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Blue O Two “HAYAH” trip 28th Jan 2011

Posted: 17th February 2011

A good and adventurous week ducking and diving

As always Blue o2 came up trumps for me on this trip, from arriving at Gatwick to landing in Hurghada and transfer to MY Blue Melody.

As I had been on this trip exactly year ago I kind of knew what to expect with regards the reefs and wrecks that we were going to dive, it was just a case of, in what order and weather dependent.

Saturday 29th was the first day for us to dive so after getting clearance to leave port we were off to Poseidon reef for our check dive, all went well and everybody returned safely. We had 2 more dives that day which were the Chrisoula K Wreck at Abu Nabus and a Night dive at the Alternatives, both cracking dives.

Sunday 30th was the first alarm call at 6am, were off to Beacon rock to dive the Dunraven, lovely dive as you get a wreck dive and a reef dive all in one. Dive 2 was not so clever for me, it was the clean up dive and the area to clean was some distance away but hey ho lets go. It was as I expected a long swim to the Emperor Frazer against the current so by the time we got there it was time to turn around so not to much cleaning done. The twilight dive was better at String ray station “Alternatives”, Big Blue Spotted Ray and Jack Fish.

Monday 31st, Ras Mohamed, SAS style jump off the back of the boat as they are not allowed to moor up in the marine park, dived the wall and around to the wreck Yolanda, more toilets and baths than you can shake a snorkel at. Anemone city at Ras Mohamed is stunning, you can dive down to 30 or more meters but there is no need as the beauty is between 10 and 20ish meters. We moved on to Shag rock for our afternoon dive which was a drift, female Hawksbill joined us at the end which made the dive. We moved on to another reef to moor up for the night, the guys had gone out to see a couple of fishermen to ask if they needed any water or medication but noticed a gun on the deck so after the captain had consulted with the coastguard and police we were advised to move.

Tuesday 1st, thanks to those fishermen we were now moored up over a wreck that I had wanted to dive for a few years, the Rosalie Moller. Her deck is about 35ish meters so a deep but short dive, fantastic, everything that I had ever thought or read about her and following on from that the Ulysses at Bluff Point, yet another cracker. We moored up for the night to at Bluff point over the Barge, nice afternoon dive to get an idea of the marine live during the day as we were diving it at night too, so much more comes out to play at night.

Wednesday 2nd, the Barge area was our first dive of the day and was to be a reef clean up dive to, plenty of rubbish to pick up. We moved on to Siyal Kibal, nice casual dive, octopus and scorpion fish then on to Umm Gammaa for a night dive, all I wrote in my log was “lovely night dive”.
So this is where the funny began, as it was my last night of diving and I still had 2 3rd’s of a create to drink, beer obviously, best drink them. Anyway, off to bed after several but was awoken at about 2.30am by the sound of the rib powering around our boat and the boat engine’s starting. The Egyptian navy had spotted us moored up on the reef as they were out on their patrols and decided to board us with their AK47’s on show and check all the cabins then decided that we were breaking curfew and escorted us back into port.

Thursday 3rd, morning came and there was a mood of disappointment as we all thought the holiday was over, although there was a small chance that we could get out to dive the El Mina, a mine sweeper that was sunk during the 6 day war, 1967. It was touch and go but the clearance from the port authorities came through at 10.30am and we were on our way to do our last dive. I had dived it the previous year but the current was so strong that it was more of a chore than a dive, but this year, no current good viz and a very nice wreck to have a last dive on…

As always the food and service on the live aboard was spot on, I know there were a few people that had a few issues but I guess that happens to all of us at some time.