Sharks Bay Trip report--Sharm

[[BoB]Bandit]

So here i go my first trip report on here

Myself and my wife (non diver) left for Sharm on 01/0505 via luton,the flight was with thompson although booked through longwood Holidays.
first problem of the holiday began when i realised just how heavy my kit was and we where only allowed 20kg per person.

i was told by the flight company that we got an extra 5kg per diver (sigh)
on production of diving certs,so two days before the flight, i thought i would ring up and check if i could prepay extra weight--i was told that you could not pre-book excess weight--within 3 days of the flight ??? i tried the storyline--who packs and weighs their bags--3 days before they go--Lost cause :-(

So we arrived at the airport, email in hand saying i would get extra weight allowance and low and behold, the check in girl said she knew nothing about this !!!!!!!!!!!!! so i produced the email stating that we got an extra 5kgs per diver and she said ok that will do and gave us 10kgs extra

i did not mention that my wife was a none diver :-) But i still got stung for 96 quid for extra weight (cry).
The flight itself went without a problem and we arrived on time--normal maddness at Sharm Airport !!!!!!!!!! and onto hotel.

The Sharks bay Hilton, a very nice hotel, all inclusive and the staff very nice and helpfull, thoughout the whole holiday, a Hotel i would be happy to go back to, food was what you would expect on an all inclusive holiday--food was good Quality, although all the booze was of local type and to be honest it was crap :-)

the Dive club i used was Sinai Dive Club at Sharks bay and i cannot say a bad thing about them, the where friendly,clean and the service was top notch
the boats and guides where of a high standard and i would have no problem using them again, if you in the Area use them, lot better than the big ones and more personal and the boats where a lot less hectic and Less Divers !!!!

First Dive: 02-05-05
Shore Dive At Sharks Bay Reef:

this was the local reef at the beach at the Hotel, nothing special, but it was just for me to try out my kit and make sure weighting was correct and everything was in Order for the boat dives. And it Was :-)
FootNote:
Sinai Dive Club will make you dive with a DM at this reef, if you have less than 25 logged dives, this is so they can check you out before any trips on boat, this i think is a good idea and it aims to make diving safer for all on the boats, also if you have not dived in the last 3 months, they use it as a check dive.
The reef itself is a really in poor condition as a lot of people from the hotel use it to Snorkel on and as you can imagine a lot of them have no idea on how a reef lives, all they wanna do is look at the pretty fishes and have no regard for the reef its self--which is a shame--but the hotel has signs all over the hotel, explaining about why not to touch,feed or stand on reef, but in most cases it fell on deaf ears
i told off one person myself, who was feeding fish above me with bread whilst i was at 5 mtrs, he was most shocked when this diver surfaced and told him in no uncertain terms what a wally he was !!!!!
dive time 1 hour.

03/05/05
Temple Reef/Ras Um Sid

A little boat trip from Sharm main docks (20mins aprrox)
Temple Reef:
Min depth 2mtrs--max Depth 24mtrs.
this is a small bay direct in front of a Hotel (King Snefru Resort)
the first thing you notice is the loud noise coming from the Beach, loud music !! and lots of Snorkels near the beach !!
The reef its self is based around three large Coral Pillars, one used to be a little swim-through but it was destroyed when an earthQuake struck in 1995.
For my first real dive of my holiday i was not impressed with the dive, there was lots of grey coral and broken fans all over it, it is well overdived and there was not a lot of marine life there, when i dived it, as a matter of fact i have logged it im my dive log as like the surface of the moon !!!
So i came up after the dive and said to the crew what happend down there !!
But the good side was i had a play with my kit and did final checks on it.
dive time 55 mins.

Ras Um Sid.
min depth 2mtrs Max Depth 25mtrs.
This was a matter of 10 mins away from our last dive sight and it was going to be a drift dive around the point, nice i thought, as drift diving is my favorite sort of diving in warm waters.
We where dropped off at the start point and dropped to 10 mtrs, and no current :-) then a steady swim at between 10 mtrs and 20 mtrs till you get to the point then the current takes over and takes you nicley around the corner and the current then follows up with the reef on your left, nothing fast, just nice and easy,enough not to need to fin along.
this was a lovely dive with really lots of Gorgonian corals and Acropora fans
amd masses and masses of fish, main sitings: LionFish,Napoleon fish and far to many small species to list here. A really nice dive and a good end to the first days diving.
Dive time 53 mins.

04/05/05
Day off and spent with wife and in the sun ;-)

05/05/05
ThistleGorm
min depth 16mtrs Max Depth 33mtrs

This was the day i had been waiting for, having never dived this wreck,although this was not first trip to Egypt.
It started with a 03.45hrs pick up at the Hotel and yes that is A.M.
onto Sharm main harbour and off we went for the long trip out to the wreck,
it was the normal trip with breakfast on route on the boat and then about another hours sail to the wreck itself, we where really lucky as when we arrived there was only 3 boats there already.

The DM came up from laying the lines and said we where really in luck as there was no current and it should be a good dive, so we got kitted up and in we went, down the line direct onto the wreck, right next to the Captains cabin, the DM said on the deck before we went in, that it would be better to do inside the wreck as the other boats where all diving on the outside, this as it went was a great move, we went str8 into the wreck and had the inside all to ourselfs, i found this dive outstanding, i have not dived on many wrecks and to get inside this one and see everything was for me amazing, we had good viz and i think i was lucky as we had some good divers on this trip and this showed as we went through the wreck, hardly any silt kick up and every body watched each other, the Dm knew the wreck inside out and took us right through every part of the inside, really enjoyable dive.
Dive Time 53 mins.

Dive Two on the Wreck:
After an hour interval, down we went again and in that time the current had started up, we spent some time on the line looking into the blue and the view was really amazing, masses of shoals of fish in middle water, barracuda, batfish and even very large tuna, we then went around the main decking of the wreck, looking at everything and the damaged cause by the bombings, it really came to life and made you feel very humble and realised what hell the crew must have gone through all those years before,going around the wreck you could plainly see the damaged that is being caused by all the dive boats
laying lines onto the main hull, we had a nice slow asscent up the line and this gave plenty of time to wonder at the masses of marine life around the wreck and in the blue, a really enjoyable and packed dive, not one i will forget in a hurry.
on this trip there was the normal video diver with us and he did produce a dvd
of the whole days diving on the wreck and of good quality, that good i bought one :-)

Dive Three:
Raz Ghozlany Reef:
min depth 5 mtrs Max depth 24 mtrs:
this was dived on the return journey to Sharm, in the Ras Mohammed Nat park
the DM told us this part of the park has been closed for a number of years and had not long opened up again for diving, which was a bonus :-)

yet again it was a drift dive but only the second part of the dive, the first part would be exploring some small caves, that the DM knew about, we had all been asked if we where happy to go into this sort of dive and with the least expierenced diver having 60 logged dives and he had done this sort of dive before, it was agreed to do the dive.
This was a really nice dive, again the DM knew the dive inside out and watched over us all like a hawk, the first cave was at about 11 mtrs and we went in one after the other, there was not a lot of room to move around, but it was full of Blue Spotted rays resting on the bottom in the sand, we moved through this cave to the next one which was at about 15mtrs, this was a bit bigger, but did not really hide anything, it was a bit barren inside, we then moved onto the last cave, which was really small :-0-)
we followed inside and the idea was to go through out the other side--but when we got in, the DM went ahead to check out the exit and it was now blocked !! it appears it had become blocked since his last dive, so we all had to do a U Turn in a very small place, which was fun, we where lucky that there was only 5 of us including the DM

After we came out we just went around a small headland at about 12 mtrs and the current took over, we drifted for what seems miles and the whole coral wall to our right was full of life and massive fan Corals, i think i saw every fish in the Red Sea at once, i did not know where to look next

To list a few speices: Golden Cardinalfish,Sweetlips,Rusty parrot fish,all sorts of Trigger Fish,Butterfly Fish and of course Banner Fish. A really truly lovely dive and the perfect end to a perfect day out, i arrived back on the boat really thrilled, but tired after a long day out, we took 1.5 hours to get back to Sharm, i was back in my hotel at 6pm and i wife who thought i had been kidnapped by Aliens :-)

Well this is the first part of my trip report, i was out there for 2 weeks and i did a lot more diving, but i will take a break for now and will continue the Saga
at another time, if thats what people what ????

Just for information, i used all my own kit, as follows:
Sea Quest Pro QD+ BCD
Apeks Atx 200
pony with Apeks Atx 40
5mm full suit
Uwatec Smart Pro Computer
Uwatec Digital Dive timer
5 kgs weight in BCD
all dives with 12ltr Nitrox tanks,apart from Wreck-15ltr Nitrox

anyway hope this helps someone, planning a trip out there in the near future,
part Two to follow:::

regards

Tommy Gore

[Hairball]

Flying 5kg of weights out on holiday - you must be realy like them! Did they fly economy or club class for that price?

[Hazel W]

you must have arrived at the Hilton sharkes bay just as i left it bob .... we had a weeks diving there which went ok except for some monumental fuckups with nitrox by sinai dive club
still th hotel is nice ....and i liked the free icecream at the pool bar at 4pm


Hazel

[[BoB]Bandit]

Originally Posted by divebiatch

you must have arrived at the Hilton sharkes bay just as i left it bob .... we had a weeks diving there which went ok except for some monumental fuckups with nitrox by sinai dive club
still th hotel is nice ....and i liked the free icecream at the pool bar at 4pm


Hazel

never had a problem at all with the dive club myself, everything i asked for
Nitrox etc was there as promised, although one of the Dm/who was also a instructor, was not happy when i wanted to check my own nitrox :-)

he was not at all happy --when i told him --i check my own kit and mixes
and no one else :-) of course apart from buddy checks

[[BoB]Bandit]

Originally Posted by Hairball

Flying 5kg of weights out on holiday - you must be realy like them! Did they fly economy or club class for that price?

lol

[Hazel W]

Originally Posted by [BoB]Bandit

never had a problem at all with the dive club myself, everything i asked for
Nitrox etc was there as promised, although one of the Dm/who was also a instructor, was not happy when i wanted to check my own nitrox :-)

he was not at all happy --when i told him --i check my own kit and mixes
and no one else :-) of course apart from buddy checks

Dms name wasnt mateo was it
lol
anyway you are quite right to check ...we got a catalogue of disasters with nitrox including mixes of 38% when we asked for 32% and air when we asked for nitrox ..... (had words with the company about both and got a bit of money back ....) but bad show to be playing about with peoples lives in that manner

[Calamity Jane]

Originally Posted by [BoB]Bandit

the flight was with thompson although booked through longwood Holidays.
first problem of the holiday began when i realised just how heavy my kit was and we where only allowed 20kg per person.

i was told by the flight company that we got an extra 5kg per diver (sigh)
on production of diving certs.

Oh dear - Thompsons really need to get their act together. I am in the process of sending a seething letter to ThompsonAir/Britannia myself. this is what happened to us last week on trip to Tenerife, flying from Luton, booked with Thompsons (3 people).

Ring first to check allowance, told no allowances for divers, just 20kg. Told that it would be £3.50 per kg over the limit. Arrive at check-in and was told we were 11kg over and would have to pay £55 (£5 per kg). I mentioned that we were Scuba divers and that they should enlighten themselves with other airlines' policies of extra allowance but to no avail.

Went to Serviceair to pay. The girl said she thought there was an allowance of 5kg per person on showing of dive card and that golfers get as much as they want for £27. She said we had to pay to get our luggage on but could speak to the Thompson desk who should know and maybe we could get a refund. Paid and spoke to Thompson desk. She had no idea about golfers or scuba divers but gave us number of Thompsonair Customer Service. Rang them, no idea, told to ring Britannia who were the airline. Britannia said Thompsons were the ones to contact and gave third number. (Yes we are that sad that we spent valuable shopping time spending a fortune on mobile phone!). The point was that if it was correct that we got the allowance then we were within the limit anyway and we wanted this sorted to avoid this problem at the other end (Spanish check-in - yeah yeah!). We ended up making about 10 phone calls until someone at Thompson Air said oh yes, you can have 5kg per person if you show your dive card - you do not need to tell us in advance. I relayed this to Serviceair who got over the original check in staff who then turned out to be a trainee and who said we did not show cards (??). We said we told him we were divers. The fact that the guy had no idea about anything is neither here nor there. Cut a long story short, we got the refund because although everyone said to pay and argue when we got back I wanted it sorted then because either there is an allowance or there isn't and we did not want this coming back. The irony is that coming back, we were the same if not a little more overweight and had our cards ready but she neither asked nor cared and our stuff just went through.

We had decided next time to get an email but it seems you did just that and still had hassle. I know there is lots of press in the dive mags about this but that this still happens is incredibly frustrating. It would seem that you got the allowance in the end and the £99 is for baggage excess over that, otherwise I would have advised you to write and complain and get a refund.

It is impossible to anticipate in advance this extra allowance situation.

Ho hum

Still holiday was brilliant and no more hassles after that!

Regards

Calamity

[nigel]

I was in the Concord next door nice hotel did 18 dive with the dive centre there.





Nigel

[[BoB]Bandit]

Well I promised the second part of the trip report, so i had best get on
with it.

Day six:
day off, pool,beer and sunshine:

Day Seven:
Ras NasRani Reef: Ras Mohammed.
Min Depth 6mtrs Max depth 30mtrs

Again a drift dive of the boat,drop to 6mtrs to a sand bottom with patches of coral and swim East with wall on the left shoulder to the corner of the headland,where a lovely Red Anemone at 12 mtrs shows you the way to go.
dropped down to 20 mtrs to a coral garden and kept heading north, then the current takes over as you go past the headland, the bottom and sides are covered in mushroom shapes of coral with a massive abundance of Marine life.
Such as clearfin Lionfish,Brown-marbled grouper,goatfish,Angelfish(various)
and a few of the old favorites parrot fish and NapoleonFish.

You just drift along looking at the wonders around you, on his day the current was not really strong and it was a nice bimble along.
to the pick up point, i with my buddy did the last 10 mins of the dive at about 10 mtrs and it was lovely--deployed DSMB and slowly up to the surface
very nice dive.
max Depth 21.2 mtrs--dive time 55 mins.

day seven cont:
Jack Fish Alley--Ras Mohammed.
Min depth 5 mtrs max depth 30 mtrs.
Yes you guessed it another drift dive
dropped off the boat , sticking close to the rock face on your right(less current) and alomost str8 away you come to a small cave at 5 mtrs, we went through the cave which slopes downwards to 9mtrs, it was full of fish and like swimming through a moving mirror, very very nice, once you exut the cave you stick close to the wall, otherwise the current just flys you past everything and you wont see as much. all away long the wall there is small caves, where all the fish seem to hang around hiding from the current, jackfish and glassfish in massive amounts, there is a coral head as you go along with all the normal marine life for the area, you just drift along nicley until you get to a sandy patch and then you head along at no more than 11 mtrs, until you come to a Coral head you cannot miss it as it is has a coral garden all around it, this place was the best part of the dive so far !
it was full of thousands of Glassfish, again a moving mirror in the water and you just gently drift through them, the remainder of the dive is a coral garden at no more than 11 mtrs, you wont know which way to look

then up to the boat to end the dive, all in all a very very nice dive and one not to be missed.
Max depth 22.8mtrs Dive Time 58 mins.

Day Eight: rest day normal routine, eat sleep eat sleep, oh and drink

Day Nine:
Shark & Yolanda reefs-Ras Mohammed.
min depth 5mtrs max depth 30 mtrs--although it does drop to over a 150 mtrs
this is a well known dive site and i can see why
Of course it is a drift dive, but a lot depends on the currents at the time you dive, if the currents are strong, it is not for the faint hearted, and you will need a high degree of skills.
But the day we dived it was moderate and tha tmade the dive.
you drop off the boat and have to get down fast-str8 onto Anemone City(as it is known) a lovely start to a dive,although you really dont see much, just as you fly over it, you then head str8 for a massive wall on your right and get as close as you can(currents) and follow it along, you must look into the Blue to see the shoals of barracuda then cruise along the wall(at this point the bottom was approx 150 mtrs !!!
you then come along onto Shark reef, it spits into two routes one left sticking with current or as we did split right and get into the reef its self and out of the currents here there are lots of Gorgonian Corals and again lots of fish at this point an old favorite came along to us for a look see (napoleon)
out in the blue we saw lots of massive BatFish among the rocks and corals i saw at least 4 Morays, looking around and even got some great pics as well.

You then have a small swim against curent across to Yolanda reef, again a reef away from the current, and masses of marine life, lots of Acropora-Anemone and Gergonian Fans of coral, i really nice place to be, you swim back and forth over the reef,then turn right and head for a wreck(Yolanda hence the name of the reef),there is not much left of the wreck due to the currents, but the funny thing is that it was carrying toliets and there are loads of them all over the bottom(no Pun intended) this is at about 15mtrs, and a nice way to end a brillant dive, you then head out into the current and let it carry you out to the pick up point, be warned at this point--it is crawling with boats at the surface --stick with your group and deploy you DSMB !!--i was megger surprised, but our guide(instructor) did not have one!!!
Aprt from the Thislegorm this was by far the best dive i had done to date, if you get the chance dive it you wont regret it

Dive time; 59 mins max depth: 24 mtrs.

day eight:
Ras GosLani reef.
min depth 5 mtrs Max depth 24mtrs
this reef has been closed for a long time and has only just opened up to divers after a period of time to rest the reef.
it was a very gentle drift dive and you drop off the boat str8 into a coral garden and a wall of coral to your right, and you just drify slowly along the wall of coral, with coral blocks along the bottom as you go along, really pretty dive not a lot of bg fish, just like a fish tank really,saw my first yellow boxfish and lots and lots of butterfly fish and a rather large Arabian Angelfish and of course what looked like thousands and thousands of diffrent small fish of all various colors. really nice --pretty dive

just drifted along till end of dive:
max depth 21.3mtrs. dive time 57 mins.

day Nine: another day off--need a say more


Day Ten:
This was my second trip out to the ThistleGorm, and it was all the same as on
my first trip report, apart from the current on the wreck, it was really strong and the seas where choppy.
Dive 1. max dpth 31mtrs dive time 43 mins.

Dive 2 max depth 25.3 dive time 47 mins.

i did have a bit of trouble on my asent from the second dive, but this will come to full, in the next dive of the day.

on the return from the Thislegorm, the always do a last dive after a long surface interval(about 2.5hours).
Dive 3:
Ras-Za-Atar
min depth 5 mtrs max depth 18mtrs.
this is a gentle drift dive to end the day nice and easy and trust me you need it after being up since 3am
off the boat again and into a light current and dropped down to 5 mtrs as soon as you can,otherwise you drift over everything :-)
it was a lovely wall with amssive coral palms and hords of small fish and i have never seen so many different types of coral in one place, again no big fish, just loads and loads of pretty fish(tropical fish tank again).

we just went along nice and slowly enjoying the views, thats when my troubles started
remeber abouve i had a small problem on my last dive on the wreck, well now i learnt the errors of my ways, i started to asend and got sharp pains in my back teeth and i mean SHARP, i knew str8 away that i had a reverse block in my teeth or gums and i had to ge thold of the guide and inform him i had a problem(dead handy are slate boards)
he said ok and i indicated tha i was going to deploy my SMBCI and try and come up really slowly, so i went through my rountines and everything seemed fine(apart from the pain) and i let my SMBCI go and just my luck after a meter it jammed
so i had to let go rather fast and i sat there in mid water watching my lovely
kit fly off to the surface !!!!!!!!!! so there i was at 15 mtrs, no dsmb and in agony--i swam along below the rest of the group--who where at 5 mtrs, making their way to the surface, the DM to his credit kept in contact with me throughtout and he realised that i had to come up really slowly, which i did
and in the end i broke the surface, and i have never been in so much pain !!!

they got me into the boat and made haste for port, leaving behind my DSMB, but truth be known, i could not have cared less, i need something to releive the pain, anyhow i got back to hotel and saw a doctor, who gave me strong painkillers and soon the pain went, but tha put an end to the rest of my planned diving for the holiday, there was no way i was going to a dentist in Egypt and so i spent the rest of the week, 3 days soaking up the sun and drinking a lot

overall the holiday was great and i would reccomend The Sharks Bay Hilton and Sinai Dive Club, and to end it all i was contacted once i got home my a dm from another boat who found my SMBCI, (my email address was on it)
and he handed it into Sinai Dive Club, so after all i got my kit back, well nearly
all i have to do it get it back from sharm to here.

But all is not lost, i have been contacted by a YD user, who is going over and he has said he will pick it up for me, i find that outstanding and a credit to him and a credit to YD.

well thats it !!!
my next trip is out to Gibraltor foirst week in July and then two weeks in the Maldives in September (Kuredo)

have fun all and be safe.

kindest regards

Tommy Gore

[onthetrain]

nice report. Sorry to hear about the teeth. I had a reverse block in my left ear recently. It really hurts!!!