Far From The Madding Crowd - 21/01/2016

Thomas Hardy was an exceptional author, but few people know his first love was poetry. In fact, one of my favourite poems is The Darkling Thrush. In the poem, winter's gloom is palpable, but one little bird casts itself against the onslaught of winter.

"An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,In blast-beruffled plume,

Had chosen thus to fling his soul

    Upon the growing gloom." 

The weather was at best miserable: 

• marginally above zero
• raining
• windy
• melting snow

Myself, the Zookeeper and Jester had taken the decision to dive at Finnart for an evening of diving. It was my first cold water dive since returning from Egypt and the other first dive since the gluttonous Christmas period. Drysuits were to be stretched to their maximums, but not before we overcame the issue of removing an insert from the cylinder.

Without means of removal we were stumped. I took it upon myself to walk the 50 yards to the oil terminal and asked if they had any allen keys. I was greeted by a young man named Euan who told me he had qualified with his PADI Openwater qualification a few years ago in Australia. He was now planning on becoming a commercial diver and had lined up a job in Australia. He was very helpful and, more importantly, he had allen keys.

We dived. In the first three metres it was as though hell had frozen over. I haven't yet checked my computer for the temperature, but my bottom temperature was 6c. If only the thermocline had been that warm.

We bumbled around enjoying Devonshire cup corals, deeplet anemones and the regular assortment of life.

On the safety stop we ensured we stayed below 3.1m where the thermocline was visible. Once accomplished, we accelerated through the water and out ensuring that our stay in. 

Still, despite the conditions we flung ourselves upon the growing gloom. A good nights diving.

Deeplet anemone

Deeplet anemone

Devonshire cup coral

Day 6 – No Dolphins, But BOGOF on Wrecks

The final day began with a dive at Dolphin House - a site where at certain times of the day dolphins swim by. Sadly, today was not one of those days. As it was it was a pretty dull reef dive only enlivened by some of the Kingmaker's underwater antics. 

He signalled me over and pointed to a whole. We watched for a minute and my suspicions grew. Some more divers came over to see what we were looking at. We watched for a few minutes more. I began to realise that there was in fact nothing to see and that he was just 'yanking my chain'. Still we watched and still more divers gathered. We laughed and swam off.

Our last dive of the trip was the wreck of the El Minya, a minesweeper sunk by Israeli jets during the 7 Day War.  The briefing had also indicated the presence of a second wreck off the stern of a fishing trawler. The trawler was actually the better of the two wrecks despite being a fraction of the size and boasted considerably more life. It was a good way to end the trip.

Nudi

Red Anemone

Red Anemone

Crocodilefish

Lionfish

The Trawler

Day 5 - ...Rosalie Moller, then there was 300 -14/01/2016

Day 5 was always going to be a little bit special. Today my dive log is turning 300, but I’m getting a little ahead of myself. First was the Rosalie Muller, a WWII wreck in deep water (35m+).

Our plan had been to crank up the PPO2 to 1.6 to enable us to dive around the deck without our computer playing the greatest hits of Electronic Disco. This worried me a bit, as did the entry which involved keel hauling ourselves from stern to bow of our own boat before descending to the wreck.

I’ll be honest, I don’t really like this kind of dive and I used a lot of air going down the line. Once on it, despite being at 35m, I calmed and slowed my breathing, but took a conscious decision to not take photographs as this would only deplete my air even quicker. We got back to the boat with 40 bar to spare and without hitting deco. That seemed like a win. What impressed me the most about the wreck was its eerie completeness. It’s dark and a little unnerving.  The Gandalf of the Internet described her before the dive as, “the lady of the Red Sea – revealing her magnificence one fin stroke at a time”.

Then there were 300. At first I thought it would be a poor dive, having dived it the night before, but it proved itself very worthy with an impressive drift, turtle, nudibranch and stargazer fish. The Kingmaker, Hell's Kells and Legend Roy made fine companions. We drifted for over an hour - a clear sign it was decent dive.

Dive 3 of the day was looking to be a bit of a washout with little to see until it sprang to life with the presence of an Eagle Ray. They’re such graceful animals, but sadly I have no footage to share. What was particularly amusing was Hell's Kells dance of victory aimed at Midge and I who never saw it on its first pass. Midge was diving with us because his usual buddy Russ was feigning back pain. The ray, subsequently dubbed 'the Ray of Victory' was only over-shadowed by accusations that our reluctance to swim back against the current meant that we SMB'd the 'Zodiac of Shame' - so named by the chaps of Scuba Leeds who were daft enough to swim against the current and also missed out on the ray. *chuckles*

Pufferfish

Quadricolour Chromodoris

Arabian Picassofish

Turtle

Nudi

Embriated Moray

Blue spotted flatworm

Day 4 - The Day of Wrecks - 13/01/2016

With an itinerary that contained the Dunraven, two dives on the Thistlegorm and a night dive on the Barge, it was always going to be a wreckish day.

I like the Dunraven as a wreck. It's upside down which is unusual and strangely picturesque. The challenge for me is always to get back to the liveaboard from the wreck. I mean, how far can you make your air last? I reckon it is entirely doable, though I have now failed twice. I should say that we never failed because of low air, but rather we got bored of swimming along the Beacon Rock reef into a current.  As it was we no more than about 60m from the boat. Easily done with 80bar.

Like the Dunraven, I’d dived the Thistlegorm before. The last time I was with the Zookeeper and remember not particularly enjoying the current or the penetration into the wreck. On this occasion, I knew what to expect and so I was far more comfortable on both dives.

The Kingmaker had agreed to lead us in the penetration portion of the dive. It gave rise to one of my heartiest underwater chuckles as he headed into a block entrance and had to reverse out. In fairness to him, he actually did a pretty darn good job after that initial moment, but I still gave him a few metres head start throughout the dive in case it happened again.

The Barge at night was a mixed experience. It’s a good site with lots of Morays, Stonefish, Scorpionfish and nudis, but there were just too many people on it. Our little group of 4 got split up and I took the decision to swim with Trist out of the Barge and wait for it to clear. I think Hell's Kells & Royston did the same thing, but went the opposite way, as we all reassembled ten minutes later with no one else on it.

Dunraven

Thistlegorm Locomotive

Thistlegorm Gun

Kingmaker & The Thistlegorm

Fimbriated Maray

Stonefish

Day 3 - The Narc Shark and the Deep Blue - 12/01/2016

Shark & Yolanda reefs are two of the more spectacular reefs in the northern Red Sea. Although, I sometimes think they are so vast and sweeping that vista sometimes that you miss the life that makes its life there. It was on the this reef that I had my first narc of the week. Dives one and two of the day were on this reef.

I always like to keep my eyes on the deep blue. It's where you see sharks and some of the bigger marine life. Well on dive one I was squinting into the blue and I saw one. Well, I thought I did. It seems it was a turtle, but at 35.5m and working hard into a head current it was definitely a narc shark at the very least. I chased it, until my dive computers started playing the classic hits of disco-electonica sending me up to more sensible depths. Meanwhile, the rest of the group looked on bemused. I rallied at the end of Yolanda and regrouped my senses. It was a great dive though! Back on the boat I was the butt of the jokes. I didn't mind, I saw a narc-shark.

For the Kingmaker, a large Napoleon Wrasse seemed to hold his attention. It's not the best picture, but you can certainly see the scale of it.

Our second dive saw the Kingmaker who knew this reef well take a short cut across 'the saddle' between the reefs in the deep blue. I think the we went into slightly deeper blue than expected because we arrived on Yolanda Reef on the shallow remnants of the Yolanda from which the reef takes its name. We also arrived before everyone else. The upside was that we got to spend a lot longer on Satellite Reef and with a turtle we'd seen earlier.

The third and fourth dives of the day were at Beacon Rock. The highlight of the dives here was getting to dive on the wreck of a liveaboard that sunk here a few years ago. There really wasn't that much to see. Although Hells Kells did spot a warted nudibranch of some kind.*

Turtle

Kingmaker & Napoleon Wrasse

Turtle

* I know, it's amazing how nonchalant you become about some of the diving very quickly.

Day 2 - Carnatic, Marcus and the Alternatives - 11/01/2016

The Carnatic is considered one of the oldest wrecks in the Red Sea having sunk in the 19th century. It's really rather beautiful. Though, as I discovered, it's a tight fit up at the bow. I kind of wished I'd lost a few Kgs before going in. While swimming round it towards the end of the dive The Dangerous Brothers had spotted a nice nudibranch - a wart slug.

The Marcus, also known as the Tile Boat, was without the doubt the surprise of the trip. I'd never heard of it before, but she turned out to be a fine wreck with some great life and swim throughs. As it's name suggests it was laden with tiles when it went down. The tiles are still there today and all stamped "Made in Italy".

We were all a bit sceptical about the Alternatives. All of us had dived it before and didn't have a lot of positive things to say about it. So when it emerged that the last two dives of the day were on this reef we were a bit disappointed. As punishment, we asked for the dive guide to join us on the first one. He actually, made the most of a very average Red Sea dive site spotting barracuda, a turtle, scorpion fish and a nice nudi.

The night dive saw me choose to forgo any photographic activity as I instead buddied a relatively novice diver. Having no idea how he was in the water I opted to keep an eye on him. As it is, Kung Fu Trist turned out to be a very competent diver - a credit to the BSAC club that trained him. He ended up joining myself, Royston and Hells Kells for the next few night dives.

Carnatic Propeller

Inside Marcus

Crocodile fish

Lion fish

Devil Red Scopionfish

Blue spotted ray

Midge's nudi

Reef life

Stonefish

Day 1 - The Poseidon Adventure begins - 10/01/2016

The day began, as all liveaboards do, with a check dive. The reef (Poseidon) was pleasant, somewhat like an aquarium, but with nothing of any great interest. It was, afterall, a check dive.

It was to get better with a move to the Giannis D – one of the reasons for my trip.* The Giannis D ran aground and sunk in 1983 and has been sitting at a 45 degree angle confusing divers ever since. It's really quite disorientating, I personally began using my torch and bubbles  as a plumb line while penetrating. It's a great wreck and at a little more than 20m very accessible.

While inside the wreck we lost the Kingmaker amidst the dazzle of Royston's lights. Knowing he was no longer inside the wreck, the remaining three of us emerged and had a look for him. Now when you lose your buddy you tend to stick to standard buddy separation procedure, but on this occasion we asked ourselves what would the Kingmaker do? We took a gamble and headed to the shallower bow of the boat where we found him snuggled in like a cuckoo with another buddy pair - panic over, dive saved. It made me wonder though....

Our third and final dive of the day was a night dive on the Sha'ab Abu Nuhas reef itself. I took the opportunity to have some with an inexpensive UV torch I'd been given for Christmas. The down side was that this meant I'd have to dive with a yellow filter on my camera - something which I'd never done before. IT definitely messes with the white balance of the camera. As such I have no fluorescing photographs. I do, however, have some nice little video clips and some non UV but yellow filtered pictures of Spanish Dancers!

To add even more colour to the experience, the Kingmaker was using a red filter on his video light. Apparently, it doesn't scare the reef life quite as much and so you see a bit more on the dive.

Kingmaker

Hell's Kells

Fish & Coral

Giannis D bow

Porcupinefish

* I've done a Red Sea Liveaboard before and I have dived much of this itinerary before. However my last boat was wooden hulled and poor weather meant she wasn't able to make the crossing over to Sha'ab Abu Nuhas.

Return to the Red - 09/01/2016

I'm doing a liveaboard with Blue O Two Blue Melody on the Red Sea. Based out of Hurgahda, Egypt, she is considered one of the better boats in the BO2 fleet.

I am diving with some blog regulars the Kingmaker and Bridget (who I've taken to calling Hell's Kells) and a chap we met on the boat who we'll call Royston. He's a BSAC diver from Bristol who, it appears, doesn't actually breath.

On the boat are a collection of great characters from all over the UK. Midge & Russ -  the Dangerous Brothers, the lads from Leeds Scuba and whole who host of others who I'll mention as we go on.

Back: Me, Midge, Kingmaker,Royston
Front: Hell's Kells & Ahmed

A Simple First - 03/01/2016

Sometimes what is passe to the experienced diver can be something quite cool and interested to those less experienced. That was the case today when I was joined by Bridget and Dougie for a swim around St Catherine's Seal Reef. Neither diver had ever been near the small wreck.

So with almost every site from Glasgow to the Rest & Be Thankful chock-a-block we went to the small boat. The pair of them swam around it for a time before we began the swim to the reef.

For me, the reef offered more interesting times with a nice northern sunstar and a shy conger eel. I'm still without torches which is a bummer, but hopefully that will be sorted soon.

Happy New Year - 31/12/2015

Our plan had been to do two dives, with our second straddling what we call 'the bells' here in Scotland. Myself and Jester were buddying up while the Mermaid and friend George teamed up. We were diving the A-Frames in Loch Long.

A recent break in at my house meant that I was diving on a borrowed torch. I prefer to dive at night with at least two torches, but in such circumstances this is not always possible.  The result was few photographs were taken.

We headed in for our first dive and went down for a bimble around the frames. There really wasn't too much life, but Jester did spot a nice cup coral that I spectacularly failed to photograph.

We split as a larger group underwater and I wondered where the Mermaid and her buddy were, but we continued on, having a nice but cold time.

Back on the surface we discovered the Mermaid wasn't feeling well, but had started 'cooking' up rolls and sausage. We all bit into tepid sausages before deciding that too many factors were working against us and we didn't want to go back in for a second dive.

Still, Hogmanay, comes round like clockwork every year. There's always this year.