Red Sea Diving Holiday November 2015 – part 3
Red Sea Diving Holiday 2015
10th November – day 4
After a very bumpy ride during the evening we “awoke” to the sad news that the windy conditions meant that the captain was unable to moor up at our intended destination of Elphinstone Reef.
Instead we opted for a couple of dive sites local to Port Ghalib. Unlike the walls and drop offs we had at Daedulus, these dives were much shallower and less of a white knuckle ride. The first dive was on the shoulder of a reef system and home to lots of smaller colourful Red Sea fish such as clown fish, crocodile fish, chocolate drops and zillions of golden antheas.
In between dives everyone took the opportunity to soak up the sun and catch up on some sleep.
The other dives were similar to the first, very relaxing and full of colourful fish and corals. On both of the last 2 dives a very friendly Napoleon Wrasse joined us and was happy to pose for the cameras.
An ex liveaboard that now lies in 20m of water played home to some big moray eels and crocodile fish. Some of the group came across 2 mating octopus which they described as ‘not very romantic’.
As we now had wifi again Melvin and Lianne decided to post pictures of me on Facebook fast asleep and eluded to the fact that I was taking some time out of my busy work schedule. Naturally it is looking after them that makes me so tired.
After dinner we had a quick nightcap and planned some future dive trips. Suggestions such as socorro islands, cocos islands and tiger beach in Florida all seemed quite popular. Lottery tickets please!
11th November
With no improvement in the windy conditions we made our way north along the coastline for another bumpy nights sleep.
First dive was on one of the most famous Red Sea wrecks, Salem Express. This roll on roll off ferry sank around 25 years ago with the loss of hundreds of lives. Lying in 10-32m of water and very much in tact you can still see all of the key features including the bridge, rudder, propellors and decks.
Some of the divers decided to penetrate the wreck while others cruised around it increasing their impressive collection of underwater photos and videos.
Congratulations to Kerstin, Natalie and Chris on passing their PADI Deep Diver Specialty course, they are now able to dive to 40m!
Next dive was at Panorama Reef, considered one of the best reefs in this part of the Red Sea. A bit like Daedulus it is a small reef around 1/2 mile in length and the walls drop down to 100m+. In the blue we spotted jacks and a few tuna. On the reef wall itself were loads of scorpion fish and a large area of anenomies, home to hundreds of clown fish. As the reef is quite exposed there are lots of colourful soft corals and hanging off the walls and deeper down were some huge fan corals.
The final dive site of the day was Tobia Arba located opposite Soma Bay. The site consists of 7 pinnacles like fat chimney stacks next to each other. A nice easy shallow dive with some great creatures. A HUGE lion fish, some tiny pipe fish that have the same heads as sea horses and a couple of dancing morays.
Ben and Natalie performed an underwater dance for the others while on their safety stop. Plonkers!
Tonight was the last chance to enjoy a night dive, sadly our last 2 dives are tomorrow morning. For the others the beer fridge has been restocked for a 3rd time, thank goodness that the other liveaboards had some to spare.