Red Sea blog

Although its early in the morning you are up and ready to go.. a few others, also quite keen for the day ahead are up drinking tea or coffee and having a quick sugar fix with some of the snacks on hand. A while later the rest of the group are all assembled (so much for needing the early morning wake up call). The bell rings a couple of times meaning that its briefing time (you get to live by the bell once onboard). We head indoors to get the first dive briefing…its a fairly easy dive max depth around 14m no more than 60 minutes underwater just so everyone can familiarise themselves with diving in warm water…no need for the drysuit over here!

The first group heads down onto the dive deck to get themselves geared up and into the water. The other half wait patiently so there is more space to move around…in fact the second group usually remember all those bits and pieces the first group is yelling out for when they realise they have forgotton to get dressed properly “Can someone grab my dive computer??”, “where’s my camera??”

After squeezing into those wetsuits (I’m sure mine has shrunk since the last time I put it on!) we also get kitted up, a quick buddy check, fins on and into the water. A lush deep blue colour. Its a shock to the system when you drop down that you can see for what seems forever and just remembering that you actually have to inflate your BC and not your drysuit takes some getting used to..

Underwater the serenity takes over..down on the seabed patches of coral intersperse with fine white sand. On top of a patch of Acropora coral a shoal of damsel fish playing a game of hide and seek as you get close to them. A sea cucumber on the sand in no desperate hurry to move anywhere and a lion fish gently riding the water movement looking for its next victim. You move over to a larger coral head and hear the grinding of coral as a parrot fish takes a bite and then heads off dispersing white sand in its wake. You spot a blue spotted ray on the bottom just in the recess of where the coral meets the sand doing its best to blend into the sea bed. And as you swim over the top of the coral you spot a yellow-speckled moray with it head out of a small hole. Now that you’ve seen him you’re not sure how sure you could have missed it as you first swam over. He looks like he is gulping lots of air making him seem very angry….time to move on me thinks….

All too soon it’s time to head back to the surface, but before you do, a chance to double check you know how to put the SMB up (not that I expect to do much of it during the rest of the week). Back on the surface i’m already pretty much at the bottom of the ladder so pass my fins up and then climb up back on to our floating hotel…

The kit comes off and back into my slot for the week and then its time to exchange the dive stories…who saw what and who gets bragging rights over the best spotted fish. The camera guys all staring intently into the screens to see if they got a picture of the one that got away! The bell rings so time to head indoors for breakfast…..the great news is I’ve got all week of this!!!

Our next trip is Red Sea liveaboard – departing on the 31st May 2019…Cost is £1349 per person (plus VISA and based on two people sharing a twin room. All flights, dives and food are included (apart from last day)….we have spaces left so if you are interested please get in touch…