This was our final day aboard Whirlwind, and I elected to do just one of the two dives on offer. This was because my right ear finally gave up after all the diving, and I was having problems with it. I finished on a good one though!
This one was on Yolanda, a cargo ship which went down in 1985. Unfortunately the ship itself slipped off the reef in a storm a few years later and is now at 145 meters. She has been dived, but alas we were not ready for that kind of dive!
What’s left behind though, is a great deal of her cargo, and a fabulous and interesting reef to explore. Most of the cargo consists of bathroom suites, and it’s quite bizarre coming across toilets and baths on the sea bed. The skipper’s own car is also on the reef – apparently he was taking it home. Everyone says it’s a BMW 3 series, but I have my doubts, although it is pretty corroded now.
There was amazing sea life on the reef and we spotted several really big tuna, unicorn fish, a swimming moray eel and many nudibranchs. There was a strong current and we drifted along the reef, before inflating our SMB’s to be picked up by Zodiac. Dive time was 43 minutes, with maximum depth of 31.7 meters. The sea temperature, as it had been all week, was 23 degrees.
Once the last divers were aboard, Whirlwind turned for her home port of Sharm El Sheik and we had a chance to finally dry our kit, in preparation for stepping ashore and spending a night in a hotel in town before making for the airport. We checked our saturation and I had 40 hours, with loads of no fly!
Once we’d docked, we had to again endure the farce of getting on and off our bus to be inspected and have some of our luggage searched, but we finally made it to the hotel where we were booked into twin rooms. After cleaning up, we wandered into town as a large group. Sharm El Sheik town is extremely tacky, totally geared to tourism. In fact, it’s so tacky, it’s actually quite interesting, and I enjoyed wandering around the shops, and a few of us did buy some copy watches and enjoy a hubble bubble pipe or two.
Although we’d planned a rip roaring night out on our last night, the reality was that we were all too exhausted after the intensive diving we had done. We split into two groups and our group enjoyed a terrific curry, and we were soon fast asleep in bed. We had the bulk of the next day in Sharm, and enjoyed the beach and the searing temperatures, before making our way back to the airport for the flight back home.
So to summarize our trip:
- Whirlwind is a fabulous vessel, with great food, excellent accommodation and acres of space
- The staff on board are superb – helpful, always where you need them to be and they understand diving
- Egypt really needs to sort out how it welcomes visitors to the country
- The dive guides weren’t at their best, but they had dealt with a tragedy the previous week
- Diving up to four times a day is really tiring! You need a decent level of fitness to get the best out of the trip
Would I do it again? Yes, but only on Whirlwind or a similar class vessel – you pay for the luxury, but I think it’s worth it. I’m quite likely to book the southern Red Sea tour within the next year.
If you’re a serious diver, you really should put The Red Sea on your “To do” list.
Have you dived there? Please tell us about your experiences in comments, or feel free to submit an article – we’re looking for more writers.
And don’t forget to enter our free competition to win a diving holiday in Lanzarote, all you have to do is sign up to receive email updates in the box to your top right.
blog
Scuba Mike's Red Sea Trip - Part One
Submitted by Scuba Mike on Sun, 18/01/2009 - 16:35.
I was lucky enough to be invited by a UK dive club last year to join them on a liveaboard trip to The Red Sea. Termed a “wrecker’s tour” we would be diving most of the best known shipwrecks in the northern part of the sea, based on Tornado Marine Fleet's flag vessel Whirlwind.
Scuba Mike's Red Sea Trip - Part Two
Submitted by Scuba Mike on Mon, 19/01/2009 - 19:27.
Six AM and we were heading to the check dive site in calm sea and already the temperature was up to 25 degrees. We assembled for the dive briefing, and were told that the main purpose was to check our weight for the salty water and get used to the conditions. With four dives a day available, we all elected to use Nitrox in order to keep our decompression times to a minimum and to help prevent fatigue. This would be my first time using enriched air in anger, as I had passed my PADI course shortly before the trip.
Scuba Mike's Red Sea Trip - Part Three
Submitted by Scuba Mike on Fri, 23/01/2009 - 16:10.
The following day dawned bright, clear and warm, as they all did during our trip. It is worth packing a light fleece though, as evenings and fast crossings can be cool.
I had started this trip determined to do every dive on offer, but this was the day I failed in that task. Even as someone who dives pretty much every week, I was feeling the pace of the four dives the day before. But here are the dives I did:
Scuba Mike's Red Sea Trip - Part Four
Submitted by Scuba Mike on Thu, 05/02/2009 - 19:16.The first dive that morning was to be on the Rosalie Moller. This was to be a deep dive, so we switched to a lean 28% nitrox mix, to avoid any oxygen toxicity. I sensed at the briefing that something was wrong - we were told to stay with the guides at all times and not to enter deco. Some of us were a little annoyed about this - at the time I was one of the less experienced divers, and I had over 200 dives to my credit, with well over half of those at 30 meters or more! Deco diving is something I do most weeks, so we knew already that this was going to be a short dive.
Scuba Mike's Red Sea Trip - Part Five - Thistlegorm!
Submitted by Scuba Mike on Thu, 12/02/2009 - 22:50.This was the big day - the day we were to dive the world renowned Thistlegorm, but first we headed for another wreck, The Kingston. She was an 80 meter long steamer which went down in 1881 on the delightfully named Shag Rock.
Your Red Sea trip
I have been thinking of booking a trip to the red sea for years, and for years I have been trying to research it on the web. Thanks for a brilliant story which was really well written and has inspired me to go ahead and book. I'm really looking forward to more of your stuff.
Thanks Simon for the kind
Thanks Simon for the kind words, and I'm glad you enjoyed reading about the trip. I'm going to start a new series on a diving trip we did to Gibraltar soon - so look out for that one. And if you haven't signed up to the site, do so now, as you stand a chance of winning a diving holiday!
Scuba Mike
Post new comment