Written by Mike Ward – October 2008
Six weeks ago XL went bust. It’s happened to me twice before, which makes me either very unlucky or suggests the airline industry is trying to tell me something. Whichever, I was half-resigned to the October Anniversary trip being cancelled until George rang me to say all would be well if we could go out two days earlier.
If? What did he mean, if? The only real difficulty was the itinerary. Thistlegorm was bombed and sunk in the early hours of the 6th October 1941 and Rosalie Moller went down at almost exactly the same time just two nights later. In 2008 the anniversaries fell on a Monday and a Wednesday; absolutely perfect for the usual Saturday to Saturday liveaboard trip flying out to Sharm on the 4th October, but tough if we flew out on Thursday 2nd because Thistlegorm still had to be dived on Monday and Rosalie Moller would have to be done on the last day aboard the boat if we were to make the anniversaries. Cue a quick re-think of the itinerary, some frantic emailing for approval from Tornado Marine and everything was good to go. Fantastic!
Well, almost, because the weather forecast was dominated by lots and lots of wind. 30 knots of it, all week. Oh joy, especially with the new itinerary. No, let’s be honest, the new itinerary wouldn’t matter, if there was that much wind we’d be diving Ras Katy four times a day for the duration. Or, with this being a wreck trip, the vehicle dump at Ras Peter.
Sonia, dive-guiding goddess that she is, was more relaxed because, at least for the start of our week, the wind was northerly or even a bit east of north, and that was fine as Cyclone steamed out of the marina and headed to the Alternatives for a very pleasant check-dive, then on to Dunraven for our first wreck dive.
When we moored over the wreck the sea was deserted, but seconds later there were dayboats everywhere and we watched open-mouthed as the first group of divers entered the water. Stride entries really aren’t that difficult, are they? Oh, and their guide hadn’t checked the current, unlike dive-goddess Sonia, so they were the wrong side of Dunraven and presumably had the swim hard to reach her. Serves them right for not being on our boat.
Next on our schedule was Abu Nuhas, and as the boat was secured for the crossing the wind dropped away to nothing, the waters of the Red Sea calmed down to resemble a millpond on a sunny day and when we dived Giannis D the vis was the best I’ve seen in the last three years. Of course it was, my camera housing had flooded after Dunraven and left me with a dead camera….. Our first night dive was the little satellite reef at the southern tip of Abu Nuhas, which is the best place I know for Spanish Dancers provided you don’t dive with me. I explained this to Peter, so he made a three with Phil and Jenny whilst I dived with Darren and Chloe and he got some very nice pics whilst we never even caught a glimpse of red skirts.
Day Two was Kimon M, Chrisoula K (Where Ian took the opportunity to go down on one knee and propose marriage – Clare said yes!) and Carnatic, followed by a real treat, a night dive on Giannis D. Cyclone’s skipper, Amar, was concerned about the RIBs running onto the reef. It wouldn’t have been as disastrous for the RIBs as it was for Carnatic back in September 1869, but it still wouldn’t have been nice so Amar improvised marker buoys for the channel and the wreck using strobes and empty mineral water bottles. Any BSAC Branch Equipment Officer would have been proud of them, and they worked a treat.
It was a good dive, too, and very different from a day-dive here. We stayed around the stern section and didn’t go inside, not wanting to get lost inside a very intact wreck with no natural light to show a way out. Even the glassfish seemed to be avoiding the interior at night; a torch beam picked out an engine room almost devoid of fish, though there were plenty of flashlight fish all over the wreck, the luminescent pouches under their eyes making streaks and sparks in the clear water.
Day Three started with a second dive on Chrisoula K. Quite where Phil and Jenny went I’m not sure, but there were suspiciously large patches of rust all over their wetsuits….
Then it was time to cross back to Thistlegorm for the first of three dives on her, a late morning dive, an afternoon dive and a night dive, all of which were very pleasant and conducted in great vis with very little current and hardly any other divers.
A few hours later a hardy band gathered on the dive deck of Cyclone for a very special dive. Four liveaboards hung above Thistlegorm but there was activity only on Cyclone. Thistlegorm sank at about 01.40 hours on the 6th October 1941, and we intended to mark the anniversary of her sinking and the sacrifice of the nine members of her crew who lost their lives.
We entered the water at 01.25hrs exactly and made our way slowly to the top part of the bridge. During the war this area was reinforced with concrete blocks to provide improved protection against bombs and bullets, though in the end it made no difference when a single bomb from a German Heinkel 111 based on Crete and piloted by Heinrich Mengele fell into a hold full of munitions and blew the ship apart.
At 01.40 we switched off our torches for a minute’s silent contemplation before finishing our dive and leaving the wreck where she lay. Sixty-seven years ago she would have been creaking and shuddering as the last air was driven from her flooded compartments and super-heated metal cooled, but in 2008 she was silent and still.
Day Four began with a final dive on Thistlegorm, then we visited the Kingston on Shag Rock before we crossed back over to Gubal. Normally, itineraries are run so that only one crossing is made in each direction, but normally airlines don’t go bust and anniversaries don’t need to be kept so this week we crossed twice. I told you special arrangements had been required!
Our third dive was the Ulysses, home to one of Alfred Holt’s revolutionary high-pressure steam engines which earned the Ocean Steamship Company the nickname ‘the China boats’ for their ability to steam from Liverpool to China at higher speeds than rival lines and without taking on additional coal. I’ve always said that the engine was inaccessible, and it largely is, but the reef or some of the wreckage seems to have moved to provide a view of the engine from ahead. I’d love to show you a picture, but…..
Oh, nearly forgot, just as we hit the dive deck to suit-up a pod of dolphins had streamed past the back of Cyclone so we all piled in for a quick snorkel, but we needn’t have bothered. Towards the end of the dive on Ulysses, as we were bimbling along the reef, they came back and stayed to play for a good five minutes. I’d show you some pics of that as well, if I could.
Anyway, the night dive was on the barge at Gubal, and it was full of the usual parade of macro critters plus two thumping great moray eels. Peter, whom I’ve mentioned before in connection with Spanish Dancers, was so intent on photographing a boxer shrimp that he totally ignored my increasingly frantic signals that he was getting very close to one of the morays. Still, when he did finally look up he was in an ideal position for a very fine close up. Not that taking pictures was top of mind at that precise moment.
Early next morning it was time to visit Rosalie Moller. Not that I was excited or anything. No, honest, I wasn’t. We were the first boat on site and Sonia put in two bow lines and a stern line, which she supplemented later on with an additional bow line and a second stern line using the permanent HEPCA mooring point, then we were in.
We had the luxury of five dives on the Moller, so plenty of time to see the whole wreck, even with such short bottom times on each dive. The first dive, with Carol and Steve and Darren and Chloe, was through the galley and around the stern section, and our second dive was around the bow.
The vis was excellent. The wreck could be seen from 10m, and was plainly visible by 15m, laid out below and on an almost perfect even keel. You might remember my joined-up pictures of some of the wrecks, including the view of Thistlegorm from directly above and made up of more than twenty separate pictures? Well, 7th October 2008 was the only day I’ve ever seen on Rosalie Moller where a similar set of pics could have been made. Ho hum.
For the third dive we offered people a choice, either a late afternoon dive or – da, da, DAH!!! – a night dive on Rosalie Moller. Most opted for the daytime dive, Phil, Jenny and I did the night dive. Experienced UK divers, especially those who have dived a deep wreck down a shotline, will be familiar with the feeling that the shotline just goes down forever before it reaches the wreck.
Rosalie Moller by night is a very different dive to Thistlegorm. Thistlegorm usually has at least three or four boats above her, their floodlights casting enough light to make a torch useful but not absolutely essential to see where you’re going. Not on the Moller. We were the only boat over her and the vis, though excellent by the usual standards, was still limited, making it darker still. In the beam of a torch she was stunning, draped in brightly coloured corals and marine growth and littered with lionfish so big they looked like beach-balls on holiday. The exterior of her stern was densely packed with brilliant yellow jewel-anemones, so close together that the whole of her hull-plating was a dense yellow mass.
And just in case you think we missed her anniversary, a minute’s silence by her now-fallen after mast seemed the right thing in the right place.
The following day was our last day of diving, with two more dives on Rosalie Moller on the actual anniversary of her sinking. She went down more slowly than Thistlegorm, and with the loss of two lives, and usually seems calmer and more serene, though not today. The wind was starting to increase and the sea was getting rougher when we entered the water for our early dive, and by the time we came out one of the stern lines had snapped.
A dayboat out of el Gouna decided to tie to Cyclone, which was OK, but so close there was no room for our RIBs to swing on their painters. Skipper Amar took a dim view of this idea, so he came to the rear deck for a little chat with the skipper of the dayboat, which resulted in the dayboat cruising slowly in circles whilst they used their RIB to deploy and collect their divers.
A bit of to-and-fro surge around the bowline up which we ascended took Denise somewhat by surprise, and then treated Martin and Russ to a bit of a swing as well, the stern line having also gone by that stage.
And then the trip was over. All except for a ride back across the shipping channel to Sharm that left the furniture in a heap in the middle of the floor and had some of us trying to work out exactly how far Cyclone could lean over without capsizing, but by then it didn’t matter. We’d dived wrecks all week, had superb vis and nil currents just about everywhere, done a very special middle-of-the-night dive on Thistlegorm and dived Rosalie Moller on the anniversary of her sinking. Not bad at all.
all pictures © copyright to mike ward.
