July 24 - Egypt: Na'ama Bay - the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt
Today we dove the Thistlegorm Wreck, which is 3 1/2 hours away from Na'ama Bay. So we met at the dive club at 4:45AM, took a jeep to the docks, got on the boat, and promptly curled up and fell asleep again.
Sunrise over the Red Sea
Once we left the protection of the reefs and headed out into the deep blue the waters got REALLY rough. The swells were about 3-4 feet high, and many of us were feeling it in our stomachs. When we finally got to the site, there were about 4 other boats there - all of us pitching and swaying in the swells. One of our dive group got sick, and the rest of us were fighting it. For future reference, the "look at the horizon" trick really does work.
Dive #1: Thistlegorm Wreck
Depth: 27 meters
Bottom Time: 34 minutes
Visibility: 10 meters
The Thistlegorm is a famous World War II freighter that was discovered by Jacques Cousteau. It was a British ship that sank with a full consignment of war supplies, including tanks, jeeps, motorcycles, locomotives, bombs, spare airplane wings, and rifles, after being bombed during WWII. It is currently the wreck to explore in the Red Sea (though it has sadly been stripped of a lot memorabilia). It was amazing, and also one of the hardest dives I've ever done. The swells were so large that we submerged as soon as we went in the water and followed the lead line down to the wreck. Our first dive was supposed to be around the outside of the wreck, but the current was so incredibly strong that Geoff immediately took us inside Hold #1. Now I've dived wrecks before, but never INSIDE one so this was incredible for me. And the holds were quite eerie because of the light and shadows and all the gear. It was so incredible. There was a minimal amount of coral, but we did see tuna, lionfish, thousands and thousands and thousands of "baitfish", barracuda, parrotfish, surgeonfish, and angelfish. We also saw some of the bombs that are still intact. We were only down for 30 minutes because the strong current made us use our air much faster.
We surfaced for an hour on the rough, rough sea - where many of us succumbed to sea sickness, including Jon and me. That really is no fun, so we were anxious to go under which we knew would be gentler on our stomachs.
Dive #2: Thistlegorm Wreck
Depth: 25 meters
Bottom Time: 34 minutes
Visibility: 10 meters
This time we spent a majority of the dive exploring the inside of the ship. Geoff took us into the Captain's bridge where we cruised through his old bathroom and went down into the storage rooms. We saw motorcycles, jeeps, rifles, train cars, and tons of Wellington boots. Leave it to the Brits to send a cargo full of Wellington Boots to WWII. Outside the ship, we checked out some of the coral and amazing fish life. We saw a scorpion fish, tuna, batfish, a little pipefish, trevally, Red Sea anemone fish, and - apparently - sergeant major fish. I say "apparently" because I didn't actually SEE the the sergeant major that took a bite out of the back of my leg. Oooh, but I felt it and it was definitely a big nibble. Here's a website that shows a picture of this pretty fish with (who knew?) sharp teeth: http://www.btinternet.com/~nigelspencer/sea-sergeant-major.htm
My "war wound" fish bite now looks like a hickie on the back of my leg. Not that I would know what a hickie looks like, but this is what I've been told. :)
Between dives we had lunch which was a bit difficult since none of us felt like our stomachs could handle it. But as we left the deep blue and headed back toward the reefs the ocean became a little calmer. It was about a two-hour ride and many of us napped on the way.
Dive #3: Ras Mohammed National Park - Shark Reef and Yolanda Reef
Depth: 22 meters
Bottom Time: 45 minutes
Visibility: 30 meters
Ras Mohammed National Park is considered one of the best reef diving spots in the world. It's fiercely guarded by Egypt, so you have to have an Egyptian Visa to get into it and must pay the $5 per person entrance fee. OK, there's no entrance gate or anything but the Red Sea Police will board the boat and ask to see passports and an entry receipt if they believe that a transgression has occurred. Not with Camel Dive Club though, they're strictly by the book.
For this dive, we did another drift dive (we're getting good at these) and went down Shark Reef. We swam around a HUGE school of 300+ snapper to continue along the reef. We saw schools of unicorn fish, and some curious batfish came up to see what we were up to. After we passed shark reef, we swam across the saddle to Yolanda Reef. The Yolanda Reef is named Yolanda because a boat sank there many years ago that was carrying hotel supplies. The boat has long since sunk to further depths, but the cargo of toilet bowls remain in the saddle between the two reefs. This is where we saw some blue spotted rays. Then we continued to the Yolanda Reef where the current was very, very strong. I didn't realize this, but some of the best fish we saw are in the strongest parts of the current. So we saw tuna, peacock groupers, lionfish, moray eels, and butterfly fish.
It really was a spectacular dive, and a wonderful way for us to end our diving experience here in the Red Sea. As much as we'd like to continue diving, this is getting expensive and Jon and I are both craving a day on solid ground. As we boated away from the reef, about a dozen dolphins came to greet the boat. We were so excited, and wanted to jump in to play with them. But Geoff said no, and that "the only shark attacks that ever occur in the Red Sea are from snorklers who jump into the blue to play with dolphins". He said that the sharks often swim just below the dolphins. So as much as I wanted to play with the dolphins, I've already had one bite taken out of my leg today and I think a shark would probably do a bit more damage than a sergeant major fish.
On our way back to shore, our skipper tossed in a fishing line (you can fish in the blue, but not on the reefs). About an hour later he stopped the boat to reel it in:
Mmmm.... dinner!
Back on land, we settled our bill with Camel Dive Club (ouch!!), and checked into the Falcon Hotel. For those of you playing at home, this is hotel #3 for us in Na'ama Bay. Our last and final stop in this resort town. As much as all this moving around is a pain in the bum, it's been kind of neat to experience 3 different hotels. Maybe we could write a Lonely Planet of our own.
Even after we got back onto land, Jon and I both felt as if the ground was moving. Jon says that, when he was in the shower, he would close his eyes and lose balance because it felt like the tub was moving like a boat. It's quite weird. I have this sensation of an out-of-body experience and I can't quite get the room to stop spinning. I think that my problem is related to heat exhaustion. So when Jon went to go meet Ian and Shelly for drinks tonight, I stayed in the room to sleep it off.