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Gunfight at  the Oonas Coral

Steely eyed Eddie sits and waits. His task is a last minute holiday to the Red Sea. He can afford to wait till the last moment, can’t he?? As always he is playing his cards close to his chest. Will it or will it not get cheaper? Similarly, the lovely, steely eyed Lydia of Oonasdivers knows Eddie well and is more than ready for his tricks. She can afford to wait too. So it goes on, until a week before departure when Eddie’s nerve starts to crack.  Is it time to throw in his hand or should he just go for it? He does a quick draw from the hip and fires away a quick email to Lydia making an offer, he thinks, she cannot refuse. Lydia, quick as a flash, fires back with the killer blow - a telephone call. Eddie cannot deal with Lydia’s dulcet tones making offers he cannot refuse. So the deal is done. He is soon on his way to join MY Blue Pearl in Hurghada for a weeks BDE diving and he will even be back a week before the festive season. Peace and good will to all men does prevail.

MY Blue Pearl

My previous visit to the boat had been exactly a year earlier. I had enjoyed not only the liveaboard experience but knew that Pia, our Bavarian dive guide, was very keen, experienced and would be wishing to make our time onboard special. Captain Ramadan and his crew work hard to make their guests feel safe at all times and make sure that they are enjoying their time onboard.

As last year the boat was ready for its refit and there were a few moans about the showers, especially from the upper deck cabins. The food, as last year, was excellent at all times. A special touch that was appreciated was on the last day at lunchtime when guest numbers were dwindling to catch flights when an unexpected meal was served before we disembarked to the airport. Many thanks crew! This was just one of the small, special services the crew makes so often to make an enjoyable holiday.

Diving

After our arrival the night before and the obligatory safety briefing from our dive guide Pia we set off the next day to Gota Abu Ramada for our check dive. We had been joined by my old buddy, retired Army Sapper diver, Tony Liddicoat. So my dive buddy was set for the trip. Our only hard and fast instruction for the dive, apart from all the normal safety considerations, was to deploy our dsmb at the end, which we did. From there we moved for our next dive on Panorama Reef, Safaga.  Pia informed us this dive was the usual climax for a week’s day boat diving around the area. We were going straight there. It is a lovely dive along a cliff face festooned with corals, anemones and colourful fish of all kinds. For this dive we jumped from the stern of Blue Pearl and exited the water into the rib. After a night dive we then set sail for the Brothers which consists of two pinnacles of undersea mountains rising from the depths of the abyss located about 60 miles offshore.

On arrival the next morning the routine was set for the rest of the week. Wake up at 0600 for the pre dive brief at 0630 and in the water before 0700. We dived the Numidia Wreck. I hadn’t had much luck with this wreck as the two times I had been in the area on previous trips as I had a gippy tummy and couldn’t dive. No problems this time as I had an extremely enjoyable dive not only on the wreck but along the reef as well.  As Nitrox had been offered free for this trip the majority of us took up the offer. Our second dive of the day was on Big Brother, South Plateau.  Initially some set out to deep water in the search for sharks. I hovered back a little and was the subject of a visit by Mousey the female humphead wrasse together with her entourage of male admirers. A little later I encountered a very small torpedo ray. Return to Blue Pearl was easy as we followed the mooring rope out from the reef to the boat, surfacing, to clamber up the ladder onto the dive platform. Final dive of the day was on the wreck of the Aida. After which we dived along the reef to be picked up by the rib. No further dives were available today as no night diving is allowed in the marine parks.

The next day we arrived at Little Brother Island.  There were three boats anchored here and the morning dive was a competition to see who could be first on site. This meant that the start point of the dive on the east side was somewhat busy with divers, all of whom wished to see the early morning sharks. It wasn’t to be! Some joined the throng but I chose to stay away from the melee and remained a little shallower. Why don’t the dive boats liaise regarding dive times, especially early morning? How often do we all get up early to dive then find ourselves in a situation where many liveaboards are all diving around 0700, 1130 and again around 1500 – result of which can be continual crowds. A little liaison between boats could not do much harm, could it? Anyway rant over. After the throng had sorted itself out we had a pleasant dive along the cliff face meeting a friendly turtle and many barracuda at their early morning cleaning station.  Just before exiting the water on this dive three of us had a glimpse of a medium size Oceanic Whitetip shark with accompanying pilot fish. For our second dive we chose to go back to the same area with less crush. We entered the water just on the corner of the reef. At depth I found it quite a struggle to round the corner against the current but once around it became much easier. This time we sited a number of sharks, albeit at some depth from us. On the way we re-met the turtle and barracuda but unfortunately no Oceanic. Third dive was on the west side of the island. Again we met with a number of sharks, another turtle, some cornetfish plus many other fish and corals.

We then moved overnight to Daedalus Reef (Abu el Kizan), a large, oval reef with a lighthouse which is the furthest offshore reef in the Red Sea. Our first dive was on the north part of the reef. Dropping in off the reef from the rib sometimes requires a diver to be negatively buoyant. This means bleeding all air from the buoyancy aid and even carrying a little extra weight. The result is an immediate drop onto the reef to get out of any current that may be running. The consequence of not carrying out this operation in very fast currents is that the diver maybe swept off the reef ending up with a long swim to El Qusier, as happened to a number of Russian divers recently. Towards the end of this dive I just happened to be next to our dive guide Pia when we sighted about five hammerhead sharks below us at depth. I snuck down to 25 metres but was not willing to go any deeper. They must have been around 20 metres deeper than me. A wonderful, never to be forgotten site as they swam off, tops glistening with their very distinctive undulating swimming motion. The next dive we continued from where we had exited the water on the previous dive. Again there were very many barracuda evident. A giant grouper also came out of hiding amongst weed and made off to safety. The final dive here took place on the west side of the reef. Again as expected of the reef there were many colourful fish and corals. Buddy TL made sure I took photos of him in front of a very large cone coral which flows down from the surface to around fifteen metres.

The next day we reached Elphinstone reef. This site can be inundated with boat liveaboards and day boats. However, we found ourselves alone except for the slightly annoying fast boats which appeared to zoom in drop off their divers and zoom off again. Our first dive was on the north plateau. The shark hunters went off slightly into the blue but I remained a little closer to the cliff face. On our second dive we jumped from Blue Pearl platform onto the southern plateau then continued along the opposite face of the reef to the earlier morning dive to be picked up by the rib. Both very good dives.

The same day we moved off to Umm Rus. I became quite excited as I had previously met the dugong here for the first time while diving from Blue Pearl last year. No luck this time as the sea around the bay was very choppy with the wind coming from an unusual direction. Our dive here was quite mediocre with poorish viz from stirred up sand. We later heard that another liveaboard had sunk near the Dunraven wreck due to the changeable wind conditions that prevailed on this day. Crew and divers were all brought to safety we were told.

The final day we were given the choice of dive. The majority opinion was for the Salem Express off Safaga. Sunk on the 15th December 1991 while returning pilgrims from Saudi Arabia it was subject to a large loss of life. I have mixed feelings about diving this wreck, as many living persons  must have friends and relatives who died during the sinking. I dived but decided to respect the sanctity of the inside of the wreck as a grave site although I had been told that all the bodies of those drowned had been recovered. I swam around the wreck along the port companionway and into the bridge. An enjoyable dive but one which I do not ever wish to repeat as I felt quite uncomfortable throughout the dive. We then moved along the coast to dive a site close in shore. I declined this dive as did a few others to begin drying and packing of kit.

Thanks

As always it is not only the boat’s crew and dive guide who make the trip. Pia, Captain Ramadan and crew did us proud; it is one’s fellow guests who also add to the whole experience. My old Army buddy TL, he of “Five Bells” Job Done, was a pleasure to dive with, even if he did join the wrong service all those years ago. Many thanks to my new German friends, Hanno und Andreas, who along with Pia helped me to improve my German “Wasser auf dem Mühlen giesst” TL. Plus thanks to all the other great lads and lasses. Weren’t we lucky we ten? A cabin each for most of us! Sheer luxury! Hope to dive with you all again one day. Finally, many thanks to Lydia of Oonasdivers. Hope to face up to you again in that thar coral very soon.

Eddie Clamp

BSAC Travel Team