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

Day 9: Abu Nuhas – SS Carnatic

The Carnatic, I was told, was not a wreck to be missed. Andy Alfred, one of the Deptherapy Instructors on board was not wrong – the dive was fantastic! The side of the wreck was completely open and we were able to swim completely through with lots of light beaming in. As we entered the wreck there were thousands of glassfish that seemed to create a cloud of silvery white; as we went through them they darted away in their groups. A cleaner wrasse on the other side of the wreck had a little ‘nibble’ on my hand. I guess he thought they were unclean; I didn’t take it as much of an insult though and more as a compliment.

On the back end of the wreck laid the reef. It was almost completely shielded by the wreck and created its own little channel. Small reef gardens popped up all the way along and we followed in line observing them. There were brightly coloured fish all the way along and it made me realise that I would like to get more experienced in identifying the fish just so I could know what I was looking at. My knowledge at the moment stems as far as “ooh, there’s a blue fish, ooh, there’s a stripey fish…” I don’t want to be a marine biologist by any shot, but the behaviour of the fish completely amazes me and I am fascinated by them.

As we reached the point where we were to conduct our safety stop, we ‘bumped’ into a couple of clown fish in the anemone (bumped into is not really the right expression, you bump into a friend whilst you’re out shopping!). Maybe I should say we came across a couple of Red Sea anemone fish. They were as territorial as every other Nemo I had seen, once you breech a certain distance you enter the “clown fish danger zone.” They were never that aggressive in Finding Nemo though, a bit of false advertising if I do say so myself. First the little fish gave me the death stare, then swam at me a couple of times and darted away; if he could talk (I should imagine in a high pitch voice) he would be saying something like “oi come any closer I’ll do ya… you want some mate… I’ll do ya”. Of course I’m intrigued by the fish so I do want some, so I crossed the threshold and he head butted me in the mask. It made me giggle, which was my second mistake, as my mask broke its seal and flooded slightly – crafty clownfish!

Day 9: Abu Nuhas – Giannis D

The Giannis D was my favourite of all the wrecks and it was absolutely amazing. My anticipation wasn’t as high either as it wasn’t boasted about as much as some of the others. Once we got down, though, it was absolutely fantastic. The first of the surprises was being greeted by a sea turtle as we swam around the bow. It was so interactive, it was unbelievable. It swam in between us as it went back and forth to feed from some coral along a mast on the wreck. It quickly became a celebrity as everyone pulled out cameras and GoPros to record the amazing experience. I was so intrigued by the fact that as it went to feed off the coral garden, it used its front fins to create a form of leverage as it’s strong snapping jaws tore away chunks. We all posed for pictures with the turtle as we watched in awe of the magical creature, graceful and in it’s own way, agile.

As we moved away from the turtle and to the rear of the ship we entered a breaching point. The ship was sunk and laid at a forty-five degree angle, which made the penetration quite disorientating. We managed to start at the bottom of the wreck and make our way through the engine room and then various other passageways. The wreck penetration was amazing; spacious, light and took me back to being a five year old exploring my local park. The whole dive was like an adventure playground, with a few more added dangers like getting trapped and running out of air obviously. It was by far my favourite dive of the whole trip.

Day 9: Carless Reef

On this dive, another sea turtle greeted the Deptherapy dive team, the white team (Team Achievement)… not my team, unfortunately, which meant the white team got the white tip reef shark and an extra turtle! I heard the story of what happened and apparently the turtle had a nibble on Jamie Hull’s diving hood, then moved on to Aitch and tried biting his GoPro; some moments are just priceless.

Along the reef, which was teeming with colour and life, we were honoured with the presence of blue spotted rays, giant morays and a huge grouper. I honestly cannot do the sight justice with words alone, neither can photos or videos.

It’s the feeling when you see a spectacular sunrise so you take a photo and when you look at the photo you think ‘it looked better than that’. It’s the same thing with scuba diving, nothing ever seems to do the experience justice. I almost feel sorry for people that haven’t scuba dived as they are missing out on nature’s most beautiful secret, the world under the sea.

Day 10: Hurghada Marina – T43 Minesweeper (El Mina)

The wreck of the minesweeper was (in all due respect) rather dull as it was sunk onto the super structure so all that was visibly available was the bottom of the ship. However, I like the feeling of being underwater, it’s a therapy for me no matter what sights are on offer so I could never be disappointed in a dive. Dave found a plastic bag, which he loaded into his BCD pocket and brought back to the surface to place in the bin; every bit of plastic brought up is a piece of plastic that cannot harm the ocean.

Earlier on in the week we had a presentation on PADI’s Project Aware. I am already quite familiar with Project Aware and earlier on in my diving career I had taken part in a Deptherapy dive for debris and a beach clearance. The brief mentioned all the main points and the ten tips for divers that can protect our oceans and stop the damage that is being inflicted on the coral and marine life. Videos of sea turtles caught in plastic can rings; it’s heart breaking to see something destroying the ocean and killing fish that is completely avoidable. I think we all looked within ourselves and decided that we as individual divers could do something about it.

Day 10: El Vanoose (Arabic translation – The Lighthouse)

Not far from shore lay a reef named El Vanoose, which translated in Arabic (so I’m told) means The Lighthouse. This name was given because of the lighthouse that stands out from the reef, although I am pretty sure that it is no longer used. Another name for the reef is ‘dolphin playhouse’ due to the dolphins that come to play here. This is usually in the morning though and is almost guaranteed. We went onto the reef in the afternoon when it is well known that the dolphins go to the lagoon in the north to swim, so unfortunately we did not have their presence. However, fingers crossed, we will be here in the morning to snorkel with them.

On the reef, dolphins are not the only attraction. There are two pinnacles not far from where the reef lies, absolutely full of life, more than I had actually seen on any other dive. The reef was heaving with sea life, from fish just bigger than your hand to micro sized life that grew and swam around the pinnacle. Between the pinnacles was a beautiful garden of both soft and hard coral that was populated by fish of every colour. Hiding in the small holes of the reef were morays, five I’m pretty sure I counted myself. I always make sure to keep my distance as their heads bop back and forth with their teeth showing. They always seem placid, however it’s not something I would like to gamble on.

On the swim back to the boat we came across an octopus. One thing that rings true with the Red Sea is that you just never know what you will come across. The octopus was about the size of a rugby ball; he was brown but as we approached his colour changed to white (I say he and his, but in all truth I have no idea of its gender). You can see when an octopus is threatened and its skin actually raises from a flat surface to spine-like layers that can raise between 5 to 8mm to make itself seem larger. Although there was no wreck to see, the dive itself was interesting due to the amount of life that was on display.

Read the final part of Gary’s blog tomorrow.

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

Thanks to Dmitry Knyazev for the incredible photographs.