Blue Hole - The True Story

[Turbosaurus]

While I knew something of the blue hole, I have no desire to dive it, thus no overwhelming desire to google search it. Curiosity and a bit of boredom this late on a Monday night brought me to this post, and I am glad it did.

I found this one personal story very facinating and entertaining, not just from the standpoint of a historical anectode, and first hand description of conditions and dangers, and a great story too- but becasue I love the way middle eastern people use phrases like "my dearest most treasured friend" and "my most deeply beloved dive buddy" Thats what I want all my dive buddies to call me from now on!

A+ all around, for informational content, language, plot, and happy ending! How could anyone not enjoy sharing such a story! I for one would never have searched it out, so thanks Kal.

BTW- while there is tons of great information on the board, very little is exclusive.

 

[hg frogman]

Interesting testimony.

The same kind of problem happened to my buddy and me in the Philippines a few years ago. We had planned a dive at 40m maximum to watch sharks, but the water was unusually clear and my buddy was descending a bit faster than me (our mistake). Our mutual briefing had been a bit too informal, like "let's go, we'll see" (another mistake). So we didn't stop around 35m to check if all was OK before going down again (big mistake again). My buddy, though not overweighted at all, hadn't put enough air in his BCD (he wore a 5-7 mm wetsuit) and I realized (a bit too late ! mistake again) he was sinking. I rushed after him, who was about 5 or 7 m away (too far ! yet another mistake of mine), reached him at 65m and made the sign to go up. Fortunately this woke him up (he told me afterwards he was kind of sleeping and didn't realize how deep he was, since the water was so clear and there were already two photographers in rec gear on the bottom below at about 75 or 80m !) and we immediately ascended together thanks to our BCDs. End of the story.

Many many mistakes, I know. One learns also by one's mistakes, but some lessons should be avoided.

I believe this is a common set of mistakes amongst divers not used to go deeper than 30-40m, which was the case of my buddy (nonetheless a DM with 500+ dives). And I had never experienced this situation before. As Yosi says, being balanced (neutral buoyancy at any depth) matters, and for this one needs to inflate one's BCD much more at 50m than at 30m, and at 30m much more than at 18m ! (provided you use an exposure suit, and even if you're properly weighted ; much worse if you're overweighted)

BTW, the ceiling of Dahab's Blue Hole Arch is (practically) at 55m, not 52m (although it varies sligthly with the tide). I mean, you cannot go through the Arch shallower than 55m unless you dig a trench in the ceiling ! Due to the impressive "huge, big blue, no bottom" surroundings and dramatic story, this dive has a much higher-than-average potential for nitrogen narcosis (much more so than Dahab's Canyon, for instance) and shouldn't be dived using air IMHO.

 

[Jai Bar]

I actually find the Wikipedia article about the Blue Hole quite lame, and for a diver it does not really contribute too much relevant information.

A couple of years ago, there was a "Blue Hole mapping project" in which they accurately mapped the place giving useful information. I like this concept much more than scaring people that "it is dangerous and lots of divers died there"- if you're going to try anyway, at least have the best information available so you know what you're going into... I couldn't find their website, but I think it was linked in this forum before.

As to the story of Yosy Flug, It rings familiar- I think there was a very similar story in a documentary film about the BH, which included lots of interviews from "almost accidents", families and dive buddies of perished divers (including Yuri Lipski, Ofer Michaely and so on). Yuri's footage that can be found in YouTube comes from this documovie. It is called in Hebrew "Shikaron Maamaquim" (Raptures of the deep), and perhaps it can be found also on YT.

However, I don't see why the short Wikipedia article and this letter are "The Blue True Story". It is just one of many stories, and I am not sure it is true at all... Most stories about BH are myths.

 

[String]

Most of the places at the blue hole try to sell it as "the most dangerous dive site in Sinai" to give it a reputation and therefore people. Simple fact is Bells > Blue Hole which most people do is a really simple 30m wall dive. THe 60m arch is a really simple tech dive with the CORRECT EQUIPMENT.

 

[gorcio]

As to Yuri - all stories about shark attack etc are very likely a bull****. Go to Youtube and look up his own video recovered from his camera.

 

[RickI]

Was just over that way on a liveaboard trip south of Marsa Alam. Struggled to work in a last minute side trip over to the Dahab Bluehole without success. Too much gear and weight to easily fly over there and put things together in the limited time available. Had hopes of scooter free diving and shooting some unusual video in and beside the Blue Hole and off Bells. Next time.

Several people did give me some advice. So, thought to pass along some second hand information for what it is worth. As there is a nice road up there and numerous tour buses, if you're going to go, go early, be in the water well before 9 am or go late, say after 4 or 5 pm. The blue hole in intervening times is reported awash with bathers in life jackets. It is so bad that during free diving competitions there is a guy to try to keep the area of the descending free diver, free of floating bystanders.

I was thinking of doing the loop from outside through the arch and up inside the blue hole. Local advice indicated that this isn't always feasible due to tides. Sometimes there can be a convergence of current, into the arch tunnel from outside and inside simultaneously. They indicated that this had stranded some divers in the tunnel in the past. Local advice in all things. I would talk to the Lighthouse Dive Center about conditions when you are planning on doing the dive particularly if a swim through the arch is in your plans. Have folks encountered these issues there?

 

[String]

Blue hole fills with snorkellers from sharm after about 11am until 3pm but they're mainly just snorkellers - not an issue for divers at all (you get the odd group who clutter up bells refusing to make room for divers who are carrying substantially more kit who can ONLY enter at this one point but thats jus ******** guide syndrome). They simply clutter up the restaurants. Best is to dive blue hole in the morning for 2 reasons (i) fewer divers as everyone does canyon first and BH second and (ii) the light is better. In the afternoon (especially ths time of year) the outer reef wall is in the shade so substantially darker. The advantage of doing it this way is you can dive the Canyon in the afternoon (a better ive imho) when there are far fewer divers there too.

As for the arch yes tides and currents can effect it. Also it looks better from inside to out in the morning due to the sun lighting the tunnel etc. Not as impressive looking the other way. Most people descend in the hole, go through the arch then along the wall to bells doing their deco out and back on that route.
Not sure lighthouse centre do ANY tech diving at all (and certainly wont give any advice any different from wha theother 40+ centres will tell you as well!).

If you swim through the arch you have to hire a technical instructor as a guide as diving below 40m in Egypt without a technical instructor is illegal. The arch is a 60m planned dive at the shallowest.

 

[Red Sea Shadow]

Not sure lighthouse centre do ANY tech diving at all (and certainly wont give any advice any different from wha theother 40+ centres will tell you as well!).

If you swim through the arch you have to hire a technical instructor as a guide as diving below 40m in Egypt without a technical instructor is illegal. The arch is a 60m planned dive at the shallowest.

Lighthouse Dive Center has nothing to do with technical diving as far as I know.

If you want to do the arch the right way, hiring a technical guide is not enough. All divers doing the arch must be at least Extended Range certified. That's if you want to stick to the regulations.

 

[String]

Clarify what i meant you must be (i) qualfied to do the dive and (ii) dive with a technical instructor.

Being qualified to the depth alone due to the oddness of Egyptian law doesnt mean you're allowed to go before 40m. To go lower you must be qualified AND with a technical guide (who must be a technical instructor).

 

[RickI]

Thanks for the additional input. Mainly just free dive these days, can see your point about SCUBA/rebreather diving in the midst of the snorkelers vs. free diving. We do need consistent clear surface more than folks carrying their own breathing media. The input I received was from a free diver's perspective as opposed to that of technical SCUBA/rebreather divers. Got out of trimix SCUBA myself around 1991, something about climbing on to boats with five tanks and chronic niggles. Rebreathers offer some nice options these days, have become affordable too. As I recall Lighthouse doesn't deal with technical SCUBA diving either, potentially useful tip on the current though.