Blue Melody September 2009
The Indepth Gang
Alex Heroys, Tim Hudson, Hamish Ogilvie, Hazel Wright, Vicki Jeynes, Geoff Anderson, Karen Clarke, Jess West, Piers Hanlon, Ben Jenkins, David Denty, Ian Marchbank. There was of course a group from Gibralter whose names escape me!! Once they read this, I'm sure I will get an e-mail telling me all!!
The Blue Melody Crew
Guides: Doudou or Ivan! Nils and Hany (Shark Boy)
Crew: some wonderful Egyptians who were superstars both in the kitchen and on deck and also rather proud of their rib driving skills!
Well, some of us drove to Gatwick, some of us got there far too early, but better that way I suppose. Check in was painless unless you got behind the colonel who started his holiday in the worst possible way. In my opinion the rubbish service you get from airlines now is criminal but hey ho, off to the pub we went. Some of us noticed a group of divers clad in very posh uniforms. I mentioned that they were bound to be on our boat and that I was bound to get grief off someone for not supplying tour shirts and low and behold I was right on both counts!!
We had a lovely three hour journey to Port Ghalib where we met our guides and other guests on the boat who all turned out to be wonderfrul. The briefings started on the bus and seem to still be going on!
The next morning we headed off for six days at sea for our "Simply the Best" itinerary. We made it to Daedulus,The Brothers and Elphinstone and experienced some rather "exciting" rib rides along the way! Some of us still have the bruises to confirm this. Overall the weather was fine, the odd day of "vomit patrolling" but not too bad.
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. The odd bullshit shark was reported but as long as it's in your memory its counted!
We had a few great nights on the boat drinking and singing with a lot of professional snoozing going on as well. Thank you all for some fab times.
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 Ben'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!
Memorable Moments
This is how you do it Ben...!
Certifications during the week.
Congratulations to.........
Piers Hanlon for Deep, Drift and Photography
Geoff Anderson for Photography
Ian Marchbank for Deep and Photography
David Denty for Deep
Hamish denying all knowledge about the inner workings of his dive computer.
Geoff and David for hitting 50 dives, well done all.
Seeing hammerheads, threshers and oceanics close up but not too personal.
The dive at the Numibia wreck on Big Brother - awesome!
The BRIEFINGS! and don't forget to close the PORTHOLES
The sing along with OLA , Mike etc .
Ben's floppy SMB, please see the attached instruction video.
The chef's ability to cook for 24 people, especially after we managed to eat all the eggs.
The POO boys slipping off before every dive.
The Colonel would like to thank Suunto for their continued sponsorship and research into dives that really shouldn't be done. RTFM old chap.
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