Rotorua diver dives the Red Sea

I went to jack up a dive trip through a guy named Hussein a.k.a. Alex.  I told him I wanted to do a wreck dive and a night dive, as I had done heaps of other dives (300 plus).

He tried to arrange the trip for me with a local dive company, but they wanted me to do an intro dive from the beach for $65 (NZ$130) one day as I had no dive log, plus I hadn't dived for 9 months.  Then they wanted to charge 70 odd Euros (NZ$140) for the two dives plus 25 Euros (NZ$50) for the hire of the gear, plus 8 Euros (NZ$16) for supplying lunch on the day of the dives themselves.  So an arm and a leg really as it was going to be close to or over NZ$400 for the two dives with everything included, plus going to be over two days for the three dives.

When I told him I wasn't going to be doing this, he said he 'had a mate' who might be able to do it for a much cheaper price but not to tell anyone about it.  It was all arranged to cost me 70 Euro for the two dives, including pick up/drop off, dive gear & lunch.  Happy days.

I ended up being picked up and taken to the dive centre in Sharm to fill out the paperwork involved, then off to the boat at the wharf, passing heaps of bathing beauties, plus some future nightmares, sunbathing about the place, then out to sea towards some island (Tiran) way off in the distance.

I was amazed at how clear, then how deep blue the water was.  I knew it was going to be a good day.

Met the Divemaster (Ahmed) who was going to be taking us diving by him waking me up and giving me the ok sign.  When I reciprocated, he knew I was one of his two divers and I assumed he realised that I knew a bit about diving.

I sort of blew this illusion a bit by trying later on to put the hire wetsuit on backwards (I so love my own gear!) so I knew he would be looking at me harder later on to see exactly how much I did know about this diving lark.  Met my dive buddy Denis (from France).

Ahmed explained where we would be going and what the dive plan was.  No wreck was mentioned, so I asked him about it, to be told there would not be one, nor would we be staying out long enough for any night dive either!  He was unable to assist as to why this was but assured me that I would enjoy the dives we were going to do anyway.

I was somewhat pissed off, but soon got over it, telling myself it was going to be grand anyway just being out on the water again.

It was a nice trip out and I could see the general area was obviously very popular, counting over 35 large launches as big as and some bigger than our one, all hovering about the area where we were heading.

When we got suited up he told us to remember the boat name (Blue Moon) for when we came up, then we were in, then went down.  It was very warm (28ish).

The water was gin clear, fish were everywhere (some similar to islands fish) a huge Napoleon fish (Maori Wrasse?) tuna, pelagics, pipe fish, huge beige coloured fan corals, soft corals, clams like in Aitutaki, big drop offs down to nothing and walls of waving corals and wee fish including heaps of Nemos.  Great dive down to 18 m for about 45 mins.

We arrived at our 5 m staging area to find three large launches above us which the divemaster informed us about by pointing up and twirling his finger simulating a prop.  As we arrived one left.  It was interesting to see the churning prop flailing away as it moved off.  You have to keep your wits about you when diving, eh!?

We found our boat, then fluffed around for our surface time, letting the snorkellers do their thing and three Jordanian men doing their intro to scuba diving dives.  One made it okay, one freaked out bigtime BEFORE he went under, by doing the drowning man thing and trying to climb on top of the divemaster to save himself from drowning.  The divemaster got rid of him easily enough by pushing/kicking him away and calmed him down long enough to have him pulled back on board.

He was obviously a bit sheepish about it all and looked a bit like a cold wet dog for the rest of the day.  His other mate freaked out too, so he too was dragged back on board, so he kept his friend company while the other one completed his dive and thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience.

Lunch was provided and was very very good with plenty of local salads, plus plenty of meatball thingies of some meaty something which could well have been camel.  If is was, this is the best thing about camels as they all seem to be stinking, vile looking creatures, with creepy, vile looking people riding them wanting to be given money at the drop of a hat for a quick glance at their smelly mode of transport.   They are everywhere.

Lunch was delicious, and plenty of it too.

Then we returned back towards the shore to dive right outside the Hyatt Hotel on another big drop off.  This too was equally as good as the other location, but had spotted rays like our eagle rays back home but with vivid blue spots, plus I saw at least five good Lion Fish hiding amid the soft corals.

I had a first on these two dives.  We actually saw some other divers coming the other way.  Probably to be expected really when there are so many boats about, but it was good to see other divers' styles in the water.

One meeting resulted in some good natured underwater divemaster rage between the two divemasters who it later transpired used to work together and hadn't seen each other for a whle.  They both seemed to be pointing at something of interest up towards the surface with their middle fingers.  Don't know what it was all about really, it must be an Egyptian thing but it was good to watch unfold.

There was one drama on this last dive where the divemaster was teaching his apprentice.  He said later on that this guy was the only one of the whole crew worth teaching anything as all the others on board were thick.

He was to accompany us on this particular dive and show off his stuff, but lost his flipper when descending, poor bugger.  Then he retrieved it but it fell off again and my dive buddy got it back for him, but had to go to 23m to do it.  The divemaster was pissed off big time and told his mate to leave the water (all in sign language of course), later giving him a real savaging, at least I think he did as it was all in Egyptian, but the meaning was pretty clear.

We made it back to the wharf at about 5.00 pm and then were returned to our respective hotels.

I can happily recommend this dive company, Sea Wind, and especially the divemaster as being very professional in their approach, dive equipment, safety procedures and equipment on board.  The staff were extremely helpful on deck, in the kitchen and generally about the vessel.  It was a great day out as I knew it would be.

The divemaster can be contacted at hmadagx@hotmail.com - name is Ahmed and he is a really nice guy.