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 5 - The Road To 200 - 22/11/2014

They say in diving that if you don't have a picture then it never happened. It's true, underwater your eyes can be easily decieved.

Today saw me undertake dives number 197-200. It seemed fitting that dive 200 was going to be a night dive. My log book is about 50% that.

However, before that particular moment of legend I still had to dive, Thomas, Woodhouse and Jackson reefs. The reefs lie in the Straits of Tiran in the Gulf of Aqaba.

The day was always going to be a bit farcical with one of Snapdragon's rhibs either broken down or burst. They hadn't been very reliable all week.

During the first dive (Thomas Reef) I spent most of my time watching the space between the edge of the reef and the blue. Then I saw something, something big. I was sure it was another reef shark. At the surface the Zookeeper disagreed, but the Lawman also claimed to have seen it. However, neither of us took pictures therefore we never saw it. Them's the rules!

Woodhouse Reef provided us with more drifting and an alleged 'cleaning station'. It did however provide us with one half of the legendary Derola buddy pair being that the first half was sitting the dive out. I liked it as a dive - long and straight with porcupine fish and a turtle.

Jackson Reef provided us with more drift diving and a prolonged wait on the surface to be picked up. However, the boat banter was enough (for some of us) to make up for the certain doom had it been an emergency. :)

Then came two hundred....

Banners and Butterflies

Turtle

Red Anemone

Camera Failure

Zookeeper & Porcupinefish

Day 3 - It Didn’t Start So Well – 20/11/2014

The day started badly. There was vomiting, medicinal drugs and time for recovery. As such I missed the first dive – yet another trip round the Thistlegorm. By the time we’d moved to the second site, the humorously named Small Crack, the drugs were kicking in. I was fit to dive.

The Small Crack began with a rhib to the outer part of the lagoon. We rolled off and dropped down to around 20m - practically on top of a large moray eel. Swimming along for what seemed like ages we finally reached the area that formed the crack. The tide which was rushing into the lagoon soon sucked us through the shallow canyon towards the boat. It was great fun. The Zookeeper and I missed it by a considerable margin and had to be towed back to the ship by the rhib. I felt a tinge of 007. The dive also saw me break my duration record – 71 minutes.

The remaining dives of the day were at a site named the Alternatives. I think  because you should dive somewhere alternative. Despite a dull first dive on the site the night dive improved considerably. The dive included:

• an inquisitive masked puffer fish
• a scrawled filefish (90cms)
• a bait ball being attacked by barracuda and squid

No biggies yet. However, tomorrow is another day.

Moray Eel

Swimming Away

Upstanding Member of the Dive Community

Masked Pufferfish

Goatfish

Scrawled Filefish

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

Day 2 - What Goes Down… - 19/11/2014

Today was always going to be a day of wrecks.  I like wrecks, I’ve done a few. I find them atmospheric.

Today’s wrecks in reverse order of fame and coincidentally diving order were:

• Dunraven
• Kingston
• Thistlegorm x2

Both Dunraven and Kingston were from rhibs, while the Thistlegorm (discovered by famed privateer and oceanographer,  Jacques Cousteau) was off the back of the live-aboard.

The Dunraven was nice enough without providing much excitement. By way of contrast, the Kingston was a negative entry (my first ever) into a seriously strong current that meant if you landed on the wrong side of the wreck you had very little chance of exploring it.  Knowing this I never took my camera, which I instantly regretted!

The life on the Kingston wasn't any more spectacular than anywhere else, but I did love the table corals on the neighboring reef and well, it was just a nice looking wreck.

However, the highlight of the day was meant to be the Thistlegorm. It’s the “most beautiful wreck in the Red Sea” apparently. It is certainly interesting with its assortment of wrecked cargo. The WW2 ruined cargo includes:

• Motorbikes
• Rifles
• Tanks
• Trucks

It was all interesting enough but for me the highlight was diving it at night. The Zookeeper who has dived it at least 5 or 6 times opted to stay on board. So my buddies for the evening were the Lawman and Bridget (also accompanied by Sergeant Chris, Smooth Criminal and Al-chemist (so named due to his inexhaustible supply of medicinal compounds).

We started at the rear working our way up the starboard side to the bow before heading back down the port side.

I was just bumbling about taking snaps of scorpionfish, a crocodile fish and some nudis when suddenly it went from being fairly quiet and atmospheric to being like Sauchiehall Street (for non Glasgow readers it’s a busy shopping street – you can really substitute in any busy street name).

We were in a melee of around 20-30 divers from three different groups. I laughed as I saw divers with some very expensive photographic toys bumping into chunks of metal, lose control of their buoyancy and all the stuff that you see – you know what I mean. I just kept low avoided being clattered and kept an eye on the Lawman’s fins. Eventually, we burst free from the crowd and encountered a really nice crocodile fish.

Reaching the line we went up. I pondered it the days events on the safety stop. What goes up must come down, but what goes down doesn’t need to go up. However, divers do, sadly.

Nudibranch

Motorcycle

Scorpionfish

Nudibranch

Crocodile Fish

Day 1 - Into The Black & Blue – 18/11/2014

As I mentioned, probably a hundred times if I met you in the last few months, I’m now in Egypt diving off the Snapdragon -  a fairly grim Flowers of Sinai live-aboard. I’m bunked up with a very pleasant chap who we'll call Seanathon. I’ve dived with Seanathon before, well over a year ago. He's a decent chap, that said, he’s probably gutted be sharing with me. 

For diving purposes, my buddy for the diving side of things is the Zookeeper.

Today we did three dives, having arrived quite late last night. The sites were:

• Ras Katy – a shallow reef check dive
• Ras Satar – a deep wall drift dive
• Dunraven – a notable Red Sea wreck, with a nearby reef 

As I’m discussing a few dives I’ll stick to the more notable incidents. Essentially everything went to plan on dive one, luring me into a false sense of security and even delivering a very pretty octopus. It was too far inside its whole to photograph, so you’ll have to take my word for it being pretty.

Ras Satar was a quite different affair for me.

I once heard bittersweet being described as “watching your mother-in-law drive over a cliff in your brand new car.” I have no real issues with my mother-in-law, but this dive was bittersweet. I was bobbing along enjoying the drift and wall when after about five minutes what felt like a jolt of electricity shot through the right hand side of my face. As this was my first ever Nitrox dive, my first thought was it was a symptom of oxygen toxicity (at 22m *coughs*). The reality, however, was far more mundane.

I endured the rest of the dive, made only bearable by my first ever turtle sighting.  When I emerged I had a scarlet rash laden cheek and mouth. Apparently, it was a plankton sized jellyfish. 

I can tell you, even now, 9 hours later, my face is loupin. In addition, I cut my leg as I boarded the Zodiac.. As I said, bittersweet.

Finally, dive three was a night dive and both the Zookeeper and I were in our element. We enjoyed some nice lionfish action, a couple of moray eels and wide selection of night active fish.

Blue Spotted Ray

The Zookeeper

Pinnacle

Masked Butterfly Fish

Turtle

Large Table Coral

All Aboard! - 17/11/2014

So today I'm heading out to Sharm, Egypt  for my first ever diving liveaboard. I dived a few times in the Red Sea, so I know what to expect from an ecological perspective. The Zookeeper and some other characters from the blog are coming too. The trip is being organised by Ace Divers.

We're going to be on the Snapdragon - a Flowers of Sinai boat. By all accounts online the boat is meant to be pretty diabolical - a fact that is at odds with my penchant for 5 star luxury. However, the Zookeeper reliably informs me that the week is made by the diving and banter and not the accommodation.

In preparation, I've bought some more snazzy thermocline stuff, sea sickness tablets, Imodium, spare fin straps, budgie smugglers, sun cream (I am from Scotland, I have fair skin and I will burn) and new shades. Add to that a smattering of my  usual dive kit and I'm set.

The trip will also coincide with my 200th dive. I've got something special planned for that. ;)