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Liveaboard with Tony Backhurst on MV Cyclone

Despite a shaky start to our annual dive holiday with the crash and burn of Excel Holidays, and the subsequent worry, less than a fortnight before, that our holiday would be spent at home in the murk and gloom, Tony Backhurst Scuba Travel came through and organised alternative flights, with only a few of us being out of pocket for the internal flight from Newquay.

Eight members of our club, and eight members of variously Scottish sac, one of the Isle of Man bsac clubs, and various other organisations, set off at a reasonable hour on Thursday the 25.9.08 for Sharm.

After an uneventful flight, we arrived at Sharm Airport and after retrieving kit were promptly met by Tony Backhurst reps and took quite a comfortable coach to the Port.  We could a number of liveaboards from the gate, but I think it took a bit of bribery and kit being x-rayed to get us in.!.

Found “Cyclone”, much impressed beautiful boat.  All boarded and down to the meeting room for a “briefing”, a word which we were going to be hearing at 6am every morning, and still rings in our ears now!.  We met our dive guide Sonia, a wonderful diver and a very nice patient, kind and funny person.  After meeting Sonia and completing the necessary paperwork we unpacked our dive kit and assembled at our stations on the dive deck, with all our loose “bit"neatly stowed in the plastic boxes underneath.

Awoke the next morning(Friday), to the sound of “briefing” and the door being knocked.
Schedule for the day:
Stingray Station 7am
Kimon M 1030am
Christelsoula K 4pm
Abu Na Has Reef 6pm

Saw first sting rays, moray eels, parrot fish, clown fish, etc, good start on Abu Na Has Reef

Kimom M and Christelsoula K

The Kimon M was a general cargo vessel of 3,129 tonnes, with four cargo holds - two forward of and two aft of the central bridge structure. She was built Germany in 1952 and in December 1978, loaded with 4,500 tons of lentils she made her final voyage. On December 12th 1978, with engines at full speed the Kimon M drove hard onto the northeast corner of Sha’ab Abu Nuhâs Reef. A passing cargo ship, the Interasja, immediately responded to the distress call and picked up all the crew and delivered them safely to Suez two days later.

The initial impact drove the Kimon M hard onto the top of the reef where she stayed for several days, allowing the recovery of some of her cargo. Wind and currents pushed the ship onto her starboard side until the remainder of the ship fell into deeper water, coming to rest at the base of the reef. Later a large hole was cut into the vessel in order to salvage the majority of the engine. Max 26m.

The Chrisoula K was a Greek registered freighter and on its final journey its cargo consisted of Italian floor tiles heading for Jeddah. It sank August 31st 1981 after Captain Kanellis passed over control of his ship following two days of intensive navigation. Shortly after the engines were set at full speed and the Chrisoula K was driven right into the northeast corner of Sha’ab Abu Nuhâs Reef. Thankfully there was no loss of life.

The Chrisoula K now sits in a large open, sandy space. The bows used to rise out of the water, but wave action has now reduced them to a few metres below the surface. The main body of the wreck is generally upright with the cargo of tiles still in place. The stern leans well over to the starboard and is slowly separating altogether. Deep inside the stern, the engine room offers some serious penetration diving for the experienced wreck diver, although there are numerous obstructions so be careful. There is also the possibility of some much more straightforward penetration with plenty of easy swim-throughs and access to areas worthy of exploration without the danger of becoming lost inside. At the seabed, the large propeller and rudder are still virtually undamaged at the maximum depth for this dive of 26m. The Chrisoula K is now covered in an assortment of hard corals and has been made home by a variety of reef fish. This shipwreck offers a variety of different dives to cater for all levels of experience.

The Chrisoula was a very nice wreck dive, enjoyed penetration and the numerous glassfish, even able to easily look inside engine room and see our twin-set chaps down there.  Impressive propellor.

Depth: 6 - 18 metres (18 - 60 feet)

Visibility: 25 metres (80 feet)

Rating: ****

Behind the main reef system at Sha’ab Abu Nuhâs on its southern side is a much smaller and very beautiful reef known as Yellowfish Reef. Its name derives from the proliferation of “yellow fish” found here - large shoals of sweetlips and Red Sea bannerfish to name just a few.

Yellowfish Reef consists of a main elongated oval shaped reef with two smaller reef “bits” located off its west tip. It is possible to dive the entire circumference in one dive, although this is likely to take in the region of 70 minutes and is dependant on the current. If you plan this and the current allows, ascend to 6 metres after around half an hour to allow you enough air. The currents here can be strong due to the location of the reef. Although it is behind the main reef of Abu Nuhâs, it is still open to the current coming from the north and directly out of the nearby Gubal Straights. Often the current will sweep in from the northeast and split on the northeast corner of Yellowfish Reef. The dive plans I find work best here is to either drop in on the northeast corner and drift with the current along the north side, exiting on the south edge or, if you want to try and circumnavigate the whole reef, drop in on the south east corner and swim north northeast into the oncoming current.

The first 10 to 15 minutes may be hard work against the current; however as you round the northeast tip you will drift with the current for a large part of the dive before rounding the southwest corner where there is usually no current. Here you should be at 6 metres, where there is a small ledge covered in acropora, table corals and other stony corals. Head east along the back of the reef and return to your exit / entry point. If there is some current against you towards the end of the dive, simply ascend and exit early. Most of the reef wall drops lazily down to the 15 to 18 metre mark where there are coral outcrops and huge boulder corals on the sloping seabed, The coral is covered in antheas, sweetlips, goatfish, masked butterfly fish, bannerfish, antenna fish and there are large numbers of coral grouper to be found meandering amongst the coral formations. On the southeast tip, where you may choose to enter and swim north east against the current for the first part of your dive there are some large coral boulders at 15m where dense groups of sweepers and glassfish glisten in the sunlight which penetrates from above. As well as the currents, which can be strong, it’s worth mentioning the northwest corner where the stony corals drop down very gently in boulder type formations. Here, if you stay down at 15m it’s easy to swim away from the reef and become a little disoriented, so if you find yourself unsure at any point it’s best to head up to the 6m mark where the reef becomes more defined.

This dive site is not dived anywhere near as much as the wrecks on the north side of Abu Nuhâs, so you might not dive here during the day, unless conditions are too rough to dive the wrecks. Dive boats often elect to stay the night on the south side of Abu Nuhâs and Yellowfish Reef makes an excellent night dive. If your dive vessel has a tender or RIB then this becomes a viable option as you can be ferried to the reef and dropped in, then the tender can follow the lights from your torches and pick you up when you surface. I have often seen large red Spanish dancers at night here and the coral colours really come out in your torch light.

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Again awake at 6am to the sounds of “briefing” this will be repetitive throughout this review:) Fun planned today: Thistlegorm, small passage, dunraven, beacon rock.

Well the Thistlegorm hardly needs any introduction this dive we penetrated the holds and admired the trucks with their cargo of motor-bikes, and crates of torpeodos on the deck with the date of manufacture stamped on them 1929, the thistlegorm has a beautiful bow absolutely encrusted, and still anchored to the sea-bed, also saw the loco on the deck.  Very nice wreck and second favourite of the dive holiday, the Ghianis D being my personal favourite.  Even found a completly encrusted broken bowl and what looked like the face of a clock, my husband sequestered this in my bc pocket to take up, but embarrassingly confiscated by Dive Guide and tossed back to seabed!.

For a bit of History the Thistlegorm was bombed by a heinkel bomber in 1943 two days before the Rosie Moller.  They were actually looking for the Queen Mary, when low on fuel and about to turn around they came on the Thistlegorm like a sitting duck, at anchor, she now lies with her anchor stretched taught in front of her, forever anchored to the seabed, but I wax lyrical here, sorry:).

Small passage quite scary current fuelled reef dive!.

Dunraven, well again I might start weeping:), lovely upturned hull, sunk in 1860s, penetrated the engine room, beautiful propeller of older style, much enjoyed this dive, beautiful wreck.

Sorry cant remember the night dive Beacon reef, all in the name, a reef, only joking, very pretty reef with lovely coral formations, crept up on some glass fish and sat in the middle of them.

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Missed out on first dive “The Carnatic” as planned to have a little drink last night and did so.  Heard she was a lovely atmospheric dive though.

Next dive was my favourite “The Ghiannis D” beautiful cargo ship, absolutely breath taking and a lovely “A Frame” to deco on, covered in life.  A most beautiful ship, that really got to me, I thought this was lovelier than the thistlegorm.

Our Next dive after an excellent lunch was “the Barge”, which we dived day and night.  Morays, lion fish and covered in life, at night even more covered in life and George the resident Moray and his friend out in all their glory, quite liked this little wreck.

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First Dive to the Rosalie Moller

Slightly larger than her close neighbor the “Thistlegorm”, this remarkable wreck lies at 50 meters with her forward mast reaching vertically up to 17 meters below the surface.  She was 108 meters long, displacing 3960 tons.

Launched in 1910 as the “Francis” she was built in Glasgow, Scotland by Barclay Curle and CO.  She was later sold to another company, Moller Line and renamed “Rosalie Moller”. The vessel was used to assist merchant and allied Navel vessels by supplying “Best Welsh” coal to all the coal fired ships during the WWII.

Her final voyage started out uneventfully, loading what would be her last consignment of “Best Welsh” in late July 1941. Bound for Alexandria, in Northern Egypt the Rosalie Moller finally entered the Red Sea and on reaching the Gulf of Suez, was assigned “Safe Anchorage” where she was to wait for further instructions.

The Final Resting Ground of the Rosalie Moller
On the night of the October 8th 1941, two days after the sinking of the Thistlegorm, she was attacked by Heinkel bombers and heavily damaged on the starboard side, resulting in her sinking. There were two deaths, with the survivors taking to the lifeboats.  The Rosalie Moller now is home on the western side of Gubal Island, north of Hurghada.

Diving the Wreck
Intact, upright and in pristine condition, she now lies on the bottom with her bow down in the sand.  When you drop down the forward mast from the mooring you are filled with tremendous excitement and immense anticipation as the remains of masthead lamp form in the distance.

Descending further, the sharp outline of the deck can be seen, with the bow located at around 39 meters which we did not get to being pass our qualification depth.  The starboard anchor is deployed with the chain running down to the seabed and then out of sight.  The port anchor remains fully retracted.  The railings are relatively still in place, as is much of the deck paraphernalia such as: winch houses, blocks and hawsers.  Almost eerily, everything still appears tidy and intact.

Excellent large wreck, could have done with three-four dives on her to appreciate everything.

Next dive was shag rock and then the thistlegorm day and night dive.

3009-011008 all reef dives on Yolanda rSurprisingly still some wreck remains teetering on the edge of the Yolanda reef, and I found the wing mirror of the captains mercedes that was on the deck, did not dare try to get away with lifting it this time though!.  Found sinks and a handy toilet as picture below show’s.

Penetrated coral covered in glass fish, who hardly noticed me there, or were ignoring the big ungainly diver, one of the two!.

Summing up
We had some fascinating and thrilling dives, one of the reef dives saw Ian, Debbie, Darran and Myself fighting through the current digging our hands into the sand to make any progress!.

I also had a wonderful encounter with a turtle which came up behind me whilst we were looking for hammerheads.  Not in the same league but still a great encounter.

We also had one quite shocking day where we were crossing the Straits of Tiran, in an extremely powerful swell, the boat was listing at a minimum of 45 degrees and Debbie, the two girls from Scottish Sac and myself were holding onto the rail, whilst wicker furniture, tables and water bottles were flying around the sun deck!, in the television room, speakers flew around, tables and chairs tipped over and Ian and Bernadine(part of another couple who joined us)sustained bruising and cuts when they were tossed across the floor.  I admit to being in mild shock after this incident, and it showed us just how scary it could be to be on a ship that was really in trouble.

The dive guides, dive helpers, or at least thats what I thought they were:) and the cook, could not do enough to help us.

Only gripes would be how close to our heads the dive boats came when we were picked up, we soon learned to swim 3m under the surface and come up beside the rib.
A wonderful holiday, new friends made, and a very good company.  Certainly personally would be happy to dive with Tony Backhurst again as soon as possible:)

TRIP TO SEE QUEEN TRIBUTE BAND – MONARCHY
Saturday the 11th of October saw a group of us invading the Indian Queens working mans club to see the tribute band monarchy, the lead singer had a very powerful voice and a penchant, just like Freddie, for dressing up as a very sexy lady.

Info
Monarchy is an established and fully professional Queen Tribute Band.

The artistes - Dean Fox (Freddie) is one of the few who can actually play piano and guitar like the great man himself. .
Steve Ward’s (Brian May) experience includes 5 years with Jimmy James and the Vegabonds, and he has also worked with Eddie Flloyd, The Four Tops and The Temptations.
Paul Mitchell and Gary Hunt, (John Deacon and Rodger Taylor) are both experienced musicians in many fields.
By the end of the evening nearly everyone was behaving disgracefully and a good time had by all.

Apologies to Mr. Steve Noble for being so inebriated as to forget to take him home in our Taxi, we are very very sorry, grovel, grovel.

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