Blue Melody June 2009

The Indepth Gang

Helen Geall, Jenny Barnes, Chantal Geall, Fabienne Durrant, Mark Evans, Keith Nicoll, Paula Cullen, Peter Askew, Sid Gray, Mark Harvey, Sarah Kingslake, Steve Gibson, Jean Knight, Nick Dunning, Sarah and Luke Wilders, Marcus Gough, Helen and Paul Crawford, Mark Pile, Jamie Freemantle, Sonia and John Cousins, Michael Graham.

The Blue Melody Crew

Guides: James and Elke (The Shark Encyclopedia!)
Crew: some wonderful Egyptians who were superstars both in the kitchen and on deck and also rather proud of their rib driving skills!

We all met at Gatwick and the Hertford taxi crowd were really quite impressed to be at the front of the queue for check-in. First time for everything! Others who had stayed the previous night near the airport came in dribs and drabs (some more hungover than others!) and we finally got through the Gatwick mayhem with enough time for shopping and the obligatory early morning pre-flight boozing!

We were lucky enough to have just a short transfer from Hurghada to our boat, which was moored up in front of the Marriott Hotel. Supplied with more than enough alcohol for the trip, we were welcomed onboard by Elke and James. Everything was fine apart from the dreadful music coming from land which went on til 3.00am and spoilt the first night's sleep up on deck! Those who ventured to the bars on dry land made a wise decision to escape the crooning!

The next morning we headed off for six days at sea for our "Simply the Best" itinerary. We made it to The Brothers and Elphinstone and experienced some rather "exciting" rib rides but unfortunately the wind was not on our side and it was too rough to reach Daedalus. This did, however, allow us time to meander up the coast for some pretty, shallower dives giving everyone the opportunity to chill and do some night dives after the more challenging dives at The Brothers!

The dives we did are listed below. Overall, I think I speak for all, we experienced some great diving and were lucky to see hammerheads, oceanics and grey reef sharks. We should all be able to identify them as well, thanks to Elke's informative shark talk!

DIVE CLUB

News

Dive Site info

The Boat - Blue Melody

The boat was fantastic as were the crew. Two couples enjoyed the master suites up on deck whilst the rest of us "slummed" it down in the cabins, in the saloon or out on deck!

We spent most of our time in the upstairs chillout area (or in Jamie's case in front of the DVD screen!) .Loved having the bath robes to roam around in after our dives, it felt like a permanent spa day!