Red Sea  April 2005

(by John Elt)

As a novice diver, club members would tell me that the in place to dive is the Red sea. So when my wife and I were looking for a holiday I casually suggested, what about Egypt, after a deep meaningful thought she said, lets look on the Internet. After much searching we found a hotel in Sharm el sheik, just north of Na'ama bay, (how convenient). Once our holiday was booked I spent many an evening searching the internet for Dive centres in and around our hotel, not being able to decide, I thought I would wait until I was out there. On the 21^st April with cases packed (one with scuba gear) we set of for Luton Airport, after a restful day on the Friday (to allow Nitrogen levels to decrease, (as taught in Sports Diver Theory).

So with dives booked I looked forward to diving in the Red Sea. Early on Saturday Morning I was collected by Mini Bus to start my journey to Na'ama Bay to commence my first dive in the Red Sea. As I boarded the Dive Boat with the other divers my nerves began to settle down and I was looking forward to doing some diving. After a safety briefing we were told to relax on the sun deck and drink plenty of water. After about thirty minutes we arrived at our dive site, Blanka our dive leader, went through our dive plan in great detail, also we agreed on dive signals, there was some debate about how much weight I should carry, due to the high salt content in the Red Sea. After a Buddy check it was into the Red Sea, after a buoyancy check I was told I would have to do a Dive check, which meant I would have to do Mask clearing, and remove regulator and retrieve at 10 meters, no problem I thought. As I sat on the bottom at 10 meters I could not believe what I was seeing, crystal clear water, an amazing variety of marine life, spectacular corals, plus an assortment of other divers. My first dive was as if I was inside an aquarium, it was truly amazing, I didn’t think diving could be this good. After lunch, and a restful break, we moved on to our second dive site, this I was informed would be a drift dive; this could be interesting I thought, never done a drift dive before. After a detailed dive brief, and a Buddy check it was back in to the water for my first drift dive. Once again this dive was full of a variety of marine life and beautiful corals, I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing, Stony cove has a lot to answer for. A second days diving was booked, but due to a dodgy tummy, and frequent visits to the loo, I had to decline.

With the second dive re-booked I looked forward to another days diving. After another early start, I was introduced to my new dive leader whose name was Sambo, He was a dark skinned Egyptian man, with a jet-black beard and moustache and a great big smile. As we arrived at our dive site Sambo was given the job of securing our boat by diving down to 6 meters, (without scuba gear) and securing the anchor line on the bottom. After our dive brief and Buddy check we were back in the water, once again I just could not get over how clear and warm the water was. One thing I could not get used to was having a deco stop at 5 meters, even though we had not gone below 20 meters during our dives. After lunch our second dive was to be another drift dive, this I thought was not going to be to bad as I had done one on the previous days dive. After the usual buddy check we entered the water, one of our dive group had a video camera and was busy videoing our second dive, we were about ten minutes in to our dive when we were treated to a wonderful sight of a large manta ray which we reckoned measured about eight feet across, it swam around us which seemed like ages, the dive group were absolutely elated, we watched this amazing manta ray giving us a swimming display which I will all ways remember. As if that was exciting, there was more to come, as we approached a coral wall our dive leader pointed a large moray eel which was possibly waiting for lunch to swim by, all this captured on video, of which I am promised a copy. A brilliant end to a perfect days diving in the red sea. I hope to return another year to explore more areas of the red sea. I read with interest the article in the April edition of our newsletter regarding tighter regulations in the red sea, I did present my log book, needless to say, but at no time did I have to show a medical certificate or insurance, I was asked how many dives I had done, and no one offered to show me a Red Sea association professional I.D. card