After my last diving experience in Australia, it was clear to me that diving was something that I really enjoyed and the best way for me to continue with diving was to get my Open Water Diver certification. This would enable me to buddy up with other certified divers and dive under the supervision of a Divemaster. I would no longer have to pay the high fees for an Instructor and also be able to explore some of less-explored parts of the dive site i.e. not be just confined to the training grounds. But almost a whole year had gone by (I had been quite busy at work, travelling between UK, South Africa and Colombia) and I had just not been able to firm up my next dive. With my 40th birthday, just around the corner – Sudha decided to give me a birthday gift that I will cherish for a long time. She booked a 8 day holiday for me at Sharm el Sheikh at a lovely all-inclusive resort and also booked me on an ‘Open Water Diver’ and an ‘Advanced Open Water Diver’ course with one of the top Dive schools. As I had promised Arjun (see brief mention in the last blog), that I will take him along on when he was 13 (and he was now) – I managed to get Arjun included in the all-inclusive and the OWD course as well.
Diving at Sharm el Sheikh actually meant diving at Ras Mohamed National Park, which comprises of a very thin strip of land at the southern tip of the Sinai peninsula at the northern end of the Red Sea. In itself a peninsula, Ras Mohamed is a national park bordered to the west by the relatively shallow waters of the Gulf of Suez where the maximum depth is 80 meters (260 feet), and to the east by the deep waters of the Gulf of Aqaba. The water at Gulf of Aqaba reaches depths of up to 1,860 meters (6,100 feet) as this is the beginning of the enormous cleavage in the earth’s crust which separates the African and Eurasian continental plates. To the north of Ras Mohamed, lies the resort town of Sharm el Sheikh which is about 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) away. Directly to the south lies the vast expanse of the Red Sea which is bordered to the west by the African coast to the east and by the Arabian peninsula.
Getting away from London towards the end of October, was a welcome break in itself. Coming out of the air-conditioned airport at Sharm el Sheikh, the warm air just soaks over you like a hot towel being wrapped around and you can feel your lungs expand to accommodate as much of the lovely warm air as you can take in. We were pleasantly surprised at the hotel to see that the dive school had an office in the lobby, where we registered – just after check-in. The man at the dive-school desk saw my all-inclusive wrist-band and warned me about drinking before diving. Hmmm.... still a small price to pay! Arjun and I went pretty crazy at the dinner buffet – what a spread! There was a fairly decent band playing and we joined in with the chorus every now and then.
The next morning, we met Alaa El din (Alladin), who was to be our dive instructor, at the Dive Cen
tre. Alladin was a young (about 35), confident man with an air of someone who has seen it all, but the most charming and humble demeanour. Over the next few days, Arjun and I got to know Alladin quite well and he, us. Alladin was born in Alexandria, dropped out of school when he was 7-8 and came away to Sharm el Sheikh, as was his dream. Over time he had worked for most of the Dive Centres in various capacities, right from the boy who packs and transports the boxes, to the guy on the boat, who helps with the mooring, anchoring etc, to accompanying people on dives and progressed from being a novice diver to ‘Master Instructor’. He speaks Arabic, English, Russian, Polish, Spanish and Italian fluently and is instantly recognised on any of the piers, boats or beaches and I can say this now – is an extremely good dive instructor. I think we just got incredibly lucky to have got Alladin as our instructor. Alladin is also the Technical Director of the dive centre and naturally, we got the best service and equipment by the dive centre team as we were with him. Moreover, we were accompanied by Rami, an assistant Diving instructor, on all our dives. Rami was shadowing Alladin to earn his credentials towards becoming a full Instructor.
The course also contains a ‘knowledge development’ module which involves going through manuals, videos and an exam. I negotiated with Alladin, that we would do this after-hours when we were back in our hotel room, rather than during the day – thereby maximising the time we had in the water. After all, we were there for this course and I really could not go partying in town with a 13 year old – so may as well put the evenings to good use! This arrangement actually gave us an extra day of Open water diving. It’s good to deal with someone who understands the reason why people dive – Alladin agreed, but wanted to be satisfied about our ability to handle ourselves in the water. Alladin took us directly to a dive site called ‘Shark’s bay’, where we got our kit on and in the shallow, calm waters of the bay, he went through the basic skills. This was my third time going through the basics, but I was quite pleased to see that Arjun was coping with all the exercises quite well – much better than I did on my first attempt. To be honest, I was a bit concerned about how Arjun would take to diving and if he did not like it, then that would pretty much put the damper on his holiday – but fortunately, it seemed to be going well so far. There were a few new skills exercises that I had not done before, but fairly straightforward. Alladin then took us a bit deeper to around 6m and then made us do all the exercises again – we coped fairly well. He also tested our swimming (300m) and floating (10 mins) skills – nothing extreme, just enough to determine if we had basic swimming abilities. Post lunch on the first day, we waded in from the shore into the depths (12m) of Shark’s bay. Given the name, it is likely that there may have been sharks here at one time – but today, there were none to be seen. We did see loads of fish, some amazing coloured corals and also an eagle ray a
nd a moray eel. Although, it was not strictly necessary, Alladin started us off with the healthy practice of including a 3 minute safety stop during our ascent at 5-6 meters on every dive. I had a great time, but my biggest pleasure came from watching Arjun enjoy himself under the water. He was a natural - my fears were completely unfounded. In the evening, we actually did what we promised to (probably because I did not want set Arjun a bad example and he had no choice!) and crammed through the manuals and completed the theory exercises. We realised the next day, that it had been quite useful, as some of the things that Alladin was telling us began to fall into place and we agreed to stick to this practice.
The next day, we went out by boat (a nice little luxury number, as they all were, with on-board toilets, wash ro
oms and kitchen facilities) to a dive site called ‘The Temple’. I have no idea why it was called that, but for the first time I was up on the sun-deck, out in the middle of the sea, with clear blue skies, crystal clear shimmering waters, the morning sun warming up the body and spirit – I did feel close to god. Once again the dive was wonderful – I am unfortunately getting a bit repetitive with my words about the fish and the corals – so I will only mention anything new from now on. On this dive, we also saw a few lion fish. Oh! Did I mention the corals? – red, green, blue, purple, yellow – as varied and colourful as the fish. Our second dive on this day was at a site called ‘Ras Katty’, where went down to depth of 12m with a bottom time of 47 minutes.
On our third day, we again went out by boat to a site called the ‘Lagoon South’. This was a picturesque site where a natural lagoon was formed between two coral reefs, far away from the mainland. The waters in the lagoon were so calm, that we could have been in an swimmin
g pool, albeit one of the most beautiful swimming pools ever. The density of fish in this lagoon were quite high and some of the specials we spotted were parrotfish and a spotted ray. The second dive of the day was at ‘Woodhouse Reef’. There was a mild current here and Alladin explained that we would be doing a ‘drift dive’ here. This basically meant that rather than fight the current, we would allow ourselves to be carried by the current along the reef and come up at a point where the current was weak and the boat would pick us from that spot, as they would be following us on the surface, providing surface supervision. This was a wholly enjoyable experience – I felt a bit like the turtle cruising the EAC in ‘Finding Nemo’. We descended quickly after jumping into the water and at a point I could feel the current get me and it was a bit hard to not resist. I then saw Arjun’s face and he looked like he had just got on a roller coaster – full of glee and abandon. I then decided to give in to the flow and then were just going along for the ride, buzzing through the scenery with the current ‘swimming for us’. Alladin stayed close to us at all times and we were always followed by Rami. Then at one point, Alladin motioned to us to follow him, kicking hard against the current – which we did and soon found ourselves out of the current. At this point, Alladin inflated a buoy he had in his kit and let it float up – that was the marker for the boat to find us.
On the fourth day, we went by boat to a site called ‘Ras Nasrani’, one of the more popular dive sites at Sharm. This was to be a drift dive as well, but also included briefly going into a cave. This reef had a steep wall to the south and an gradually sloping plateau to the north and a fairly strong current around the corner. The plateau, the wall and the reef have some spectacular corals and many fish. This time I also noticed medium sized fish like the tuna, barracuda and jackfish waiting in the current, for a smaller fish caught in the current to come straight to them. The cave we swam through was a bit disappointing as it lasted for only couple of minutes and had plenty of sunlight. Arjun tells me that only I could have found something to complain about on that dive. Boys! They are so easily pleased... On this day, however, I began to notice how comfortable both Arjun and I were and how the constant instructions from Alladin had become less frequent and how all the skills that we awkwardly started off learning on the shallow waters of the shore were now becoming second nature. I realised that this course with its mix of skills training, theory lessons and practical diving experience was a pretty effective one. During this time, I had progressed leaps and bounds in achieving neutral buoyancy – it still took me some work but I had got to a point, where I could just stay suspended in water at the same spot (give a or take a few inches, OK, Arjun - maybe a foot!) and control my depth level by just my breathing. The skills I found really hard to master involved taking the BCD (Buoyancy Control Device) jacket off and then putting it back on again underwater and taking my weight belt off and putting it on again underwater. In the first I found that once I had the jacket off, I wa
s too heavy with the weight belt on and would descend whilst the BCD and tank would float upwards – pulling it down, controlling it and getting it on, I found required a lot more strength than I had thought. It was exactly the other way around when I took off my weight belt, which would immediately sink towards the bottom, whilst I buoyed by the BCD and tank would float upwards. Basic underwater navigation was something that both Arjun and I enjoyed.
This completed our Open Water Diver course and we just had to complete our test that evening to get certified – which we did. We were certified Open Water Divers!
Over the next 3 days, I would go through my Advanced Diver course – whilst Arjun would come along and either dive with Rami or snorkel – as he pleased and/or as per Rami’s availability. My main motivation in going for the Advanced diver certification was the depth it let me go to – 30m! And to qualify as an advanced diver, I had to complete the ‘Advanced underwater navigation’, ‘Deep adventure’ dives and three other advanced dives that I selected with Alladin. As one of my main reasons for diving was to see and enjoy the splendour of the underwater flora and fauna, I picked the ‘Underwater naturalist’. Alladin suggested the ‘Boat dive’ and an ‘Advanced Drift Drive’ as they were fundamental for technical reasons and would be useful wherever I went. On this course, we also met up with another group – 3 dentists from the US who were also doing their Advanced Diver course. It was good fun and a lot of cheerful banter through the day.
On day 1, we went out by boat to ‘Jackfish Alley’. This site begins on a sheer wall. The early section of the wall is very porous, with lots of small holes and crevices, boasting a couple of penetrable caves, each featuring separate exit and entrance holes. We dropped off and descended around mid-way of the wall and proceeded southward, where the wall gave way to a sandy plateau at around 20 meters, well covered with coral heads and outcrops. After widening out considerably, this plateau narrows at its southern end to form a small channel or alley. Further out from the wall, there was a second, deeper plateau at around 30 m, which we did not go to. We saw loads of Jackfish and some stingrays and it was easy to see how this site got its name. This was an advanced drift dive with Alladin acting as the line-handler who had a surface float attached to him, which enabled the boat to follow us. The second dive of the day was at ‘Ras Ghozlani’. This site lies at the mouth of Marsa Bereka, the large shallow bay that nearly separates Ras Mohamed itself from the Sinai mainland. The reef follows the shoreline at the bay's northern point; a sheer but shallow inshore wall gives way to a sloping patchy reef face reaching 15 meters (50 feet) depth. It's hardly worth listing the vast array of coral at this site. If it exists in the Red Sea, you'll find it here. Fish life is abundant all across the reef in a riot of scintillating colour. This is one of the nicest spots on the Sinai coast when it comes to small reef species, which is why Alladin picked this site for our ‘Underwater Naturalist’ dive. Unlike the popular crowded sites, this superb site is not visited by hordes of divers every day so its delicate beauty is better preserved.
On day 2, The first dive of the day was at ‘Ras Katy’, which turned out to be a lovely shallow dive, plenty to see, Alladin also showed us where the mantis shrimp lived, who managed to make an appearance on cue.
Likewise with a huge Moray eel, who had popped his head out of his rocky shelter when we arrived. This dive was for the advanced underwater navigation section and it made sense to choose a fairly shallow and calm site. It was not until, Alladin asked us some basic questions that I realised how disoriented we were. I realised then that had Alladin not been constantly around, I would have been completely lost. This was a pretty difficult course and called on all my faculties to be exercised. One had to figure out how to estimate distances, establish topographical reference points, maintain direction using the compass navigation and not screw it up by variations in one’s kick-cycle, compensate for natural water movement. Most of these, we do without even thinking when we are on the surface – but it is a completely alien world down there. I seriously felt that this was an extremely useful session for me and gave me some confidence about being able to at least try to find my way underwater. We had a on-board tutorial session by Alladin that afternoon and how to use some of the more advanced diving equipment – like dive computers, but also what to do when the dive computer fails.
On day 3, we first went to Gordon Reef, for the ‘Deep dive’. I was to descend to a depth of 33m - 35 m and then come up. Now I had read up on deep diving and found the prospect of ‘going deep’ quite attractive, exciting and mysterious. At the same time, I did have creeping fears of Nitrogen Narcosis and wondered how I would react. In preparation for this dive, Alladin asked me to add up 2 four digit numbers on the boat and timed me; he got me to finish off the bottle of water I was drinking and closed it tightly and put it in his pocket and then finally, he put an object into one of his pockets without showing me what it is. During the dive, we gradually descended to the depth of 34m along the wall of the reef, and held on to a ledge staying at the depth for a minute, just taking in the sights. I was quite surprised at how everything looked dull blueish/purplish – not darker per se, but as through I was seeing through a coloured glass. Alladin then gave me his whiteboard and asked me to add up two different four digit numbers on the boat and timed me. He then showed me the bottle, which has completely collapsed into itself, due to the pressure (made me shudder to think that could have been my lungs, without the SCUBA kit) – he filled it up with air from his regulator and it expanded back to it’s original shape. He finally showed me the object he had in his pocket and asked me to write down what I thought it was. This was a roundish (like a burger) object, with a purplish-yellowish smooth shell on both sides and the middle was a purple fluffy mass. Now having read about the effect on colours at depth, I knew I was not seeing the real colour of this object, so I guessed that this may be the bud of cotton, with it’s shell still on at the sides. Alladin put the object in my pocket and asked me to look at it when we were back on the boat. The maths exercise was to check if my reactions slowed down at the depth, due to nitrogen narcosis – it did not. (Does that mean that I can still do math when I am a bit tipsy?); The bottle was to demonstrate the effects of pressure and he showed it to me on the boat – the bottle was rock-hard, with the air in it pushing against the sides. Alladin unscrewed the top and it flew off the bottle for over 30 feet. Finally he asked me to look at the object in my pocket. It was a bright red tomato – of which he had taken the skin off just in the middle. For the second dive of the day, we went to ‘Jackson Reef’ for a technical boat dive. More than the dive itself, this turned out to be more of a technical briefing on various aspects of boat diving – types of boats, names for different parts of a boat, checking safety/emergency equipment, boat dive preparation, boarding, diving, and ascending procedures etc. There was a dive too, but nothing very different to our previous dives, as most of them were boat dives as well. But this gave us a lot more appreciation for what the crew of the boat used to do in supporting us with the dive.
We were now ready to come back home – mission accomplished and certificates in hand!
On the flight back home, I wondered about how I felt about diving, now that I knew more about it. My love for diving comes directly from an inner peace, tranquillity and a fullness of spirit that is unique to the sport and experienced nowhere else. It derives from a sense of belonging and harmony in what one would normally consider to be a hostile environment. I’m drawn to the water and I want to embrace the adventure and sense of awe. These feelings are what initially attracted me to diving and they are as fresh today as they were on my very first dive. With the conclusion of every dive I only look forward with enthusiasm to the next!
For more images of our water escapades at Sharm el Sheikh, check out -
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=244365&id=704152886&l=010316e60c 
