Anyway, back to the diving. Our location today is Ras Mohammed and all was looking lovely and flat as we left the jetty.
Our first dive was to be Shark Observatory which is a site I don’t often dive, and every time I do, I wonder why we neglect it.
The site itself is very much a vertical wall of reef folding in and out, dotted with lots of very cool overhangs. It also happens to face the morning sunshine, so in the shallows hosts a frenzy of colourful soft corals. Even today with our hazy sun struggling feebly to shine through the grey blanket, we could still appreciate the glorious pinks and purples of the soft corals, as well as the tiny lime green knobs of coral that polka dot the walls from the top down to about 15M. The current was perfect, so we were able to drift along, barely finning, past gorgonian fans, a small turtle that overtook us (nothing like their landbased counterparts the tortoise there then) and just a whole load of fish and coral.
There is one particularly large gorgonian fan that is right by an overhang big enough to swim back under, which is very cool, although we do have to be careful, as the roof is covered in the tiny lime green knobs of coral which could easily be damaged by a clumsy tank.
As we surfaced the weather had seriously decided to show us a glimpse of winter, with a bit of a breeze picking up from the West, so we took shelter by the cliffs for lunch (only two dives today).
The second dive was to be Shark and Yolande Reefs, my favourite dive, and one that we have actually done three times this week. But with a series of three satellite reefs, and a main reef, not to mention plenty of changeable currents, this is a site that can be dived in sooo many different ways, meaning that no two dives here are ever the same.
We dropped in on Shark Reef today, right on the current’s split and right into a horde of fusiliers out in the blue. Hmm lovely.
The current was quite lively, so we hitched a ride across the front of the reef wall, before tucking in as we reached the sandy saddle that leads to the next reef.. Yolande. We tucked right in, sheltering from the now oncoming current, as we worked our way up towards the shallow main reef where we found a couple of huge friendly napoleon wrasse, and again hitched a ride with the current to drift along towards the wreck of the Yolande, or rather the contents of the wreck. This is the dive famous for its collection of toilets, baths and washbasins. Sat on the sand in front of the wreck, we found possibly the hugest scorpion fish I have ever seen, about the size of a decent grouper, then it turned into blue spotted ray turf, with about five of them hanging out on the sand along side the remains of the containers.
At the bath tubs, we took a left turn back on ourselves towards the Yolande Reef and found a couple of big fat moray eels, before spending the last chunk of our dive meandering around the garden on the front of the reef.
Not a bad day’s diving at all. Even if it was a bit shady, and by the end of the day, decidedly windy Brrr. Thankfully, as the day drew to a close, we could see a strip of sky blue appearing, just in sight beyond the clouds. Yes the sun is on its way back out. Woo Hoo.

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