish thinking my SMB was some kind of funky fish or edible coral… who is to know for sure?
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