Aquatech Red Sea 2006

[EdHornby]

sorry it's late.... had a week on the SnapDragon and it was brilliant !!!! this was my first trip to the red sea and I have now been spoilt

22nd May
dive one at ras Katy, check out so I thought I'd leave my camera on the boat, and a huge turtle is waiting for us... b*ll*cks thought I, that will be the only one we'll see, but oh no, there were others on the subsequent dives.
Dunraven next, very nice, got some decent photo's and the wreck was really good
Ghiannis D next, again really intersting wreck, I'd like another look at that one, intersting dive profile from all the popping up and down swimming through it
23rd May
Kimon M, saw lovely huge grouper and lionfish, sea cucumbers and loads of glassfish
Carnatic. We dropped in at the bow and did the hullside, then swim out into the blue, for ages seemingly going nowhere, and all of a sudden the dive guide gets excited when we come across the anchor... he thinks that no-ones ever seen it before, and I think he's trying to pull our leg, but back on the boat he's radioing his mates...
then the Marcus, the italian tile wreck, another decent dive with lots of variety - but I did enjoy that one not least because it was number 100 in my log book
24th May
Rosalie Muller - brilliant, I want to do that again (not with nitrox either). Lots of Lionfish and angel fish shoal, nudi's and the like... managed to rack up some decent deco so binned the second dive on it
Gubal Island - this was an enjoyable reef dive, but it kind of pales in mym memory, largely because we motored off and a pod of around 15-20 dolphins (adults, juveniles and a mother and calf) followed the boat so we had half an hour freediving with them. Just wonderful. one of the juveniles was playing fetch with the guide with a piece of dead coral... one blew me a bubble.. even the hardened old guys in our club were moved by the experience
Sha'ab ali night dive - crap..
25th
Kingston - another one I'd like another look at, lots to see and shaLLow, with a big field of table coral on one side
The Thistlegorm - my first time on the 'gorm and I wasn't dissapointed. Did three dives in all, and the life on it was as good as the hold contents saw a big turtle, shoals of agelfish, groupers and the like, my buddy had never found the train on the sea bed so I found that for him and he was chuffed. the last dive had the monster current coming up the line, funny watching everyone in our club sprinting fronm the top of the line to the ladder
Marsa Barieka - wall dive and we saw hammerheads (too fast for a photo unfortunately..) by this point we were wondering what to expect next

then 24 hours in sharm, so went to the camel bar and got totally wankered

to top it all, met a gorgeous young lady by the poolside the morning we flew back ah well - top trip

[EdHornby]

more pics