Low Tide at Jackson

Jackson "Island"... the reef entirely out of the water!

So back on one of our own boats, it was nice to have control over choice of dive sites, schedule, and also just to be working on a boat where I knew the crew really well. As you can imagine, the rapport between dive guide, skipper and crew is really important. I also got given chocolate from a couple of our guests... bonus... there are some things that we just can't get in Egypt... British chocolate is one of them (honestly it does taste different), Marmite another along with good old sturdy British tea bags, so we are always ever grateful when guests, friends and family bring over a little something like this. Bovril is another one we can't get here too. Anyway, once again, I find myself digressing.

So.. Tiran it was... and cold it was too! I have been wearing my hood for dives now too, and what a difference that has made. My current drysuit is a Scubapro Everdry and it is super comfy, stretchy and snuggly. However as temperatures have dropped further, I was finding myself getting a little cool wearing just a thin undersuit. So... I have gone full on with the thermals, wearing my Fourth Element Technical leggings and top and the super warm hood that came with the drysuit... and we have success! Even with air temperatures and wind chill making things feel really quite cool on the surface, and water temperatures hanging only a little above twenty, I am now cosy and warm indeed. I know this all sounds like overkill for relatively warm waters, but when you tot up fourteen dives without clearing your computer, most of which are in the region of one hour's very chilled drifting along with very little movement, you will be surprised by how cool even the most sturdy of diver starts to feel. Already one of our guests has wisely brought out her drysuit, and another has had to add an extra shorty to his set up... two days on the trot, he was only able to muster up the courage to dive once, his core temperature dropping so much on that single dive, that he would still be cold once back on the jetty at the end of the day. At this time of year, what's a little bit of extra neoprene, versus being cold and miserable?

Anyway, again... I digress. Today we were heading back to Tiran, and surface conditions were kind of medium. Hugely improved on the other day, but still with that really chilly touch to the air. After a couple of days of doing two dives straight away, eating lunch and then finding no one wanted to do a third dive, we opted to dive once in the morning, have lunch and warm up fully before a second dive in the afternoon.

So, our first dive was to be Gordon Reef. I had inherited some new divers from yesterday's Local boat, however still had a couple of people on board who had dived Woodhouse and Thomas with me the other day, so I was aiming for Gordon and Jackson today for a change of scenery. Being the only guide on board, I could essentially go where I liked, as long as the skipper agreed it was safe, so that was very cool.

Gordon it was. The current was running a little odd today, well it is a new moon, and the tide was dropping fast, so the flow was running off the reef, neither with us, nor against.

We had a very, chilled out "drift" along the reef, didn't see anything huge, but it was nice just to bimble along, take in the pinnacles, enjoy the colourful corals and the eel garden was really up and out in force, so that was fun to see. In fact, the dive was so chilled, that I barely had to signal to my divers at all, they just pottered along behind me, in their buddy teams, doing their own thing, checking out all the little fish. How lovely and relaxed that was.

Our second dive was after a very nice, decent surface interval, the highlight of which was lunch, whilst hanging around at Jackson Reef. The wind had dropped almost completely, so mooring up was not an option at this stage, as the ropes here rely on the Northerly breeze to keep the boats from drifting onto the reef.

But the fact that there was, at last no wind, was wonderful news. There was still a little swell hanging on to the North of the reef, however the skipper agreed that it would be OK for us to continue a little way around the corner, past the lighthouse towards the back of Jackson Reef. By this stage, the tide had dropped so low that Jackson Reef had become Jackson Island, with the entire reef standing out from the water. I later heard that back at Naama Bay, a friend of mine was able to stand up by the two metre buoy (she is the same height as me... a little over one and a half metres!), the area where we normally perform our confined skills was only knee deep on my hubbie, so I guess this was a particularly low spring tide indeed.

We dropped in on the main garden of Jackson and dropped down to take a peek at the bright red anenome that sits at twenty eight metres. It was actually at twenty six and a half metres today, due to the low tide, and we very nearly missed it, as the current was playing silly games with us. The split was really early, so by the time we reached the anenome, we were already drifting along, the flow with us much earlier than usual. In fact, it was lively enough for me to turn the dive much sooner than I would normally, not really getting the chance to see too much of the main garden this time. What a shame.

However, the rest of the dive was beautiful. We simply floated along, riding the current, really not needing to fin at all.

We had the reef entirely to ourselves, in fact once again, we had only encountered a couple of other divers very briefly today on Gordon Reef in the morning, and to have jackson entirely empty, was once more, a rare treat that we are getting more of this winter.

As we neared the Easterly garden, the current started to pick up a touch. Woooo... as we reached the corner it was positively flying! I was sure we would see a shark, it was so lively, and the fish were all swimming crazily into it, maintaining their position on the reef. Every so often you would see a group of anthias drift off with the current for a second, catching their breath, only to resume their battle once more swimming into the drift. They are like arrows for us, letting us know when the current chops and changes, and on the corner, we had plenty of chopping and changing.

For an inexperienced diver, this can be really disconcerting, however I was lucky that very early on, I was given the tip of looking at the anthias to see what to expect ahead of you. And it really works, as we rounded the corner (definitely no need to fin at this point) the current started to push in towards the reef, all the fish facing outwards, still swimming frantically. So I adjusted my position accordingly, leaning into the current slightly, so an occasional kick from my fins would keep me on track, allowing the current to do the work, yet making sure I did not get pushed into the reef. It wasn't long before I noticed that the fish were all facing downwards, so a little dump of air ensured that I wasn't pushed up towards the surface.

And on we flew!

Thank God the skipper had said we were OK to keep going around the back, as there would have been no way of swimming against this flow, no matter how slow and steady we took things. This is the kind of diving that is such a buzz. Of course no one gets to enjoy this thrill until they have a good few dives under their belts. It is enough to be scary to novices, but great fun for those who are used to it. Woo Hoo! Every so often however, even with experienced divers, I would turn around, just to check that my divers behind me were enjoying their ride and not freaking out or struggling. Thankfully everyone was having a ball.

We surfaced into a little swell on the back, but nothing worse than we had encountered the other day in Ras Mohammed, and all of us were buzzing after our spectacular ride.

As a final treat, we even had dolphins riding our bow wave on our return journey to the jetty. A group of spinner dolphins were having a whale of a time, one of them even jumped completely out of the water for us... what an amazing sight. For me, it is always more spectacular to see this happening in the wild on their own terms than in any aquarium where they will of course turn tricks for food.

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