What we dived today:
10: Dive#1 Shark Yolanda Reef (reverse)
11: Dive#2 Ras Zaatar
12: Dive#4 Million Hope Wreck
13: Night# Gordon Reef
A pod of dolphins accompanied us on our
way to the famous Reefs of Tiran
Today was a very strange but productive day in terms of underwater photography. Our first dive in the morning was at Shark Yolanda Reef. But a really strange current made us do this drift dive in a reverse way. We jumped at the place were you usually end the dive and it was the first time for me to discover “the other toilets” of the Yolanda wreck, which rest between 20 and 25 metres. You can observe the missing diving impact on that plateau as these toilets are nicely integrated into the fire corals that surround them. It would have been a great photo but unfortunately I was using my High Definition Video Camera (HDV) system. Well, you cannot have it all and video paid off once we encountered a healthy school of barracudas on the plateau.
Babara and Yehia lighting up a soft coral barrel
in the huge shadow of the Million Hope Wreck
We continued to make our way back to the north in hope of better weather in the area of Ras Mohammed and Tiran. Indeed we were rewarded with very nice visibility at the Ras Zataar drop off on our next dive. A dive that is famous for my personal experiences with the camera LCD and which translated into the histogram chapter of the new PADI digital underwater photography manual about three years later. Partly due to my own laziness and the challenge I choose to use my macro instead of the wide angle lens, which I generally would recommend on the wonderful chimneys and caves on this site.
After the dive – while still in transit to the reefs of Tiran – we observed a huge school of dolphins. The playful mammals showed up in front of our boat and we got some great photo opportunities. Shortly before we arrived at the Gordon Reef our Dive Guide Samuel approached me and asked if I want to try something new. Our skipper “Gamal” told him that the conditions were right to do a dive at the wreck of the Million Hope. That is the largest wreck in the Red Sea. It is a young wreck that transported phosphor. Local divers rescued the valuable cargo after the accident and left the monstrous remains behind.
Million fish (attracted by light) circle
around the zodiac behind our boat.
Everybody agreed to take advantage of this great opportunity and a half hour later we descended down to the wreck. Huge green steel opened up before us while we fell down to 25 metres. The Million Hope is still a very young wreck but definitely no disappointment. Some soft corals have already covered the barrels that surround it and the huge propeller. After we went around it we continued to end our dive with perfect light. The bow illustrated some impressive structures and allowed us to take some great available light shots.
After the dive we prepared our mooring on Gordon Reef were a huge Eagle Ray passed around me while I was snorkelling for some sunset pictures. I escaped the night dive and took some nice surface shots of the thousand of Red Sea Fusiliers under our boat. It was an amazing but tranquilizing play. The skyline of Sharm El Sheikh was glooming in front of an orange-red horizon. Between us and the city was nothing but a very flat and calm sea. After enjoying the scene for a while we sunk into sweet dreams.
