3. Getting ‘lost’ and getting ‘wrecked’ in the Red Sea!

Our live aboard continued in much the same way with an excellent routine of diving, resting and massively overeating. The ‘cruise director’ - the guide in charge who works with the captain to plant the route then decides the dives, gives us briefings and organises the groups battled against his Egyptian, ingrained culture of general disregard for women unless they behave exactly as they’re meant to. We questioned the decisions on groups sizes once or twice or why there was a ‘guided group’ of 15 people in the water (4 is ideal, up to 8 is ok-ish but not preferable. 10 or more is too many) along with another guide, who was to be taking videos of us all (and mostly swimming off and videoing fish no where near us) while the third guide and cruise director stayed out the water. Turns out, despite a slightly problematic dive, as we were lectured later, that it was a misunderstanding (on the part of us women), no one is allowed to to complain because everyone has to be happy and he only makes decisions that he knows will keep us all safe. It was totally fine and perfectly safe to have such a massive group and we just ‘misunderstood’ when we questioned it. I didn’t misunderstand, I can count and I understand ratios - and also the way the dive went would suggest it wasn’t that well guided or planned at all.

Our dive briefs ranged from a little confusing to entirely non-sensical so we mostly had guides when offered the choice!

On that particular dive, all 15 of us followed the one guide having had a briefing that consisted of: off the board, go with the reef on your hand left shoulder. Turn right when you get to the fan coral, turn right again a bit later (non-sensical muttering about when), keep going until you get back to the boat. If you’re swimming over beds of fire coral, you’ve gone too far. … So, off we went with our guide, turned right at the fan coral then swam back and then over the fire coral, got picked up by some current and kept swooshing along, past more beds of fire coral then over pretty reef (but defo in the wrong place) for ages - all still following the guide who didn’t seem concerned. Those of us near the back were too far back to see or signal to the guide at the front so on we all floated enjoying the lovely reef.

Eventually, after an hour’s dive, the guide put his surface buoy up, we did our safety stop and surfaced ….. all the way on the other side of the reef. All 16 of us bobbed about on the surface - in flat calm sea and no current fortunately - for 20 mins waving our marker buoys, blowing whistles and waiting for someone on the boat to notice that 16 people were missing. They came on the zodiac eventually to get us all … the zodiacs came in close but drifted onto the reef as they were collecting us (which meant we were too close to the corals, might bash it and damage it (or ourselves) and the rib could ground or damage the reef. So they go us all to hold onto to the ropes along the side of the boat, where we all dangled in the water and they towed us back out, all higgledy-piggledy bumping into each other, to deeper water so we could be collected more safely. It was all a bit of shambles. Seas were calm and there was never any significant risk and we all had a nice chat on bobbing on the surface and discussing how we hoped that we weren’t so late that we missed breakfast. Don’t want to go hungry!

The cruise directed guide came on the zodiac, with the sea man to collect us and as he hauled our gear in, he made the point that it was just as well there was a supervisor left on the boat so he could notice we weren’t back, spot us and come and get us. I suggested it might have been better had one more of the other two guides, both more experienced, also been with us in the water in the first place to reduce group size to have avoided that happening. As part of our lecture later on, we were also reminded again how women in Egypt aren’t allowed to give me sh*t or question what the men say. There definitely a culture clash at times.

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The last couple of days have gone by excellently though with calm seas and clear water. We did two dives on the famous wreck of the SS (Steam Ship) Thistlegorm - a British ship that was sunk in the early 1940s during the war. It was on its way from Britain, round the cape of Africa and headed up the Suez Canal to the Med to meet our war ships. Another ship had blocked the Suez Canal so the ships etc had all been told to anchor up and wait, which the Thistlegorm had. German bombers were searching for a large war ship in the area but couldn’t find it so as their fuel ran out, they found an alternate target - the biggest ship in the Red Sea - to drop their bombs on and lighten the load to return to base. That was the Thistlegorm, which was a cargo ship that was carrying supplies for the British army. The bombs fell on the part of the hold that was carrying ammunition, so there was a massive explosion and fire and the SS Thistlegorm was sunk. It’s lies on the sea bed in two halves with a massive damaged section in the middle. The light from the huge fire was so bright that the Germans were able to site their original target ship nearby so they bombed that too. (Its wreck is nearby but much deeper so only for technical diving to see it!).

The wreck of the Thistlegorm was then discovered in the 70s but Jacque Cousteau, who according to conspiracy theory in Egypt, was sent by Queen Elizabeth to find the wreck and recover ‘secret’ ammunitions and chemicals it was carrying ready for a ‘dirty war’ that Britain was engaging in. There is now a huge empty hold that legend has it was the one they emptied - although it’s more likely there was food or something perishable in there really! The wreck was then forgotten and rediscovered in 1992, when it has since been a tourist attraction for divers and brings in the second bigger income in tourism revenue in Egypt, after the Pyramids.

We dived the wreck twice - once going round the outside to see the hull, the massive propeller, the guns and also a train carriage that was blasted clear of the ship in the explosion. The second dive, we went inside and round through the cargo holds to see the navy supplies including ammunitions, rifles, tank, trucks, motorcycles and tires - all being gradually claimed back but the sea. It’s like a massive underwater museum. You can see how low and narrow some of the spaces are and how dark it is from some of the pictures - although the central hold is open and lots of natural light gets in so there’s always a swim out option if needed. Lots of life now call the wreck home. And fairly skilled diving with good buoyancy and careful kicking needed to get round without getting caught or kicking up silt, which ruins visibility.

Final couple of days now - I’m considering the night dive this evening on the wreck called ‘The Barge’ … I feel I ought to do one this trip. …. Maybe!

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The WiFi has crapped put again … I shall post this when I can - probably in a day or two!

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It’s Friday - we’ve sailed back into port and got signal! This was written on Wednesday … I’ll post a final blog and photos from last couple of days tomorrow!