October dive trip

Greetings all, I have been horribly remiss in keeping up with our blog in Wendi's absence. It wasn't even until today that I read her last post and realized she had created expectations for my performance. Just so you know - I experienced strong pangs of guilt for the first couple of weeks but they faded and for the last few weeks I have only occasionally even thought about writing. But then last night Wendi mentioned it during our phone conversation and since I have the next couple of days off (the Egyptians are celebrating the end of Hajj feast Eid al-Adha) I decided my excuses are running a little thin. So here it is - I can think of this as a kind of celebration for Wendi's return (she will be back here Dec 3).


We (our team over here) did our second dive trip the week Wendi left so she wasn't able to join us. Aside from her not being there the whole experience was much more enjoyable than the first one (we didn't have to do all the training dives for one thing). Having already experienced it once, the process of driving there, unloading the cars, loading the boat and getting out of port was a lot more relaxing. What really helped was the temperature - in June it was well over 100 and we had to wait for over an hour on the boat while the Tourism office did an inspection. This time it was only in the 80s, we arrived earlier, and less than an hour after driving in we were pulling out of port.




















A couple of views leaving the harbor. As you can see the Sinai peninsula is a pretty desolate place. It was mostly empty except for some nomadic Bedouin tribes until the Israelis captured it during the 1967 war. Over the years they built up resort areas that the Egyptians took over after the Sinai was given back under the Camp David Accords. Even now the area mostly caters to foreigners with areas that are off limits to Egyptians unless they work there. The main resort town of Sharm el-Sheik is a couple of miles to the right of the harbor.





















The guys are getting ready for our first dive. It was several hours out of port and on the wreck of the S.S. Dunraven, a British cargo ship that sank in 1867. It was my first wreck dive and it was very interesting being able to swim through hull and see the old boilers. There wasn't really anything left to see cargo wise but it had some beautiful corals.





This is the second wreck we dove - the famous S.S. Thistlegorm. It was built in 1940 in England and used to haul supplies in support of the African campaign. It was sank in 1941 by a lone German bomber that was returning home after an unsuccessful hunt for the Queen Mary (the plane was caught in the blast when its bombs hit the ammunition magazines and crashed a few miles away). What makes it so special is that it sank quickly with a full load of cargo. Some of the items you can still see: two steam locomotives, tenders and rolling stock, rifles, munitions, aircraft parts, Wellington boots, trucks, motor bikes and tunics for the Eighth Army in North Africa. This picture is of Vinny, me, and Rich (L-R) getting ready to head back up. It can getting pretty crowed there but the first day we dove right before sunset, moved a little ways off to spend the night and then again first thing in the morning before the crowds showed up.


This picture is a little dark but if you enlarge you should be able to see the motorcycles and the cases of rifles off to the right. I was amazed at how well preserved some of the stuff was but you can see the effects of so many people being down there. There are big air pockets in all the rooms from SCUBA breathing and it is causes rapid rusting but as with so many things here when it comes to tourist dollars, regulations are almost nonexistent or ignored for a small price.
















This is pretty much what we did when we weren't diving. The weather was beautiful for the whole trip and the food was excellent (something about being outside always make food taste better). It was three days of eating, diving and sleeping. If it wasn't such a long drive I can see us doing this more often.

This was my bedroom - we all brought our blankets up from the rooms downstairs and slept on the deck.

These trips have been fun but a little surreal. A weekend diving at Sharm is about like someone coming to America and heli-skiing in Alaska - it's a lot of fun but you certainly can't say you have experienced the culture. It's more of an escape which at times is exactly what is needed. I hope you enjoyed my post and thank goodness for all involved Wendi is back in a couple of days :)