Grand Sea Serpent Trip -
July 2007
Southern
The group consisted of 14 divers from Musselburgh
SAC who were joined by divers from other clubs in
The crew and guides greeted us and explained the
layout of the boat and gave us some guidelines on wet/dry areas, schedules and
what we should expect during the week.
The air conditioned lounge area we were in for this was as beautiful in
reality as it is in the pictures on the web.
Once this intro was completed everyone ran off to find the “best”
cabin. The ship has 4 cabins on deck and
8 down below all are comfortable and have an en-suite shower room. The challenge for many of us was working out
how to get the multi-headed power showers to their preferred setting.
Our first night was spent in the harbour where we
ate in the comfortable dining area and were attended to by the chef and
Mustafa. Mustafa was a favourite with
many of the party since he woke them with a cheery “morning” and cup of tea or
coffee in bed each day, a nice touch when you are getting up at
The dive guides – Ahmed, Mohamed and Ahmed –
checked our dive qualifications after dinner and informed us that we would
start the diving the next day after completing official checks in the
harbour. We all took advantage of the
chance set up our diving gear and to explore the boat and familiarise ourselves
with the upper decks as well as those that we had already seen.
We had arrived in
Dives 2 and 3 were to be at Elphinstone
and were eagerly anticipated since we had seen a whale shark and hammerhead
here in 2005. Dive 2 saw us carried
along in a gentle drift that allowed us to travel the whole of the west side of
the reef and on to the south plateau no big fish this time but lots of life and
great corals. During the surface interval we were
treated to the sight of dolphins swimming near the reef. Dive 3 was down the east side of the reef
where we saw a
free swimming moray eel and a well disguised scorpionfish
in another gentle drift. The strength of
the current varied depending on the entry time so some of the group reported
fast drifts, whilst others only gentle drifts.
Day 1 was over, everyone
was comfortable with the boat, the guides and the crew and looking forward to
Day 2.
We had Stuart's birthday to celebrate so a cake
was provided, Happy Birthday was sung and a few gifts including a bottle of
malt whisky were handed over to ensure that he will always remember being 50.
The crew set sail for Daedalus
while we enjoyed the sunset, some drinks and then sleep. Coming up from the cabin on day 2 I was
surprised to see the lighthouse on the reef immediately in front of me as I
arrived on the dive deck. It is a
spectacular setting with only the reef and lighthouse visible in the whole
area.
For Dive 4
we were dropped in at the north corner and dived along the east side of
the reef from there. Most of the group enjoyed a
beautiful dive along pristine corals with masses of fish to watch and lots of
activity on the reef top in the sunlight to enjoy. For Stuart and Tom it was to prove to
be an exciting dive when they followed Ahmed into the blue and had close encounters
with around 6 hammerheads and could see more deeper down. Tom felt that this dive alone made the whole
trip worthwhile, Stuart was pleased to have caught the
big guys on video. Ahmed promised to
take some of us on the next dive and see if we could find them again. So dive 5 followed the same plan as the
number 4 and as many of us as could followed Ahmed out into the blue.... We were rewarded with a hammerhead and probably a
thresher shark, not the close encounter of the first dive of the day but good
enough to have us smiling too. It was a
long swim back to the reef and the sight of the all divers travelling along the
wall was amusing to see with the streams of bubbles marking our presence before
you can see the individuals. There is no
doubt that we are an alien presence in comparison with what nature has already
created in the underwater world.
A number of people took advantage of the chance to
visit the 4 staff on the lighthouse in the early afternoon to take tea, smoke
with them and buy t-shirts
Those who did not leave the boat picked a spot on deck and dozed
in the sun or sat in the lounge revisiting the first few dives through the many
digital photos that had been taken.
Dive 6 started at the anemone garden to the west
of Daeadalus and saw the group dive towards the north
point in case we might see big fish again.
There were numerous shoals of fish including tuna and sardines on this
dive and a huge eel was spotted and photographed in hole in the reef.
Day 2 was over and the sea was still flat calm as
the crew prepared us for another overnight trip to
Day 3 and there were some ripples in the water as
we set off for Dive 7 at
Zabargad is a short distance from
Dive 8 is from the Rib back to the boat travelling
along the coral reef with the current.
The corals here are beautiful, dropping down in ledges with table corals
being at numerous locations. The star on
this dive was a turtle that wanted to hang about, be photographed and play – I
think everyone saw it and many people got photos and video footage to prove it.
From here we set sail over lunch to go to
Dive 10 was the first night dive of the holiday
and was on the plateau at Big Gotta'a. The best part of this dive for most of the
group was a free swimming moray eel who was hunting,
this provided a contrast in size and colour from the small nudibranch
I saw at the beginning of the dive.
There were also lion fish hunting glass fish on the sandy bottom.
Day 4 started with the short journey to Habily Aly which was the site
that a manta ray was spotted at in 2005.
A nice dive site with huge clouds of glass fish in a
number of areas. Visibility was
not so good at depth, but near the surface there was a lot of sunlight and
plenty of small stuff to see. The dive
guides pulled photographers from another dive boat off the coral,
the other divers did not seem to appreciate the damage they were doing. Ahmed spoke to the dive guide on the other
boat afterwards to let him know what we had seen hopefully they will have
modified their behaviour.
Dive 12 was a short hop on at Habily
Ga'afer which only looks like a tiny reef at the
surface but is cone shaped and is therefore larger in circumference as you go
deeper. We were diving in 4 groups with
2 asked to dive clockwise and 2 anti-clockwise.
This formation resulted in shoals of fish being “herded” by the groups
in a way that resembled sheep in dog trials.
A lovely dive with a huge amount of fish life to enjoy
right to the reef top. Most
people swam back to the boat underwater going past 2 other boats before
reaching our own.
Dive 13 was in the swim throughs
at
We moved on again to Fury Shoals and Satayah South for our second night dive of the trip. There were many lion fish out hunting and
happy to move into our torch beams as they hunted glass fish. Another free swimming moray eel that was seen
by some of the group catching a fish, that then got away. Plus the sight of fish tucked away in the
coral to sleep and parrot fish covering themselves in their mucus pyjamas.
Day 5 and Dive 15 saw us visit Sha'ab
Claudia and go through more swim throughs in the
early morning sunlight. The coral
formations and life in these swim throughs are always
worth seeing, providing a contrast to the vast reefs of the first part of the
week.
Next we moved to Small Abu Galau
where the dive started next to the reef with a yacht that had come to grief
here and now provides a home for many fish and for corals to grow on. There are several entry points in the reef
into a lagoon where hard coral formations and the number of clams in different
colours you see along with the fish life caused Disney's Little Mermaid scenes
to come to mind. As a result I completed
this dive with the song from this film “Under the Sea” in my head.
We got a chance to rest on the sundecks again as
we sailed north to the Wady el Gemal
dive sites for the next few hours. Before hitting the water for dive 17 at about
Our final night dive was at Dahara
Wady Gemal which was billed
by the guide as going to be less interesting than the previous too, but that
did not put many people off going in.
There were shoals of fish swimming around in the open water, but the
lion fish we saw were not ready to hunt and did not take any interest in the
torch beams. There were shrimps and
urchins that could be picked out in the coral.
Mohamed pointed out a starfish which is the first I have seen in the
This was our last night on the boat, the days had
raced past, it seemed hard to believe we only had 2 more dives to go. It was decided
that we'd get up at
Dive 19 and as a member of the last group in the
water from our boat my dive started at 6.13am. We had beaten the other boats so there were
no other divers to jostle with. We
entered at the north plateau and briefly swam against the current to try to see
if there were any big fish further out – however the benefit of going last is
we had seen the other divers fighting the current and could make a quick
decision on the direction we would take.
We opted to go down the west side of the reef rather than the planned
east side. Once we were in the shelter
of the reef there was not current and we swam gently along the reef taking in
the beauty of the coral, watching the fish and looking out for sharks. The silhouettes of the overhangs against the
rising sun were fantastic to see and at the end of the dive I saw a large moray
swimming there too which was a bonus.
Without the current we did not reach the end of this side of the reef
before our time was up, but after 43 minutes we were rewarded by the sighting
of a white tipped reef shark about 10m below, adding to our species tally for
the week.
Dive 20 and the last of the trip was at Marsa el Shouni on the north side of the bay. As the boat came into the bay a group of
dolphins were seen playing in the water.
The group split with some going off the boat and heading into the bay
and sea grass before travelling along the reef on the north side of the bay,
the rest went off the Rib on the north side of the reef. It was a gentle final dive with batfish,
crocodile fish, another turtle and pufferfish all
making appearance.
Everyone was safely back on board, the kit washed
down, packing underway and we headed north for the short trip into Port Ghaleb where out boat trip would end. I believe it is a sign of a good holiday when
you are not ready for it to be over and all 24 in our party were thinking that
way as we ended our journey.
There was time for goodbyes, thanks and some final
laughs before we transferred by Rib to the Coral Beach Diving Hotel for our
last night in
At the hotel sunbeds and
hammocks were quickly picked and a few lively games of water polo were enjoyed
over the next 24 hours before we made our way back to the
Thanks to:
The Dive Group:
Billy, Davie, Fiona, Ian, Kirsty, Ann-Marie,
Murray, Bob, Patrick, Graeme, Paddy, Iain, Marje,
Jan, Kevin W, Christina, Rab, Kevin M, Sandy, Colin, Stuart, Tom, Paul and Tam.
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