We woke up to a much cooler, overcast day, although it was still about 24°C. We had our breakfast and headed to the jetty on the minibus by which point I was starting to wish I had brought a fleece with me because of the breeze. Luckily I had a long sleeved t shirt at the bottom of my rucksack which was better than nothing.
Georgy was guiding us again but wasn't feeling too good having eaten 2L of goulash soup and some other meat items in a pork-fest at a friends's house last night (not much pork here so you have to make the most of it when you can get it!). Apparently he had been up feeling sweaty and ill all night and was only with us for the morning - he went back in the afternoon to have a rest. Paul asked him about dealing with feeling ill if you are diving - apparently you can be sick into the regulator as long as you press the purge button (which flushes the regulator through with air and would stop any bits getting stuck). Eugh! May I never have to do that!
It was pretty windy but today it was coming from the north rather than the sahara, which meant that it had quite a lot of sea to blow over and whip up some good waves before it got to us. The sea was very choppy while we were travelling to the dive sites and it was hard to walk around on the boat and I hit my shin on the steps climbing down from the upper deck. There was still sand in the air in the distance obscuring the mountains.
For our first dive we went back to Ras Umm Sid, which was a bit sheltered from the wind because there is a headland to the north of it. I was happy to go there again to try and enjoy it a bit more and we had told Georgy that we had struggled there yesterday a bit so he didn't go as slowly. It did seem to be less currenty than yesterday and felt a lot smoother so I found it much more enjoyable and less frustrating.
We were the 2nd pair of buddies in the group of 6 that Georgy was leading and the girl on the first pair kept lagging a long way behind so we ended up being a really long way back some of the time, but apart from that, and that the visibility wasn't too great because it wasn't so sunny, it was a nice dive. We saw a huge moray eel poking its head out of its burrow while a little blue stripey cleaner wrasse cleaned it. Its head must have been 15 or 20 cm from top to bottom. We didn't get too close although Georgy thought it was probably sleeping. We also saw a pair of big spadefish (also called batfish) - they look like angelfish but are much bigger than they look in the fish book, maybe 70cm across and are big and round like a shiny plate with fins and a tail. In the middle of the plateau there are some amazing Gorgonian fan corals - apparently the biggest 'forest' of them in the area.
Paul had borrowed the dive computer from Frank again. It alerts you by bleeping if you are ascending too fast or go too deep. It also tells you what you are and aren't allowed to do on the second dive of the day (because you already have absorbed some nitrogen in your body). At the end of the dive though I had less air than Paul so I was re-buddied with Frank and we used his dive computer to do our 3 minute 5 metre stop. There were some other divers doing it in the same place too and it was a bit crowded but we did it without incident and came up, signaled to the boat (which is always miraculously close by wherever we have come up) and climbed back in.
It was quite chilly with the wind and without the bright sunshine so we sorted our gear out quickly and cowered in the saloon with a cup of black sugary tea. We had another nice lunch to prepare us for the afternoon ahead, we had their very tasty aubergine dish again (called something like moussa-ah) and mince with courgette.
Georgy left the boat in the afternoon and Abdul Salam joined us who is Egyptian, and he lead our group in the afternoon when we went to Far Garden (just up the coast from Na'ama Bay). It was a drift dive again (starting one place and ending up further along). There were 2 Italian girls with the group and one of them had the strap on her fin come loose. She didn't notice although I tried to catch her attention but in the end I managed to stop her and Paul who was nearer put it back on for her & tightened it up. What good samaritans we are :-). We saw a lionfish hiding in the shadows, and some cool looking spotty groupers (red & blue ones) and all the lovely colourful fish like butterfly fish, parrotfish & some kinds of wrasse (see pic below) and for our safety stop we were in a really lovely little coral lagoon with lots to look at. Paul saw an octopus - I looked at where it was meant to be but couldn't see a thing, it was very well camoflaged.
During the dive I tried to put my hands forward more (I have been trying to stop waving them about anyway, but have been putting them underneath me rather than forwards). In fact it did seem to help get flatter and seemed to make me a little less buoyant (not sure why that might be). The group was quite big today and we stayed a bit further back.
We asked Abdul's advice on how to dive better after the dive, and he said I need to relax more (which I think is still true although definitely better than the start of the week) and Paul needs to look out for his buddy more (because he is always busy taking photos and I am always the one checking on him).
We took the bus back to the dive centre as always and finished the day with a drink in the divers' bar (a pattern emerging?...) and had fajitas in the beach bar. There was the option of calamari fajitas which I passed on just in case - Paul was keen to have another go at the calamari: 'Maybe it will be better fried' ????? fortunately good sense prevailed. The fajitas were very tasty. There was a footy match on TV while we were eating (Dortmund vs Malaga) and behind us were 3 German guys dressed in identical green checked shirts who ordered a litre of vodka and put it on ice with 6 cans of red bull and just drank their way through it. Very hard core. We went back to our room before the game even ended! Tiring business looking at fishies.
Georgy was guiding us again but wasn't feeling too good having eaten 2L of goulash soup and some other meat items in a pork-fest at a friends's house last night (not much pork here so you have to make the most of it when you can get it!). Apparently he had been up feeling sweaty and ill all night and was only with us for the morning - he went back in the afternoon to have a rest. Paul asked him about dealing with feeling ill if you are diving - apparently you can be sick into the regulator as long as you press the purge button (which flushes the regulator through with air and would stop any bits getting stuck). Eugh! May I never have to do that!
It was pretty windy but today it was coming from the north rather than the sahara, which meant that it had quite a lot of sea to blow over and whip up some good waves before it got to us. The sea was very choppy while we were travelling to the dive sites and it was hard to walk around on the boat and I hit my shin on the steps climbing down from the upper deck. There was still sand in the air in the distance obscuring the mountains.
For our first dive we went back to Ras Umm Sid, which was a bit sheltered from the wind because there is a headland to the north of it. I was happy to go there again to try and enjoy it a bit more and we had told Georgy that we had struggled there yesterday a bit so he didn't go as slowly. It did seem to be less currenty than yesterday and felt a lot smoother so I found it much more enjoyable and less frustrating.
We were the 2nd pair of buddies in the group of 6 that Georgy was leading and the girl on the first pair kept lagging a long way behind so we ended up being a really long way back some of the time, but apart from that, and that the visibility wasn't too great because it wasn't so sunny, it was a nice dive. We saw a huge moray eel poking its head out of its burrow while a little blue stripey cleaner wrasse cleaned it. Its head must have been 15 or 20 cm from top to bottom. We didn't get too close although Georgy thought it was probably sleeping. We also saw a pair of big spadefish (also called batfish) - they look like angelfish but are much bigger than they look in the fish book, maybe 70cm across and are big and round like a shiny plate with fins and a tail. In the middle of the plateau there are some amazing Gorgonian fan corals - apparently the biggest 'forest' of them in the area.
Paul had borrowed the dive computer from Frank again. It alerts you by bleeping if you are ascending too fast or go too deep. It also tells you what you are and aren't allowed to do on the second dive of the day (because you already have absorbed some nitrogen in your body). At the end of the dive though I had less air than Paul so I was re-buddied with Frank and we used his dive computer to do our 3 minute 5 metre stop. There were some other divers doing it in the same place too and it was a bit crowded but we did it without incident and came up, signaled to the boat (which is always miraculously close by wherever we have come up) and climbed back in.
It was quite chilly with the wind and without the bright sunshine so we sorted our gear out quickly and cowered in the saloon with a cup of black sugary tea. We had another nice lunch to prepare us for the afternoon ahead, we had their very tasty aubergine dish again (called something like moussa-ah) and mince with courgette.
Georgy left the boat in the afternoon and Abdul Salam joined us who is Egyptian, and he lead our group in the afternoon when we went to Far Garden (just up the coast from Na'ama Bay). It was a drift dive again (starting one place and ending up further along). There were 2 Italian girls with the group and one of them had the strap on her fin come loose. She didn't notice although I tried to catch her attention but in the end I managed to stop her and Paul who was nearer put it back on for her & tightened it up. What good samaritans we are :-). We saw a lionfish hiding in the shadows, and some cool looking spotty groupers (red & blue ones) and all the lovely colourful fish like butterfly fish, parrotfish & some kinds of wrasse (see pic below) and for our safety stop we were in a really lovely little coral lagoon with lots to look at. Paul saw an octopus - I looked at where it was meant to be but couldn't see a thing, it was very well camoflaged.
We asked Abdul's advice on how to dive better after the dive, and he said I need to relax more (which I think is still true although definitely better than the start of the week) and Paul needs to look out for his buddy more (because he is always busy taking photos and I am always the one checking on him).
We took the bus back to the dive centre as always and finished the day with a drink in the divers' bar (a pattern emerging?...) and had fajitas in the beach bar. There was the option of calamari fajitas which I passed on just in case - Paul was keen to have another go at the calamari: 'Maybe it will be better fried' ????? fortunately good sense prevailed. The fajitas were very tasty. There was a footy match on TV while we were eating (Dortmund vs Malaga) and behind us were 3 German guys dressed in identical green checked shirts who ordered a litre of vodka and put it on ice with 6 cans of red bull and just drank their way through it. Very hard core. We went back to our room before the game even ended! Tiring business looking at fishies.
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