Trip Report Trip Report--St Johns and M/Y Amelia Part 2

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bshort4

Contributor
Messages
283
Reaction score
234
Location
Colorado Springs
# of dives
200 - 499
DIVING: Our check dive would be on air and not nitrox and then they would blend in the nitrox for the rest of the dives--mostly to 29 or 30%. On the check dive everyone had to shoot their SMB's for the guide to make sure we knew how--that was a hoot. We had 14 divers and three guides--one guide was private for one guest and a family of three would dive with no guide so we had five divers per guide--perfect. The private guide was for a man who was severely handicapped with multiple sclerosis who could not walk without aid of two arm canes. The crew knew nothing of his handicap until the driver who picked him up at the airport called the boat and asked if they knew--they didn't. He was very overweight at like maybe 280 pounds and had a hard time being understood when he talked. But the crew dealt with it---they had to cut three lengths of rope and tape them together and four crew members would put it under his arms to pull him out of the water onto the boat. Big kudos to the crew for dealing with this and his guide who whenever we saw them underwater was guiding him around holding on to his tank. I sure hope he left a hell of a tip. The cruise director (and guide) said they wished they had known before hand and could have brought someone on board who had experience dealing with physically challenged divers--again my hats off to the crew.

Remember that Coke Zero and cup of ice from the hotel? Well after our second dive my stomach was doing cartwheels. By the time we started the cruise down to St Johns that night I was making many rushed trips to the bathroom. But not seasick. The winds were blowing at about 35 nights for the crossing and the boat was all over the place--no one slept that night. Having to get up all through the night I was bouncing off the walls and the floor to get to the bathroom. My arms were black and blue by morning and I was a mess. I told our guide I wouldn't be diving that day and why and they became very concerned. I was very dehydrated and weak. After the first dive one of the guides asked if I was taking any meds--I was--Pepto Bismo--and it wasn't working. King Tut was getting his revenge. He said I needed Egyptian medicine for Egyptian sickness and gave me some Antinol (sp?). Wham! two hours later the stomach had clamed and the trips to the loo and stopped. Drank a lot of water and by the next morning I was ready to get back in the water. I had missed a whole day of diving but it is what it is.

We were put into two groups of five for diving--those with more than 100 dives and those with less. Worked out good--all in my group were good divers and no air hogs. After our check dives our guide pretty much knew how we did on air and only on several occasions were we asked about our air again. Our guide led the way but never really went out of his way to point anything out--he never rushed and would always check to see where we were. My dive buddy and me both had cameras and that worked out great too. The corals in St Johns are mostly hard corals and very few fish--lots of small reef fish but nothing else really. Water was a consistent 82 degrees and so was the air temperature--I wore a 3 mm shorty and could have dived with a wetsuit. The winds final died down and the weather for the rest of the trip was perfect. Most dives were in the 45 to 70 foot range and dive times were never less than 55 minute except one deep dive which was 45 minutes. Visibility varied from 70 to over 100 feet (Elphinstone). Not a current to be found on any dives the whole trip---none. The dives actually seemed repetitive after awhile, we moved to Fury Shoals and iyt was much the same as St Johns--nice hard corals and little fish life. They did three night dives but I'm not a fan so didn't make those dives. After Fury Shoals we made the four hour trip up to Elphinstone and joined 7 or 8 others boats there. It was time to look for some sharks. The dives at Elphinstone would be the only two dives we would use the RIBs. All other dives were made off the back of the boat and we always returned to the boat---only because there were no currents could we do this. We went to the south plateau of Elphinstone on our first dive off the RIB and went deep (123 feet) looking but saw nothing. Second dive we decided to stay closer to all the boats at about 20 feet deep---and right away the White Tips started showing up--as did a lot of divers when they were spotted. We had 6 or 7 White Tips checking everyone out for over 40 minutes while we hung in the blue. Many close encounters and lots of great pics. A RIB was above me with three divers hanging off of it and a shark went up and started nibbling on one divers fins--I've never seen three people move that fast into a RIB at one time. After that dive we started moving closer to Port Ghalib and did a afternoon dive and another night dive. Moved that night even closer to Port Ghalib and did our last two dives on the same reef as our check out dive. By about 4 pm we were back in port. Many folks went into Port Ghalib for the evening but my stomach was acting up a bit again and stayed on the boat. The next morning the driver from Nile Holidays tours was there to pick me up for the five hour drive to Luxor.

Thoughts and conclusion---As much as I enjoyed the trip (and I did) my thoughts after a few dives were that I should have picked a different route. As beautiful as St Johns is it all started to look the same after awhile and the lack of fish life was disappointing. But....the dive on Elphinstone made the trip---diving with sharks and having such close encounters was bucket list stuff for me. The boat was middle of the road--food was so so--plenty of it but not much variety or flavor--for me but I never went hungry. Soft drinks were free--Diet Pepsi (my favorite), Sprite, Coke and Fanta. Beers were all cans of Stella at about $3 a can on the honor system. The crew was outstanding, always there to help you in and out of your gear and cleaning the boat. Given one large bath towel, two small hand towels and one large beach towel for after diving which they would change out any of them if you asked. I brought three large rail type clothes clips and they kept everything secure drying on the boat rails. Two different tip envelopes--one for the guides and one for the crew--one of the divers handled collecting money--never any pressure about the tips. Since there were eight crew members and three guides I split the tips 70/30 in favor of the crew. I would maybe try a different boat next time---I looked at more than a few other boats and some had no reviews, some with mediocre reviews and would have like to have booked on the Aggressor boat but at more than twice the price I found a middle ground and was overall happy with my choice. PS--the tour for four nights and five days with Nile Holidays was outstanding and the price for a single was very nice two--would recommend them in a heart beat
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Thanks for an excellent trip report, I’m pleased that you saw sharks and that the trip to Luxor went so well. The Red Sea has never really had masses of fish, it just has amazing corals. We are very lucky in the UK to live only 5 hours flight away !

Best fishes x
 
Thank you for sharing.

Good to know about St. John’s and fury shoals. Confirms for me that if I ever go back to Egypt it will have to be the BDE route.
 
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