Diving Accident

The fourth day on the 23rd of December saw us diving back at the Ras Mohammed National Park. As strong currents prevented us from seeing many things on the Shark and Yolanda dive two days previously, the plan was to try this dive again. Again, the dive itself was spectacular.

We saw the biggest Napoleon wrasse I've ever seen in my life. He was a very generous 2 metres long and looked to weigh as much as a bull (in my overactive imagination). In any case, he was HUGE! Trying to distract our attention from the Napoleon wrasse were a number of Giant Moray eels. Everywhere we turned there was a moray head sticking out. In addition to that, there was a beautiful Hawksbill turtle. I got wonderful photos of all of these delights but . . . . more of that in a minute.

Toward the end of the dive, I had gone through my air a bit more quickly than Henry and George so I was buddied up with a fellow diver named Andy and we went for our safety stop and then to the surface. This left a few more minutes of "bottom time" for Henry and George.

During the safety stop Andy and I saw two masked pufferfish. They're so cute. Poisonous to eat, but adorable. I think puffers swim like clockwork fish. You can almost hear the tick tock as they go past. When Andy and I got to the surface, it was clear that the weather had changed while we were underwater. We had been under for about 50 minutes. The waves and wind had picked up. We had to swim away from the reef so that the boat would be well clear of the reef in order to pick us up. As we swam away from the protection of the reef, the waves got a lot bigger. We hadn't realized how big they had become during the dive because waves are all on the top of the water.

It took a lot of effort to swim to the boat. One of the crew threw us a rope to hang on to. Catching the rope, we could then drag ourselves hand over hand and wait our turn to board while holding on to the rope. It took me three attempts to get onto the boat. The waves were very high by this point. The ladders onto the boats are hinged at the top and it was tough to hold onto the rungs while being sloshed up and down by big waves. I got bashed about a bit but eventually made it onto the boat.

Andy came up the ladder right behind me and promptly barfed into the sea. I got my heavy diving gear off and then turned my attention to my husband and son who were still in the water. The boat was motoring over to the second pickup point and we could see Henry, George and the dive leader from the dive company, Jesus.

George was the first to come aboard, but he was having difficulties. At 14, he isn't nearly as big as the rest of us and was bobbing like a cork. There was a huge wave and the hinged ladder of the boat came down on George, pushing him under the back of the boat. He was under water for about 8 seconds, but they were the longest 8 seconds of my life. George bobbed back to the surface, but his mask had been knocked and George was clutching his face. Oh God! Jesus was in control and had George while holding the rope. While Jesus managed George, Henry was hauled on board and was promptly sick. I'll mention at this point that the waves were breaking over the back of the boat. Everything on the deck was sloshing around in warm salty water.

Jesus and the boat crew decided to get George out by hauling him up by hand in the area between the two ladders on the back of the boat. I stayed well back, heart in mouth, letting the crew and staff get on with things safely. They managed to get my boy on board with what seemed very little effort the second time. After hauling Jesus on, and checking that everybody was safely on board, the boat took off for a more sheltered area.

I went to check on George. His dive gear was now off and he was holding his mouth. The dive ladder had come down on George's mouth, knocking his breathing regulator out and his dive mask off. The ladder had also pushed his orthodontic braces up into his gums and a few of his front teeth were a bit loose. Poor lad! At least he still had all his teeth inside his head. We decided that we were DONE diving for the day. Just about everybody had seen their breakfast again. Oddly, I didn't hurl. I am one of the world's biggest barfers when it comes to being on boats when it is anything other than calm. I kept my face to the wind and my eye on the horizon and though it was close at one point, I didn't vomit.

The boat made it to a lovely sheltered and calm area where the crew could tend to the boat and even after all the violence of the waves earlier, they served up lunch! At first nobody thought they would be able to eat, but as calm was restored the seasickness went away and appetites returned.

We had the doctor that is in charge of the local hyperbaric chamber look George over. He said that it was probably best for George to wait and see his own orthodontist than to see a dentist here in Egypt. Things looked a bit twisted, but nothing that couldn't wait a few days until we got home.

If you're wondering where the pictures are, here's the thing. While I was trying to get out of the surf and onto the boat, I got bashed about quite a bit. When I was finally on board, it was brought to my attention that I didn't have my camera anymore. At first I thought they were wrong, the red lanyard was still attached to my equipment. I looked more closely and discovered that there was nothing on the other end of the strap. The camera was gone. My camera with it's non-scratched lens and expensive, weighted waterproof housing is at the bottom of the Red Sea.

I'm so glad I had just switched memory cards in the camera. The photos from the first three days of diving were safe. I only lost the pictures from that last dive. Naturally, this means that there are no more holiday photos.

Henry and I are grateful to Camel Dive Centre and their staff member Jesus and the crew of the ChicII for their professionalism.

Now we've got to battle the insurance company for some sort of compensation so that we can get the camera replaced.


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Lost Notice - If you are diving at Shark and Yolanda Reefs at Ras Mohammed National Park and see an Olympus C750 digital camera in a rigid clear plastic housing with red bits on it, it's mine and I'd like it back.

Second Day of Diving

21-12-2007
Almost all of the photographs we have from this holiday are underwater photographs. There are a few exceptions but I've just gone through well over 200 photographs and they are mostly of fish. I won't burden you with all of them, just selected highlights. I'll put most of them on the Flickr site when I have time.

The rest of the dives on this holiday were done from a boat. The second day we were out, we went to Ras Mohammed National Park. The Gulf of Aqaba meets the Gulf of Suez at the tip of the Sinai Peninsula. Above the water there isn't much to look at, just rock and sand. This part of the world doesn't enjoy much rain. They might get a sprinkle a couple of times a year but that's it. There are no plants, no grasses or wildlife to speak of. But as soon as one peaks under the water a discovery is made. HERE is where all the life and colour are! All the life, colour and diversity that is missing from the landscape is found below the waterline.The first dive of the day was at a dive called Ras Ghozlani. One of the very first fish I saw upon our decent was the Citron Gobie Gobiodon citrinus. This little tiny fish is one of my favourites in the Red Sea. It lives almost exclusively on table coral. Any time I've seen a table coral during my dives, I always check it to see if there are any bright yellow little one and a half inch fish with fine blueish stripes on it. It sounds sort of daft, but I felt it meant something to see one of my favourite little fish on the first day at Ras Mohammed.

One of the good things about having an underwater camera is that if one is a bit of an amateur in the field of fish identification, a photograph can help later on. I've been going through the photos and with the help of my two Red Sea guide books, I'm figuring out what it is that I have seen. I didn't know the name of this fish but I have learned that it is a Speckled Sandperch parapercis hexophthalma.

These are Striped Eel Catfish Plotosus lineatus. We found out later in our guide books that this wiggly mob of fish is actually very venemous and dangerous to handle. Good thing we don't touch things while we're diving. They didn't LOOK dangerous at the time.
Red Sea raccoon butterflyfish Chaetodon fasciatus.

Lyretail hogfish Bodianus anthioides. Through the help of the guide book that Henry and I gave each other this year for Christmas I was also able to identify the juvenile form of this Lyretail hogfish. Sadly there are no photos of the babies.

In addition to the pretty little fish that I love to look at and take pictures of, there were a few bigger fish, like these almost ever-present Blue spotted stingrays Taeniura lymma and impressive Giant Moray Gymnothorax javanicus. The second dive of the day is a very famous dive within the diving community, Shark and Yolanda Reefs. The current was really pumping on this dive so we weren't able to go wherever we wanted to, but toward the end of the dive we were diving along a coral wall that was spectacular. Ever square centimeter of that wall was packed with life. Sadly no sharks were seen. We saw no sharks at all. It really is the wrong time of year for sharks anyway. They tend to be summer visitors to this part of the world. Having said that, there were lots of other divers there. Perhaps next time we visit this part of the world, we can find somebody who will take us to a place that is more deserted and doesn't have 70 other divers in the water.
Black spotted sweetlips Plectorhinchus gaterinus. There were three of these hiding under a coral ledge. I didn't want to disturb them by getting too close.

Blackfin dartfish Ptereleotris evides. These are funky little fish. They're half black and half a beautiful powder blue. Its a shame that I couldn't get a better photo of these eye catching fish.
Regal angelfish Pygoplites diacanthus.

Blackbacked butterflyfish Chaetodon melannotus.