Category: Wreck diving
Red Sea round up
You’re probably breathing a sigh of relief that we have come to the end of our celebration of scuba diving in the Red Sea. In case you missed anything, here’s the full suite of coverage that we provided for our October 2013 liveaboard trip.
Newsletter: A peachy weekend
Hi divers
Weekend diving
Saturday: shore dives at Long Beach, starting at 7.00 am.
Sunday: Boat dives out of Hout Bay to the Katsu Maru at 7.30 am, and the Aster at 10.30 am – if the visibility clears up.
The week’s dives
We have had a good run this week and managed to dive most days, either in the pool or the ocean, and managed to finish several courses and get slightly sunburnt. My kinda week. I thought you might enjoy this picture of the Michelin Man, who skippered the boat for us today. Thanks Mark!
Conditions
Weekend weather is not all that peachy and neither is the Bay. We went from the Clan Stuart area all the way down to the cowsharks today and the water is rather dark and dirty. Close inshore, the first 50 meters or so, is cleaner and we had 4-5 metres at the Brunswick and about the same at Pyramid Rock. Roman Rock, Photographer’s Reef and the Pietermarizburg were all very dark, and I don’t see anything in the forecast that will clean this up before the weekend.
There is half a chance that by Sunday a launch or two out of Hout Bay would work, providing the wind blows south easterly, long and hard before then. It is currently rather murky and warm off Kommetjie. There is also a 2-5 metre swell out there. The plan therefore is that on Saturday, we will do training at Long Beach starting very early, and on Sunday we will plan for the Katsu Maru at 7.30am, and the Aster at 10.30 am, out of Hout Bay.
This schedule should have you…
- rushing off to get your dive tables or dive computer to check the feasibility, bottom time and depths;
- texting me to book a Nitrox cylinder if you are Nitrox qualified;
- or emailing me right now to get an online theory code, so as to be qualified to dive Nitrox by Sunday.
Reminders
Remember our Sodwana trip in late April – there is still space – and that you must make sure your permit to dive in an MPA is up to date, for Sodwana and for diving in Cape Town!
Learning more
Clare is busy with two online courses, one about Contemporary Issues in Ocean Governance, and the other about Marine and Antarctic Science, offered by two Australian universities on Open2Study.com. It’s very interesting, and not too challenging or time consuming. If you want to expand your horizons, it’s worth checking out.
regards
Tony Lindeque
076 817 1099
www.learntodivetoday.co.za
www.learntodivetoday.co.za/blog/
Diving is addictive!
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Northern Red Sea dive sites
We dived a variety of wrecks and reefs on our Red Sea trip, which followed the Northern Wrecks and Reefs itinerary offered by blue o two. Here’s a round up of the sites we visited:
- The Alternatives (videos)
- Bluff Point (videos):
- El Miniya (videos)
- Ras Muhammad National Park:
- Sha’ab Abu Nuhas (videos):
- Sha’ab El Erg:
- SS Thistlegorm (videos)
Here’s an amazing map showing a large number of the dive sites in the Red Sea and shared on Google maps by someone very kind and awesome. Click on the link at the bottom of the map (or here) to see it full size.
View Red Sea, Egypt in a larger map
Here’s a zoomed in version of the map, showing just the area we explored:
View Red Sea, Egypt in a larger map
Video footage of El Miniya (Red Sea)
The El Miniya is a minesweeper, sunk in 1970, lying close to Hurghada harbour. There’s no reef nearby so one’s view of the whole wreck is limited only by the visibility. Here are two short panoramas I filmed showing the wreck.
[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAxraJz1lvo&w=540″]
This one was filmed at her stern, where our liveaboard tied up to a line attached to one of her propeller axles:
[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyoOGhUiz8U&w=540″]
You can see another video that I filmed on our ascent from this wreck in this post.
Dive sites (Red Sea): El Miniya
The wreck of the Russian-built minesweeper El Miniya is only a few minutes from the entrance to the harbour at Hurghada, and we dived her on our very last day on the liveaboard. The minesweeper was delivered to the Egyptians in 1956, and she was sunk during the Six Day War in February 1970. There are some detailed technical specification of the vessel here. She was struck on her side by Israeli aircraft fire, turned turtle, and was hit on her underside as well before sinking.
Because of her proximity to civilisation (and a refuelling depot) and the absence of a nearby reef, the wreck isn’t particularly rich in marine life. The visibility is also less than it is elsewhere in the Red Sea (in Ras Mohammed, for example) but I found it quite adequate by Cape Town standards! She reminded me of the MV Katsu Maru in Hout Bay, Cape Town, because of the way she’s lying, resting on her port side.
SS Thistlegorm’s sinking was also an act of war, but it took place in 1941. It was interesting to dive a far more recent wreck, and one that is less exposed to swell and current than is the Thistlegorm. The starboard anchor is in place on the outside of the hull. The port anchor was deployed at the time of her sinking. You can also see what I think is a sonar device embedded in the hull of the vessel.
There are also torpedo-like objects visible where the superstructure lies on the seabed. These were towed behind the minesweeper to look for mines. You can see one in the image below, and a large winch which would have been used to manage the cable.
This is a deep wreck – I didn’t go down to the sand, but you can get at least 30 metres’ depth if you want it. This was the deepest dive I did on our Red Sea trip, and a nice way to round things off. Ascending and getting out of the water turned out to be quite adventurous…
Dive date: 24 October 2013
Air temperature: 27 degrees
Water temperature: 27 degrees
Maximum depth: 25.9 metres
Visibility: 25 metres
Dive duration: 35 minutes
Newsletter: Marathon weekend
Hi divers
Weekend diving
Launching on Sunday from Hout Bay to dive the Katsu Maru and the BOS 400. Text or email me if you’re interested.
The week’s diving
We have had an exceptional week of great diving, light winds and adequate sunshine, warm 20+ degree water and around 3-4 metre viz. Sadly we cant always get what we we want, and it is seldom that warm water and good viz arrive together. We are busy with a nice range of training courses so every day has been interesting and fun.
The weekend diving is really easy to call for a change. The wind blows very hard today and tomorrow and a bit less on Saturday with light winds on Sunday. A 4 metre swell for Friday lingers on Saturday, though Long Beach could work. But on Sunday False Bay will be a no-go as most of the Main Road will be closed for the Cape Peninsula Marathon, which finishes in Simon’s Town.
The good news is that the temperature of the Atlantic has dropped from 23 degrees to 13 degrees in the last 6-8 hours and I think Sunday will deliver some clean water. We are scheduled to launch in False Bay tomorrow but I think we may change to Hout Bay instead. Sunday we will most likely launch from Hout Bay and will dive the Katsu Maru and the BOS 400.
Special events
We are all set for our trip to Coral Divers in Sodwana from 26-30 April. If you’re still keen to join us, let me know and I’ll see what we can do!
The Cape Town DAN Day takes place on Saturday 17 May. These are educational days filled with talks on diving topics, as well as a tour of the facility where they are held. If you want more information on this event, let me know – space is limited so you need to reserve a place (free of charge) in advance.
Don’t forget to book for the Cape Town Dive Festival, taking place in May – more information on the CTDF website.
regards
Tony Lindeque
076 817 1099
www.learntodivetoday.co.za
www.learntodivetoday.co.za/blog/
Diving is addictive!
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Red Sea inspiration
I’ve found the article and photograph(s) that put a bee in my bonnet about going to the Red Sea. The Autumn 2012 edition of the Dive Site magazine featured an article by Andrew Taylor, Cape Town diver and rather amazing underwater photographer. For some reason this particular image of one of the cargo holds of the Giannis D caught my imagination…
If you have a copy of the magazine you should check out the article. It’ll also make you want to pack your bags and go – the photographs are amazing.
Video footage of the Giannis D (Sha’ab Abu Nuhas, Red Sea)
Our dive on the Giannis D at Sha’ab Abu Nuhas was one of the highlights of our Red Sea liveaboard trip last October. It’s a spectacular wreck, and much of its charm lies in the strange angles that its bow and stern lie at. I also particularly liked the Number 2 hold, which is open and shown in the video below:
[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4L0BmK35og8&w=540″]
The stern superstructure of the wreck is at its shallowest point, and the area is filled with sunlight. It’s lying at a crazy angle that makes you want to crane your neck while swimming around it.
[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kptUOKw7PQ&w=540″]
While swimming around the stern we encountered a large number of other divers – there were at least sixty to seventy divers on the wreck when we dived her, which was also disorienting because of the large quantity of bubbles rising from underneath. On surfacing, there was a string of Zodiacs tied to the superstructure, waiting to ferry their divers back to their liveaboards.
[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9BsPi9Ml7Y&w=540″]
Dive sites (Red Sea): Giannis D (Sha’ab Abu Nuhas)
I think it was a photograph of the wreck of the Giannis D – possibly this one – taken by Andrew Taylor and published in The Dive Site magazine, that made me want to go to the Red Sea, and dive this wreck. The Giannis D was a Greek freighter carrying a cargo of sawn softwood, and ran aground on Sha’ab Abu Nuhas reef in the Strait of Gubal in 1983. She was travelling at full speed, and this along with the fact that her crew’s extremely smooth disembarkation, have led some to suspect a case of barratry.
The wreck is broken into distinct pieces. We started amidships, having dropped in near the A frame that tilts crazily at the shallowest part of the wreck (no more than about four metres’ depth), and swam towards the bow. This part of the wreck is extremely crumpled and jumbled, with the bow section lying completely on its side with the mast parallel to the seabed. It is clear from the damage to the front of the ship that she was doing a considerable speed when she struck the reef.
Between the bow and the stern is a wide area of sheet metal, masts and booms, and other jumbled pieces. The structure in the photo below, which is the same one as in Andrew Taylor’s photo, is what remains of a cargo hold – completely burst open and exposed to the ocean. When I swam through that part of the wreck ahead of Tony, Kate and Christo, I felt a bit choked up – it was this particular part of this particular wreck that I’d wanted to see with my own eyes, and there I was. Maybe I’d left my big girl panties back on the liveaboard.
I got over myself and we swam towards the stern, which is an iconic structure that you might recognise if you look at a better photograph of it than my one. You can just make out the propeller on the far right of the photo below, about two thirds of the way from the top. It’s quite close to the ladder that still hangs down the side of the ship.
The photograph I took of the stern of the Giannis D also brings up some complicated feelings that I had while diving the wreck. I’d imagined exploring it many times, but – as I realised while jostling for space with (I estimate) seventy other divers – in my imagination I was always alone. My feeling of disappointment and a little confusion at the large number of other divers who were at the site fought against feelings of excitement and fulfillment that I was finally here. I took a little video clip of some of the traffic on the wreck; I’ll share that tomorrow.
The stern superstructure tilts at a crazy angle that made me feel quite disoriented as we swam around it. After exploring it we did our safety stop near the A frame, and surfaced to hop onto our Zodiac. There were so many other divers and liveaboards in the area that about six Zodiacs were daisy chained to one another on top of the wreck. About ten of us climbed into one of our liveaboard’s two Zodiacs – the other was dropping divers off back at the liveaboard.
A group of Swedish divers from our liveaboard couldn’t fit onto the Zodiac, so they just went to the next one in the queue (which was not connected to blue o two or our liveaboard in any way whatsoever), threw their gear on board and tried to climb in. The crewmember on board shouted frantically at them to go away, because they were not his divers! It took some persuading to make them put their gear back on and wait in the water for the other Zodiac to return.
Dive date: 23 October 2013
Air temperature: 25 degrees
Water temperature: 27 degrees
Maximum depth: 18.3 metres
Visibility: 30 metres
Dive duration: 46 minutes
