Forth Day (Daedalus)

After an overnight crossing to Daedalus over calm seas we found the currents to be going the wrong way! The boat was unable to moor up as the currents were running northerly and not the usual southerly currents. So the boat just hovered off the reef.

The first dive of the day was along the northern edge of the reef heading from west to east.

THRESHER SHARK! Got to see one in the blue, but not close enough for a photo. Others include a school of Jacks, plenty of Clown Fish, small Napoleon Wrasse and Emperor Angelfish.

There were plenty of anemones around the reef each with their resident clown fish. These were slightly more aggressive making attack runs at divers or cameras getting too close.

The coral at Daedalus was some of the best seen on the trip and the water was the warmest at 25 degrees. Was definitely hot in a 5mm semi-dry!

The second dive of the day was definitely interesting! The dive was around the southwest corner of the reef and the current was defiantly more fierce in this area. The currents were very strong and it was an exhilarating drift dive. After about 35 mins my buddy was having a few problems so we decided to surface. Ascending to 5m we got caught in the current and were immediately swept up 3m and then over the top of the reef. So much for a safety stop, but there was a good 2m of water on top of the reef so no damage was done to either us or the coral!

Back on the boat, it sounds like we got lucky. A washing machine was in full effect and some divers were sucked down 10 metres in less than a second. Even one of the guides got thrown about in the spin cycle.

The third dive was a gentle shallow dive after the roller coaster ride that was the second dive.

Around the sheltered eastern side we saw a lot of nemo's and barracuda. The coral again was fantastic with a lot of nooks and crannies to explore. The usual suspects are again ever present with Anthias, Coral groupers, Cornetfish and the odd Napoleon Wrasse.

Fifth Day (Elphinstone)

As we couldn't moor up at Deadalus we had to move back to Elphinstone for the fifth day.

We tried an early morning dive to try and catch some shark action. We were dropped off on the northern platuae and had a hunt around for some sharkies. We were in the water for 6:30am and were greeted by a lot of free swimming Lionfish but no sharks in the area.

We cruised down the eastern side of the reef. There were a lot of surgeon fish and a couple of Napoleon Wrasse.

We were picked up by the RIB and when we got close to the boat noticed that all the divers were looking into the water and pointing. There were two oceanic whitetip sharks cruising around the boat. It was straight on with the kit and back in for a shallow dive with the sharks.

As you can see by the photo's they got very close. One came up to me and circled me twice at about 1.5m. I twisted desperately to keep the camera and dome port between me and the business end of the shark. Quite a experience and one I'm not going to forget in a hurry as the shark eye'd me whilst swimming around me. Apparently the people watching on the boat saw this and thought I was about to become a morning snack!

The next dive was around the northern end of the reef. There were a lot of jacks on the dive and several Oceanic Whitetips cruising around fairly shallow.

The third dive of the day was again around the northern tip of the reef and around the west side. The Oceanic Whitetips were ever present and one was never far away. Others of note were pipefish, squirrel fish, lionfish and a large Red Sea Coral Grouper.

Sixth Day (Abu Dabab and Ras Umras)

The last day had two dives on reefs close to the shore. The first was Abu Dabab the home of the Dugong, although we didn't see him. The coral reef was nice, but showed the typical damage of a reef popular with dayboats.

Ras Umras had another couple of boats already there when we arrived. The reef extended outwards with a large number of coral blocks rising from the sandy bottom.