Get Wrecked Photography, 7th November 2010

Twinset Steve says hello! Pic by John

Snow.  Ice.  More snow.  Bitterly cold winds.  More snow.  It seems like a long time ago that we were climbing aboard Hurricane, and being greeted by Chris and Chrissie and the smiling crew.

It’s only an opinion, but the guides and the crew are really much more important for the success of the week than the boat or the itinerary, and the Tornado crews and guides are reliably good.  I’ve been travelling regularly with Tornado for eight years now, and the crew aboard Cyclone on my first ever trip are still aboard the boats, though sometimes in a more exalted capacity than they were.  Cyclone’s zodiac driver from back then is now a captain in his own right, for instance.

Anyway, we got settled in, Chris, Chrissie and I discussed the weather (Red Sea weather, no snow!) and the following morning we headed off to Stingray Station at the Alternatives for the check dive, then crossed to Abu Nuhas to dive Chrisoula K, after which we got the photo workshop underway.

First topic on the workshop was fish - this effective shot breaks the rules but works well, just look at the line of blue around the angelfish. Pic by Paul

At this point I have to say that we had some excellent photographers aboard this week.  All of the pictures here were very kindly loaned by various guests, and there were plenty more excellent shots taken that I haven’t had space to use.

Frames within a frame, lighting emphasising the foreground, diver and critter interaction. John's shot works for many reasons.

Back to the diving.  This time of year the hours of daylight are shorter than in summer, and that inevitably means early starts and early finishes, so we were getting up at six in the morning to be in the water at seven, giving the sun just enough time to rise far enough to get some light through the water, otherwise we’d have been top and tailing the day with dives in the dark.  On the other hand, we were finished with diving around eight at night, and even earlier on some days, so what we lost at one end of the day we were able to make up at the other.

Day two was Kimon M, Carnatic and Giannis D, then a crossing to Gubal and a night dive on the barge.  These four wrecks contrast one against the next quite remarkably.  Kimon M is all broken and flattened plate, Carantic is draped in soft coral and a blaze of colour, Giannis D is pretty much intact and begging to be explored, with that inviting engine room calling out for some attention and the barge is a a haven for marine life of all sizes.  Something for everyone.

Twinset Steve explores Carnatic. Another shot from John, more conventional, perhaps, but effective, and with lovely colour.

Day Three was Rosalie Moller.  As usual, we offered three dives on this venerable lady, though this week some of the divers were in the water longer than others as we had half a dozen rebreather divers aboard.  The units being used were varied: a couple of Inspirations, a Pelagian and two or three of the new all-singing, all-dancing recreational Poseidon units (Reportedly designed to be idiot proof, though I suspect somewhere out there is a class of idiot Poseidon didn’t test the unit on!).

The water behind Gubal was a bit choppy and with a boat as heavy as Hurricane there’s a near certainty of broken lines so we anchored beside the reef at Gota Ginny and crossed to the wreck by zodiac.  Chris dropped a thin line to Rosalie Moller’s bridge area, at the top of which was a three-foot fender buoy from which the hang tank was suspended.  We dropped next to the buoy and used the line for descent and ascent.

A shot to evoke an emotional response from most divers. Creative and effective picture taking by Roy.

On the second dive Chrissie and I headed to the seabed forward of the wreck to follow the chain out to her anchor.  As we were descending I wondered if we might be the first people to see the anchor since she went down on 8^th October 1941, but we weren’t.  There was a thick coil of polypropylene mooring rope tied around the shank as though someone uses it as a boat mooring.

And Chrissie found a single blue fin as we swam back to the wreck, which was good.

Flabellina on the stern of Ulysses, a cracking capture by Darren with great contrast picking the subject out from the background.

On day four we offered a choice of Ulysses or the barge to cater for the wreckies and the photographers, and because the zodiac ride around Gubal to Ulysses takes a good fifteen minutes we were able to give the photogs on the barge the luxury of unlimited dive time.  Well, within the limits of whatever cylinders they were carrying.  I managed 96 minutes and was by no means in the water the longest.

From the night dive on the barge; a sharp, detailed and striking picture from Roy

After that we crossed back to Thistlegorm for afternoon and night dives.  The vis there was OK but not spectacular.  Mind you, the current on the night dive was spectacular, though easily managed by sheltering in the wreck.

Crown of Thorns on Thistlegom by Roy

The following morning we made two dives on Thistlegorm, and the current had cleaned her up beautifully.  The vis in the morning was excellent, as good as I’ve ever seen it on the wreck, and the dives were great.  Even better, we had the wreck almost to ourselves: only one day-boat pitched up to drop divers on the wreck.

From there was headed back to Dunraven, where the vis was, once again, absolutely outstanding, almost the whole length of the wreck was visible from the bow, and the life and colour on the reef were truly awe inspiring.

Squirrel fish looking decidedly glum! Don't they always? Pic by John.

For the first time, when I got back to Hurricane I could clearly see Emperor Fraser at 30m at the bottom of the reef.  I’m not sure if that was simply because the vis was so good or if the habit of mooring liveaboards to her stern is puling her remains closer to the reef, but whichever it is I couldsee the full length of Hurricane and the full length of Fraser at the same time, and that is truly remarkable vis.

Another iconic shot for divers, recovering back to the zodiac after an excellent dive. Pic by Cat.

We overnighted at Mahmoudat, and finished the trip at Ras Mohammed and Ras Ghoslani; both reefs offering excellent eye-candy and simple, current-free dives to round out an excellent week and leave everyone feeling refreshed and actually like they’d had a holiday.  Great stuff!

Climbing back aboard over/under shot by Roy

As ever, thanks to Chris, Chrissie and the skipper and crew of Hurricane for a memorable week, and I’ll look forward to seeing some of you next year.

Smiley coral as a parting shot, by Cat

Best Regards,

www.divewithmike.co.uk