Well, what a week of diving!
Went with Sinai divers on a seven night live aboard. There must have been 100 or more other dive boats in the marina! I was the only American on the boat. We had one French, three Swiss, one Austrian, three Germans, two French, one Italian and two from Chile. I was concerned at first about being on the same boat with the same people for a whole week but it turned out great.
The first day we spotted a nice manata ray in the deep blue. It was nice to be able to get back on the boat and not have to change the BC to another tank. The reef had to be some of the best I’ve ever seen! Trip included seeing octupus, Spanish dancer, huge napoleon, slipper lobsters, white tip shark and tons of lion and clown fish. Saw a second Manta ray on the last day and this one came within a meter from me! We dove the sunken ship Thistlegorm that was sunk during WWII by the Germans. The ship still has ammo and tanks and the rest of the cargo on the bottom of the sea.
The food was good. We dove, ate, dove, ate, dove, ate, dove, etc. Needless to say I’m sure I put on few more pounds. We had two dive masters on board and neither one of them well ever be the same after putting up with our crew for the week. It started out a little cold at first so myself and one of the Swiss had to liven up the bunch.
It started out with the jesting and then practical jokes followed such as tabasco on someones regulator, bread in their BC (fish loved that one). It progressed to having sand dumped on other divers, air being turned off 20 meters under the water, mask and fins being removed. Inflator hoses disconnected and then dumping their air at the surface and Zodiac boat wars. Yes, we all survived…but the dive masters had lost all control of our “special” group.
Our table of 5 plus Mirela, the dive master, was given the name of “The A Team” (I believe it stood for assholes). The other group would just stare at us and shake their heads. I know one of the Germans at the other table wanted to be part of our group but his wife wouldn’t let him. It had been a long time since I had laughed so hard.
The trip ended too soon and everyone went to the airport and I headed to the bus station to continue on my way to Dahab with some great memories to reflect on.
