Hurricane, 16 - 21 June

[Fiona]

I drove down to Dianne's on Thursday and spent the afternoon helping Di pack and moving kit from my bag as I new it would be too heavy, we weighed Di's bags and decided the wine box and 2kg V weight had to stay behind After a lovely dinner prepared by Mr Cutterham - Rob we continued to pack - yes it really did take that long. Di retreated to her office to complete some village paper work while I sat through some programme of Paris Hilton and then BB. We left home at about 2am and arrived at Gatwick about 5am. We met up with Mal and Mike and then the rest of Mal's group, Tony and Janet, Marrieanne and Phil. Check in wasn't too bad, more of that later we went off for breakfast. After some shopping we were off to the gate and then taken by bus to the aircraft - hang on why are we boarding an American Airlines plane. We then sat there waiting for a couple of passengers and missed our slot so we were an hour and a half late.

Flight was OK, Di and I had paid for extra legroom seats so were seating very nicely in 1a and b. We were told there was a problem with the in flight entertainment but as this happened on the way back I suspect Astreaus can't be bothered to pay for any films.

Hurghada airport was surprisingly efficient and we were soon on the coach to the marina. We walked down to the jetty and out bags followed by pickup, the crew soon had them unloaded and we were onboard, this is when we noticed there was only 1 twinset on the benches. Mal asked about them and we were told they would arrive soon. We went up to the main deck for introductions and paperwork, this is when it was mentioned that as we were diving twins nitrox would cost £120 for the week instead of £60 - don't think so said Mal unless they would allow over 60min dive times.

The twinsets arrived and we spent about an hour setting them up, which I found quite difficult as the lower bolt seemed not to be straight, each time I tightened it up it was out of line with the holes in the backplate. After sorting kit and cabins I needed a Dinner followed then bed time, tomorrow would be a reasonable start and the dive brief would be around 7.30am then we would move to a local reef for weight check dive.

The Dives

Dive 1 - Gota Abu Ramada. 69mins, 14m
GUE EDGE - Stride entry from divedeck, to fairly sandy bottom
Bubble check at 6, Valve drill, S Drill, Basic 5, bagged off.

Dive 2 - Gota Abu Ramada. 71mins, 11.7m
GUE EDGE - Stride entry from divedeck
Bubble check at 6, Valve Drill, S Drill

Dive 3 - Erg Abu Ramada. 66mins, 21.9m
GUE EDGE - Zodiac ride and negative entry
Bubble check at 6, Valve Drill, S Drill

Dive 4 - Little Brother, North/ East. 63mins, 35.5m
GUE EDGE - Zodiac ride and negative entry
Bubble check at 6, Valve Drill, S Drill

Problem on this dive as my knee locked

Dive 4a - Ras Cabin. 3 hours 1m above sea level
Decended to bed with side table at P2 and Di taking up P3 on dive deck, after several simulated eyelid shutdowns, handed off book to table then total eyelid shutdown.

Dive 5 - Big Brother, Should have been the Numidia but ended up on Aida. 58mins, 38.6m
GUE EDGE - Zodiac ride and negative entry
Bubble check at 6, Valve Drill, S Drill

As we were on the wrong wreck and current in the wrong direction we were then on the otherside of Big Brother and spend 10mins on the surface before being picked up, which wasn't as bad as the other group who had been on the surface for around 30mins.

Dive 6 - Big Brother, Numidia. 61mins, 31m
GUE EDGE - Zodiac ride and negative entry
Bubble check at 6, Valve Drill, S Drill

Dive 7 - Big Brother, Otherside. 67mins, 27m
GUE EDGE - Zodiac ride and negative entry
Problems with my mask, no idea what so went for backup and did a mask switch only to find I was looking straight in to the video camera lens of the dive guide, Bubble check at 6, Valve Drill, S Drill

Dive 8 - Deadalus, West/ East side. 61mins, 27.2m
GUE EDGE - Zodiac ride and negative entry
Bubble check at 6, Valve Drill, S Drill

Dive 9 - Deadalus. 62mins, 24.5m
GUE EDGE - Zodiac ride and negative entry
Bubble check at 6, Valve Drill, S Drill

Dive 10 - Deadalus. 61mins, 26.9m
GUE EDGE - Zodiac ride and negative entry
Bubble check at 6, Valve Drill, S Drill

Dive 11 - Elphinstone, North Plateau - East Wall. 63mins, 36.6m - 28.8%
GUE EDGE - Zodiac ride and negative entry
Bubble check at 6, Valve Drill, S Drill

Dive 12 - Elphinstone, North Plateau - West Wall. 63mins, 33.5m - 29.7%
GUE EDGE - Zodiac ride and negative entry
Bubble check at 6, Valve Drill, S Drill

Dive 13 - Panarama Reef - Safarga area. 60mins, 22m
GUE EDGE - Zodiac ride and negative entry
Bubble check at 6, Valve Drill, S Drill

Dive 14 - Ras Disha. 31mins, 10m
GUE EDGE - Stride entry from divedeck
Bubble check at 6, Valve Drill, S Drill.
Di carried stage bottle and did gas switch.

[Fiona]

Liisa from this parish and Silent Planet had very kindly lent me a Halcyon Evolve (donut type wing) as I wanted to see if there was a difference between the donut and horseshoe style. I don't know if diving in a wetsuit made any difference but I found the Evolve much easier to dump from and I was very comfortable and very pleased I had the opportunity to try one.

Thanks Liisa

[big_si]

Very... functional... trip report. Cheers.

Sounds like a good selection of dives. See anything interesting? Did you enjoy it?

[Skiverdiver]

Nice report? - did you actually see anyhting or did you just spend the time underwater doing bubble check, valve drills etc??...

[Fiona]

Some pics to follow when I have sorted them

The last night was spent in the Sunrise Hotel - Hurgharda, in our opinion Tony Backhurst has made a big mistake it was CRAP. Tony if you read this make arrangements for the last night to be spent in the Marriott right next to the boat and save yourself the cost of a bus ride.

[Darren A]

Lots of drills then!! What does "GUE EDGE" mean

[Madfish]

Originally Posted by big_si

Sounds like a good selection of dives. See anything interesting? Did you enjoy it?

We had a fabulous time thanks - noticed one or two fish & stuff, but importantly our trim & kicks have improved exponentially.

Dianne

[GLOC]

Originally Posted by Madfish

We had a fabulous time thanks - noticed one or two fish & stuff, but importantly our trim & kicks have improved expidentially.

Dianne

Did you mean exponentially?

[Paul Oliver]

Originally Posted by Fiona

Flight was OK, Di and I had paid for extra legroom seats so were seating very nicely in 1a and b.

LOL I cannot think of 2 other divers with less need for extra leg room

[Mal Bridgeman]

Originally Posted by Madfish

We had a fabulous time thanks - noticed one or two fish & stuff, but importantly our trim & kicks have improved expidentially.

Dianne

I couldn't believe it....people on the boat just kept talking about the fish, the nudibranchs, the moray eels, the coral life, the barracudas, the Grey Reef sharks, Hammerhead sharks etc they claimed they'd seen. Some people just don't get the point of diving do they? [1]

What is clearly more important is how all our skills improved.

Fiona also did not mention [2] that after each dive we debriefed and looked for areas of improvement in each other.

The line laying practice in the evening and experimentation with Decoplanner helped the time simply whizz past. Just as well we had loads of isotonic drinks available to keep ourselves well hydrated too.

Top moment of the holiday for me was when the others on the boat saw a school of hammerheads pass by but we laughed at and ignored them, as we were having much more fun with our backwards finning race.

Mal

Photos to follow soon.....ish

[1] - Mind you, dry humour can sometimes be missed too

[2] - We were meant to dive the Aida but ended up onthe Numidia so got to dive it twice.