Join Me in the Club - 03/01/2019

Day two of my midwinter dive adventure saw Dive Aqaba take me to a beach club near the Saudi border for a couple of dives.

The first and by far the most impressive was The Bowl. The second, and the one I was meant to get excited about was The Cathedral. The Cathedral turned out to be a man made structure that housed a small lighthouse on the surface. The Bowl was where the action actually happened.

We had been swimming for some time when I first saw something in the gloom. The dive guide saw it too. It could of been a shark, a tuna, a turtle,or a dolphin. We'll never know as it only ever remained a shadow in the distance. However, once we gave up on seeing it came round a small rock formation only to see a remora.

I 'd never seen one before, but when I saw its suckers and its interest in me I knew instantly that I didn't want it to attach to me. I sensible kept my distance and performed manoeuvres that would keep it away. It was nice to see and gave credence to the larger creature in the darkness theory.

Dive two never saw anything that would compare, but we did see some nudis.

Nudi!

Shadow of the Cathedral

Hunting

Puffer

Remora

Cable Canyon - 02/01/2019

The diving gods were kind to me in 2018, and set a trend that seems to be continuing into 2019, as myself and Gill.I.Am took advantage of some cheap flights and a love affair with Jordan to allow me to dive again at one of my favourite parts of the world. 

Long term readers will know, I've visited and dived in this area before. However, I genuinely love this site. A wee bimble down a coral canyon to 43m then a turn and ascending under the man made cables connecting Jordan and Egypt, passing bright red anemones and delicate corals. Most importantly, considering all the people that dive from South Beach you won't see a soul until the shallows. That's because, they all want to dive the Cedar Pride. I did too, back then. But now it's so passe.

This time I was diving with Dive Aqaba, the company I'd used in the past was now kaput. I chatted Abdallah, tolf him of my experiences and how I wanted to see some old friends down deep on the reef I went, and there they were. I was, as the youngsters say, "totes emosh". 

We followed that up with a wee dive around the Cedar Pride, but I knew my wee anemone was still safe 4 years on. I was happy.

Then - December 2014

Now - January 2019

Snakelocks

Buddy for the day

Cedar Pride

Cedar Pride

Going South - Part 7 The Spectre of Elphinstone - 13/05/2018

We did to dives on Elphinstone Reef. They were to be the end of cruise filler dives. Granted on a fantastic reef. 

Dive one saw us hanging out deep on the northern plateau looking for pelagic life. We never saw any big stuff. It was nice, but if it feels like I'm skipping over stuff, I am. 

The second dive saw us dive as a group. I lead us out to 40m on the southern plateau up the eastern side back round to the western side - by which point it was just the Big Easy and I left. We kept our eyes peeled, but we never saw any of the pelagic life we were looking for.

We headed back toward the boat enjoying a very gentle drift. As we approached the boat we spotted a tight group of divers looking like they were all doing a safety stop. They weren't though. I asked what they were looking at. One chap, a keen photographer signalled shark. 

We swam to join them and out of the blue they came. Two of them - oceanic white tips, the worlds most prolific man eater. They circled a couple of times and after a couple of minutes The Big Easy and I headed out the water delighted to have encountered them.

Turtle

Nudi

Oceanic White Tip

Going South - Part 5 Fast and the Furious - 11/05/2018

We had been given options by the cruise director.

1. An extra day in fury shoals spotting dolphins (we had seen them briefly on the surface the day before)
2. An extra day in Daedalus spotting sharks

The group chose the first option. I'm not sure it was the right choice, they never saw dolphins, but that's democracy for you. What we did get was some of the most magnificent coral reefs I've ever seen.

The Playground and Claudio were beautiful dives providing some stunning coral vistas. However, it was Claudio that had us having fun fighting against a current after navigating the reef. The Battle for Sataya East had obviously weakened a number of our group. As we settled in the shelter. I saw the Kingmaker push on by. I joined him and together we made it.

The Kingmaker was particularly pleased for us to be one of the few buddy pairs that made it back to the boat.

The evening brought us to Abu Galawa Soraya. It was a nice dive also with a spectacular coral amphitheatre and small wreck. It was one of the few dives that I've done that I wish I had a twinset on to make it last longer. It was genuinely spectacular.

Masked puffer

Nudibranch

American wreck

Corals and fish

Blue Spotted Ray

Red Sea Anemone fish

Going South - Part 4 500 - 10/05/2018

My 200th dive was memorable. It was in the Red Sea at a site called The Alternatives. My buddy was the Zookeeper and we had a prolonged encounter with my first scribbled filefish. It stayed with us most of the dive and I've never seen one since.

My 300th dive was also in Egypt and was at Ghobal Island with the Kingmaker. We saw my first and only ever stargazer fish.

By way of contrast, dive 400 was a very dull affair with someone who could barely dive at Twin Piers, Loch Long.

It's safe to say that I wanted to make 500 special. My buddy would be the Gandalf of the Internet and to make it special we would dive it with our cheap Chinese UV torches. It wouldn't be spectacular but it would be fun and it would, perhaps, throw up something interesting.

We swam away from the ever dwindling number of people diving on night dives and fired up the torches. At first I wasn't taking pictures thinking my camera would struggle with the strange white balance and, so, to my disappointment I never photographed the small bubble anemone that lit up furiously under the UV light. But I did snap some glowing corals.

We meandered around for 45 minutes. With that I was half way to 1,000 dives.

Glowing corals

Glowing corals

Going South - Part 3 The Battle for Sataya East - 10/05/2018

The day started on a small reef named Habili Gafar, a small pinnacle that took around 10 minutes to circumnavigate. For the briefest of moments it was desperately pretty then around 40 divers descended on it which for me took away its shine, but it did give us a few more grey reef sharks. From there we moved on to the winding labyrinth of St Gohn's Cave. It was a pretty spectacular set of winding corridors through a delicate reef. 

However, as with yesterday it was the third dive of the day, this time my 499th dive that was to live long in the memory - Sataya East, Fury Shoals

The Kingmaker, overcome with an anal fury of his own had decided to sit this one out. As such there were five of us. We were dropped by rhib on the far side of the reef and were aiming to 'drift with the current' along to a sandy lagoon where we'd find a small exit back towards the main liveaboard. It seemed easy.

We made our way over the barrier reef to the outer wall, rolled and began the dive. It seemed to be going well then as we approached where the lagoon should of been we turned headlong into a powerful current. As the diver at the back of our group of five I watched as Gandalf was swept straight back from his advanced position, We all felt it.

We signalled to the guide coming behind,  his advice was to stay low, and press on. None of us were convinced. Heavy finning, afterall increases the risk of DCI.

Gandalf took the decision to go 'over the top of the reef' , weaving between any large coral formation that could put us in the leeward side of the current.

Eventually we dropped into a small sandy lagoon, where I momentarily admired my first blue spotted ray of the trip.

As a group we had now been joined by two other divers who had slipped into our slipstream. It was hard work, but I found myself having magnificent fun. I signalled 'charge' to the troops. They all got the message Once again we were going over the top.

We never made it back to the boat, but we got closer than any other group. That to me seemed like a moral victory. Once everyone got over their annoyance at the dive guides getting the currents all wrong, we laughed about the dive now named the Battle for Sataya East.

St Gohn's Cave

Moray

The Blue Spotted Ray in the sandy lagoon

St Gohn's Cave

Going South - Part 2 Dangerous Territory - 09/05/2018

The 3rd dive of the day would be the Kingmaker's 500th dive. The numerically notable dive was set to be at Sha'ab Dangerous in St John's. So named because of the markings on nautical maps informing sea captains of dangerous reefs, not really because it's danger. It was a dive that was to be somewhat anticlimactic as the Kingmaker's 499th turned out to be very special indeed. 

The day started nicely at a small reef named Habili Ali before moving on to Small Gotta. Small Gotta was meant to be pretty and unspectacular. That's what Kingmaker's dive log would say. I mean who remembers their 499th dive? It's not meant to be memorable. And it wasn't, right up until an oceanic manta soared up from the deep blue performed a loop and then swam out the way it came with the Kingmaker "soaring" along beside it. He was delighted.

That would make for a pretty memorable 499th, but when the two grey reef sharks came by I could tell the Kingmaker was enjoying himself. Back on the boat we agreed that it was amongst the best dives we'd all done. It will live long in the memory. 

Sadly for Dangerous, as pretty as it was as a reef it wasn't spectacular in the way the previous dive had been.

Soaring manta

Crack in the coral - Dangerous

500th dive

Antheas - the current signallers

Res sea anemone fish

Going South - Part 1

With both the Kingmaker and I turning 40 in the last six months we had decided that we would do a red sea liveaboard to celebrate. We had settled on heading south to Rocky, Zabargad & St Johns on board MY Blue Horizon. A few folk got wind of our  trip and decided to join us including:

• The Gandalf of the Internet
• Pushme Poolme
• The Big Easy

We were set.

When we arrived we were told that the itinery would have to change as the Egyptian military has revoked the boats permission to go to Rocky and Zabargad. As such the new plan was:

Port Ghalib - St Johns - Fury Shoals - Daedalus - Elphinstone - Port Ghalib

I wasn't that fussed - the addition of Daedalus meant I'd have an improved chance of seeing my first hamnmerhead shark and that was one of the primary reasons my trip.

Once on the boat our little group was given an additional diver to even up the numbers. She was experienced, but hadn't dived in a while. I'd like to think we made her welcome. We started with a couple of 60 minute check dives that threw up a couple of nudibranchs in between the boat steaming down to St John's to start our adventures.

The Big Easy

Kingmaker

Unidentified nudibranch

Gandalf of the Internet

Chromodoris Strigata

The only crown of thorns

The first moray

The first turtle

Bahamarama -15/04/2018

OK, I've been a bit remiss. I've done a lot of dives and not blogged. Now it seems I'm playing catch up. So let me bring you up to speed.

1. I qualified as a ScotSAC dive instructor
2. I bought a new camera and I've been using it.
3. I'm approaching 500 dives.
4. I went to the Bahamas.

So you're now up to speed.

Yeah, the Bahamas. Like many people I had seen the adverts in dive magazines with beautiful pictures of sharks in azure waters with glossy writing advertising Stuart Cove's aquatic adventures. I wanted to see the sharks for myself. So when the opportunity arose thanks to a cheap flight flight from Scotland to Miami and another cheap flight across to Nassau the game was on.

I ended up doing six dives with Stuart Cove's, they were pretty pricey averaging about $75 per dive. That was 4 reef 'n' wreck dives, one 'natural' encounter swimming with sharks before they were fed and a shark feed.

Let's cut a long story short, the coral and reefs and fish life in the Bahamas were distinctly average. However, they have sharks (Caribbean and Nurse), lots of sharks. And that's why I went. And speaking to the other divers that's why they were there too.

So from that perspective it was pretty good, but given I bought a new camera I'll let you judge for yourself.

Flamingo Tongue

Porthole

Lanzarote Day 5 - The German Venus - 05/07/2017

I remember being in Florence's Uffizi Gallery and looking at Botticelli's masterpiece The Birth of Venus. Her modesty was protected by her flowing hair. I never loved the picture, though to be honest I'm not a fan of Renaissance painting.

My final day of diving with Dawn Dives brought back that memory. You see, we were diving in the North East of the island at a nudist colony - fortunately we still got to dive in wetsuits! One of my buddies for the day - a fellow Scot - reassured me that it was a great dive and one of the few in the world where you're almost guaranteed to see both tentacles and testicles on the same dive. 

We kitted up and  headed down the carved cliff staircase to the rocks below without seeing a single nudist. I assumed nudists, unlike divers, were late risers.

The site is actually pretty barren in terms of fish life, but the steeply tumbling white sands provide a home to a a number of rays. However, most divers come here for the topography and the opportunity to go deep quickly. 

It was pretty spectacular on both dives, yielding torpedo rays and stingrays on both dives. Hervie's eyes were good at spotting them too.

However, the Venus memory was brought back to me at the end of the dive when I came up from three metres at the long swimming pool style stairs onto the rocks. As I looked up, at the top of the stairs stood a German Venus - proud and unabashed with no clam shells or long hair to cover her modesty. Yet it was me that was emerging from the sea.

Ski slopes

Torpedo Ray

Octopus

Stingray

Stingray

Buddies

Buddies