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:
Our morning dive was The Carnatic. This is a P & O steamer of 90 meters, which went down in 1869, carrying cotton and spices. Although she broke in half prior to sinking, the two parts have landed almost in position. This was a good long dive of 54 minutes to a maximum depth of 25 meters. The wooden decking has rotted away, leaving the interior of the ship visible and you can explore down two decks and right into passageways and holds. There are some fabulous windows at the stern which are still intact, and on the sea bed there were several wine bottles. The reef itself is good here, with a wide variety of corals and there are the usual crocodile fish and lion fish in abundance.
Our second dive of he day was on Giannis D, another 100 meter cargo ship, but one which sank as recently as 1983. She has been badly damaged by tidal action and is in three main pieces. The main section houses the bridge, which is easy to swim into, and also you can also clearly see the remains of the cargo of wood in the holds. There are a surprising amount of both hard and soft corals on this ship, and we encountered a particularly large Napoleon Wrasse and the biggest Moray I have ever seen! I had my only drama on this wreck: Stupidly, I had forgotten my trim weights, which meant that I was a couple of kilos underweight. Although I felt a little light at the start of the dive, it wasn't until my cylinder became lighter that I started to have problems and it dawned on me what I had done. Unfortunately there were no rocks around to help, and as I couldn't break off a lump of coral, I had to gradually allow myself to ascend, using a very convenient ladder on the side of the funnel and do my safety stop hanging on for dear life! It's funny in retrospect, but it wasn't at the time! Maximum depth was 22 meters and we had a 52 minute dive.
My final dive on this particular day was a drift dive on Bluff Point Reef. We had hoped to see sharks here, but they didn't appear. We were dropped off Zodiacs and slowly drifted along the reef back to Whirlwind. Turning out to sea and away from the reef gives you a wonderful sense of the deep blue on this dive, although you have to watch your depth, particularly if using Nitrox. This dive was all about the coral formations, which are amazing! There is one type which looks exactly like purple brocolli! As we approached Whirlwind, we found she had anchored over a sunken barge, which was home to another Napoleon Wrasse, as well as a couple of moray eels. The maximum depth on this dive was 33 meters and it lasted 50 minutes.
That concluded my diving for the day, although some of the team then did a night dive. I should talk a little about life aboard Whirlwind - there are a few moments when you are either not sleeping, eating, being briefed or actually diving! We had settled into a routine of relaxing in the open air lounge at the stern of the boat. Most evenings a DVD would be played in the inside lounge, often a diving related film, and most evenings we'd have a few drinks from the bar before retiring quite early. Life is pretty relaxed aboard, and many people slept on deck throughout the trip, including my room mate, so I enjoyed my private cabin!
I should mention the food again, which was consistently good and plentiful, as well as served with a smile every time!
You can read part one here
And part two here
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 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.
Scuba Mike's Red Sea Trip - Part Six
Submitted by Scuba Mike on Thu, 19/02/2009 - 19:05.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!
Hi Scuba Mike. I saw a post
Hi Scuba Mike. I saw a post about your Red Sea articles on Palm Beach Trader. I wanted to say you are a great writer. I always wanted to dive in the Red Sea, and I will one day. But you bring it to life for me.
Thank you. I can't wait for the next episode.
Anita.
Scuba Fan.
Thanks!
Thanks Anita! That's made me go all warm and gooey! I hope you've seen part four already, and I'll do part five, which includes the Thistlegorm in the next 24 hours.
Scuba Mike
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