So… it was an early start for us, we got to see the sunrise, which is up early at the moment! Once on the boat, it was time for a kip while we ferried South and around the corner up into the Gulf of Suez and on towards an area called Shaab Ali.

Moustafa tied the lines, once I had given the dive briefing, and then we were off into the water. Being open sea, it can get quite rough here… and currents strong, so we had to hold the line all the way down from the second we jumped in, until we got down to the wreck itself. It is 126m long and 17m wide, so pretty huge really! The vis wasn’t brilliant today, so the first thing we saw was its vast shadow below us, together with a few fish. Gradually it appeared vast beneath us. The wreck sits here pretty much intact, apart from the area that got bombed, that is… this just happened to be the munitions hold, so the blast had been really quite forceful, peeling back the roof like the lid of a tin can and throwing two locomotives some 20m away from the wreck with the force.

As it was busy, we chose to go inside the holds first, to take in the cargo… trucks, motorbikes in the trucks, wellington boots, aeroplane noses and wings, hospital beds, rifles and more, all carefully stashed into the hold taking every available slot of space. Once we had browsed around this part, we headed for the rope room, I like this bit as you can go inside take a look at the coils of rope, and then appear through a hatch on the front deck.. where you can have an “I’m on top of the world” moment and, if the currents allow, head over the edge and take a look back at the whole wreck, to get a real perspective of things. Taking a look down the bow, you can see just how huge this ship was! The current was fairly flying so, took the time to browse around the winch and other goodies near our ascent line, as well as enjoying the sheer number of fish surrounding us (again thanks to that current). At one point the whole shoal shot off towards the stern of the wreck.. I was sooo hoping for a shark, but no.. it must have been the giant trevallies spooking them. Like flags on a pole, we clung on to the line as we made our ascent to the surface, taking care not to let go and fly off into the blue! Once more we were totally surrounded with fusiliers.

After a chill out on the surface, we headed back down the line for dive number two. This time we took in the outside, the propellor and a quick visit into the captain’s cabin. There is usually a poppy in there as a sign of respect for the nine servicemen that lost their lives the night the ship sank, however it wasn’t there today. Sadly souvenir hunters don’t really think about what they are doing sometimes.

As well as being an amazing wreck, there is hordes of life to be seen too… I saw three crocodile fish… one of which was happily nestled between the caterpillar tracks of a tank, a scorpion fish, chilling out beside a bunch of bombs, tiny pipe fish, all sorts. It really has become a reef in its own right. At night there is usually a huge turtle that comes out to play, but not today, he was probably fast asleep somewhere well hidden from the divers.

Dives done, we headed back home to Sharm, time for another kip after lunch en route.

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So I had three little ones this time.. a girl and two lads, all of whom were dead keen to get in the water, so briefings really did have to be brief, just to keep the attention span!

Once the flip charts were all done and dusted, and they had tried and tested their nose pinching and ear clicking, we were ready to head in the water armed with frisbee and torpedo.

So far so good, they all swam like fish on the surface with their gear on, and promptly knelt down on the bottom (very shallow). Big smiles all around.. whooops that made a mask flood a bit, but as discussed, a quick press on the frame, blow through the nose and look to the sky and the water is gone. Yay! Back to the fun stuff.

All three swam around like little mad things for a while, getting their bearings, enjoying the new fun of being at the bottom of the swimming pool instead of the top. Then out came the toys, and the games commenced. Frisbee throwing and torpedo flying at the same time! If you stopped for a minute, something would come shooting your way. All very cool and three very excited kiddies.

Of course there were a few visits to the surface along the way, (well we were only 1m deep at this point and it is all a bit new) but all in all, they all did really well. One little lad was a total fish, he was so chilled out down there, like it was second nature to him… funny.

Well originally, only one was booked in to go to the beach and try looking at a few fish, however all three ended up wanting to come, so off we went to the sea. Snacks munched on the way, everyone was again eager to get in the water again.

This time we had to split the group… well I only have two hands, so wasn’t about to take three in at once! So I took two in first of all. Sadly one little lad, whilst he was soooo excited about going to see the fish, had really not taken into account that the sea was salty and wasn’t as still as the pool and it really put him off so I wasn’t going to force him to do something he didn’t like, and after a couple of attempts he got out. I then took the little girl on her own to our baby reef. Thankfully we have a little mound of coral that comes right up to the surface, and is heaving with fish. We saw seargent majors, biiig parrot fish, bat fish, butterfly fish, red sea banner fish, a moses sole and a couple of jackfish… even a tiny pipe fish. My little girl was giving me the signals before I got the chance to tell her which was which! A true fish.

My second bubbler was the little boy who had been totally chilled in the pool, and likewise he was great in the sea, again pointing out exactly the same fish as I had seen previously with the little girl. Two very keen newbie little mini divers. A mini DiveBunnie in the making, and a mini DiveBoy hehe.

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So, after quite a few days of discover scubas, a bit of local guiding (lots of buoyancy checks and boat briefings) I found myself team teaching an advanced course. Great stuff! A chance to get out a little further afield. So on day two, we headed off to Ras Mohammed.

First dive up was Jack Fish Alley… cue big grin from our young student who had heard about this dive, and as a result was very excited. The current was in reverse, thanks to Clare (H) for the bang on current check (a quick look by the guide to see which direction it is running in)… I always have a little smile to myself when this happens, and once underwater, we see hordes of other divers, fighting away against the flow because their guide couldn’t be bothered to check (does that make me a mean person??).

Anyway, the current was reversed, so we hopped in where we would usually finish the dive, and did the site in reverse… spending a rather large amount of our time just sat out over the satellite reef surrounded by swarms of fusiliers, jack fish and trevallies. Glorious. We stayed as long as we possibly could before air and dive time forced us to wend our way back towards the main reef to drift along in the shallows. A lovely start to the day.

The second dive was of course Shark and Yolande reefs.. my favourite.

We rightly guessed that the current here too would be running opposite to normal, so did a check where we usually end the dive (on Baby Yolande, or Turtle Rock as many know it) and.. yes it was positively flying back towards Yolande and Shark Reefs… so in we jumped and hitched a ride. And what a ride… we headed out to the blue… and hovered in the drift… met up with the wall of snapper that usually sits on Shark Reef, the shoal of big barracuda (sadly no Oceanic sharks below them today), a shoal of white jacks circled deeper below us and on we flew around the front of Yolande where we had to gently start making our way back towards reef or risk ending up pushed right out into open water! As we worked our way on to the coral gardens we were greeted by a turtle, then another turtle, moray eels, and just loads of life.

The dive ended on Shark Reef. What a great drift.. kind of suitable that we had chosen that dive to be the Drift Adventure dive.

The last dive of the day was again on Shark and Yolande Reefs (well it is kind of in the top ten dive sites world wide). By this time though, we expected the current to have returned to its normal direction… and boy had it turned around! From flying in reverse, it now flew in the normal direction. By the time we were in, we were nearly swept the length of Shark Reef (always a good one for getting in and down quickly here). We saw a wall of batfish shimmering up the side of the reef as we were spat onto the sandy saddle between reefs. Somehow in this mellee we were to spot and identify a whole horde of aquatic life! Luckily I had the slate… and what we saw in just normal, bony fish far outweighed any lack of invertebrates or plant life!! (we still managed to find the bare minimum of those two). In true Shark and Yolande style, the current played its game with us.. chopping and changing constantly and at all times… strong!. But look at the little orange anthias and you get an idea of what is up ahead (they always swim into the current, whatever direction it takes) and we were fine.. we even made it onto the wreckage itself and were able to work our way up the length of it, tucked down by the sand, and close to the reef for shelter, before popping up into the full force of the water and shooting back down towards Turtle Rock. As we flew over the wreckage, we saw another, this time very large, turtle munching on the soft corals, followed by four big blue spotted rays, two of which were having a bit of a turf war.

A very cool dive (if a little challenging for some) was had by all. Not a bad day at the office at all!

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Tuesday, I was guiding on a boat local.. Woo Hoo! Maybe that means I’ll get to Tiran and see some sharkeys… but.. no… I had other bits n bobs to do.. no bad thing as I was on Seaflower for most of the week, which meant that they made their great meaty stew especially for me (it’s my favourite.. you’d never know I used to be a veggie). Anyway, I had an advanced course to teach (on my own recommendation) and my two students did great. They had not had much chance to really work on their buoyancy previously, so welcomed the chance to play around with it on the course, and to finally find that stillness in the water.. The Zen of diving I think.

As part of the course, we went to Tiran to get in some proper drift diving and a multilevel dive… Thomas and Jackson reefs were glorious as always, with a big barracuda on the start of our first dive, and just beautiful coral with barely any current on the Jackson garden, our second dive. But the third dive of the day was the one for me… the back of Jackson reef. This is only the second time I have managed to dive it this year so my fingers were once again well n truly crossed! We hung out in the blue for ages, losing sight of the reef altogether… and to be honest, had given up hope and were heading back reefwards.. Jo and I both signalling a “boo hoo” to each other when suddenly she pointed down and.. there they were circling below us!! Three scalloped hammerhead sharks!! How awesome. I have seen these guys every summer and in fact, most times that I have jumped on the back of Jackson Reef, and every time it is humbling. What amazing creatures. These were quite deep below us, but no matter, we saw them and they stayed with us for several minutes.. Because we don’t chum the water or feed the sharks, it really is pot luck as to whether they turn up or not.. but the beauty is that we see them in their true glory, graceful and at ease rather than frustrated and in a feeding frenzy. What a great end to the day.

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Monday started with a couple of what we call boat Discover Scuba Dives. This is where someone has completed a few skills in the shallows followed by a successful dive from the beach, and are considered comfortable enough to go for another dive or two with an instructor from the boat.

So the people I had were a couple that I had already dived with off the beach, and to be honest were great in the water. So we all had a really really chilled out day. Nothing spectacular to see, but for them it was great, I pointed out everything, from goat fish, to parrot fish and butterfly fish… It’s so easy when it is their first experience and they haven’t “seen it all before”.

Tuesday was another day of the same but with different people, and this time I had an extra person so I took him in on his own for the first dive. Well I only have two hands, and I hadn’t dived with this lad before.

Then I was guiding for the rest of the week… day one, local with only about six people! I had a course director (about as high as you can go in PADI) and someone who had just completed their open water course! As it turned out, most of the other divers only had a few dives under their belt too, so we planned to head to Local North the next day, and area also known as Montazzah with nice gentle diving, but a bit of a change from normal Local near Naama.

Local North is a slightly earlier start, so we still had time for three dives, and first up was White Knight. Sadly the coral here has taken a bit of a kicking, so is no longer the glorious garden that I recall from my divemaster course, however the topography is very cool, with a canyon that slopes down from 7m to 30m, and then again on down to 40m (obviously today we could only take in the shallow section of this part). There is also an eel garden which is very cool. There is a little swim through at the top of the canyon, however it seems to be getting smaller and smaller (filling with sand?) or is that just my imagination? We saw a lovely baby blue spotted ray at the entrance to this swim through, together with a warty nudibranch and a crocodile fish. I didn’t actually swim through the mini arch today, but it is still cool to take a look inside.

Second dive was Ras Bob to Nasrani drift, one of my favourite dives. I had my first whale shark sightning underwater here, so on every dive, I now live in hope of a repeat performance!! Hmmm didn’t happen today, but we had a lovely dive anyway.

Our last dive was Ras Ghamilla another pretty, pretty dive. There was quite a lively current too, so we barely had to fin at all… good experience for the newer divers. We saw yet more blue spotted rays, and just loads of very pretty fish and coral, a lovely chilled out dive.

Yesterday I was local again with another new batch of divers (third boat briefing in a week.. hehe) again most of whom were only doing a day or two’s diving.

First up was Fiddle Garden. This is the dive where the cleaner wrasse like to clean the divers, however for the last few weeks, they seem to be a touch indifferent to us..a bit of a shame as this is one of the main features of this site. I must admit, today that was the least of my worries! Hehe… it took us ten minutes to actually get everyone down and settled underwater. Despite buoyancy checks being done at the back of the boat, I had a floater!! In fact I had a couple of people doing a touch of the old yoyo action. Oops. Well my two spare kilos went to the extremely floaty man (who I am sure just had a case of big lungs). And then I helped the lady relax and gradually glide down to join us. And… off we went for a dive.

The second dive was Middle Garden to Near Garden semi drift. So we went in on the mooring, and drifted towards the corner. Again we had a touch of the floaters, but not quite so bad at the start this time (well it often takes people a dive or two to get settled in). I gave away one of my two kilos half way through the dive when we came a little shallower.. hmm I now know I only need one kilo in a shortie! What a shame they don’t make half kilo weights so I can be balanced.

And so ended my week. Nice to be on the same boat all week too, as I could leave most of my stuff on board.. basically move in! I was on Seaflower and the crew were great. We had meat stew most days because I like it hehe! I was also on with my hubbie for the last two days… which was all good fun.. guess who collected the lunch money! Hehe.. of course it was me.. he is notorious for avoiding that one.

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