No "F" in Sharks

by Shelley Hesford

A trip on M/Y BlueFin, Southern Red Sea
23/09/2009

Wow! That’s enough for the report I think! That says it all! OK, a little more then. Got to fill some space!

At the civilised hour of 8.30am, 23 of us met at Manchester Airport for the liveaboard trip to the Southern Red Sea. The excitement level was high – great anticipation about the number and types of sharks and pelagic life we would see – manta’s, barracuda, reef sharks, hammerheads, oceanic white tips, dolphins, whale sharks, and more. We couldn’t wait to get there!

On arrival at Hurghada we were transferred to our very own floating gin palace and what a ship she was! A fantastic vessel with every amenity thrown in – except for a belly dancer for Pete D’s birthday. Even Blue O Two’s guides Karin and Dray couldn’t organise that as we were in the middle of the blue.

The diving was terrific. We started off with Abu Hashish, which is actually a reef and not what you were thinking, and then worked our way down via the wreck of the Salem Express to Elphinstone Reef. The excitement level rose even higher – these ware the big shark dives! In we jumped, cameras at the ready… and then swam for 30 minutes against a strong current before getting out, shattered, having seen a tuna and a Napoleon Wrasse. Also some great barracuda. Next dive? Still no sharks, but more of the same Wrasse and barracuda. Never mind – plenty of time to see sharks yet.

We then headed south to St John’s which was spectacular. Lots of plateaus, reefs and walls and the very atmospheric Umm Arun (aka St John’s Wood – or as we called it “The Enchanted Forest”), a beautiful dive with lots of small pinnacles like a petrified forest. The best dive of the holiday. Excitement was to be had here – Dan and Shelley were both bitten by Nemo and Pete D sat on a Titan Trigger Fish (they exchanged facebook details they were so close). Then there were the St John’s Cave’s – almost as good – lovely swim thrus and very easy to navigate around the blue lagoon – unless, of course, you were Alan B or Cameron B who managed to navigate their way out the other side and had to be rescued by rib! This is the same Alan (approx 6’5”) who shrieked like a baby at the sight of a number of small jellyfish on a night dive – dive abandoned!

After that, off to Fury Shoal with some of the best hard coral in the world. Lovely dives here and very photogenic. Pete D learned that it is always best, when assembling your digital camera for use underwater, to remove the lens cap before diving… We then worked our way back to Port Ghalib, with the added excitement of more dives at Elphinstone on the way! Bring on the sharks!! This time we would surely be lucky? Nope. Nice dive but “no ‘f’ in sharks” – the name of our holiday and tour T shirt! Congratulations to Mark N who passed his Nitrox and PPB specs, to Helen G who passed her Nitrox and to Steve A who passed his Deep Spec. Congrats also to everyone for passing their PADI bumbling and gin-taking specialities (the latter with distinction!) and to Phil W for passing his PADI hand-sign spec – we will never photograph a fish in the same manner again! Oh and one piece of advice from the holiday, if you intend to take the mick out of someone who misfired their SMB, please ensure that you don’t do exactly the same thing yourself on the next dive Dan!

Thanks to Julie for being the boss and to Blue O Two. It really was a great holiday and enjoyed by all despite the absence of our sharp toothed friends. Roll on next year!