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CORALREPUBLIC Sinai,
Northern Red Sea, 2004
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Trip
dates: |
26 December 2004
– 2 January 2005 |
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Boat
/ resort: |
MV Aisha,
Northern Red Sea cruise booked with Subexplor |
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Dive
centre: |
The diving on
board was arranged by the Aisha Group |
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Photo-friendly?: |
Yes, camera table
and charging stations. |
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Number
of dives: |
16 5.5 days of
diving. |
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Diving
conditions: |
Very good. Calm
seas, mild currents, excellent visibility. Water temperature 23°C, I liked my
7 mm full suit with hood, but then I’m such a wimp. Carmen was Ok with a 5 mm
plus vest. |
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Comments: |
We were only
three divers on board, Carmen, myself and Oscar,
from Barcelona. We felt like a private charter, but the boat felt a bit
empty, especially on New Year’s Eve, but a very friendly crew, in
particular our divemaster Laurence,
made for a nice atmosphere. Plenty of relax time and the chance of deciding
ourselves where we wanted to dive. The dive sites
around the Sinai are extremely crowded, but this was relatively low season.
This means that instead of the 30-odd boats on each site we may have had 7 or
8. We did not feel crowded underwater, though, except on the wrecks. I really
enjoyed the dives in the Thiran Straits, and a memorable one in the Alternatives dive site in the Gubal
area, where we played for what seemed hours with a very friendly, huge
Napoleon fish. He really liked his picture taken! The trip’s
anecdote came when some divers got a bit lost after a night dive and climbed
on board our platform instead of theirs. It so happened that they were
Spanish and from Barcelona, and that Oscar knew one of them. They both could
not believe the world could be so small. Funny! On the trip back,
we had enough time between flights in Cairo to go see the Pyramids, it was my
first time and I enjoyed that very much. I shot with my
Olympus C-5050Z and a single Inon D-2000 strobe. |
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