Snorkelling Tiran

Fiddle Garden

Today I was on a boat with fourteen snorkelers heading off to the straits of Tiran. We had no divers on board at all, and I think... this just might have been the first time I have been on a boat here with not even a single dive going on.

We had two guides, which worked well, as some of our little team were inexperienced hence were likely to need a little more attention than some of the others.

Boat and safety briefing over, we headed up the gulf of Aquaba towards the straits of Tiran. Here a natural bottleneck is created by the position of Tiran Island in the middle of the gulf, and the shape of the Sinai peninsula. Right in the middle of this narrow strip between the island and mainland, like four giant's stepping stones across the sea, sit four reefs that reach right up from the depths to just below the surface. Thankfully for us, they provide four naturally sheltered reefs, protected from the prevailing Northerly winds. The natural bottle neck creates strong currents in the water, that bring nutrients to the reef, thus creating some spectacular corals and resident sea life.

Today our first snorkel was to be on Gordon Reef, where a shallow sandy plateau creates a perfect sheltered area for newbie snorkellers, and several mooring lines mean that we can tie up and stay in one spot for a while. This is always a little more reassuring for people not used to swimming in the sea.

Well I jumped in and was closely followed by some of our more confident snorkelers. Unfortunately they were young lads, all a little on the lean side, and who hadn't thought to rent wet suits for the day. Bizarrely we did have several wetsuits on board, but they were all very much on the larger side, having been ordered by the bigger people on the boat. Usually it is those of slighter build that tend to feel the cold and need a wetsuit.

Anyway, I digress, and my snorkelers were getting cold as we waited for others to get themselves sorted, and hop in the water. Thankfully there were two of us guiding, so I could take my early birds off for their snorkel before they started to get really cold. The water is about 21ºC at the moment which, whilst being warmer than UK seas ever get, can feel quite chilly, even at the surface.

I took my guys off for their snorkel, towing a floating ring just in case anyone started to struggle.

I will say that we are in the middle of our green week. This is the week or so round about February or March, where we have a plankton bloom that causes the water to turn just a shade off that glorious turquoise with which we have been spoiled. We have been enjoying the ethereal salp and jelly fish for the last couple of weeks (both thankfully non-stinging), and the next phase to follow is usually a hint of green. The bonus of this is that this attracts the filter feeders, and already there have been a couple of manta sightings in the area, and even a whale shark. So I shall not be too hasty with my criticism of the shade.

Lunch was eaten in the South Lagoon, after a second snorkel for the really keen ones, moored near Tiran Island itself. I checked in with foursquare and was amazed to see that I got a credit for checking in in Saudi Arabia!! Well... technically speaking, I was still in Egypt, but the Island is actually part of Saudi.

Once everyone had eaten their fill it was time for us to head back South towards the Gardens for our third and final snorkel of the day.

Originally, we had planned to drift along Far Garden in the hope of spotting a manta, however a couple of our less confident snorkelers mentioned that they wanted to remain close to the boat. So.. we moored up at Fiddle Garden. This time I took care of surface support whilst my colleague went in the water.

Well, they say the early bird gets the worm, and it is true of diving and snorkelling too. We had one guest almost ready to jump when the captain spotted an eagle ray gliding past the boat. "Quick... jump in!" we shouted, otherwise he would have missed it.

So.. in he jumped and off he swam, getting his own private viewing of the two metre eagle ray. Beautiful. Unfortunately, even those who jumped only a minute or so after him, missed out on the spectacle. You have to be on your toes in this game.

Everyone absolutely adored this site. Loving the pretty reef, doubled by the fact that it was much more sheltered than the reefs up in the Tiran Straits themselves. The water here also tends to be a degree warmer too. I know this doesn't sound like much, but believe me, when you are in the water, every degree counts!

What a lovely end to a lovely day.

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Techy Geeky Stuff... and the taste of Humble Pie

So... finally I think we have a decent internet connection once more! Woo Hoo!

For the last three months it has been particularly erratic, working superfast for a few hours before dying a death and remaining inert for the next day or so. Most frustrating... especially when trying to write a blog, run a website and generally keep up with a virtual social whirl. Haha.

So once more our internet chap came round to take a look at things. I have forgotten how many times we have re-started, unplugged and switched off and back on again both my lappie and the router. Sometimes it worked sometimes not. Isn't the internet a wonderful thing? When it works, we are oblivious to it, but when it doesn't we become most frustrated indeed.

Well today we finally succumbed and opted for a new router... over here the culture is actually quite green, unlike the West where if something like that is broken, it gets the toss. Here they like to repair things... take it into Old Sharm market, to a little cubby hole of a shop and a man armed with a soldering iron will tinker away and have your broken digi box, router, dvd player or any other electrical goodie up and running in no time.

But this time we were resorting to a complete swap, so back he came armed with the shiny new router.

However just to make sure, he suggested taking a look at our phone line. I showed him the little box into which our phone line comes... and even he laughed and he is a local. The wires were all hanging out, they had been hand twisted onto the two phone lines we have in our block, and everything had been left open to the elements, so... I guess after a year of sitting out in the open, the connection had become a little weary. Oops.

And this is after he had fixed it!

And there was us thinking it was the router... Oops. Once again, the local custom of trying to fix things first has saved us a little cash. And with business being a little on the slow side, every little counts at the moment. I do feel slightly embarrassed as in my worldly wise way, I had sworn that there is no way it could have been down to a lose connection as it was so emphatically working well or completely off, not intermittent, as you would imagine with a lose connection. And of course, as a communications expert I should know (erm... not).

In fact that is the second time I have had to take a little bite of humble pie today. Earlier I was in the butchers using my wonderfully fluent Egytian Arabic to ask for half a kilo of steak to mince. "A hundred Kilos of this" I asked and wondered why the butcher just didn't get it. "A hundred Kilos" I kept repeating (again in Arabic) getting slightly frustrated, to which he looked a little perplexed and confused. It was only when I started to spell out "five hundred grams" using the same word, that I realised I had in fact been using the Portuguese word for half which is "Meia" which sounds just like "Maya" in Arabic which means "a hundred" Oops! Humble pie and a hundred apologies later, and we had a happy butcher, and our lovely lean steak minced up and ready for chilli tonight.

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Open WaterDay Four

Today we had a relatively leisurely day ahead of us. As I had been aiming to get the course done in three days, I had made myself a dive ahead of the game. This way, even though one chap missed a dive yesterday, I was still able to complete his course within our usual four days. I also wanted to repeat dive three for my floaty chap, which actually made things a little easier, as he could just enjoy a fun dive on the first dive, while his brother completed the skills from dive three, then they could both do their final dive together. No need for double briefings.

We were all set to leave the dive centre, when I got a phone call from hubbie "I guess you know that the jetties are shut??" erm… no we didn't. Hmmm, my leisurely day could suddenly turn pretty hectic if I had to finish off the course from the beach. All my dive gear was hanging up on the boat drying off, so getting it off the boat and back to the dive centre would have been a little complicated. I had bits hanging up literally all over the place.

I wasn't really surprised about the jetties though, as the wind had been whipping in from the West now for twenty four hours. Out over Ras Katy, the water was completely ripped up with white horses as we left for work. We had already decided to stick around the Gardens area for another day, but hadn't thought about the fact that the rest of Egypt was being battered by bad weather, and it is usually Alexandria up in the North, that puts the call out to shut the jetties.

Ten minutes became twenty, and so on. Rumours flew around and at one point, we heard the jetty was going to be closed all day. So, we began sorting out our "plan B's" shore diving today, or an extra day's diving tagged on, in lieu of today. Then just as we started discussing this with our guests, we got the call that they were open! Woo Hoo! We hastily gathered our divers aiming to get to the boat and out on the water before anyone changed their mind back again.

The irony of course was that on the Eastern side of the Sinai (which is where we were), the water was actually flat calm. It was a little tough telling guests that there might be no boat diving due to bad weather, when the sea here looked lovely and smooth.

Thankfully we still had time to gather everyone and head out anyway, so back to plan A. We may have been late, but we were heading out on the boat… jetty open at last. In fairness, this is the first time this winter that this has happened. We do usually have at least one day's jetty closure due to high winds each year.. not bad really when you consider that we dive every single day bar New Year's Day.

So out we headed, back to Fiddle Garden once more.

One of my students had missed out on this dive yesterday, and to be honest, it was the best site for what we needed to do. I had a CESA (Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent) to complete with this student, so needed fairly shallow sand (six metres) on which to park our CESA buoy. Fiddle was the best location for this, as well as for the underwater skills we would need to do during the dive itself. There was space on the mooring, so bonus, we got the perfect dive site.

We hopped in the water, my sick chap from yesterday did his CESA, and down we went for the dive. The skills went well, and off we went for the dive… I found a little pyjama slug on the first pinnacle, then down we went to seventeen metres. Both chaps were great… I had to give a couple of reminders, but overall, their buoyancy was good.

We even made it to the double pinnacle, turning around between the two after checking out a little jackfish hunting action above us.

As we shallowed, we nearly had another floaty incident from our younger chap. Ahh.. now he knows what to do.. get properly vertical to dump that air… that combined with him thinking he could rely on exhaling alone had been his downfall yesterday.

Far Garden

After lunch, our second dive was a drift along Far Garden. Although needing a spot of sand for our skills, we dropped in on the end of Fiddle. This also gave us the chance to take in the glassfish pinnacle properly too.

As always the coral tower was very pretty with its shoals of silversides sparkling around in the shallows and smoky swirls of glassfish beneath the overhang. I also went to hunt out the huge stone fish I had found with Jo n Jim the other day, but failed. Hmmmph. What a shame. He had looked so settled in, that I was sure I would see him in that spot again. I guess he realised he was just too easy to spot, so moved elsewhere.

The rest of the dive went really well, and we even got to see a blue spotted ray right at the end of our safety stop.

Unfortunately it was here that I also saw a couple of divers from another centre both wearing gloves, kicking up clouds of sand and holding on to a little porites coral in order to take photographs, slightly frustrating indeed. And so unnecessary.

Well, we surfaced, swam to the boat, and then it was time for congratulations. My two lads had passed their course, two more Open Water Divers join the club. I think they are due to return next Easter… when things will be a lot warmer.

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Day Three on the DiveBunnie Open Water Course

And another windy day in Sharm.

Yes, as per the forecast… Sharm was hit with a wonderful westerly today.. In fact the wind picked up yesterday evening, and whipped and whooshed around our home all through the night.

We woke to palm trees straining against the wind, and waves hitting Ras Katy beach below us… which is usually swimming pool flat.

Thankfully our boat today was headed around the corner to the Gardens area. I think this was possibly one of the most sheltered parts of Sharm… and even there it was still particularly blustery.

As I did my rounds collecting guests, one new arrival made a comment about my particularly well wrapped appearance "you look all dressed for winter!" was his observation, to which I replied "that is because it is winter". He was dressed in only a thin, pair of short shorts and a t-shirt. I only hope that he is one of those naturally warm types, who like my hubbie, have their own internal boiler system. Otherwise he would have been a tad chilly in that pesky wind.

Our dives were a little more complex than usual, with one of my divers sick, he was well enough to do the surface skills, but not the morning dive.

That left me with one lad, who breezed through all the flexible skills in that one dive. I think he also benefited from the one on one attention too, as his buoyancy was excellent throughout.

Warming up between dives

For the afternoon dive I had both lads back on form, so was able to complete the skills from dive two with one lad, and dive three with the other. Then we went off for the dive.

It was a little misty, and we did have a slightly floaty moment right at the very end from our junior student, but other than that, all went pretty well. It is amazing how their attention gets more distracted though even with only one other student in the water.

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Busy Day on the Open Water Course

And we came sooo close to being able to finish the course in three days too. My two teenagers were great… swim tests went swimmingly, so after a short break we headed in to complete the confined water sessions. They were very comfortable, and good with their skills, but almost immediately I noticed my younger lad shivering. Hmmm that didn't bode well at all. It wasn't long before he was telling me that he was cold too… so I only managed to complete confined dives two and three before we had to get out to warm up.

Pretty Jellies in the Shallows

Wanting to make best use of our time, we carried on with the final knowledge sections of the course before having lunch and re-stoking the fires, ready to head into the water once more. The temperature had only been twenty one degrees this morning, so no wonder my chap was turning blue.

Back underwater it was pretty early on that once more, I could tell that he was going to get cold again. Every time he finished a skill, I told him to swim shark-like around us to keep him moving. There is nothing worse than sitting still at the bottom of the sea to bring on the chills. OK… I can think of a few things. Walking through a snow storm for example… but everything is relative isn't it?

More chilly than sitting underwater in a Sharm "Winter"

I tried not to waste any unnecessary time, and worked my way through confined sessions, four, five and the skin diving before getting out of the water and once more back into the warmth.

Hmm Sharm always does this. We have our version of "winter" which to us does feel pretty nippy. Then things start to warm up a touch, we have a few sunny, warm, even hot days... then nature throws in a little chilly snap (ok not exactly icy, I know) to keep us on our toes. I will never forget this catching a good friend of mine out some years ago. He had laughed at me as I wrapped up for work, despite the gloriously sunny morning. Poor bloke was in his shorts and t-shirt… and by lunchtime had been hiding in the saloon freezing, as a pesky wind had picked up between dives. Brrrrr. Sneaky weather.

Well the temperature kind of skuppered it for us doing the course in three days. So close… but not quite close enough. Hey ho, I would rather they enjoy the course, and come out of it as better divers than rush it, freeze their socks off and have them hate the whole thing.

Tomorrow, we will still be off a boat, so they get two days of boat diving as a slight bonus, so all has not been lost. Looking at the wind forecast for the next couple of days, we are thankfully going to just the right areas... tomorrow when the wind is forecast to be strong from the West, we will be on the Eastern side of Sharm (ie sheltered from that pesky wind... I hope). Then, the day after that we will be diving on the Western side, while the wind is forecast to swap too... perfect!


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Open Water Course

Woo! This is my five hundredth post...

Yes, today I am back in the classroom, back to basics and teaching Open Water divers. I have two brothers, who seem pretty keen and already have shown themselves to be pretty good in the water too.

I got my two in the classroom straight away as usual,  watching the first video, while I took a look at the sea. Hmmm lovely n calm, so I toyed with the idea of getting in the water early and doing a Discover Scuba style start to the course.

Well, I came very close to just popping on another video and following my usual pattern, but something made me opt for water first, with more classroom after lunch. And, boy am I glad I did that. Sitting here now at lunch time, the wind has picked up, and the sea looks a messy mess of wavelets. Not fun for a student's first dive.

So... straight after the video, we chatted about the kit, I briefed the dive, and in we went.

Hmm the water wasn't as clear as I was expecting and there were loads of jellies hanging around. Thankfully they don't sting at all, otherwise we would have had no fun at all. They are in fact, incredibly beautiful. We had tunicates with their long tendrils and sparkly hoops of light and the lovely lilac moon jelly fish, some of which were particularly huge. One brushed against my hand as we finned up, demonstrating quite nicely that they are indeed totally harmless.

My two chaps seemed pretty comfy in the water, so we got on with the skills, had a little swim around before surfacing for a debrief. All had gone swimmingly (literally), so I suggested we head off for Open Water Dive One! Bonus. I could see their faces light up a bit. Time for some fish.

The dive was good... again I felt glad that I had headed in early, as the visibility was only going to drop later, and already it was a little on the misty side.

I couldn't help but point out the various bits n bobs we have living here (I know at this stage, I should really concentrate on getting their swimming off pat). We saw some rather large parrot fish, emperor fish, and a huge puffer fish rolling around on the sandy bottom. And... of course, we found Nemo... what dive would be complete without a fight with a clownfish? Well I don't actually fight or harass them, but get too close to their anenome and out they shoot on the defensive. Or perhaps I should say offensive.

Once back on the surface, I was able to complete some of the surface skills from confined dive two before heading out of the water and ordering lunch. I don't know about them, but by this stage, I was famished. Hungry work this diving lark. As we sat and ate our lunch I watched the wind picking up, creating lots of little wavelets, just for fun.

The afternoon will be spent mostly in the classroom.

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Hi Ho... Hi Ho... it's back to work I go...

Yay... today I was working... teaching discover scuba diving off the beach.

We had five divers, so another instructor was needed, and I was the one called in. Well, that is certainly better than attending welcome meetings full of winter sunseekers with no intention of diving, learning to dive or even discovering a little diving whilst here. OK maybe I am exaggerating slightly there... but being in the water is far more fun than sitting in a hall full of people.

Anyway, back to business. We started checking people in and organising their paperwork as they arrived.

I chose to go through the flip chart and brief everyone while Hassan organised their kit and weight belts.

They seemed like quite a fun, friendly bunch, even laughed at my jokes... so I added a few more... they laughed at them too... bonus. It was looking like we were in for a good day... I hoped.

Well we kept the group together as we entered the water kind of accidentally and kind of realising that having two of us to help each other out could be beneficial. We had two youngsters on the course, so it made sense for us both to be there in case one had a problem.

We got the whole bundle sat down on the sand and watching Hassan demonstrating the skills... we then both went down the line, starting one at each end, getting the students to repeat each skill back to us. All of them did really well! One guy had a few iffy moments and had to be kind of dragged back into the group at one point, but other than that, we were running on gas.

I spent most of my time close to our youngest little diver, so it made sense to take her and the couple next to her in my team. We had a mini swim around, before standing up for a quick chat... just to clarify a few things, and fine tune some tips. Then back down we went, and off on our dive.

Well... after a few floaty moments, all seemed to go really well. It wasn't long before my little trio were swimming along like a proper little group of divers. OK we had a few wafty hands, and kicked up a little sand, but all in all, they seemed calm, happy and pretty much in control. One lady seemed to get the whole "breathe in to float, out to sink" tip straight away.

We were also blessed with a pretty good collection of sea life to see. We saw plenty of the usual suspects: cornet fish; butterfly fish; groupers; parrot fish and some particularly big, big eye emperors. But the best bit was a rather large napoleon wrasse who tends to hang out in the area. He swam alongside us for a really decent chunk of our dive.

And... it was sunny!! Woo Hoo! We could see the colours of the corals beautifully.

Of course we also found nemo... twice. And saw a lion fish. So, all in all a most successful dive indeed.

As we surfaced, I had three beaming divers. They had loved it. In fact so much so that two of them are coming out on the boat with me tomorrow for more! Fantastic. This is the best bit of teaching people to dive, taking them in for their first underwater experience and seeing their faces light up at their amazing new discovery. Let's hope we have fun tomorrow too.

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