Getting up at 3am on Wednesday to catch the minibus to the airport, so nice to be up at that time of day! We arrived later that day in Marsa Alam and went to our home for the next week, MV Blue Pearl; then unpacked, sorted out the paperwork and prepared the kit. There were 7 from Diving Dragons and another 7 from elsewhere.

Next morning we had our wake-up call at 5:30 (but it was quite pleasant getting up even earlier and watching the sunrise with a mug of tea) then had our pre-breakfast dive at Abu Dabbab III (16 meters) then another at Gota Sharm (27m).
We saw loads of reef fish, morays, Christmas tree worms, clams and lionfish. Some people chose not to get out of bed for the breakfast dive, and that was the norm for them the rest of the week.

Only two dives that day as we had a long trip to get to our diving area in the south. Friday morning we dived at Habilli Alli, a 32m drift dive part way around a circular reef, breakfast, then a 35m dive in a moderate current at Small Habilli. This latter was supposed to be a circular tour of the reef but the current meant we had to zig-zag at increasingly lower depths at the sheltered side. The afternoon (25m) dive was at Umm Arouk, a circular reef with some pinnacles off to the side. The night dive was cancelled because of the strong current. On our dives we saw the usual fish, clowns, network pipefish, humphead wrasse, tuna, bluespotted stingrays, hawksbill turtle and others.

Saturday morning’s pre-breakfast dive was again at Umm Arouk, then off to St. John’s Caves...

...where we investigated the lagoon, pinnacles and the cave system. Then on to Malahi, a series of pinnacles with a depth of about 20m. We saw (over both dives) humphead wrasse, bluespotted stingrays, morays, Christmas tree worms and others.

Finally a night dive at Gota Sataya (18m) where we saw hunting lion fish, parrot fish, in their protective mucous cocoons, unicorn fish and feather stars (among others).

So far we had passed the week without incident, but that wasn’t to continue. Phil managed to break the latch of his toilet door – with him on the inside. There was a medley of different sounds: Kath’s helpless giggling, bangs as Phil attempted to open the porthole (the toilets were the only parts of the cabins not air conditioned), shouts of “it’s not my fault” (I am impressed about the lack of colourful language!) and the attempts to get the door opened. Eventually, one of the crew managed to chisel the lock off and a relieved, overheated Phil got out after 20 minutes (although it probably felt 5 times as long to him).
Next morning (next middle of the night to the lie-a-beds) we dived the Claudia reef (17m), a roundish reef with some pinnacles to the sides, followed by Small Abu Galawa (17m), a system of 3 reefs with a small lagoon between them and containing a small wreck, and Wadi Gimal (14m), a half-moon shaped reef with some pinnacles to the side. We saw (among the usual) Titan trigger, giant moray, bluespotted stingray, more unicorn fish and masked puffer.

Finally a night dive at Dahra Wadi Gimal, where we were followed by hunting lionfish following the torch beams (awaiting prey to be stunned by the glare?). This bothered some people, others welcomed it. I, at one point, had a lionfish sitting on my tank, according to my buddy – and he didn’t have a camera!!!

Monday, three dives on the Elphinstone (25-38m). We were told that we were lucky with the sea, no lumpiness and not much current. There were a lot of things seen on these dives, but in most peoples’ opinion the best were the hammerheads (one on the first dive, 3 on the second) and the blacktip reef shark. After the 3rd dive, the sea had become quite rough and we were picked up in the zodiac rib, the sea conditions made docking too dangerous so the drill was to approach the Blue Pearl, then jump off and swim for the ladder.

Waiting for the night dive (at Marsa Shouna) our boat was floating in a jellyfish soup, we leaned over the back with cameras and were told that they were cauliflower jellies and didn’t sting – good enough for us, out came the masks and snorkels (although one or two didn’t have enough faith to eschew the wetsuits).

A night dive in the bay of Marsa Shouna along the reef wall, and then over the sea grass, where we saw lots more jellies, a moray and a ray.
Next day we had our last two dives of the trip, both in the bay again, before heading back to port. We were told we would be “mighty unlucky” not to see a green turtle – 6 green turtles later we were getting bored with them! We also saw more jellies, pink fan worms, a cuttlefish enjoying a snack, 3 types of scorpion fish, leopard rays and a bluespotted shield slug.

A good week, with 19 dives, although some didn’t do the night dives and another chose not to do the pre-breakfast ones – you missed out on a lot gang.

Steve Lander