Fab Photo courtesy of Eloise Mondy
Today I had just one guy to give a check dive, and guide for a couple of beach dives. So potentially a very relaxed day ahead for me. However we are talking about Friday the 13th, so I daren't even hope that this was going to be the case.
I met my student, and he seemed very friendly, bright and keen to go, so fingers crossed for a good couple of dives ahead.
Our kit sorted, briefing briefed and buddy checks checked we headed into the shallows to go through a few of the most important skills. Basically when someone hasn't dived for six months, we usually take them through a mini review, just to make sure that they are comfortable and competent before we take them off for a proper dive.
In this case today, all went well, in spite of a little mask phobia, he got through all the skills successfully and after a quick de-brief and chat, we were off for the dive itself.
Being on the beach here, I chose to keep fairly shallow for the first stage of this dive, but made sure to head out past the seagrass and reef beyond in order to get enough depth for the second dive. Very early on in the dive, we spotted a great barracuda. I wonder if it is the same one we saw near here the other day. There seems to be plenty of life going on, so I am sure he would have had not have been short for food. So it made sense. He really was over a metre long, silver with feint vertical stripes running the length of his body. The visibility was great too, and I congratulated myself on suggesting that we not only got in the water fairly swiftly before the sand got stirred up, but that for the best light, we would be best off doing both dives in the morning. The afternoon dives can get quite shady here, at this time of year, with the sun dropping a little after noon.
We found the huge banded cleaner shrimp, but unfortunately it didn't seem long before it was time to head back to the shore. What a lovely dive, the reef seemed particularly glowing today, full of life and colour. Fabulous.
Back at the centre, it felt really quite chilly... well it was 21ºC to be precise, which I guess isn't bad, but when you are wet, it is cool enough to chill you right down. Hence, we chose to sit in the sun to warm up whilst logging our dives.
Our second dive was the highlight of the day. It had been suggested that I head to our Waterfalls Reef for the second dive, but by the time we would have got there, it would have been afternoon and very shady. Also, that dive is best done a little deeper, so would have been my choice for our first dive rather than second. And boy was I glad I made that decision.
Our plan was to head straight out, try not to get too distracted en route, and aim for the barge. We dropped down the dip (now two metres shallower as the tide had gone out), up the other side, and on seeing the barge ahead of us, my first reaction was disappointment. "Oh no!" I thought "it is looking really quite murky over there, what a shame". As we swam a little closer however, I soon realised what was causing the haziness... it was a huge shoal of tiny silver sides swarming around the barge itself, and within that shoal sat no less than twenty lionfish. I have never seen anything quite like it, it was spectacular. The silver sides, swarmed and glinted in the sunshine, every so often swirling off in a baitball being chased by four rather peckish, and supremely speedy jackfish. The lionfish just seemed to be hanging out in the middle of the swirl.
We circled the barge twice, spotting glassfish, more cleaner shrimp, a crocodile fish and just admiring the melee going on above everything.
Sadly, again it was soon time to start making our way back towards shore. With a good twenty minute swim back, we had to be careful that we didn't stay too long.
Off we swam, waving a little goodbye to the barge and her inhabitants and headed down the dip once more (not the best profile, but we are only talking between seven and twelve metres maximum depth here anyway, so we would not have been loading too much nitrogen.
We found the strange yellow slime that I encountered the other day, looking like something out of Ghostbusters. There was even a rather large pyjama slug floating on its jellylike surface, all very weird looking.
Taking in a few more pretty reef "trees", we then reached the main reef and our safety stop just in time for us to surface when my chap hit fifty bar. What a lovely welcome to Sharm for him, and what a lovely day in the water for me.
Sharing a cab home, my neighbour and I put the worlds to rights like true housewives stood in the street for ages, before I headed in and made a huge pot of heartwarming, homemade vegetable soup for dinner. I think because all our homes are designed to keep cool, airconditioning does not provide the best form of heating, and spending a couple of hours underwater everyday all combines to make 21ºC feel positively freezing. We don't even have a bath at home in which we could soak and warm up, so... a little thick, hot n healthy soup would go down a treat.
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