Trip Report : Red Sea 1999

Red Sea, 1999 by Dave Godson
Dave Godson.

The journey to the Red Sea was the third in as many years for the club and the dive team of 12 had only changed by 2-3 people from previous years. We had chartered the boat, Wave Runner, through Oonas Divers.

The worst part was actually getting there. Manchester / London / Cairo / Hurghada. Cairo Airport was a nightmare, but that's a story in itself. Once we had arrived at Hurghada, it was a mini-bus to Oonas Divers HQ and our bed for the night. In the morning we stocked up with "refreshments" at the duty free shop for the weeklong stay on board. This done, we set off in the mini-bus for our boat.

The quayside was buzzing, with hundreds of dive boats unloading the previous week's divers and reloading with new. Now came the hard part, loading our gear (plus refreshments) onto the boat in the blazing heat. What a relief when that was done and we could relax in the shade, minus shoes that would not be seen for another week.

A Red Sea sunset

After a welcome speech by our skipper we set sail (well motored really, as there were no sails!) and looked forward to our first dive of the holiday. What a difference, not having to put on a drysuit, we couldn't wait to get into the warm blue water where the viz was in kilometres not millimetres, the temperature was tepid not freezing and the colours clear and bright without the aid of a torch!!

Luckily our first dive site was nearby and, after sorting out the lead for our weightbelts, we were soon jumping into the warm blue water. Nobody was disappointed, apart from the fact that the dive had to end, but that was just the first of many.

Back on board it was kit off (with help from the crew) and food. This turned out to be our schedule for the week - eat/dive, eat/dive, eat/drink then sleep and start over again. The mornings started quite early, 7 or 8, and in the water an hour later. The nights ended at different times for different people for different reasons.

HMS Thistlegorm

The diving was mainly scenic but we did dive a couple of wrecks, one of which was the famous Thistlegorm. It was like Piccadilly Circus on the surface before and after the dive with the dive boats all jockeying for position. Trying to find the correct shotline at the end of the dive, from the vast array of lines criss-crossing onto the wreck, was almost impossible, but we all did it. Well the one we found brought us to the surface anyway whether it was ours or not! However, the dive was not without incident. A shotline was dropped from above and only just missed one of our divers - good job he can't fin fast!

Some of the scenic dives were on steep walls of 50m plus, but we were under strict instructions from the skipper not to dive beyond 35m, nonetheless some of us had good dives, some very good dives and some very, very good dives!

Clear blue sea

As mentioned previously, some of the dives were quite crowded, but this proved to be profitable for some of the team, because among the artefacts found were a weight belt and a divers knife (on a very, very good dive).

The coral and fish life was abundant, if it was in the fish ID book, then we saw it! However, the shark spotting was disappointing, it was not as good as on previous trips where hammerheads, nurse and reef sharks were sighted, even an oceanic white tip. Best of all was the blue marlin, which came into view while we were floating in the blue about 150m offshore, he gave a look of curiosity during his lap of honour and was gone - wonderful!

All too soon the final dive of the holiday was over and it was back to Oonas Divers for our last day of soaking up the rays. Basically just chilling out and biding our time until the coach arrived to take us to the airport for our return flight to the cold and wet UK.

But look on the bright side, there's always next year!