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On short notice of Nicolai I (Roland) learned about the year-end trip of the MY Independence II. Since my wife Antje did not want to go again to Egypt this year, I simply booked this liveaboard and shared a cabin with Nico. Most pictures in this report will therefore come from Nico. (http://www.divepics-posea.tk)
To get to Indy II in Port Ghalib we used Condor from Frankfurt to Hurghada. Hurghada airport we were accustomed professionally by Judith and her staff (Blue Water Safaris) and taken in a van to Port Ghalib in under three hours. There we were already awaited by the rest of the guests with dinner and a warm welcome of the crew.
Nico and I had the cabin no.3 on the lower deck. This is big enough for two divers who have brought for a week luggage and equipment. The two beds can accommodate the empty suitcase and a closet takes the clothes. Each participant of the trip, moreover, this time got a bathrobe and an Egyptian shawl, both of which proved to be very handy after the dives.
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The next morning we were off once in the morning, as the boat briefing had been conducted the day before and all documents had been collected. At air temperatures around 25 ° C and about the same water temperatures, the "check dive" took place on Ras Torombi, not far from Port Ghalib. The second dive that day took place here too. Although this dive site is not quite spectacular, it still offered me the opportunity to try out my new acquisition of a GoPro video camera Hero3 first time. Also the first time I brought the G11 Original Housing for Canon, equipped with the INON flash.
To already tell the truth here: The technology has left me several times in the lurch, so I brought only a few photos and a few videos home.
The trip to the Brothers Islands took place in the evening and was unusually quiet. Before midnight of the first day of diving, we moored on the south side of Big Brother. Here we should stay four dives before we moved to the little brother. If not already my dive computer would have displayed the third dive that it would want a new battery, this morning would have been a special experience on the southern plateau. A thresher shark at the bottom and a longimanus above could be filmed successfully.
A visit to the wreck of the "Numidia" gave me the chance to try out the GoPro with light. I did dive this interesting wreck for the first time from the inside. The fact that my surface marker buoy blew up on the northern tip of Big Brother in lot of swell and we were really difficult to be seen for the Zodiac driver has only disturbed us briefly. The crew of the Independence II is just very attentive and was very quick collecting us. We had gone down to a cleaning station for barracudas and gotten good motives in the video and photo in front of the lens.
After relocating to the little brother I made another dive with light counter flow on steep slopes and let the second dive out. After this, at the end of the third day the captain pulled away and sailed toward Daedalus Reef. This we arrived late at night and fixed the boat at the southern plateau of the reef with long lines due to strong current from south. This southern plateau should then be an objective of our first dive on the 4th day of diving. Because of some sincere current we have experienced that dive almost as a drift dive. The mackerel, white tip reef sharks and barracudas obviously did not do as hard we did.
Nevertheless, we jumped in into the same place again and this time made a real drift dive from it. With quite some power the current has taken us on the eastern edge of the reef and "showed us" the steep wall. It was pretty quiet at Daedalus Reef due to the season end. Only four boats had yet parked at different locations and even drove off ahead of us. The next day, when our captain decided to move away from the south and go to the north side of the reef, no more divers seen. On the contrary, we now had the advantage to jump off the boat into the water and dive the north side, from Nemo City in the west to the cliff on the east and so to avoid any current. Also on Daedalus Reef, we could photograph completely undisturbed a thresher shark, the curious about us and turned his rounds.
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The trip to Elphinstone took quite a while. From there we were able to quickly reach the Elphinstone reef for the first dive on the last day of diving. This we have dived on its south side and admire the beauty of the reef with excellent visibility. Steep slopes with soft corals and some white tip reef sharks were seen. Because of sustained southerly current we only have made this one dive and then finally an hour away changed to Marsa Shoona for the last dive. Unfortunately, this shallow water dive was also "equipped" yet with extremely poor visibility so we have broken it off after 30 minutes.
The diving in the Red Sea have fascinated us again, we have not seen any hammerhead sharks or manta rays also. Nevertheless, the sightings were interesting and challenging. Thresher sharks and barracudas on their cleaning stations are just but no all-days-experience. We have seen them.
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Rinse and dry the equipment was then made quickly on a shore in Port Ghalib. Packing the suitcase could well happen even the next morning. As always, the transportation back to Hurghada was professionally organized.
For the cordial and professional service on this liveaboard we would like to thank the prime crew of the MY Independence II and the entire team of Blue Water Safari once again. We'll be back, have even booked already.
Finally here are two Video-Clips
Please click on the pictures
Thresher-Shark |
Longimanus |