Seven members of the Naas Sub-Aqua club headed for the warmer climate of Egypt for a week’s diving holiday to escape all the doom & gloom of our present economic climate. We flew out of Dublin airport on Wednesday the 21^st of January 2009 at the very respectable hour of 10am with a direct 5 hours, 45 minute flight to Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt.

It was a last minute holiday deal with flight, transfers & hotel accommodation for €411 & a five day (10 x dive) package for €180 including free nitrox, making it a very affordable winter break in the sun. There was also an optional third dive per day for an extra €20

Dive Day 1: On the first days diving we dived Tiddle Coral Garden (18M for 56min) & Far Coral Garden  (18M for 53min) which are just a short boat drive out of Naama Bay & gently settles you into the diving for the week. It also gives the dive guide an idea of what standard of divers he has in his group for the week. We dived of a large dive boat, President 2, which we had to ourselves for the day. Lunch was served between dives at an extra cost of just €7 (55EP) PPPD and water, tea, coffee & soft drinks were free. 

Dive Day 2: On the second day we dived Ras Mahammad, the well renown Marine National Park. The dive sites were Shark & Yolanda Reef (21Mt for 50Min). This was on the wreck of the Yolanda, a Cypriot merchant ship carrying bathtubs, toilets. Famous for its abundance of Barracuda, Jackfish, Batfish, Lion Fish, Rock Fish & Blue Spotted Ray.Second dive was on Shark Observatory (23M for 53Min) a vertical wall covered in coral.

Dive Day 3: Day three seen us heading for the Straits of Tiran & diving Thomas Reef (25m for 49min) which is the smallest reef in the Straits, but also one of the most popular.

Second dive was on Jackson Reef (29m for 53min) Here you have a drop off to over 70Mt with plenty of schooling reef fish including barracuda & jacks coming up from the deep.

Dive Day 4: On Day four we had a 4am start to take the long boat journey to the famous wreck of the Thistlegorm. We were extremely lucky with the weather, very little current & not another boat load of divers in sight, we had the wreck to ourselves for both dives. This was my second time to dive the Thistlegorm this year & I was better able to take it all in & shoot some decent underwater video of the wreck.

Dive one (29m for 42min) commenced at 8.10am after having our breakfast on the boat on the way out. Nick, our dive guide brought us down along the starboard side around the stern where the large propeller & stern guns, a 4·7" anti aircraft gun and a heavy calibre machine gun, then out to the locomotive on the sand of the port side, back along the port side, up on deck, through the rope room on the bow, over the bow, back past the railway carriage on the starboard side, down the walk ways & back to the shotline.

Dive two (25m for 33min), this time we were led through all the cargo hold where everything lies as it did on 6^th October 1941 when it was sunk by 2 x 1000lb bomb from 2 x Heinkel German bomber planes in World War Two.  SS Thistlegorm has lain at the bottom of the sea for over sixty seven years. BSA motorbikes, Bedford trucks, guns, live shells, land mines & Wellington boots are some of the cargo that can still be seen within her cargo holds.

Dive three (14m for 60min) was on the way back from the Thistlegorm on a reef called the Mushroom, named because of its shape. A very relaxing dive & great opportunity to shoot some video as we had no guide & could take our time mooching around this small, shallow reef which was full of marine life.

Dive Day 5: We start our last days diving in Sharm el Sheikh on the nearby Ras Um Sid (24m for 54min) There is a wall of Gorgonia fan corals covering a large area and are the main feature of the site but with the deep water there is also a chance to see pelagic fish life hanging around in the current. Second dive of the day was on The Tower (24m for 55min) A drift dive and descent down a three-sided wall - hence 'tower'. An impressive dive in terms of topography and also has some great marine attractions.

Posted by Liam Whelan at 11:40 PM | Permalink

Barry Lawler, Andrew Murray & Pascal Michel completed the course which brings to ten the total number of Naas SAC members now qualified in Search & Recovery. The other seven members of Naas SAC completed the S&R course in April 2007. It also included the Full Face Mask course which was a great opportunity to try out four different full face masks. The masks sampled were the AGA Interspiro, Drager Nova, Kirby Morgan & the Ocean Reef. The Aga Interspiro mask with Buddy phone two way communications was used for the S&R Course.

 

Posted by Liam Whelan at 06:51 PM | Permalink

Posted by Liam Whelan at 06:03 PM | Permalink