4. Night dives, navigation and not becoming another Red Sea wreck!

I did a night dive! I felt I ought to do one and had checked which was meant to be the most spectacular. ‘The Barge’ was the one. I really wanted to do a night dive on the Thistlegorm wreck but the current was flying and the sea conditions were rough because it was windy so we weren’t allowed because we’d probably have been swept away! We went in a group of 5, managed to find the barge, swim around it then back to the boat following the strobe marker they hang at night. In fact, there were several boats and many divers so it was more like a little disco with torch lights and mega video-camera lights about. I didn’t not enjoy it, I’m just not sure what the fuss is all about. I saw some moray eels, a couple of nice crabs, some giant travelly out patrolling and lion fish more active and hunting. I pointed my torch at stuff and took a few photos to keep from getting too bored. On return to the boat, the cruise director asked me how it went (as I’d said previously that I wasn’t that interested in nightdive unless there’s something super cool to see). He is a fan of this dive site and this nightdive. My summary was ‘I saw stuff I mostly see in the day time, only it was dark so I couldn’t see it as well’.

On the final evening there was another night dive and when I asked, as I did each evening what we might see to decide if there will be enough ‘cool stuff’ to make it worth the dive. He answered with ‘this one isn’t going to be for you’. After the third dive I had a lovely shower and the sat out on the deck and read my book with a cup of tea while the others went poking about in the sand, in the dark looking for tiny things that they couldn’t see very well.

This trip has been a mix of wrecks and reefs and, as I’ve previously said, we were always offered a guide. Mostly, we opted to follow one - even thought he got us all lost once. Occasionally, after the brief and looking at the dive site map, I’d feel it was a dive we really ought to be able to navigate ourselves then have the freedom to go at whatever pace we wanted and poke about and take photos. The main stress for me is being able to find the boat again at the end of the dive. One of the wrecks was a ‘simple’ dive; down the line anchoring the back of the boat directly onto the wreck, round the wreck and back up the line at the end. The pressure of being responsible for navigating means I’m in danger of the entirety of my processing power and thought being taken up by going the right way, keeping the depths sensible, seeing everything, avoiding getting lost or trapped and roughly timing it all to be an hour, with air left for an ascent and  safety stop …. And most importantly, actually finding the boat again! I mostly spent my dive considering where I was in relation to the line and where I thought the boat was. I find myself on the verge of being so stressed by locating the boat at the end that I consider just doing a power swim round the entire wreck, get back to the line and successfully find the boat, all within 5 minutes of setting off! Managing all the elements, except for the timing!

On one reef dive, when the guide was going to be the one who previously guided us all into the middle of nowhere and verging on ‘missing’, I persuaded Robyn (my buddy) that we should go unguided. She was happy to as long as she could follow me and I was in charge of navigating …. Slightly stressful and again, very much tempted to lead a dive of approximately 10 minutes in length. However, on descent and setting off (swim along keeping the reef on left hand shoulder), there was a little party of masked puffers there ready to welcome me and escort us to begin so I knew it was all going to be ok. We then swam along for 25 minutes, turned round and swam back, keeping the reef on the right as per the dive brief. There was a slight turning of the corner required and on the way back, I had a feeling we’d overshot it so I took the gamble, turned right and shallowed up since I couldn’t see the boat. I was beginning to feel marginally like I might need to get panicky but my plan worked and suddenly, there was the massive shadow of a boat, and the dropped sign so I knew it was even our boat that I’d located! There was then a welcome contingent of a pair of white spotted puffers to guide us home. I was ever so pleased with myself!

On the morning of out fins, day of diving, we went to ‘Dolphin House’ reef, which is where I’ve been before … but the dolphins didn’t come. This time, although there wasn’t the pod that sometimes visit, there were two dolphins who cruised up and down the channel. The photo isn’t great as they rather inconveniently swam on the wrong side of me for the light direction and also I was so excited, I mainly just watched them rather than photographed them. So cool!

During our sail back from the dive sites on the Sharm El Sheik side of the Suez Canal (and where the Thistlegorm wreck site is), we had to cross the shipping lane that leads to the canal. Unfortunately, it was WINDY, which meant a decent swell had been whipped up. I was sitting on the deck sofas reading my book and chatting when we started the crossing. Everyone pretty much stayed where they were for that two hour ordeal as the boat absolutely rocked and rolled its way across the seas while we all clung on and stayed as horizontal as possible to ward off seasickness. No one was brave enough to move as the floor was significantly in level and really moving eversuch a lot! There were crashes and bangs as things fell over and slid about, including all the dining furniture. Everything on the boat is designed for rough seas so is heavy, bolted down or locked up and secure. It wasn’t much of a match for these seas! There were times (granted, to me as a an inexperienced and entirely ignorant sailor) when I wondered how much further we could roll to the side before we just tipped right over and capsized. There didn’t seem to be any significant concern from the crew - although they did secure more lose items when stuff started flying. We all stuck to hanging on and making ‘whooooooo’ screeches when it seemed we were on the brink of a capsize. Fortunately, disaster didn’t befall us, we crossed the shipping lane and found shelter along the coast behind a little island with a spit that protected us from the swell and wind - and was also where The Barge was located. It obviously didn’t have such success with its crossing all those years ago!

Today has been a day of leaving the boat, heading to my little hotel, visiting my favourite cafe for breakfast, day by the pool and beach and sheltering inside in the aircon enjoying my sea-view and having a day ‘off-gassing’ ready for a horribly early morning flight on Sunday home, via Cairo! It’s nice to be back on solid ground, that doesn’t move but it’s odd as my body readjusts and occasionally when you stand up, it’s like being on a boat and it really feels like the floor is swaying. I probably looked like a slightly drunk weirdo staggering about the streets. No doubt that’s even more frowned upon in Egypt than the sin of just being a woman.

17 dives completed, including one night dive and a few dives where I took responsibility for navigating and locating the boat (first time ever!) and adding to my logged-dives total, which now stands at 260. I added a number of previously unseen marine life to my ‘what I’ve seen’ logs, most notably thorny ray, electric ray and DOLPHINS (underwater!).