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I just got back and got cleaned up from a day's diving. The sounds from the ubiquitous discos are beginning to filter up to my room in the early evening as I sit here and write on my computer. I'm glad I brought the computer. Other than the siren call of the loud Arab music permeating the brisk breezes outside there's nothing much to attract me here in Hurghada other than the diving.

On Sunday evening, we wound up the last lecture at EgypTesol. Liz and her flat full of visitors in for the conference went out for a kebab dinner and then returned Liz's where I finalized a proposal for an online conference. I sent that off and got packed with an hour to spare to visit with Liz before I would have to wander down to the street to grab a taxi in time to get my midnight bus to Hurghada, seven hours across the Sinai from Cairo. On the way to the bus station I practiced my Arabic on the driver and found out all I needed to know about how tough it is to be a driver in Cairo. Besides having to endure life-threatening traffic, my driver only drove nights, knocking off in time to grab 40 winks before his daytime job. He was 45 years old and had 7 children ranging in age from 2 months to 16 years, all but one boys. He took in 2000 pounds a month ($400) from driving a cab, half of which went to the bank to finance the vehicle. In explaining all this, he repeated key points in two- word summaries, and punctuated these with emphatic gestures that Arabs have been developing almost as an art form since the time of the pharoes. He was clearly having trouble making ends meet, working two jobs, driving a cab 7 days a week, and at the end of the journey I was so sorry for him I gave him 30 pounds, 10 more than what he'd asked (essentially, a two buck tip, the least I could do).

I had been led to believe there were 3 buses a day to Hurghada from Cairo, and arrived early at the station anticipating a crowd scene. In fact, the station was quiet and efficient, with a bus leaving for Hurghada at 11:30 as well as midnight. I was ushered aboard and ensconced in a seat that would have made a fine berth on one of those comfortable Rajistan overnight sleeper buses. The seat reclined, the ride was smooth, and the a/c kept up a steady drone … as did the television and stereo system, blaring all night long. Someone later told me that the point was not to let the passengers sleep, but to keep them awake so they would order more drinks and snacks throughout the night. That explains this loud music outside my window then, the hotel trying to get guests out of their beds in their rooms and down into the money spinners which are deliberately operating on high volume to prevent the guests from doing what they thought they were paying for: sleep.

So, I caught the midnight bus to Hurghada and arrived before dawn having grabbed only the slightest of naps en route. I was so tired I could hardly negotiate with the cab driver, who hit me up for the 'tourist tax', demanding 20 pounds for the trip to a nearby hotel, and only grudgingly coming down to 15. I had no idea how long the ride would be, but it took only 5 min and should have been only a few pounds. He did take me to what he said was the cheapest hotel in Hurghada, and it turned out to be not all that bad, with a bath and fridge in the room, phone, tv with Arabic, Russian and German channels, and wall outlets for my computer. I took a room for 100 pounds a night with buffet breakfast, about $20.

I asked at the front desk about diving. The man said he could arrange it and I should call back down at 7:30. I set my alarm for that time and laid down for a deep hour's sleep. I didn't hear the alarm and 2 hours later the phone rang. A driver was waiting and I was whisked off in a van to do the round of hotels, picking up mainly Russian tourists with famlies and children. I can't say much about the town. It was older than Sharm El Sheikh with islolated hotels and a distinctly Egyptian center. My hotel was on one outskirts and the harbor on the other. We reached the modern but empty hotel where the beach facility was at around 9. There was some confusion over who I would be diving with. It turned out there were beginning divers that day and next day would be experienced ones. It looked like I was being tossed in with the Russian snorkelers. Eventually I was shunted to a boat with proper divers. Both boats, huge proper seaworthy craft, left harbor at around 10.

Our boat lagged behind the other. Osama, our dive guide, said it would take an hour to reach the site, and a half hour later, when we hadn't made much progress , I asked if it would be an hour at that speed. He checked and found the boat had engine problems. Soon it shut down all together, not all that far from the harbor with its mountain backdrop. The wind was whipping cold by now and the blue sea was full of white caps though not all that choppy. The crew set out an anchor but soon took that up and replaced it with another larger one. It didn't seem there were any hands to work on the engine. Meanwhile we were being told that there was a problem with a pump, it would be replaced, and we would be on our way. After 45 min the engine started and we resumed our journey, the captain keeping the engine running low to keep the RPMs down and the engine cool.

I took a nap on a cushion but was awakened by some irregularity in the engine, a knocking, a rough variation on the steady drone. Again the engine was shut down. I had GPSed the previous point. Half an hour had passed and we had come 5 km. Peering over the bridge I saw the captain on the bow waving his arms to attract a passing boat. This was not encouraging. I went down to the engine room and found the crew bailing water from the bilge, no work going on with the engine. I asked about it and was told not to worry, there was a spare, the engine was too hot now. It was noon. We could see pods of boats moored on the dive sites, so near yet so far across the windswept sea.

Monday, December 16, 2002

Diving with: Red Sea Divers
Dive buddies: Barbara and Osama
Others in dive party: travelers
Conditions: windy, swell
Visibility: 10-15 meters or so
Wetsuit: my 5 mil farmer john with the 5 mil Typhoon top
Weight:8-10 kg-ish
Diving from:Red Sea and Bijou dive boats

My 467th Logged Dive since 1991

Dive site: Gutta Abu Ramada
Training conducted: fun dive

Data from dive computer:

Interval on computer from previous dive: nil, first dive of day

Time down on dive computer: 14:55
Max depth: 14.5 meters
Time started up from chart: no chart
Dive time from computer: 1 hr 5 min
Min Temp: 24 degrees centigrade
Nitrox 21% (normal air), no deco

PSI/Bar in: xx bar
PSI/Bar out: xx bar on main tank

Description of dive:

Eventually another boat pulled alongside and towed us to our site, Guttat Abu Ramada. The big island there was called Abu Ramada and this was a piece of it (literally), a submerged atoll with a dozen big boats moored on its south side. After getting towed in place by the assist boat Osama went over with a line and we tied to a buoy. As we kitted up he explained we would dive one direction and then the other. My buddy would be an attractive Danish medical student named Barbara who had certified as divemaster in Ko Tao, and we would dive as a threesome.

The vis was great and the dive was pleasant. There were some unusual things to see. First off was the alligator fish. I would see several over the next couple of days. This was a fish looking very much like a stubby alligator, same eyes, mouth, and flat body shape, but mottled like a goat fish. There were many lion fish including some that were dark and spidery. We saw a lone barracuda, several big sweet lips, a nudibranch, several morays including a huge 3 meter long brown one lying full under a ledge, a scorpion fish much like the ones back home, and lots of reef fish also like the ones back home, except there were a lot of unicorns, and the angels and butterflies had different markings. Because of the great vis it seemed we were swimming in a fishbowl, and it was very colorful and pleaasant.

Pressure group out, from tables or wheel: n/a

My 468th Logged Dive since 1991

Dive site: Gutta Abu Ramada
Training conducted: fun dive

Data from dive computer:

Surface interval: 1 hour 10 min.
Pressure group at start of repetitive dive: n/a

Time down on dive computer: 17:12
Max depth: 14.3 meters
Time started up from chart: no chart
Dive time from computer: 1 hr 9 min
Min Temp: 24 degrees centigrade
Nitrox 21% (normal air), no deco

PSI/Bar in: xx bar in
PSI/Bar out: xx bar on main tank

Description of dive:

Back on the boat, taking off a wetsuit was a shock due to the cold wind, and putting it back on after a filling lunch of kabob, rice, and salad was almost as bad. The second dive was more of the same but to the left. We got away from the reef to find some coral towers but our dive guide wanted to retrace our route before we were ready. The corals here were orange and blue and would have been perfect for the cover of a dive magazine but the fish were sort of ordinary. We had some excitement when the buckle to Barbara's weight slipped and she went out of control to the surface. I finned after her but my computer complained so I let her go and went back for her weights, which I didn't want to lose track of because I thought she might want them later. I also clacked to attract Osama who headed also to the surface, so I swam up to intercept him with Barabara's weights. I stayed just below them while Barbara sorted herself out and redescended. Back on the atoll wall we found the big moray again. He swam into a rock and stuck his head out of it, and Osama showed us how we could come up behind and pet it. Back under the boat, Barbara had half a tank left and wanted to keep going so I accompanied her. I found a blue and white striped pipe fish with a fan-shaped fin on its tail that helped it avoid my grasp.

We had changed boats during our surface interval so we had one that worked to take us back to the harbor. Due to the many delays the trip was at sunset with the sky behind the mountains aglow in orange.

My 'transfer' back to my hotel consisted of a young boy accompanying me to the street and trying to hail a share taxi. He had two pounds in his hands and if the driver said 5 he would wave him on. Eventually he found one for me. I piled in with my dive bag and was taken to the center of town where the driver returned a pound to me and told me to take another bus from there. In this way I learned how the share taxi system worked and that you could ride from station to station for a pound, about 20 cents.

Tuesday, December 17, 2002

Pressure group out, from tables or wheel: n/a

Diving with: Red Sea Divers
Dive buddies: Barbara and Jurgen
Others in dive party: travelers
Conditions: windy, swell
Visibility: 10-15 meters or so
Wetsuit: my 5 mil farmer john with the 5 mil Typhoon top
Weight:8-10 kg-ish
Diving from:Red Sea and Bijou dive boats

My 469th Logged Dive since 1991

Dive site: Wreck
Training conducted: fun dive

Data from dive computer:

Interval on computer from previous dive: 17 hours 36 min, first dive of day

Time down on dive computer: 12:03
Max depth: 31.9 meters
Time started up from chart: no chart
Dive time from computer: 1 hr 10 min
Min Temp: 23 degrees centigrade
Nitrox 21% (normal air), 12 min deco

PSI/Bar in: xx bar
PSI/Bar out: 30 bar on main tank, plus took air from safety tank dangling beneath boat

Description of dive:

Next day I went diving with the same company and they told us it would be a special dive on some wrecks. There were two Russians out for a try dive, Barbara had returned, and another diver named Jurgen joined us (an experienced rescue diver). The wreck, El Mina, was only 15 min from the hotel, away from the reefs around Abu Ramada, and in front of the naval base near the big hotel Arabia. We didn't think much of the plan, especially as I was put in charge of the dive. It was an easy dive to lead, just go down to mooring line to the boat, easily seen in good vis, find the bow to the west, and go around it and through it to the extent possible. There wasn't much there except harbor trash. We quickly got bored with it and explored the reefs to the north. These climbed in impressive rills to heights of 20 meters below the surface, with shallower reefs more to the south. However, there wasn't much here either and we returned to the wreck, going to its bottom at 30 meters and over the top at around 20, exploring its hold. I must have been in resort mode, thinking I was diving purely for pleasure, because I was enjoying the tableaux of lion fish, and finding tiny pipe fish to show to Barbara, when about half hour into the dive I glanced at my computer and found we were ten minutes into deco. How could I have been so slack. All our air was holding out was the problem, we all had half tanks left, and it hadn't occurred to me that we could have accumulated so much nitrogen consuming so little air. It was a great lapse on my part, being the dive leader, to have not monitored this more closely. Jurgen was all right; he had a computer and could have signaled up at any time. I had given my watch to Barbara, but found out later she didn't have a depth gauge. So this was a potentially dangerous situation. I thought to move us up the reefs to the north but on the way there decided that would take us far from our boat, and my air was slipping too close to 50 by then so I decided to reverse direction and swim up and over the wreck and go up the mooring rope. Good decision (how could we have done otherwise) as there was a bottle of spare air hanging off the back of our boat. By now we had 12 min deco to get rid of which was not a problem except everyone got chilled while venting, and this might have been a factor in Barbara's deciding not to do her second dive. Other factors may have been the state of her gear (shoddy, too big for her) and the fact that she had no depth gauge which she now probably considered indispensible considering the judgment of the dive leader. I had been continually signaling her on our deco stop to come up to my level, and it has just occurred to me while writing this that her depth control relied entirely on my signals, as she had no independent way to judge depth.

In all, this dive had lasted 70 minutes during which time the Russian try divers had been waiting aboard, but now it was their turn. We were all happy to have a long surface interval, and we were entertained by the sight of the two Russians being taken down one by one and returned to the boat after 20 min spluttering and with splitting earaches. The boat was then moved to a coral patch where we anchored in blue lagoon waters and watched glass bottom boatmen come along to kill the goose that laid their golden egg by throwing anchors onto the coral that so delighted the tourists and pulling the boats over the surviving coral by the anchor ropes so the tourists could see what was left beneath the boat. The Russians had their second dive here while Jurgen, Barbara and I sat up top to catch sunbeams against the wind, but the wind won out and we soon retreated to the cockpit below.

Pressure group out, from tables or wheel: n/a

My 470th Logged Dive since 1991

Dive site: Wreck of the Sylvia
Training conducted: fun dive

Data from dive computer:

Surface interval: 2 hour 37 min.
Pressure group at start of repetitive dive: n/a

Time down on dive computer: 15:53
Max depth: 21.7 meters
Time started up from chart: no chart
Dive time from computer: 1 hour
Min Temp: 23 degrees centigrade
Nitrox 21% (normal air), no deco

PSI/Bar in: xx bar
PSI/Bar out: xx bar on main tank

Description of dive:

Now it was time to do our second dive on the wreck I believe was called the Sylvia, which was in 20 meters of water right off the boat harbor we were returning to. Our dive plan in fact was to drop down on the wreck, swim around and through it, and then head home on a 210 degree heading, which should bring us up at the hotel. The boat returned to the hotel, so our navigation had better be correct.

Keeping to ourselves our disappointment at being taken to a wreck that was a shore dive from the hotel, Jurgen and I dutifully went down on it and swam around it once. I found only a nudibranch with longitudinal stripes and then we decided to explore the reefs to the north. These turned out to be interesting, with towers of coral lining sand-bottom canyons, captivating in their way, the decent vis heightening the experience. Overhead a school of larval barracuda circled in formation. We went out from the wreck and up to a depth of perhaps 11 meters, then reversed back to the barracuda, approaching them from a seemingly different direction, and back to the wreck, which I hadn't even been trying to find. At the wreck we had only a minute of non deco time left so we decided to head home over the sand and grass and harbor trash. By the time we got there we had a couple minutes deco to burn off while we watched tropicals nibble at the gunk coating the piers.

Pressure group out, from tables or wheel: n/a

I was seriously disillusioned with a dive outfit that would send us out on a boat with a duff motor one day and take us diving in the harbor the next, so I made no commitments about diving with them next day, but decided to find another dive shop. So eschewing taxis I set off on foot with my dive bag on my back to see what I could find. Jurgen had told me there were a number of dive shops 'downtown' (BUT he said, there were two downtowns). I walked through one of the downtowns without seeing a single dive shop. I stopped for a beer and a sandwich at an outdoor café with bedouin wool seats and marveled at the Russian girls in their shapely tops in the shadow of the statue of the mermaid in the center of the roundabout, with onl y a pair of shells for a top. I marveled at how such as statue might play in a roundabout in the UAE or Oman, or how about Saudi Arabia?

Continuing on my walk, I found Barbara at a café and sat down and had a coffee with her, but still no dive shops. By now it was getting sunset. I decided to take a one-pound cab. At the first stop I saw a dive shop. I got off and chatted up the guys inside but decided it was not much different from the outfit I was diving with already. I repeated the procedure, taking a one-pound minibus to the next shop, and here I found my dive for the next day. I put 20 pounds down on it. Incidentally, diving here costs $30 for 2 dives with lunch.

As I write this I'm preparing to meet one of the hotel receptionists at the Café Halood. He was impressed with my Arabic and thought I might enjoy a meeting for a walk around town. As it turns out, this is a good time to stop writing. I'll meet with him and send this from the Internet café downstairs after I get back. Unfortunately the phone jack in my room is not standard. Anyway, I'm glad I brought my computer.

Wednesday, December 18, 2002

Diving with: Bijou Divers
Dive buddies: a German guy
Others in dive party: travelers
Conditions: windy, swell
Visibility: 10-15 meters or so
Wetsuit: my 5 mil farmer john with the 5 mil Typhoon top
Weight:8-10 kg-ish
Diving from:Red Sea and Bijou dive boats

My 471st Logged Dive since 1991

Dive site: Fanosir or somesuch
Training conducted: fun dive

Data from dive computer:

Interval on computer from previous dive: 19 hours and 39 min., first dive of day

Time down on dive computer: 12:35
Max depth: 26.9 meters
Time started up from chart: 66 min.
Dive time from computer: 68 min.
Min Temp: 23 degrees centigrade
Nitrox 21% (normal air), no deco

PSI/Bar in: xx bar in
PSI/Bar out: xx bar on main tank

Description of dive:

Given the go-ahead to dive apart from the group, my buddy and I went down into pool clear water with the reef of the island shallow to our left and a dropoff to the right. We went for the dropoff and got down to about 26 meters, but there was nothing there but sand and rocks, so we mutually agreed to gain altitude. At 12 meters or so we found there was nothing to explore but the rock wall, with its groups of divers meandering to and fro on it. Interestingly though, we found a blue and yellow speckled ray just below where a group of divers finned overhead without stopping to look. After that not much to see along the sand. I found a lovely nudibranck, green with black spots, and a few lion fish. We went for 45 min till my buddy got down to half a tank (I had less) and then returned. I think my bud thought we'd gone too far as he finned fast ahead of me, anxious to get back. In the blue there were lots of fish and I clacked him back to see a school of squid. There were mackerals there as well. Both of us were pushing 30 when we found our boat, the one with the buoy dangling from it.

Pressure group out, from tables or wheel: n/a

My 472nd Logged Dive since 1991

Dive site: Bijou 'secret' Reef
Training conducted: fun dive

Data from dive computer:

Surface interval: 1 hour 35 min.
Pressure group at start of repetitive dive: n/a

Time down on dive computer: 15:20
Max depth: 20.9 meters
Time started up from chart: 68 min
Dive time from computer: 70 min
Min Temp: 23 degrees centigrade
Nitrox 21% (normal air), no deco

PSI/Bar in: xx bar in
PSI/Bar out: xx bar on main tank

Description of dive:

Ahmed made a great show of telling us that this was a reef that no one ever dived, just visited by glass bottom boats (like the ones we had seen the day before, because this was near where we had seen them the day before). In fact, it appeared to be the same reef the discover scuba training had been conducted on the day before, just near the first wreck we had dived. It was a shallow spot and though attractive, not all that interesting, the usual throw-away second dive of the day, site picked for convenience to harbor, which was just nearby, right off the Arabia Hotel and the freshly painted yellow one next to the harbor access gate.

My buddy and I were told to take a northerly heading and enjoy a shallow dive over colorful coral with lots of fish. We were first in off the boat, wheeled east and north (should have gone west) and dropped over the lip of the bowl we were anchored in. We picked our way over spires of dead coral largely devoid of fish life. When I noticed we'd got down to 20 meters I knew we had gone wrong and wheeled us east again (should have gone west) and back to the south till we had climbed back over the bowl. In shallow water and unbeknownst to my buddy I surfaced and saw the boat, then went back down and led my buddy right where the other divers had just entered the water and were beginning their dive. We followed them this time, again on a northerly heading, but because they were slightly to the west of where we had been, we went out over shallow reef this time.

We had consumed 50 bar at 20 meters and back but we conserved and managed to stay down as long as most others who had started after us. The dive was shallow and led out over beautiful reef teeming with fish that, except for the schools of unicorns, seemed nothing special after a while. There were lots of blue lipped clams. Returning to the boat at the end of the dive, I saw an eagle ray drop onto a sand patch and cruise up the other side. When I clacked to alert the others, he kicked into gear and vanished, so only my buddy saw it besides me, the others finning along lately. We ended back at the boat where I only had about 20 bar, but it was ok as I sort of vegitated under the boat while my buddy made wider circles. Getting cold, we surfaced after 70 min underwater.

Pressure group out, from tables or wheel: n/a