Julie's Boggle

Monday:
It was off to an early start for our first day of diving in the Red Sea. The boat engines started shortly after 05h00 to move us to our first destination for the day – just round the corner from the marina – and the wake-up bell came jangling up and down the corridor outside our room at 06h00.

My morning routine immediately fell into a pattern to be followed for the rest of the week: throw some clothes on, pop a Stugeron to ward off sea-sickness, stick in my contact lenses, and then head upstairs to the lounge area to get coffee and a piece of the sweet vanilla loaf cake that was always waiting for us. Half an hour after the bell, Steve would start the briefing for the first dive of the day.

Once I had my coffee, I nipped outside with my camera to get some photos.

The first morning’s briefing was the longest at an hour, and it covered a lot of general stuff. It included the rules about no dive knives allowed in the marine park, and no gloves allowed full-stop. The dive company insist on this rule to stop people touching things or feeling the inclination to take home souvenirs. Along with this rule came the warning to avoid touching the fire coral as it tends to cause a nasty rash, and a short list of venomous fish that might lead to amputations of incautious digits!

For all of us, the first dive of the week is what they call a “check-dive”. Where you check out that all your kit still works after the trip, and that your weight belt is adjusted for the Red Sea’s saltiness; and at the same time the dive guides check you out to verify that you aren’t going to go damaging a reef with rough kicking or uncontrolled buoyancy. The site was Ras Katy, a reef that falls to a shallow sandy-bottom – the ultimate beginner’s dive.

Tom and I were both diving in our full one-piece 7mm wetsuits since it was generally acknowledged that the water wasn’t warm enough to be comfortable in much less than that. I’d brought my 5mm short wetsuit as a potential to go over the 7mm, but that was never necessary.

They organise the dives in two waves to try and avoid over-crowding on the dive deck. We were part of the second wave and as we got ready, the Egyptian crew members were right on hand to help with anything and everything. Having willing hands ready and waiting took a lot of the grind out of kitting up, particularly closing Tom’s wetsuit zip which is a real fight for me, but easy for our tall crew member!

Once we were ready, we simply stepped off the end of the deck and into the cool blue world waiting below us. Having done the Barrier Reef we weren’t strangers to tropical waters, but it really is wonderful to be in such a lovely environment. There were loads of fish covering the reef in all the gorgeous tropical colours, spiky black urchins sticking out from under every rock, and the less typical sight of a blue-spotted ray (it’s head was about half a meter across) lying calmly on the bottom.

On the sandy bottom I saw my first goatfish. This guy seemed to have the most character of all the fish because he had a pair of white whiskery barbels just under his mouths – only about 2cm long – which were busily delving around in the pale sand, I guess with the intention of stirring up edible bits. And as was very typical, there were a couple of other random fish just hanging around; watching the agitated sand diligently to see if the goatfish’s activities stirred up anything interesting that they could munch. When disturbed our goatfish simply tucked away his barbels and swam away, suddenly looking like any other fish.

When we got back to the boat after our 38 minutes underwater, our helpers were ready and waiting to unclip our fins, unzip our wetsuits and lift our cylinders back into their supports on the bench. Then it was a rush to dry and change (and I always made a point of rinsing my hair after each dive) before the jangle of the breakfast bell.

Breakfast, which tended to be the same from day to day, was continental with an Egyptian flavour in terms of the cold meats and cheeses available. My choices tended to be fruit salad, followed by several pancakes (crepes) with honey. Omelettes were offered and cooked on demand but I found the rest of the selection tended to be enough for me.

We had a few hours to while away after that in the warmth of the upstairs deck. Time to pull out my PDA and update it with dive details, read a book, laze in the heat of the overcast sun. As we relaxed, the boat moved us on to the other side of the Sinai peninsula where we’d be doing our next few dives.