Sharks Bay - May 2010

After an evening moored up at the jetty, we did our check dive at Ras Bob then set off to Shark & Yolanda Reef for an amazing dive with huge schools of snapper, jacks, barracudas and bat fish and no current! Stunning! We then managed one dive on the Thistlegorm before the wind picked up and we had to seek calmer waters amongst the Gubal reefs.

Despite the wind and other liveaboards abandonning dives, Said insisted we could dive some of the wrecks at Abu Nuhas. After fun and games underwater being suctioned through the Ghiannis D, the girls decided to do a chilled dusk dive on the reef whilst the boys set off in the rib to dive the Carnatic. Well done to Will for spotting you were not in fact diving an old wooden wreck, but a steel one full of tiles. Also congratulations to all of you for surviving the rib ride back!

It was obvious the wind was not going to abate, so we battened down the hatches and embarked on a long, rough journey back to Ras Mohammed. (Congrats to Carolyn for surviving the journey and managing to smile at the end of it ..... I know you wont believe me but it has never been so choppy in May.)

We did a lovely dive at Jackfish Alley on the way to Tiran. The highlight was seeing both a small reef shark and an eagle ray. Turtles obliged on Jackson Reef too and a whale shark supposedly made an appearance on our last dive at Ras Nasrani. Sadly we all missed this, apart from Matt and Kevin who had stayed on the boat and enjoyed the sighting without us. Thanks all the same to Said for his unconventional efforts at trying to get our attention under the water!!

* Celebrating 10 years of diving at Sharks Bay with several divers who were on our first trip to Egypt all those years ago.
* Seeing the names of all the other liveaboards sheltering at Abu Nuhas: Whirlwind, Hurricane and Tempest.
  (Summed up the wind and weather perfectly!)
* Watching Doug's face and disbelief when he was told that he had missed the shark and eagle ray!
* Introducing Kev to diving in the Red Sea where visibility is significantly greater than Stoney Cove and Swanage.
* Seeing how happy Matt was to have swum with a whale shark after he missed our sighting last year.
* The peaceful times, which were few and far between, that Matt and Will stopped talking for a few minutes.

Things to remember for the next trip to Egypt: When drunk, stay well away from Western food establishments in Naama Bay to avoid dodgy stomachs for a week after a brief moment of indulgence!!