West Lothian Sub Aqua Club - Red Sea 2002

NORTHERN RED SEA 22 - 29 September, 2002
We flew out of Manchester back to Sharm el Sheik in Egypt on a shore based trip booked through Oonasdivers. We arrived on time and transferred to our hotel, the comfortable Sonesta Beach, right next to the Oonas Dive Centre where our bus collected us each morning for the 20 minute journey to the port. There, after a little local chaos, we embarked for the day on our boat, the San Mark. Our kit lived on the boat so we only had to carry it there the once. We breakfasted on a splendid choice from the buffet each morning at the hotel, lunched well on the boat and dined out at selection of local restaurants recommended by our Dive Guide, Tony, who certainly knew the good places to eat in town. We dived all the 'usual' local sites starting with the Temple at Sharm. The highlights of the trip were the dives at Ras Mohammed and Ras Zatar. A 4 metre Thresher shark at Ras Mohammed and Mantas on two successive days at Ras Zatar, then a 3metre Guitar fish on our last dive of the trip again at Ras Zatar. Least enjoyed dive was on Gordon Reef up at the Tiran Straits, lots of boats and badly damaged corals. Below are some of the wildlife seen during the diving and photographed by Jim Anderson.

A lyre tailed coral grouper.		Grey moray eel.
Above is a pair of Risbecia nudibranch trailing one another across the reef. view of a typical reef with a shimmer of bright orange anthias.

A shoal of barracuda off Shark point at Ras Mohammed.		A squirrell fish pears out from its hole in the reef.
The Dive Team All in their smart Fiona McDonald designed T-shirts
Back row from left to right: Colin McDonald, Jim Anderson, Gordon Young, James Anthony, Derek Bryce Front row from left to right: Fiona McDonald, Lesley Anderson, Ian Seath, Jenny Young, Betty Anthony, Tricia Russell, Craig Lyon.
Our Dive Guides Kate and Toby
The Boat and Crew

This is not our boat, but we liked the look of it. Our boat was the splendid San Mark.		The San Mark's owner who appeared from time to time from somewhere below.

Ibrahim the Skipper, a really nice guy who when not smiling was spitting nails at the guides, port authorities, other skippers, or anyone he thought was giving him a hard time.	Abdullah the deck hand. Always at hand with missing gear and careful with cameras.	Ishmael the cook. Ever smiling and handy with the cool bears at the end of the day. His cooking was tasty and full of variety.