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

La Fest de Murene - 11/04/2016

With just one more day to dive with my new found friends at Just Diving I headed on a the boat with a couple of Germans from Munich and a French guy called Alexander who would ultimately be my buddy for the day.

As always I chatted beforehand to establish his experience. He lived near Calais in France and was a fairly regular drysuit diver.  That immediately eased my fears because, as we all know, anyone who learns to dive in cold water finds the warm stuff easy in almost all conditions.

The day was mostly a check dive for the German couple so the sites were to be kept nice and fluffy. We dived two reefs - Shamenta and Tikoraye. Both were fairly pleasant providing a nice assortment of reef fish, nudibranchs, amd as Alexander would proclaim as we surfaced from the second dive "en Fest de Murene". 

Now, my French isn't great, but even I could translate his proclamation as a festival of moray eels. Though to say that, was little bit of a disservice to a dive that also had Garden and Ribbon eels on show too. Not to mention a number of stone, lion and scorpion fish.

Two nice dives and a great way to end my time diving in Mauritius - especially when Jean spotted two great nudibranchs.

Moray

Lionfish

Fryeria marindica

Anemone fish

Red Scorpion Fish

Escape From LA - 09/07/2016

My original intention when I decided to come to Los Angeles for a month was to use the opportunity to head up to Washington State and dive there. However, poor communication by the dive shop that runs the trip meant that the opportunity slipped through the cracks of life. As B*witched once said, "C'est la vie "

Instead, as though in compensation, my Los Angelino friends offered to take me to Santa Catalina Island and dive at the Casino Point Dive Park in the city of Avalon. 

Santa Catalina is primarily a resort island, which in its hay day was the playground of LA's rich and famous it and owned by the Wrigley family. Today, it's a kitsch entertainment district and wildlife reserve that includes a vibrant marine reserve.

Our plan was to take the 6.30am (yes, early starts are the domain of divers the world over) ferry from San Pedro to Avalon. I won't lie I'm not a fan of the early start, but to be amongst the first in the water was satisfying ex post.

We arrived at the site where Gill (my wife) and I hired tanks, weight and BCDs. We were diving as part of a mixed ability group that ranged from relatively new open water divers to me, amongst the most experienced in the group with a little over 300 dives.

Gill and I buddied up, did a quick buddy check and swam out to the marker buoy that marks the edge of the park and the wreck of a glass bottom boat.

The vis was a respectable 10-15m at a depth of around 25m. I was glad of my Fourth Element Thermoclines beneath my 5mm wetsuit as we passed through a thermocline that tipped the water temperature below 17c. Gill, in her drysuit, was oblivious to the cooling temperatures.

In terms of life there was lots to see. The star of the show is California's state protected fish, the Garibaldi. The Garibaldi is essentially a bright orange damselfish. For those with a keener eye you'll see moray eels, a variety of bass, spiney lobster and nudibranchs all lurking amongst the giant kelp forest.

It's not unheard of to see a variety of sharks at Catalina too - including Horned, Blue and Great Whites. Unfortunately for me, the closest I came to a shark was a 5 foot Bat Ray gently passing between myself  and my buddy for the second dive - by coincidence named Ray. Perhaps I should have dived with a buddy named Shark. I'm sure someone in California has a name like that, right?! Sadly, I got no pictures of it as I had just packed away my little camera in preparation for exiting the water at the steps 

I wouldn't describe this as the best dive I've ever done - that accolade naturally goes to the A-Frames, Loch Long *coughs*. However, if you're in LA with a day to spare you could do a lot worse than spending $75 on a return ferry ticket and up to $75 for full kit hire at Casino Point. Beyond getting there, there is no cost to diving in the marine park, Which means that you can squeeze in up to 4 dives for $150.

Entry Stairs

Moray Eel

Turbot

Spiney Lobster

Bass

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

200 - 22/11/2014

When I first started diving I was told by an instructor that th majority of people who invest the time and the money to learn to dive never get beyond 100 dives. I was alsways going to get a least that far purely on the basis of getting my monies worth out of my kit.  However three years later it was time for dive 200.

We moored in the south lagoon of Tiran Island for our night dive and were to dive the large pinnacle the boat as moored to.

I donned my special shorts. We danced, kitted up and I lead my honour guard out into the water off the back of the boat. The stride entry was perfect, though as I hit the water I realised one of my Seawing Novas had broken. This was an ominous beginning. I threw it back on to the boat and was handed a replacement for the dive.

As we dropped to around 10m we practically landed on top of a large free swimming Moray Eel that was ultimately to accompany us for the most of the dive. We swam through the dark to the pinnacle where most of the group headed round in a clockwise direction while the Zookeeper and I went clockwise as per our dive guides onboard instructions. Not that it made a difference, but I did like the moment when we went from being on our own to swimming towards the larger troop. It was all very James-Bond-underwater-fight-scene-esque.

I never took pictures, but I did shoot some video. It made me realise I really need a proper videolight.

When I got back aboard I discovered that one of the wee guys that helps you to kit up had given me Smooth Criminals fins instead of my own. He'd broken one earlier in the week. So that was £100 saved. Perhaps I can put that towards a video light to celebrate my 200th dive. :)

Thanks to Aquatron for the shorts and Total TeamWear Scotland for the numbering. Also a big shout out to the guard of honour. I had a blast!!!!

Day 4 - Oh The Shark Has Pretty Teeth Dear – 21/11/2014

So today's dives were over three epic reefs:

• Shark & Yolanda reef
• Jackfish Alley
• Gordon Reef

I won’t lie, at the start of the day I had lost heart. One turtle, a couple of moray eels but little else – other than the myriad of life one comes to spectacularly ignore. The Zookeeper and I wanted sharks, dolphins and or more turtles. And as I said, we’ve only had one turtle.

Shark & Yolanda passed with just more of the same stuff (although the cargo of cludgies spread over the sea bed when the Yolanda sank is impressive). Jackfish Alley had a nice short stretch of cavern penetration but little else. In essence, I was sweeping by some of the finest reefs on the planet and was bored. Then came Gordon Reef.

Getting swept along with the current I finally relented and said a prayer. Here is what I prayed:

“God, I’d really like to see a shark in a non-threatening, exciting, safe way. Can you do that?”

No sooner had I thought the prayer when I heard the Zookeeper’s furious rattle. I looked round thinking “Turtle”, only to see her signalling shark. My brain instantly thought “Turtle Shark?! Wait that’s not even a real shark.”  Afterwards, the Zookeeper revealed she too had been "asking the Universe for something big".

Then  I saw it. First, I saw the main body followed by white tipped fin. A white tip reef shark. After that the dive was over mentally . I couldn't think of anything else. Even as I went down for my night dive, I knew the day was complete.

I've attached both the Zookeeper and I's videos of the encounter. You'll notice I kept the Zookeeper and myself between the shark - my video is entirely rubbish, but when you see the Zookeepers bubbles you'll realise how strong the current was we were fighting. Smart thinking.

Clam

More Yolanda Wreckage

Weird Anemone

Jewel Fairy Basslets

Cavern Penetration

Free Swimming Moray

Hunting Lionfish