Wreck Dive

Wreck diving is one of the most adventurous dive anyone could do. My first wreck dive was in August of summer 2007 after I finished my third course, my instructor Linda M convinced me before going back to Cairo to go on a wreck dive as my final dive to Dunraven in the Red Sea. The Dunraven was used to transport spices and timber, went down in March 1876 during a trip from Bombay to Newcastle.

This wreck was discovered in 1979, and then it became one of the best diving sites in the Red Sea. In this dive we were 14 divers on the boat to Dunraven, we were divided into 3 groups with each instructor, we prepared our gears on, the boat dropped us off away from the wreck, swimming up a sandy hill, and then the Dunraven appeared I took a deep breath as I saw the Dunraven my very first wreck to see, we swam around the wreck saw all the coral reefs stuck to it, a lot of beautiful fish.

A part of the wreck’s propeller was broken so we dived through it pretty amazing, we swam inside the it was very scary as it was a bit dark inside but we managed to lit up a torch, then I spotted 2 huge moray eels inside a broken part of the wreck. It was about 55 minute dives, really a very magnificent experience.

In the memory of Dave the turtle

Dave was well known to many divers who have dived in the Red Sea at Ras Mohammed, where he has been a regular around Shark and Yolanda reefs for some years.

Dave is easily recognized, as a portion of his rear shell was missing above his right flipper from a collision with a boat propeller. Which caused a split of his shell and great efforts went into rehabilitating him to allow a safe release, which was achieved on the 2nd of February.

Although he would always be spotted the next day feeding away on Shark and Yolanda reefs. Sadly, one day he was surfaced by a dive boat after some guides from a diving centre decided he was ill again and needed treatment. It seemed Dave could not stop for a rest without reports flooding in that he was dead.

Dave was a favorite of mine as he was the first turtle I have ever seen, I was very happy to see him when I was in the water as turtles one of my favorite animal. I was devastated to know his story, when my instructor explained it to me.

Night Dive

The thought of being in the sea at night gives me the creeps, but when I got into the warm water I became so excited just to know what will be down there. In a while I became much calmer and safer as I had 2 instructors, a dive master and 3 other divers with me in the dive. We swam off shore from Namaa Bay it was so dark that our torches light barely lit up in front of us.

During our dive we spotted lots of weird fish that I never saw before in day light dives, then we swam up to the main coral reef in the bay, we saw another group of divers we waved hi to them, we also made scary faces with the light, stayed for a bit then we took off. A while later we sat on the bottom in a circle, our instructor guided us to turn off the light and to wave our hands through the water, we suddenly saw small glowing stars, it was something we’ve never seen before, a magnificent feeling ever. But we had to turn on our lights and move back to shore as we lost 3 of our team members, we started to look for them for about 2 minutes, my instructor and I were the only ones left so we had to ascent to look for the other 2.

My instructor said in a funny way”very weird losing an instructor, a dive master in a dive never happened to me before”. We yelled their names while we swam till shore until we found them, they had joined the other group of divers in the dark thinking they were us. As a rule in diving you have to stick to your buddy underwater till the end of the dive. It was an experience that gave me a wonderful feeling and I’m sure I can do it over and over again.

How did it start?

I have been going to Sharm El Sheikh ever since I can remember, I used to snorkel play around the beach and I used to look at scuba divers as if they are weird and they are just diving to kill little fish. So one day I decided to try and took an intro (one dive as an introduction). I felt like am flying underwater I have never felt that happy.

So the next year I took the first diving course which is called Open Water Course, my instructor’s name was Sarah Woodford from England and have been living in Sharm El Sheikh for more than 13 years. Made friends with other 5 divers from England as well, finished the course in 5 days.

After that I went diving in other diving sites in the Red Sea such as Ras Mohammed, Middle Garden, Fiddle Garden and Yolanda Reef. In my second dive after the course I saw my very first shark which was a very lucky and adventurous many divers are looking for.