Blue Horizon - Northern Red Sea Wrecks

[adam f]

Come on then Dave - I'm sat here reading reliving last week.... wheres the next installment!

[Phil Mauer]

Our Club always goes with Blue O Two - I've been on Horizon, Fin and due to go on Melody in February 08, they are an excellent organsiation and worth that little extra!!

Phil

[Mrs F]

Great report Dave,

Agree with it all - I had many firsts on this holiday, a few of which being: my first:

time in the Red Sea
time on a liveaboard
time doing a night dive
time down to 40m (just touched it!)
time getting up at 5.30am to dive( )
time doing 4 dives a day
time I ever ate so much in my life
time seeing a Napoleon Wrasse, Lion Fish, Scorpion Fish, Small Catfish Eel (mega poisonous and I was half a foot away (!)


The experience was amazing overall and can't wait to go back and do it again! I've decided it add jsut 1 pic (as it makes me laugh so much!). This is my husband, Adam, talking out of his ass as usual! - Enjoy!

Rachael

[ShinyD]

There were a total of 22 dives planned for the week at various sites ranging from the deepest (Rosalie Moller) at 40m to some reef dives with parts at 3m. The map below shows the route of the Blue Horizon for our trip. Sorry about the horrible pink colour, but I was trying to find a colour that stood out. All photos are just as they came off the camera with no photoshopping. The quality is less though due to the resizing for the forums.


Blue Horizon route in pink


Day 1 - Dive 1: Sha’ab El Erg
This was my first Red Sea dive, a reef to which Blue Horizon was moored to the south side with the dive being directly from and back to the boat. In my log written immediately afterwards I have ‘…all I can say is WOW!! This alone was enough to justify the cost of the trip and the travel. Like swimming in a tropical fish tank…’. I guess that pretty much sums it up really! At this point I was still trying to get used to the wing, so although I was able to control buoyancy and trim I was concentrating on those a little too much to really be able to relax. A fairly relaxed bimble with a max depth of 14.9m and a dive time of 57 minutes. I also noted that I found it cold towards the end of the dive – probably due to no hood and being tired from the travel the day before. This was my only air dive of the trip – everything else was nitrox. I had my first inklings that my air consumption in comparison to Adam and Rachael was not good, and I’d spend the rest of the trip worrying that I was limiting their dive time because of it, despite being assured it wasn’t the case.


An example of the dive guides briefing board


No idea what this is, but it's very delicate [edit] Spanish Dancer eggs apparently!

Day 1 - Dive 2: The Carnatic
Another first – my first Red Sea wreck! The briefing for this one was given by laptop using a sketch of the wreck as it lies on the seabed. We transferred around to the wreck by zodiac. The few minutes of this dive I didn’t particularly enjoy as I felt rushed to get into the zodiac and then in the water there were divers everywhere. I don’t do rushed very well and it usually stresses me and I’ve also subsequently found I don’t like being surrounded by large groups of divers in the water! It was fine once we left them to it and swam aorund the outside to the bow area. We did go inside the wreck (it’s skeletal and can be exited almost all along its length) and I stuck my head through the bowsprit hole, but there was no-one there to photograph it! I took some photos of a Lionfish and saw my first huge Napolean Wrasse glide past in the distance. I wore hood and gloves this time and was warmer. Dived using EANx32 for a max depth of 25.3m and a total time of 39 minutes.


A Lionfish near the Carnatic


Fish everywhere!

Day 1 - Dive 3: Sha’ab Abu Nuhas
And the firsts keep coming. Not counting the champagne drinking event at Wraysbury, this was my first night dive. We had a guide for this one and Achmed, one of the Egyptian crew came along too. Again, a dive from and return to the Blue Horizon it was a great experience, although you do have to be really careful with buoyancy and control as the sea is crawling with very spiny sea urchins! There was a slight current running, but nothing to worry about. Saw some small Peppered Morays, a Pearl Sea Star (starfish), a Spanish Dancer (nudibranch) and a Slate Pencil Urchin too. I realised now that the viscious looking black Diadema Sea Urchins hidden away during the day are absolutely everywhere at night. Thankfully my buyancy and trim were fine!


Errr...a feathery thing!


Sea urchin - Fecking evil!!

[buchhawk]

Your first pic, is Spanish dancer eggs
Ken

[ShinyD]

Day 2 – Dive 1: Sha’ab Abu Nuhas
Hmmm…I was up at 5am after a nights broken sleep to see slate grey seas, whitecaps, a strong wind and cold. I took the cowards way out and decided to sit this out. I watched Adam and Rachael kit up and head off in the zodiacs to the south part of the reef. I was a little depressed about my air usage and wanted to give them a dive without me to make the most of it and I thought I might be more settled after some rest and it might improve. It wasn’t the case.


Sunrise in the Red Sea


Rachael and Adam before the dive

Day 2 – Dive 2: The Giannis D
This was on the northern side of the reef that was taking the brunt of the wind and swell crashing against it. I looked at it and again decided it wasn’t for me, but when the dive guides said it would be fine and after speaking to Adam and Rachael I got kitted up and off we went in the zodiac. The dive plan was to transfer out by zodiac and to make our way underwater back to the Blue Horizon around the reef wall. Adam, Rach and I were in the last zodiac on our own and once out of the shelter of the reef the waves were very noticeable, with Rachael being bounced off the tube and squarely into the centre of the boat at one point. We made a negative entry and headed straight down near the large crane derrick that’s such a prominent feature of the wreck. We realised almost right away on reaching the wreck that there was quite a strong current running in opposition to the direction we’d have to take to reach the Blue Horizon. We didn’t spend long on the wreck, which was a shame, but headed into the reef wall, realising it was going to be a hard swim against the current. In addition to the current we also picked up a fair degree of surge as we ascended a little. As my air consumption wasn’t great I had no option but to ascend and make the best of the shallower water. By this time the previous groups were also visible as they tried to fin against the current and turn the corner of the reef to get back to the boat. After some 10 minutes of fruitless finning the dive guide at the head of one of the groups signalled everyone to fin away from the reef wall and ascend for a zodiac pickup. I was getting really tired and my air was dropping rapidly as a result. I made it back into the zodiac with 25bar in the cylinder. Two of the girls in another group were sucking dry tanks, and one guy was on anothers AAS (we were to discover this wasn’t an unusual event where this guy was concerned). My toughest dive to date with very challenging conditions. A max depth of 22.1m and a dive time of 31 minutes. One of the more experienced guys later said and repeated a few days later that he was convinced he was going to die that day, so all in all not a great dive, but one to add to the experience list. We found out later that the Captain had told the dive guides it was too rough to dive, but one of the groups had objected so much they had relented and the dive went ahead.


Adam and I before the dive


The derricks on the stern part of the Giannis D

Day 2 – Dive 3: Bluff Point/Gobal Island (Barge)
We headed off for a rough crossing to the shelter of Bluff Point and a small sunken barge. There was aother liveaboard moored directly over it, but it was still accessible. The barge was basically just a shell left on the bottom, with nothing inside it other than more coral and seabed. It was absolutely teeming with life though. The plan was to explore the barge and then make our way a little to the north east where we’d find a shallow cut into the lagoon, swim down the inside the lagoon and out through another shallow cut near a large piece of hard coral Blue Horizon was moored to. After exploring the barge we decided to move on and away from the crowd around it. Not far away we came across the first of the huge Moray Eels we were to see on the trip. Around half of the dive was in depths of 3-6m inside the lagoon. Came across my first Crocodile fish just inside the lagoon, and Rachael took some photos of a school of small catfish working their way across the sand. Dive time of 61 minutes and max depth of 14.6m.


Large Moray Eel


Rachael in camera mode

Day 2 – Dive 4: Bluff Point/Gobal Island (Barge)
A night dive on the same barge, with just Adam and myself on this dive, Rachael electing to sit it out. We spent the entire dive in the general area of the barge, around the stern and off the port side of Blue Horizon. A magical dive in relatively shallow water, no stress and the distant pinpricks of other divers torches in the water. I had the camera and Adam was spotting for me, finding Lionfish, Peppered Moray, a Crocodile fish, a Devil Scorpionfish, starfish, shrimp and some kind of sole! A very relaxing dive after the grief on the Giannis D earlier. Dive time of 44 minutes and a max depth of 14.9m.


A Crocodile fish


Pearl Sea Star

[ShinyD]

Originally Posted by buchhawk

Your first pic, is Spanish dancer eggs
Ken

Wow! Thanks Ken

[ShinyD]

Day 3 – Dive 1: The Rosalie Moller
This was it! The deepest dive of the trip and the deepest any of the three of us had ventured before. It’s reckoned to be around 25m to the deck, and a further 25m to the seabed at the stern. We were determined to get a 40m dive, so we made plans to descend on the stern line and make a decision on reaching the deck on whether we would ‘bounce’ to 40m before ascending again and exploring the deck a little. I spent around an hour the night before checking all our gear over and making sure everything was working. We’d asked for a nitrox fill of 28% the night before (not realising they would do that anyway) and the boat engines started at 0430 for the short crossing to the wreck. I was up at 0450. We dived from the Blue Horizon and used a line attached to the stern to haul ourselves on the surface around to the bow where the boat was moored to the stern of the Rosalie Moller. We reached the deck of the wreck at around 35m in 3 minutes (limited by those ahead of us on the line) and decided to drop over the stern to touch 40m. On reaching 40m we ascended and made our way forward to just a little over half way before turning around and heading back to the line at the stern for the ascent. We did a fairly quick ascent to 20m and did 1 minute stops at 20, 15, 12 and 9m, a 5 minute stop at 5m and a further 1m stop at 3m. We headed back to the exit ladders on the Blue Horizon at the 5m level to save the surface swim back around the boat. Nice dive and wreck, although it would have been nice to spend longer on it. Dive time of 30 minutes and a max depth of 40.2m.


It was hard to see the wreck for the fish!


Adam hovering on a stop

Day 3 – Dive 2: Shag Rock
A tiered reef with lots of life on it. Adam had come down with a cold and although he could clear his ears he had some sinus pain around his eye at 4m so he surfaced and left Rachael and I to continue. Lots of coral outcrops and fish life around. The dive site resembled a tiered garden that had been cultivated it was so neat in appearance. A nice dive with lots of interest. We came across another large Moray beneath a coral outcrop, some Blue Spotted Rays and a Greasy Grouper! Dive time of 42 minutes and a max depth of 23.2m. Adam was snorkelling around the surface when we returned for our stops.


Rachael and Adam just before Adam had to abort the dive


A Greasy Grouper (I think)!

Day 3 – Dive 3: Small Crack
On heading for this site from Shag Rock we ended up right over the SS Thistlegorm as Drey (dive guide) had to take some promotional photos of the liveaboard chartered for the work being carried out on the wreck. We were in hope until we left the site behind us that we’d be able to dive on her, but it wasn’t to be. The Blue Horizon moored up in a shallow lagoon and we were taken by zodiac outside the lagoon and dropped on the reef wall at a depth of 16m. The plan was to follow the reef wall on our right shoulder and we would be led through a shallow area (small crack!) back into the lagoon where we would swim back to the Blue Horizon. This was to be the site of my best photo of the trip – nothing special, just a close up of the eyes of a Blue Spotted Ray, but perfectly in focus! Rachael found another large Ray too that I’ve forgotten the name of, but apparently they’re not that common to find. The entry back through the small crack was quite exhilerating as the current was with us so a nice fast passage through. There was lots of sand suspended in the water on the inside though and I lost Adam and Rachael after completing the 5m stop. I wasn’t concerned as we were near the boat by this time, I’d completed my stop and they were together. There were a lot of divers on the approach back to the boat at this point and I had one of the dive guides near me. This was the only dive we were separated, and it was only for the final 5 minutes of the dive. Dive time of 50 minutes and a maximum depth of 23.8m.


My best photo of the trip - close up of the eyes of a Blue Spotted Stingray


Rachael, a few metres the other side of the large ray she found

Day 3 – Dive 4: The Alternatives
A shallow night dive on a reef wall and outcrops of coral on a sandy floor. Lots of lionfish around which I liked as they make great photographic subjects. We saw a large free-swimming Moray heading towards us and as it detected us it stopped and settled on top of a coral ridge that we were drifting towards. I think I ended up about a metre above it with the camera video running as I passed over it. Found a Masked Puffer Fish too. I spent ages on the 5m stop watching the mass of small fish in the glow from the Blue Horizon lights being hunted by the long sleek shapes of bigger and faster fish. There’s something mesmorising about being surrounded by these clouds of small fish as they shimmer and flash in the light. Dive time of 45 minutes and a maximum depth of 11.3m.


A Masked Puffer Fish


A Clearfin Lionfish

[sailorbuoy]

Dave,

Glad you had a good time - great report too - very comprehensive, brought back many memories!!

Come South next time... apart from being warmer the corals are fantastic!

Nice photos - esp the stingray eye...

I agree the drysuit thing - being a complete wimp I take mine in the windy months - but this is NOT an excuse to go out and buy a new membrane suit... yet...

Did I mention that I have bought a Frog - wahee!!!!

Glad you are (all ) back safe.

Richard

[Mrs F]

Rachael found another large Ray too that I’ve forgotten the name of, but apparently they’re not that common to find.

It was a blackspotted ray. The dive guide said he hadn't seen one for a few yrs (not to sya they are rare though??!!)

Rach