WantageDive

It was very early on a cold, dank and miserable Novembers morning when the alarm went off, but none of the twenty members, ex-members and guests of Wantage Dive Club really minded, as soon this would be left behind as we winged our way to Sharm el Sheik in Egypt. At Gatwick there soon assembled twenty cheery faces in the coffee shop, all swapping details of what they'd brought with them and what they haven't (well nearly twenty, Lesley admits to not being a natural morning person. and dousing herself from head to toe with coffee did not help until she realised it was a perfect excuse to go and buy some new clothes!). Bill won the heaviest bag award coming in at 32kgs. I don't understand it, he said, I left loads behind.. After five hours in the air and another four getting through immigration etc we were all mighty glad to finally get to the boat, and what a boat it was. The MY Whirlwind is one the best in the Typhoon fleet of live-aboard dive boats that operate in the Red Sea. This 35 metre long floating Gin palace has three decks, 10 guest cabins and was going to be our 5 star luxury accommodation for the next six nights.

The engines starting up at five o'clock the next morning acted as an alarm clock and many of us witnessed our first Red Sea dawn, what an amazing sight - this huge ball of red coming out of the mirror calm sea and entering the wall to wall clear sky - fantastic! We did not have much time to stop and stare, as soon the bell went for the first briefing by Suzie and Thomas (our dive guides for the week). The crew couldn't do enough to help whilst you were on board. There were always plenty of hands around whilst you were getting kitted up to help pull this on and lift that up. The live wire of the bunch was a chap called Maghoob who was forever joking and playing tricks on people. Debbie and he connected right from the off and he provided endless entertainment throughout the week. Especially when he tried it on with Roly!

The first dive was a warm up dive in 10 metres to sort out weights etc and most of us were surprised of how much extra weight we needed compared to using the same warm water kit in Fuerta. This wreck and reef tour operated through Tony Backhurst scuba started properly with a wreck dive on one of the many ships that had accidentally ploughed into one of the numerous reefs that abound in the Northern Red Sea. This was the first experience for many of us in the Red Sea and it literally took your breath away! To be able to see in excess of 35 metres was truly amazing and there was so much to see, with every square inch of the wreck covered in hard and soft corals, and swimming in amongst them were a myriad of beautifully coloured fish. This first encounter was almost like sensory overload as you tried to take on board everything that you could see. Years of diving in UK waters had conditioned you to get as much out of a good vis dive as possible as it might be a long time before you get another one! But of course 35+ metre vis is normal in the Red Sea and after a few dives you become to expect it. Another 60 min wreck dive in the afternoon was equally spectacular and stories abounded of Lion fish and Moray eel encounters. The fourth dive of the day was a night dive (it gets dark at 05.30PM in Nov) and what an incredible experience that was. Night dives add a whole new dimension, the colours of the reef appear muted, but this somehow adds to the mystical and magical nature of the dive. It was also quite eerie when you turn around to find a large Lion fish is following you, or when a free swimming Moray glides past between you and your buddy. Navigation at night is a bit more of a challenge than during daylight hours, and on one night we saw Les and Lucy charging off into the distance followed by one of the boats RIBs in hot pursuit. On another occasion Mike, Steve and Debbie had to be re-directed back to our boat after trying to get on board another one moored twenty metres away.

The pattern for the week was soon established as the dawn dive was followed by breakfast, followed by a nap, then it was time for the mid-morning dive, lunch and another nap, the afternoon dive then morphed into sunbathing. Finally the night dive was followed by dinner and then not long after it was time for bed, only for it all to start again at dawn the next morning. The days gradually melded into one another, as one fantastic dive was followed by the next and the next. there were occasional breaks from routine like when Andy and Sid wanted to try out the Jacuzzi on the top deck, a great plan apart from the liberal use of foam bath which unfortunately overflowed the tub by nearly a foot and then a foam carpet spread over the stern of the boat like something out of Quatermass and the pit. The water leaked through to the lower deck and provided a nice water feature for the unsuspecting snoozers down below.

As a group of twenty experienced divers that all knew each other well, we changed the buddy pairings daily to ensure that buddy checks did not become complacent and to add a variety of interests. We typically dived as pairs, or occasionally with the dive guides if there were particular points of interest to see. This meant that the pairs could go at their own speed to get the absolute maximum out of each dive. The majority of the group also dived on Nitrox, which as the average age was 40+ was probably a good idea when diving four times per day.

Each dive, Bill would appear with more and more bits bolted onto his camera. First day he just had the camera in the waterproof housing, next day a new fish-eye lens appeared. Next day there was a huge sticky out arm thing with a flashlight on it and so on. By the end of the week the fish had become quite camera shy and the moray eels were wearing sunglasses.

As the week progressed we moved to the reefs near to Sharm which resulted in some very interesting drift dives along the reef walls. One in particular will be remembered by Lesley for a long time to come as there was a 600 metre vertical drop below us - an interesting situation when you are blasting along in a swift current with the wall disappearing into the black below you. The wreck diving can be split into two main categories the wrecks and wreck reefs. The Thistlegorm definitely fell into the Wreck category and Les described it perfectly as diving a marine museum whereas the wreck reefs were so covered in life that it was difficult to distinguish the wrecks from the reefs. It was this mix of diving which meant that all tastes were catered for during the week and literally thousands of photos were taken.

Unfortunately we had just two dives on the last day and then we had to head for our hotel in Sharm. There was a slight delay whilst we waited for Bill to get off the boat with his complete photographic studio, including umbrellas, a tripod and one of those hand held overhead smoking flashes, but he managed it in the end. We spent one night at a local hotel near Naam beach, this is a bustling resort town which was a bit of a shock after the tranquillity of the last six nights. And then finally after an uneventful trip back, twenty tired, but very happy divers, once again encountered the grey dank chill of a November night at Gatwick.

The customer care from the Tony Backhurst representatives was excellent, from the meet and greet at arrivals all the way through to check-in at the departures. The boat exceeded our expectations and the diving was simply amazing. A big thank you also goes to Lesley and Mike Boler for organising a truly memorable trip.

David Parker/Les Durham