The weather is fantastic with a wonderfully blue sky and a radiant sun. Currently waiting for new guests and we are heading out this week to dive the wrecks and reefs of the northern Red Sea from the liveaboard. And there are this week’s first guests, including Madi and Jovi from the UK. This young couple has never been on a liveaboard vacation before and obtained their Open Water and Advanced certification 3 years ago in Thailand with around 20 dives in the logbook. They are really looking forward to it, but Madi still has her doubts about whether they are experienced enough for this trip. Of course it is always better to come on board with a lot of experience, not so much because otherwise you cannot make certain dives. But more because with more experience you are just less busy with yourself and can therefore enjoy the dives much more. In their case it is wise to go diving with the guide and directly behind the guide. That way we can easily help if there is something.
The next day we set off and make the first check dives. These dives are not intended to check whether you can dive, no, the purpose is to check the equipment, get acquainted with the procedures we have on board and above all relax. The head has to come off so to speak and we do the first dive on Poseidon in the region of Hurghada. Madi and Jovi dive together and it becomes clear that their diving skills are not yet at the highest level. You should not really expect as they are new to this sport and have not dived in recent years. Madi is even a bit nervous and before the dives she thinks about everything that could go wrong and what she should do. Of course it is important that you are aware of any risks, but let’s not turn that into a sport in itself. Luckily she dives with my colleague Ashraf and he helps them where he can.
The second dive is on The Barge off Gubal Island. A beautiful reef that can give you everything except a whale and in the middle of that reef at a depth of about 10-14 meters are the remains of a wreck. The wreck itself is not of interest to us, but the life that accumulates there is. Scorpion fish, stone fish, crocodile fish, octopus, barracuda, trumpet fish, you name it. A celebrity also lives on this site: George the local giant moray eel. He is always in and around The Barge and we have seen him at this site for 35-40 years. Almost every time I see him he hangs out with one of the local ladies. Still I think the name George is not so appropriate, they should have called him Mohamed, since he doesn’t have a wife but a whole harem hihi.
We make an afternoon and a night dive on The Barge and Madi and Jovi decide to make the dive together. The boat is parked right above us and so navigation is not difficult. We also don’t make a deep dive, so that Madi and Jovi want to go together is no problem.
After The Barge we visit sha’ab Mahmoud on the SS Dunraven, dive the reefs of Tiran, drift on Ras Mohamed and then end up on the SS Thistlegorm, a top 5 wreck dive worldwide. We dive in groups and with the group we enter the wreck in a single line of diver. The current is strong, but luckily you won’t be bothered by that in the wreck. We enter the blast area and are the first to arrive at cargo space 3 where the coal used to be, now this space is completely empty. We went on to the second loading area and there are trucks with motorcycles in them. Now Jovi and Madi are not in my group, yet I see them in the middle of room 2. They look around a bit lost and it appears that they have lost their group. I ask them for air and they have 100-110 Bar on the bottle, ah that means it’s time for them to go outside. But because the current is strong outside, I take them with me and we swim back to where we entered the wreck. Nearby is one of our lines and they can use it to get back to our boat. On my way to the exit I keep an eye on them and I notice that they are both quite restless, giving an OK sign every 2-3 minutes and constantly chatting with their hands over the air. Now it is super good to keep in touch, but of course you can also exaggerate. As I watch them on the dive I wonder why it’s so over the top. Are they insecure, is it a learned method? After the dive when I find them on deck I discuss my thoughts with the couple. She is obviously insecure and worried about everything, as many women do at the beginning of their diving career. In addition, they are both very new to the sport and really only dive together because they are a couple. All very understandable of course, but perhaps it is wise to dive with others too. As a young couple, Madi and Jovi have a special bond and are constantly worried. However, they don’t have the skill set to really help each other and you shouldn’t expect that at this stage of their diving career. And that is why it is good to go into the water with other experienced divers. This allows Madi or Jovi to focus more on themselves, see how other divers are doing it and if all goes well, they also see skills that are executed better. And so no matter how much fun it is to dive with your partner, it’s smart to alternate this here and there with other experienced divers. This takes your own skills to a higher level and you become less dependent on your buddy.
Love life… Blow bubbles….