Hurghada Days

[PaulC]

Just a short post on my return from a week of 'cocktail diving' in the Red Sea: those of you who have been will know what it's like and those who haven't won't want to!

My first day was spent shore diving from Hurghada. Anyone reading the Lonely Planet Guide would think that had to be a waste of time: anyone who saw the Red Sea road Trip in Diver the other month will know that it isn't. For the supposedly knackered fringing reef there's plenty of life about - highlights were sea horses and a humungous feather tail ray on the night dive - oi nearly &#36#!t myself when that baby loomed out of the murk I can tell you.

Day time diving was as you would expect by and large: hot, sunny, 15m+ vis and more fish than you could shake a stick at. We dived a nice wreck of a minesweeper sunk at the beginning of the Yom Kippur war on one morning: on another day an unexpected downdraft had some members of the party looking a bit green about the gills when they saw their max depths on surfacing!

As the Mrs doesn't dive it was day boats only, and no bad thing necessarily as it meant that we had a nice clean bathroom to go to when the Pharoah's revenge struck and not a tiny liveaboard head shared by 11 others with the same complaint with an overflowing bin of used paper in line with the 'no flush' policy...ah, memories!

I look forward to seeing Davy's post and comparing notes but the sort of diving I was doing, delightful though it was, could get a bit monotonous after a while. As one of the instructors (from Sweden) said wistfully, there is nothing like green water diving...although the way the weather is at the moment it's looking more like grey water diving (Capenwray here I come!) for the while!

I'm off to start a divemaster course next weekend (for no reason that I can get my bank manager to understand): otherwise I would be enthusiastically joining in with you nitrox wallahs. I didn't know there was a curry house in Sedburgh!

So safe diving and I hope we get a weather window before Xmas for a Dive Site X reunion!

[Davey Willo]

Welcome home Paul, I thought you'd been quiet, I hadn't realised you'd sloped off to dive sites afar.... Like you I found most of the diving out there amazing but I also found it..(Dare I say this) too easy... I long for low viz, strong tidal streams, surges to make your stomach churn and a loverly green tint to everything... oh and most importantly of all... I need to be wrapped up in a thick drysuit and carrying two ton of lead..... :thumb:

p.s. I didn't bother writing a report cos I'm expecting Bren's mega on the Maldives....

We're diving tomorrow, givvus a ring :biggrin:

[Gunna Do]

Darn Guys  " Boring"..
                     Im jusy about green with envy. Same colour ill be diving this afternoon..
I just dream about good Vis and warm water ( Still Aussie is yet to come)..
And as for wrecks, no Battleships or minesweepers over here.
I can offer a few old fishing boats and some rusty old anchors
Steve

[Dr Stevil]

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Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] ]I long for low viz, (snip) oh and most importantly of all... I need to be wrapped up in a thick drysuit and carrying two ton of lead..... :thumb:

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Well you should have been with us today, 10 metres in Ullswater, lots of lovely mud , 1 metre viz, 5-6 deg C, mask clearing, reg clearing and some rescue drills - must be mad! Oh, and a leaky dry suit to boot!!
Chee-az
Steve

[Davey Willo]

Mate I was in Consiton on Sunday fumbling about in a new wing/twin setup which had me completely Fubar'ed I spent most of my time upside down with me bloody fins sticking out of the water, zero air in the suit (vacuum packed) and the fingers of both gloves worn away... I was cold... I was very.. very.. cold...

Back to the drawing board on balancing twins and some new gloves too.....

[Dr Stevil]

What's the problem with your new set up Dave ?
I must confess I was pleasantly surprised that going from single to twins was relatively uneventful, though going from a stab to a wing was a bit odd for a while.

My main problem was/is that I haven't had time yet to practice shut-downs etc, as I've got twin 10s I've had to cut their boots down so that I can reposition the SS bands to make the valves easier to reach.
Chee-az
Steve

[Davey Willo]

I dunno Steve, one of the problems was the harness being too loose so that the tanks could move too much and so once I started to roll forward or sideways for that matter the whole thing moved and added to the momentum...

I had Ben with me and let him watch as I relaxed and tried to hover horizontally, then it was if an invisible hand was forcing my head down and feet up and adding a twist to the side for good measure, if I let it go all of the way to show Ben the effect, it would roll me completely forward, speeding up as it went until I finally flipped over completely (sometimes with the added twist) until I was on my back, then I would have to flounder around until I was back the right way up only for it to want to start happening again.

It was completely doing my head in, I tried moving the tanks lower, I tried moving the tanks higher, I tightened the straps, I loosened the straps, I vented my suit completely and used the wing for bouyancy, I vented the wing completely and used the suit for bouyancy, nothing I did would help....

Ben must of been howling as I handwalked along the bottom with my fins in the air, grabbing rock after rock trying to stop myself from flipping over... I was looking like a complete tw*t....

Now the strange thing is this.... I've dived with a wing and twins before, namely Andy Hayhurst's and it was like they had been made for me, I dropped straight to 30m with them and enjoyed a fantastic experience of bouyancy control and trim, so why on earth yesterdays fiasco was happening is beyond me.

Since yesterday's joke dive I've now bought a Halcyon BP and harness from Andy, I've bolted it too Ammers Halcyon wing that she's so kindly loaned me, Andy's setup the harness so it now fits like a glove

(He actually got me to run up the hill to prove that the tanks were now a part of me although I think this was a major p*ss take I still did it and they truly did feel fixed in place)

I can only hope that the next time I dive things will be better.

[Frog]

Any idea why your kit behaved the way it did? &nbsp;I had a similar problem yesterday, but that was when I was in 3m or less of water, so I wasn't unduly surprised. &nbsp;How deep were you? &nbsp;I had my feet floating in that depth (v. shallow)but dumping all air from my suit and using the ABLJ (yes, they're still in existence!!) instead solved it. &nbsp;Dive safely. &nbsp;:froggy:

[PaulC]

Good to hear the new rig's on the road Dave, sorry I couldn't join you, been catching up on the zzz's!

An unrelated question I guess - I reckon (and those of you who've seen me dive will laugh) I had pretty good buoyancy in the wetsuit, I could hover etc no worries - except when I turned to lie on my back when I would invariably go negative! I don't think I was losing air from anywhere. A small prize (winner collects) for the most convincing explanation! :umnik:

[Jay]

You've got a big arse?