Day Two

We have arrived! After a peaceful 11 hour travel over night we eventually arrive at the most southern point of the Red Sea within Egyptian waters. There are so many reef systems within this area it is difficult to decide on where to start! Sonia decides that we are going to explore a longer more finger shaped reef that we discovered on our last trip. We are hopefully looking to find some Pelagics in the area, fingers crossed, but for my student he has more on his mind than fish spotting! We are planning on making a 40m no decompression Advanced Nitrox dive on the northern tip of the reef.

Checking the dive plan

With our back gas loaded with a light nitrox mix of 24% and armed with a 40% stage tank  James has to prove to me that he can follow a simulated decompression plan, safety make a gas switch and other skills that I may surprise him with.

After 10 minutes of being in the water we catch sight of the recreational divers who have smiles beaming on their faces (yes you can see this even though they have regulators in their mouths!) Why are they so happy, the distinctive Hammerhead hand signal that they are all showing reveals why! Right, James and myself go off in the hunt but to no avail! We have to settle for some Tunas and Barracudas, not  a bad consolation price.

Once we are back on the boat a hearty breakfast is awaiting us. ( I do usually put on maybe 2kgs after these trips!). After making our debriefing and planning for our afternoon dive, we have time to sit back and relax a while.

Our second dive in the afternoon takes us to the southern plateau of the reef system.

Diving around Habili Jaffa

The plateau is not very wide and drops to depths that I can only imagine. We plan to make a slightly shallower dive with some extra skills thrown to challenge my student. James is handling himself very comfortably in the water, too comfortable, I need to make this more challenging. I think a mid water gas shutdown with a flooded mask may be on the cards! I do like teaching fellow instructors the first technical course as it really brings them back to ground. Suddenly the easy diving tasks that they are doing day in day out take on  a different light. Surely a PADI SMB Speciality Instructor should be able to send up a SMB from mid water and not lose control of their buoyancy, surely! We as instructors hate it when things go wrong, and in an expected fashion James has multiple excuses for why his SMB deployment was, let’s say, slightly messy!

There is nothing more frustrating on a dive than hearing Dolphins continuously but not actually seeing them! Argh! For 60 minutes their high pitched squeaks was driving me crazy, they must have been so close, but yet not close enough! Our shark count is still on zero, but I am confident that we will be rewarded at some point.

Once back on board, and after lengthy discussions about SMBs still (he won’t let this one drop!!) we sit back to cover some more of the theory of decompression diving, and to look more closely at decompression planning software. Tomorrow we take a break from the course as I need to leave my student! Where I am going is a bit too deep for him! On our last trip to this area we found a large wreck. One mission of this trip is to find the bottom of the wreck and to map the wreck!! Myself, Ben and his guest who is also a trimix diver sit down to plan our deep dive.

The sun sets on day two

Shaun, my wonderful odd job man, gas blender and CCR guide is going to be staying at around 50m to explore the

mid section which has split into two pieces and will also act as our support diver if needed.  I have estimated that the bow of the ship should be between 75m – 85m, with the stern at a more reasonable 20m. The boys plan a 90m dive just in case it is deeper than I can remember, I plan a slightly shallower one at 75m as I want to spend more time mapping the wreck rather than reaching its maximum depth. Let’s hope the weather holds up and we can dive it tomorrow.

Since we left St Johns no boats at all have been sighted, not even a fishing boat. This is a luxury that is becoming a rarity within the Red Sea on safari routes. I think we all appreciate how lucky we are.

Each year BSAC hold a photographic competition to find the best underwater shots from around the globe. There are many different categories to enable keen photographers of all levels to give it a try. Launched back in March 2009 and with a brand new BSAC Diving (members) category in addition to the regular Open and Newcomers, the response to the 2009 BSAC Photographic Competition was excellent.

Last year saw a tremendous increase in entries with over 400% increase on previous years. Due in no small part to the quality of prizes on offer and the advertising that BSAC have put into the competition. BSAC aim to build on that each year and see an even greater level of entries.

Beginning this year, Tekstreme will be an official sponsor of this photographic competition, offering you the opportunity to win either 5 days of Technical diving around the wrecks and reefs of Hurghada in the Red Sea or a BSAC Entry level Technical diving course.

This year the competition will be running from March to December with presentations at a show in the early New Year 2011. So dust of the camera, put new batteries into your strobe and get shooting.

Inspired to enter your images in 2010?  Then watch out for the BSAC Photographic Competition 2010 – details coming soon!

Good Luck to everyone who takes part.

Meet the Managers

Time is running by and very soon it will be Dive Show time again! Make a date in your diary for March 27th/28th and visit Tekstreme and Emperor Divers stand at the London Dive Show.

Meet the Managers of Tekstreme and pick up valuable advice on technical diving and courses in all of our Red Sea locations; Hurghada, Marsa Alam, and Sharm.

Use the opportunity to book some ‘Show Special’ Technical diving deals, the offers are only available for the two days of the show. The special offers will be published through our web site and facebook group very soon, so keep watching this space..

The Emperor Divers team.

You can now book your Technical diving direct at the Emperor stand with one of the team who will make sure you get the most suitable offer available.  If you cannot make it to the show, we will be offering the same offers if you book online over the show dates.

We all look forward to seeing you.

After a week of intensive training, we are pleased to announce that all BSAC students and instructors passed their courses with flying colors.

Raymond McKee

From the Open Circuit side of technical diving, under the close supervision and direction of BSAC Technical instructors Ray McKee and Brian Smith the week of training with the students ran very smoothly. The students enjoying dives on such reefs as Tower reef and Woodhouse Canyon. The weather proved to be fantastic for most part of the week with crystal clear warm waters and flat calm seas.

From the Closed Circuit side of technical diving, Mike Rowley came over to provide his expertise tuition and knowledge to help the divers achieve their CCR advanced mixed gas instructor certificates.

Congratulations to BSAC Divers on completion of:

Brian Smith

Peter Moody – Advanced Mixed Gas Diver

Peter Huntley – Advanced Mixed Gas Diver

Steve Capes – Advanced Mixed Gas Diver

Tony Smyth – Advanced Mixed Gas Diver

Charlie Leeson – CCR Advanced Mixed Gas Instructor

Congratulations to Tekstreme technical instructors on completion of:

Cat Parfitt – OC Advanced Mixed Gas Instructor

Sarah Woodford – OC Advanced Mixed Gas Instructor & CCR Advanced Mixed Gas Instructor

Chris Armstrong – OC Advanced Mixed Gas Instructor & CCR Advanced Mixed Gas Instructor

Shaun Lambert – OC Explorer Mixed Gas Instructor

Steve Hinton – OC Sports Mixed Gas Instructor

Personally I would like that to pay special thanks to Mike Rowley for giving us his time, experience and guidance in all aspects of the week. His in depth explanations, historical insights and general diving knowledge reflects his position and respect within the technical diving community.

Mike Rowley

As Tekstreme, we are working very hard alongside BSAC to promote and provide technical training  to run alongside what the divers are experienced to in UK waters. Our BSAC Technical training centre can provide a base for UK technical instructors to come to Egypt and teach their students through our centre, where we can provide the support and local knowledge to make instruction easier. We welcome BSAC Technical clubs and individual divers to come on join us where we can help out in any capacity needed.

Boats on fire in dry dock

Four Red Sea diving liveaboards were damaged in a fire which raged in a Suez dry dock on 30 January, an Egyptian marine tourism authority has stated.

The country’s Chamber of Diving and Watersports has said that the vessels Typhoon, VIP One, Hyatt and Sweet Dream were all damaged in the fire, which was spread by a strong wind and proved difficult to douse.

In the case of VIP One, its operator, Red Sea Diving College, has confirmed that, contrary to earlier reports, “damage is limited”.

“If all goes according to plan, VIP One will be back in the water and resuming its normal schedule within 2-3 months,” said RSDC Owner and Managing Director Guy Haywood. “We are already making alternative arrangements for the very early part of the season should it be required.”

A fifth boat, Juliet, lay close to the others but was spared from the fire by the wind direction.

No injuries were suffered in the incident. “The authorities are still investigating the exact cause of the blaze, but preliminary reports indicate that the fire first started in the dry dock electricity wiring to MY Typhoon,” said the CDWS.

“As a boating incident, the investigation has to be carried out by the Egyptian Maritime Authority.”

In a personal message, CDWS MD Zeyad M ElBassel added: “Although the CDWS has no power to investigate such matters, we are in close contact with authorities about the incident. Thankfully no person was injured.

Owners, operators and international holiday agents are all working to find alternative berths for charterers who may be affected by any loss of operating capacity among the boats.

Article courtesy of Divernet.com

Using the radar to find the diver

Egyptian rescue boats searched with fading hope for a British tourist on Sunday who was lost while scuba diving in the Red Sea, one of the rescuers said.
The three boats focused their search in an area 13 kilometres (eight miles) south of the Red Sea port town of Safaga, where the 45-year-old tourist was last seen on Saturday. He was among a group of 12 British scuba divers. The rest of the group made it safely to shore.

Essam Mahran, in charge of rescue operations with the Red Sea Association for Diving and Marine Activities, said the tourist was an expert diver, but hopes of rescuing him were dimming. “The chances of finding him alive are weak,” he said. It has now become apparent that a second member of the group as also since gone missing!

In reference to Tekstreme’s previous blog entitled “CDWS missing diver decree”, how many lives could be saved if such a diver tracking system can be implemented on all diving boats, not exclusively to Safari boats!?

The number of “missing diver” reports is reaching quite frightening numbers. After almost ten years of personally guiding within the Red Sea and having never lost a single diver, you have to wonder how these occurrences are happening. Do you look to the dive centre for responsibility, or personally to the dive guide or ultimately the divers themselves? I strongly believe that daily diving guests need to be regulated and controlled much tighter, this is especially so due to our good diving conditions that make divers become too complacent. If you examine in more details the experience level of the missing divers you will discover that in all reports they all say a very similar thing….”the diver was experienced!”.

The sooner a diver tracking system such as “SeaSafe” can be a requirement for all diving boats the better.

Chamber or Diving & Watersports

CDWS announces new regulations requiring use of tracking devices on all dive safari boats operating in remote locations

Following recommendations from the Chamber of Diving and Watersports (CDWS), the Egyptian Minster of Tourism has issued a decree stating that all safari boats operating in remote areas must carry on board an approved diver-tracking system. Remote areas are currently defined by the CDWS as the Brothers Islands and any site further south.

The decree has been issued in a bid to help prevent cases of lost divers in remote and current-exposed areas, such as the southern most dive sites of the Egyptian Red Sea. Such systems are already being used by some safari boat operators in these areas as an extra safety measure.

All safari boat operators have now been given until then end on June 2010 to implement the new system. Any tracking device that meets the following criteria may be used:

-    those approved by the NTRA (National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority): www.ntra.gov.eg
-    those tested and approved by CDWS

To date only the SeaSafe system has completed the approval process, with two other products currently undergoing a series of tests. The results of the latest approvals will be announced to CDWS members once completed.

Tekstreme is very proud to boast that on the Technical safari boats of Emperor Divers, the “SeaSafe” system is already in place, and in use by Tekstreme and Emperor Diver guests. Emperor Divers have been the first diving operator in the Red Sea to implement the diving tracking system. The bonus of such a system is that it has been depth tested to over one hundred meters making it suitable for Technical Divers. I strongly believe that this decree for such a system could not come soon enough as the Red Sea does receive bad press with regards to missing divers. Hopefully such systems will bring the safety standards within the Red Sea up on par with its European and other western country counterparts.

Come and explore with us...

Emperor Divers and Tekstreme are giving adventurous divers the chance to join the platinum liveaboard, Elite, on its exploratory trip to the Red Sea’s Deep South on 16 – 23 April.

Sailing from Hamata port to destination unknown, we will be exploring some of the reef systems and Habilis further south of St John’s where normal safari boats don’t venture.

Technical divers are welcome on the trip to help explore, map and discover new dive sites in the most southern area of the Red Sea.

Cost is 1300 Euros per person, which includes cabin, 7 nights on board (last night either on board or in a hotel), 6 days diving, local transfers, guide, weights, full board & soft drinks, wine with dinner, environmental tax, Marine Park fees and port departure fees. Not included: Flight/visa, diving equipment, tanks, gases &alcohol.

Email tekstreme@emperordivers.com for more information

Tekstreme is a recognized BSAC Technical training centre.

Tekstreme Technical Instructors are preparing themselves for a week of intensive Technical training provided by Mike Rowley from BSAC. All Tekstreme / Emperor Divers centres will be working with BSAC in providing Technical training up to the highest levels in both Open Circuit scuba and Closed Circuit scuba. This will make Tekstreme unique and provide a great opportunity for all BSAC Divers to come abroad and continue their technical training.

Tekstreme are very proud to have already experienced instructors that can teach through multiple training agencies, working alongside BSAC is a further enhancement to our centre so that we can provide to the technical divers exactly what they want.

The Instructor training will begin in Sharm on the 7th of February, through to the 14th. So for all you BSAC divers out there already, or divers from other training agencies that are interested in BSAC courses we look forward to providing for you any technical training that you need.

The ship before she was sunk

Dive boat moorings have been laid on the only artificial reef to have been created off the popular diving resort of Hurghada, in Egypt.

The moorings cover the 51m-long Hebat Allah, which lies on flat sand at a depth of 45m, near Abu Ramada Island.

The moorings, says HEPCA, are intended “firstly to improve safe diving conditions at the wreck” – presumably by eliminating any risk of a shot deployment injuring divers who have already descended from another vessel.

Secondly, they will prevent the damage caused by innumerable shotsput into the vessel. The artifical reef is, says HEPCA, a “valuable marine research site, offering a unique opportunity to monitor reef growth at depths greater than 35m”.

Colonisation by marine animals has advanced well since the Hebat Allah’s sinking five years ago.

“An initial assessment of marine life and coral presence was undertaken in October and recorded some extensive fish life including groupers, lionfish, many schooling fish and also a turtle,” reports HEPCA.

Corals have been slower to take hold. “There were several coral species, including some hard corals, but their current poor coverage is likely to be due to both the depth of the wreck and also the fact that it lies some distance away from an established coral reef.”

Tekstreme offers daily trips for Technical Divers to dive the wreck. Contact us for more information.