2018
Egypt Livaboard September 2018
What a holiday, what a great time.
We all met at Gatwick South terminal, Sam, Nic, Kev, Cheryl, Keith, Dean and Loraine, starting with a breakfast/brunch to get into the mood.
Arrived at Hurghada, and the rep (Blue0two) said it would be a ten minute journey to the boat. Ten minutes later we were unloading from the bus and carrying our bags to the boat. Who would have guess it was so close.
Day one - Local Reef, Gota Abu Ramada,
3 dives including a check dive, and an incredible night dive one of those scenes you see on tele that takes months to film. The deck had plenty of room to get ready and the staff couldn’t have been more helpful, ensuring you were untied from the rack when you stood up when all kitted up. The dives were on a pinnacle with a few smaller pinnacles nearby. The first two dives were limited to 60 minutes and the night dive to 45 minutes. The first check dive included practice deploying a DSMB which everyone needed to carry.
So a few fish names, Red Sea Anemonefish aka clown fish. One of my favourites, Blue spotted Ray, Masked Porcupinefish, Red Sea Walkman, what a strange one that is.
The night dive was something else, this had loads of small fry that were just everywhere, so many it looked like you were in fog, they were followed by what looked like fusilier fish, and finally Giant Trevally. Rushing everywhere with the small fry dispersing as the Giant Trevally dashed through them the reformed.
Day two - Small Brother, 3 dives
Another great dive from the boat heading anticlockwise to the Giant Gorgonian sea fan then back to the boat with a sighting of an oceanic whitetip shark off in the blue. The second dive was from the rib negative entry to the cleaning station and then heading anticlockwise back to the boat. The third and final dive of the day was a fairly relaxing dive until coming back the boat with oceanic whitetip sharks under the boat just waiting to play, or at least allow us to take a few photos.
Day three - Big Brother, 3 dives
First dive was from the boat anticlockwise until 100bar then levelling up and returning to the boat, missed it on the way back due to the vis then found the jetty, knew we had missed the boat so headed back and further away from the reef until we were under the boat, hey, more oceanic whitetip sharks, and more photos, getting to be a habit, anyone would think they lived there. Second dive was uneventful, had a Thresher shark pointed out to me, out in the blue and fairly deep, impressive looking shark. The third and final dive was a rib dive directly above the Numidia and Aida wrecks, a couple of the divers undertook a penetration dive, the headed back to the boat coming up to 20m, 10m then 5m to manage the air, phew that was a long way.
Day four - Thistlegorm, Dunraven and The Alternative reef, 4 dives
We arrived early in the morning not stopping on the way for other wrecks due to the weather, guess a few others had the same thought as there were already 6 or so boats already there. If you count 20 people to a boat then there will 120 or more divers on the wreck. We took a Zodiac to one of the mooring lines down we went, made a note of the line as we would come back up the same line. As I had been to the wreck before, I fancied see the Locomotive first sitting off to one side of the wreck. Had a great big moray eel in it. Back to the main wreck, a swim around then back to the line, which was just being untied as this boat was leaving, so up another line to the safety stop, together with 20 other divers, not much room, eventually up to the surface to the expected chaos. Only got bumped between a zodiac and boat several times before getting back to our own boat. Not sure I will go back, too crowded. Second dive was Dunraven, nice easy penetration dive from the stern. The third and fourth dives were on the Alternatives, day and night dive. Pleasant enough reef dive.
Day five - Shark and Yolanda, Shag Rock, Siyul Is and Dolphin House reef, 4 dives
Not feeling too hot first thing in the morning, I decided to give the first dive a miss, one I love, but had done it several times before out of Sharm on a day boat. Once the divers were back, they gave me tails of very strong currents. Glad I gave it a miss. Shag rock was next, full of live, Giant Clams, Blue spotted Rays, Crocodile fish, Red Sea Anemone fish, and all the usual. Finally Siyul Is and Dolphin House for the night dive
Day six - Dolphin House and El Miniya
Having dived this on a night dive, turned out to be an leisurely dive of just over 60 minutes, even managed to spot a nudibranch, not seen a lot of these during the dives. After begin asked what we would like for our last dive we said a wreck. So off we went to El Miniya, a Russian-built Soviet T-43 minesweeper sunk during the Israel/Egypt war, just outside of the port of Hurghada. Lots of life as well, two types of nudibranch and a pipefish.
So finally laying out all the kit on the deck to dry then packing and home, via laying around the pool of the Marriot for the day until the flight home.
Thanks Keith for the lift home.
Safe diving.
Steve
Sunday June 24th 2018
This dive was so different to the earlier dive on this site, great visibility, what on earth is going on.
08:45 we met at the marina with a 09:45 ropes off. The Waldrons a reef system south of Bognor.
Beth and Keith went in first for their 45 minute drift. On the surface we drifted at 1.2 knots and expected their dive to be pleasant.
The plankton bloom was missing, fantastic. No buddy line.
A nice little bimble along the bottom over the rocks, lots of crabs, a cuckoo wrasse who followed us the whole dive, several shannies and blennies, a shark (aka dog fish) and a ray, the first I have seen, should have taken the camera.
That was it, 35 minutes and up we went, 3 minute safety stop and back on board the RIB. Quick ride back to the river entrance and just in time to get over the sand bar before low tide, up the river, left the team behind to refuel, clean the RIB and have a pint and chat about the dive. I was off home to get some brownie points as we were due to have visitors in the evening, so had to be home early.
Safe Diving,
Steve
June 10th 2018
This is what sunny Sundays are for, diving.
08:30 we met at the marina with a 09:30 ropes off. We had a choice, get back before the low tide or wait until after, myself I voted for returning before low tide, so we had to be back before 1pm.
The site chosen was one of our usual, The Waldrons a reef system south of Bognor.
Keith and Beth went in first for their 40 minute drift. On the surface we drifted at 1.5 knots so on the bottom I expect they had lots of fun. Brian and I were in second, with the current slowing. So had the better drift.
The plankton bloom is in full swing so we had a buddy line between us, this definitely made this difficult drift easy. The best part for me was the nudibranchs I found near the end of the dive. Saw a couple of them. White with yellow tips.
That was it, 30 minutes and up we went, 3 minute safety stop and back on board the RIB, quick ride back to the river entrance and just in time to get over the sand bar before low tide, up the river, refuel clean the RIB and off to the pub for a quick pint and chat about the dive.
Safe Diving,
Steve
Fancy Dress Party March /April 2018
Not quite the fancy dress party that you’d expect.
It was the annual painting and decorating and servicing of the RIB Party.
The party consisted of scraping, sanding and painting the hull with antifoul paint. Together with servicing the twin engines. Thanks to all who helped.
One item from last year was the starboard engine whose hydraulics failed to work. This was found to be the electric pump motor on the lift mechanism which had corroded and failed, this was changed and all seemed ok until we tested it, the motor worked but the engine failed to lift. This was investigated on YouTube and identified as possibly something as simple as low hydraulic fluid. Having some donated by Simon we filled the reservoir two weeks later, and low and behold, the hydraulics worked. We promptly checked the port side and filled that one as well.
Next step, launching the RIB at Littlehampton Marina.
Now, let’s go diving.
Steve
March 2018 Fuerteventura
It’s that time of year, arranging the boat party to get the RIB ready for the new diving season.
And my first holiday of the year, off to the canaries with the boss and managed to grab a few days diving.
Diving in the Canaries is usually pretty good, this year they have had poor weather the same as us and unusually cooler. Relatively clear water, apart from one dive which reminded me of diving in the UK, but wet suit diving 17 to 18 degrees.
Anyway, during my three days diving I managed to see, shoals of Atlantic Damselfish and Zebrafish, white bream which followed us during the dive, also parrotfish, pufferfish, scorpionfish, Bluefin damselfish, Moray eels, Learned rockfish, a lone Trumpet fish, Porcupine fish, Eagle Ray, Stingrays and Angel shark, a few Arrowhead Crabs loads of Sea Urchins, a lone Starfish, and Nudibranch.
All in all, a lovely few days diving,
Wishing you safe diving,
Steve