Part four of Gary Green’s account of the Deptherapy Red Sea Military and Forgotten Wrecks liveaboard expedition.

Day Five: SS Dunraven

First up was another RIB dive, onto the S.S Dunraven this time. RIB dives are mega, I love the feeling as you plunge into the water backwards flipping over as your head bobs back out of the water. As we went under the water, the view of the wreck was right beneath us. The Dunraven sat alongside a beautiful reef, so not only did we have history to experience, we also had a beautiful back setting that was alive with marine life. Anyone who has dived in the Red Sea can vouch for the vibrant colours and the generous amount of them; just as soon as you look out of your mask a door to another dimension is opened. The only problem is that you don’t know where to look, there is just so much. I was like a child in a sweet store: soft corals, anemones, moray eels, blue spotted rays, sea urchins, hard corals, turtles, barracuda, tuna, clown fish, angel fish, the list goes on and on and that’s no exaggeration.

The wreck itself was pretty amazing. At about 20 meters was an opening, almost at the seabed of the wreck. We were able to pass through with our torches illuminating the water damaged surfaces that were once in pristine condition. Over time the steel side of the vessel has rusted away, covered in marine life whose minerals over the years had taken hold of every inch, so not one part of the ship was recognisable by anything other that shape. As we passed through the damaged bottom of the wreck, there was no natural light and all I could see was whatever my torch beam could reach. At moments, breaks in the metal gave way to the light that shone through the water, piercing the super structure. As we swam the rusty obstacle course we came across hidden marine life, damaged pieces of the structure and small holes that we were able to penetrate allowing us to manoeuvre through the ship. At the other end, we reached an opening that led onto the open sea, the big blue, a seeming infinite stretch of different shades of water, full of endless possibilities and wonder.

Day Five: Straits of Tiran – Jackson Reef

“There are hammerheads at the northern edge of the reef at forty meters,” said Steve Rattle, pointing the location out to us on a map during the dive plan. Once those words were said I was fixated and it was the only information I could take in. However the conditions were such that we were unable to get to the north side of the reef. It was like being shot through the heart, a bit of an exaggeration actually, but I was gutted.

Instead I was in for a treat. I was to be assisting as a Dive Master in one of the other programme members’ deep courses – Chris Ganley, a single arm amputee who like myself had served in the Rifles. It was my first time going to forty meters since my own deep course; I’ve got close to it before but I was still excited. There may be less to see at forty meters then let’s say the pretty coloured corals between 5 and 15 but there is something that draws me to the deep, a quiet magic, still and complex. I was to demonstrate the effects of the pressure with an empty bottle in the pocket of my BCD and also the effect on colour on the PADI slates. Spoiler alert – the colour red is pretty much non-existent at forty meters. We made a swift exit from the boat and descended into the blue as we headed for the reef. The course was complete and due to the current we were unable to swim back to the boat. We deployed the SMB and were picked up by the zodiacs, a pleasant sight when you’re getting smashed about by the swirl of the surface current!

Day Five: Straits of Tiran – Woodhouse Reef (Drift Dive)

The third and final dive of the day was special for me – you’ll find out why in a few moments. We were on Woodhouse Reef, still in the Straits of Tiran. We all jumped in the water, this time as a group rather than individual teams, boom, boom, boom as we all crashed in together. There was a moderate current that took us all the way across the face of the reef, in fact for most of the dive there was no need to even kick your fins.

I was buddied up with Ben, a double above-knee amputee. He was fine in the water but I was to ‘look after’ him as part of my Dive Master training. Throughout the dive I kept a close check on his air supply as he uses slightly more as he has to work harder than the rest of us. If it had been Chris I could speculate that it was because he failed to stop talking, even underwater!

We were told to look into the blue as we drifted along as there was the possibly of bigger fish out in the deeper blue. I did this between my buddy checks, the minutes ticked by and there was nothing but dark blue and large fish. Then a few more minutes passed and the heavens opened, Poseidon himself blessed me… I SAW A SHARK. Since I was old enough to walk I had been obsessed with sharks. I had pop up books, every toy from the Sea Life centre and even a pair of great white shark shorts that I wore to bed. The Egyptian dive guide, who was the only other person to see the White Tip Reef Shark, confirmed my sighting. It was only a slight side profile that lasted a second but when it was confirmed I was so happy.

The rest of the dive went pretty smoothly. I was checking on Ben’s air and when he reached ninety bar I decided we would go for our safety stop and get picked up by the Zodiac, at least that was my plan. I sent up the SMB, which, as it got a meter away from me, snagged around my reel. I shot from nineteen meters to four meters in the space of a few seconds. My vision was clouded by bubbles but as soon as I realised what had happened I let go, narrowly avoiding breaking the surface and putting myself in real danger. It was a very narrow escape. I lowered myself back down, regrouped and performed my safety stop, my heart absolutely pounding. By the time we then breached the surface and I had collected my reel and SMB, the zodiac was there to pick us up and take us to the safety of the Princess Diana.

Day Six: Gordon Reef (2 Dives)

I started Day Six as dive leader and the dive plan was to swim directly to the reef, swim up the reef, then head out to the blue where there was a drop-off where we hoped to see larger sea life. I headed out with the team behind me, however the current was taking us, so as well as heading to the reef, we were drifting. By the time I hit the reef we were completely off course, so I took the team along the reef then begin to head out to the blue. The instructor then informed me (by means of a sand drawing) that I was only just opposite the boat, which was supposed to be our starting point. After a sheepish look, I led the team further up the reef where fortunately we encountered lots of sea life, including a meter long napoleon wrasse. It was all part of the learning curve. I had some friendly feedback from the pro team about how I can use features to navigate under water and also find reference points that could help me memorise the route on the way back. Some how I had overshot the dive back and missed the boat.

The second dive on the reef was a lot more smooth. We completed the dive plan so a significant progress at the very least! We were however slightly disappointed when we reached the drop off point as we didn’t see any sharks. The white team (Team Achievement) did see a white tip reef shark that was quite interactive. They also managed to capture it on the GoPro and the footage was pretty impressive. To say I was green with envy would be an understatement.

Day Six: Shark Observatory (missed Shark Reef and MV Yolanda)

We were planning to dive Shark Reef and Yolanda Reef, two tall pinnacles that have a drift into the middle. There was a sharp drop to the entrance and the current creates a downward force that could potentially drag you to the 700m deep blue. Also on the Yolanda reef are the leftovers of the wreck of the Yolanda. The dive guide popped into sea to test how strong the current was… bearing in mind that the majority of divers were disabled, the verdict was that the current was too strong and that diving in the conditions would be dangerous.

With this advice, the captain took the boat on a short journey, ten minutes maximum, to a lagoon known as Shark Observatory (my kind of title). As we jumped off the dive deck, as a full team again, we were in the deep blue and as we began to lower beneath the water, the chaotic surface noise disappeared and transformed to a quiet stillness. It’s one of the majestic properties of fish in my eyes, that they make no noise as they swim, their tails and fins moving silently in a science that fascinates me. As we breathe out of our regulators, kick our fins and sometimes skull our hands we make an ugly noise, an unimpressive movement. Fish on the other hand seem to glide through the water, perfectly designed, engineered above and beyond imagination. I have been lucky enough to dive with a pod of dolphins, watching them in the water was unbelievable, so quiet in movement, so fast in travel, beautiful, God-like creatures.

We dropped to twenty meters, the full group heading towards the reef wall, to which we would swim parallel. Beneath us there was nothing but shades of blue that became darker until the point that you could see nothing else. There was a different form of life here, larger schools of big fish swam beneath us, all in their positions like a marching group of soldiers moving quickly with precision. I heard someone tapping their tank and the metal clash spread amongst the team. I looked to see who was drawing attention and it was Dickie crossing his hands over, giving the ‘turtle’ sign, then pointing to the blue. At first I couldn’t see what he was on about, then I saw it, a large sea turtle swimming alongside us, moving past the whole team. As the turtle reached the front it curiously moved in for a closer look, then as quick as it came, it turned around and swam off into the blue until it faded away becoming part of the all-encompassing sea. We saw no sharks but the dive itself was a new experience. It was this dive that convinced me to book on Divecrew’s ‘Get Hammered’ Liveaboard in the Southern Red Sea next year.

Come back tomorrow to read Part Five as the Deptherapy team dive the Thistlegorm…

Donate to Deptherapy or find out more about their work at www.deptherapy.co.uk

Thanks to Dmitry Knyazev for the incredible photographs.