Photos, Red Sea, November 2007

These are some photographs from a Bath Dive Centre liveaboard trip to the Red Sea in November 2007 on Emperor's MY Infinity on the "get wrecked & Safaga" itinerary taking in many of the well known wrecks as well as some lovely reefs. Click on the itinerary dive names to move to the first photo for that dive. The cursor left and right keys act as previous and next.

Itinerary

Our Emperor Diver guides for the trip were Nick and Lisa. Nick drew this map of our route from Hurghada to Ras Mohammed, the northern wrecks and Safaga for our dive on the Salem Express. You can get a bird's eye view of where we dived with Flash Earth. Click the black box to get started. It initially shows the Abu Nuhas reef, but you can use Nick's map as a guide for where to find our other dive sites.

Poseiden Reef - Saturday 17th November: An opportunity to get our weighting right. I needed 12 Kg with a 7mm wetsuit and a 12 litre aluminium cylinder. I dived with my buddy Neil for 59 minutes and a maximum depth of 14.6m
Miniyah: This is the wreck of a mine hunter sunk off Hurghada in the war with Israel in the seventies. We had had to return to Hurghada for a spare part for one of the ship's generators. Dived on Nitrox29 for 40 minutes and a maximum depth of 29m.
Shark/Yolanda - Sunday 18th November: A reef dive taking in the wreck of the Yolanda with a cargo of bathroom units. Nitrox32, 52 minutes and max depth of 29.5m.
Dunraven: I got a sinus headache finning against the current, but otherwise a nice dive, including penetration of the wreck's interior. Nitrox32, 43 minutes, max depth 27.5m.
Thistlegorm (Bow): This was a bonus as the wreck was due to be closed for essential maintenance (drilling holes to allow air to escape from the wreck's interior and positioning of concrete mooring positions). Neil and I entered the wreck through the lower level on the port side from the break before the stern section. Nitrox32, 45 minutes and max depth of 24m.
Thistlegorm (Night): Night dive using flash photography without the wide angle lens. Neil and I pottered around the deck. Nitrox32, 48 minutes, 18.4m.
Thistlegorm (Stern) - Monday 19th November: Early morning dive on the deeper stern section of the wreck and a visit to the train engine off the port side. I took black and white photos due to the low light. Nitrox32, 29 minutes and max depth of 29.5m
Kingston: Sunk in 1881 whilst on route to Aden with a cargo of coal. Nitrox32, 42 minutes and a max depth of 13.1m.
Ulysses: Afternoon dive on the Ulysses wreck on the Small Gobal Island. This was a Zodiac dive and on the way back we were delighted to meet with a pod of dolphins and all jumped in to play with them. In the rush, I forgot to grab my camera, duh! Nitrox32, 50 minutes and max depth of 26.2m.
Small Gobal Plateau: Night dive - relaxing but not as much life as I would have liked. Some flash photography. Nitrox32, 52 minutes and a max depth of 17.6m.
Rosalie Moller - Tuesday 20th November: Built in Glasgow in 1910, the Rosalie Moller was carrying a cargo of smokeless coal on route to Alexandria when it was sunk by a Heinkel bomber in 1941 two days after the Thistlegorm. I took black and white photos due to the depth. Nitrox25, 30 mins and a max depth of 34.6m.
Carnatic: One of the 4 wrecks on the Abu Nuhas reef. This is a 150 year old wreck with a cargo of copper and gold. Zodiac dive but we had to wait a long time on the surface for the pick up as the outboard on the 2nd zodiac had failed. I dropped my weight to 10Kg. Nitrox 32, 55 minutes and a max depth of 24m.
Umm Gamar: Evening dive with low light levels. Nitrox32, 40 mins and a max depth of 27m.
Salem Express - Wednesday 21st November: A roll on/roll off ferry that sank in December 1991 with as many as 1000 people dying in the incident. I took black and white photos as a mark of respect. The images clearly show the damage to the bow and the opening that allowed water onto the car decks. A sombre dive! Nitrox30, 39 minutes and a max depth of 27.4m.
Panorama Reef SE: Zodiac out and drift back. Nitrox30, 53 minutes and a max depth of 33.2m.
Panorama Reef NW: We got a zodiac out and intended to fin all the way back to the Infinity. We got to the boat in 35 minutes and then pottered around with our remaining air only to discover it was the wrong boat as we ascended. I launched my DSMB and summonsed a zodiac for the journey back. Nitrox32, 54 mins and max depth of 28.5m.
Gota Abu Ramanda: I skipped the night dive as I was feeling rather tired.
Gifton workout Thursday 22nd November: Nick told us that the current was from north to south, but when we were dropped by zodiac we found the current was actually coming from the south, forcing us to fin hard against it as we weren't sure what would happen if we allowed it to take us north. A tough morning workout! Nitrox32, 41 minutes and a max depth of 32.6m.
Small Gifton Plateau: This time we jumped off the boat and drifted north. A much more relaxing dive. Neil and I pottered around the coral heads on the sand at 20m before exploring the reef wall. My Beaver reel had stretched the spring so that I had to concentrate on preventing the line from spilling out as I prepared to launch my DSMB. A simple plastic lug would have prevented the problem! Nitrox30, 57 minutes and a max depth of 20.4m.

I took the pictures with a Canon Powershot s60 using the Canon WP-DC40 waterproof case and a wet mount INON wide angle lens. For the most part I used manual calibration of white balance, and the Program Tv mode with exposure time set to 1/100 second and sensitivity to ISO 200. To reduce the noise I used imagemagik to blur the red channel. For really low light levels I switched to monochrome images.