Posts by Samaka:
What you get for what you earn
May 7th, 2010
So… I’ve been on land for some time and I’m bored out of my skull. Obviously I don’t have much to write about since all I’ve done is recovering from my sinus infection. Anyways; I’ve had some time on my hands and a few thoughts has passed through my head even though I’ve been trying to avoid brain activity all together. One of those thoughts was of mathematic nature. Now, when I resort to philosophy in mathematical terms it’s normally a supreme sign that I need to get something to do, not to turn into something like John Nash in “A Beautiful Mind”.
Anyways; what was going through my mind was how much my income actually was compared to what I could earn elsewhere, or rather; what I would have to earn elsewhere to be able to get for my funds there, what I get for my funds here. And this is how I calculate. I divide the compared price with my salary and then I take the price for the same thing in Sweden and multiply that with the sum from the when I divided my Egyptian wages and badabim badaboom; I’ve got the salary I’d need in Sweden to get the same value for money as I do here. Now imagine doing the same calculations compared to London, Los Angeles, Paris or some place that is really expensive…
The dive industry is not making you rich. It won’t get you a fat number account on the Caymans… (Well it did get me the Cayman number account but it’s slimmer than the book listing successful peace-negotiations in the Middle East. And I don’t even remember the PIN-code to my Cayman bank-card so I can’t use the money anyway.) You don’t earn that much on diving. It puts bread and butter on the table, but there are no extra benefits like dental or retirement funds. However my life is richer than if I would earn twice or even five times the money sitting in an office or working the floor in any plant. I don’t work to be able to afford to do what I like during a few weeks holiday. I get paid to do what I love and for me that is more rewarding than all the money I’d potentially earn from a 9-5 job.
My basic salary is 900€ plus what I get in tip and commission; around 100€/week. This adds up to around 1.300€/month. For this money I can live like a prince in Egypt and I seldom have to say: “No I can’t afford that”. On top of this I eat for free on the boat 6 days a week. If I would have the same salary living in Sweden as I do here in Egypt I would probably consider myself fairly well-off. Though, how much that would be depends on how you count. Lets just for fun make a few calculations.
To get the same amount in my bank account after tax as I get in my hand here my salary before tax in Sweden would be around 2.000€. That’s not a lot of money so here comes a few additional calculations. All of these numbers are calculated salary after tax!
If I would spend the same percentage of my funds on food in Sweden my salary would have to be better. I can go out and get myself a whole BBQ chicken with rice, salad, a coke and a smile for 7 Egyptian pounds. That’s less than 1€. If I go to Mac Donald’s I get a large size menu for 25 Egyptian pounds. That’s less than 3:50€. I can go out and have a luxury dinner at a nice restaurant and the bill will not exceed 120 Egyptian pounds. That’s less than 17€. I made a quick calculation of the top of my head that I would have to earn about 4.000€ after tax in Sweden to use the same volume of my monthly wages compared with the food prices we have here.
To have the same sized part of my pay check go to accommodation/rent my salary would have to be even better. I have an 80m2 penthouse with 100m2 balcony/roof terrace, sea view, two bedrooms and living room in an absolute prime location. I’m not sure how much one of those would cost in Sweden and of course that would depend on location, but with an educated stab in the dark I’ll put a 1.000 € price tag on a equivalent accommodation along the coast in Sweden. And then I think I’m careful. This means that I would have to earn around 6.000€ after tax for that to be the same percentage of my income.
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To have a sinus infection and a hero from Madrid
March 17th, 2010To have a sinus infection and a hero from Madrid
The boat turned the bow to the sea again and I was sitting on the sundeck thinking that I could have had use for more than a day in between the trips. I had left Marsa Alam around 1:30pm so arriving in Hurghada later the same evening there was no use in wasting time. Go directly to the Dive Pro’s local waterhole. There I got together with Henrik and a few other people in a desperate attempt to kind of socialize.
You definitely need to spend some time with people who are neither guests on your boat nor co-workers in between trips. I often think of the dive industry in general, and Hurghada in particular, as an “Upgrading Facility for Nuclear Family Waste”. Maybe it’s the only place where we, the people who does not fit into the norm of normal society can and find a space where we don’t have to be the outsiders, even be useful. For this to work there has to be others of the same kind to hang out with. The dive industry provides that, a world within the world, a society outside society that accepts the outcasts.
I knew that I’d have the chance to sleep in the morning so there was no panic to get to bed early. But you know how it is when you finally get a sleep in morning… I woke up at 7am and could not get back to sleep to save my life. I got up and since I had some stuff to do I got started right away.
Hisham (owner of the liveaboard boat) had called me the night before and told me that he’d be picking me up at 6pm so I calculated that we would be in Marsa Alam around 9pm. I then entered that information into the part of my brain that’s converting and adjusting to Egyptian reality and concluded that it was more likely to be: Picked up at 6:30pm and arrive in Marsa Alam around 9:30. At 9:30 we had not yet left Hurghada. That’s actually about the time Hisham decided that getting the car washed before getting out on a 3 hour drive through the dusty desert would be a good idea. Now we could finally get on our way into the arid region. Luckily I was alone in the back seat so I could stretch out and sleep.
As sure as last time was a track record this time was not. We stopped at every little village on our way to pick up this or leave that or to just stop for God knows what reason. Though I was still comfortably spread out in the rear I started to feel like I could have taken a taxi on my own just to be sleeping in my cabin on the boat already. Finally we drove into the port area around 2am. The guests were already vast asleep so without further postponement I hit the sack to get a few hours of rest.
So, there I’m sitting on the sundeck looking at the sea trying to figure out what to do about my sinus infection that keeps bugging me and make my ascends scrutinizing painful. I’ve made three dives on this first day of the safari whereof one being a night dive and I can not remember that I’ve ever been in such pain before. This including the time I broke my collarbone, the time I stepped on a nail and got my foot penetrated right through and the time I busted my eardrum during a stupid apnea attempt in Greece. It’s not only that I’m supposed to dive when I work. I also miss two out of three dives on Little Brother Island. This is annoying as it’s the dives I love the most in Egypt. Well… Gray reef sharks, Silky sharks and a Hammer head shark on the first, and for me only, dive has to count as a good day on any report…
Next day we dive Big Brother Island. There are two wrecks on the north tip of Big Brother; The Aïda and Numidia. Of course I’m still not fit for diving in the morning so I miss also the dive on Aïda. I do get in the water for the second dive. The wreck of Numidia but as my head is about to explode on the way up I decide that it has to be dry duty for me for the rest of the safari. When I get back to Hurghada I’ll get an appointment with a specialist doctor to get some proper treatment. This can’t go on. Bearing in mind that I’ll make the same trip the week after next and then next again and again, there’ll be plenty of opportunities for me to dive those sites then but it’s boring to sit on the boat waiting… On the same token; I’m used to accept and deal with boring situations, hence I take the opportunity to write this Status Report during those unwelcome breaks.
The weather conditions won’t allow us to go to Daedalus Reef. Instead we head towards Elphinstone for our forth day. Obviously we (the staff) know that the guests will be happy with the dives there since it’s an extraordinary dive site with corals in extremely good condition and sharks to meet any requirement. Although, as long as the dive magazines back in Europe keep writing about the diving in the deep south of the Egyptian Red Sea, people will come here with their minds set on a certain route whish they’ve red about. Then it might be hard to convince them that this is a better option. Still, if you’ve got the gift of making people believe that it’s actually their idea and their decision… then you’re home safe… Present and plant the right facts that can only lead to one suggestion and that’s the suggestion that’ll come up. Result: “Ok, so you’d rather go to Elphinstone? No problem! If that’s what you want, then that’s what you’ll get”. Badabim badaboom… Bob’s your auntie… Everybody’s happy!
I’ve already been up for a while when we moor up to Elphinstone around 6am. I’ve had my coffee, made the map for the briefing and knocked on the cabin doors to wake the guests up. Everybody is sitting on the upstairs sundeck and the sun is quickly mounting the slight overcast of the early morning. An Oceanic White Tipped Shark comes cruising around the boat, then one more, and another one. All three of them comes up close to the dive platform as to say “Good morning and welcome to Elphinstone. We’ll make sure you’ll have a pleasant dive.” And I know that I’m not going to get into the water because of a stupid sinus infection.
There are two kinds of people in the world: Those who can dive and those who can not dive. This doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with certification. One of our guests is Rafael. He belongs to the latter category. On land he’s as sweet as can be. In the water this guy is a nightmare! First of all he’s got absolutely no buoyancy control. He weighs around 110 kg (a wild but respectful guess) and measures around 170cm tall, the type of person that’s easier to climb over than to run around. He’s wearing 14 kg of led and a 3mm full suit. He can’t get off the surface but he can’t stay up. When he deflates his BCD (and finally stops fining up) he shoots to the bottom, back first, and crash-lands like JAS 39 Gripen, then he’s rolling around on the corals like caterpillar. When he finally finds his inflator he inflates and rockets back to the surface. All this he manages to do during the first few minutes of the check-dive the first day. Second dive is similar even though both I and Hisham had a talk with him and his buddy about weights, buoyancy and preserving the marine life. Result: Rafael is not diving, at least not on the walls where we don’t have bottom on a lifesaving depth. Most of the dive sites on this trip you end up on near to 1.000 meters if you persist to go all the way to the bottom. We take him for a dive a day; one-on-one-style on merely DSD-level just to give him the chance to see some of the Red Sea Wonders but it’s an ordeal bordering unfeasible proportions. Rafael is a CMAS*** diver with 160 dives under his belt. Knowing that, you don’t really expect any problems from him. Maybe with the exception that he might want to go a bit too deep.
However, Rafael is like a big Teddy bear, the nicest person you’re ever likely to meet and he’s totally ok with our decision not to let him dive the more challenging dives. I would like to meet the instructor who certified Rafael as a CMAS***, even as a CMAS* actually. I often hear from CMAS divers how PADI is an organisation that spews out crap divers that are dangerous for themselves and others. Well… Yeah… What ever… On top of all this Rafael managed to fall down the stairs on his way to his cabin, bang his head in a doorpost so bad that he almost passed out plus getting a stomach infection so bad the last day that we had to go back to shore before we had a chance to make the last dive to get him to the hospital. For a while I was convinced that unfortunate Rafael had boarded our boat to die. Well, he survived but I think it’s safe to say that this was not Rafael Cordoba Almela’s week.
Even when he wanted to buy some T-shirts as presents for his kids we didn’t have them in the right sizes… I almost started crying! One good thing happened to him during this eventful holiday. The topic of Champions League came up and different guests supporting different teams were debating which team was the best and all the usual football crap. Rafael was sitting silent and calm for a while and then he went to change his T-shirt… Coming back with “Real Madrid – 29 Victories” all over his impressing wide chest and a big smile all over his equally impressing wide face. The saloon went quiet. Then and there, Rafael was my hero.
All in all we’ve had a wonderful week and a rather dramatic last surface interval. When I get back to Hurghada I’ll go to a specialist doctor to get my sinuses taken out and replaced with brand spanking new oil-filled-titanium-computer-guided-artificial-ones…
O.A.O.
Samaka
Popularity: 7% [?]
What happens in Egypt stays in Egypt
January 12th, 2010Teaching diving is something that I don’t often get a chance to do in this day and age, with the exception of the occasional Nitrox course. Then again, that is more theoretical- than practical application and doesn’t really include any “in water skill training”. Hence the smile on my face when I received the news that I was to teach the Rescue Diver Course and the Dive Master Course to an English girl called Ashleigh. My only concern was how I would manage to fit in the training parallel to guiding certified divers on liveaboard trips.
Fortunately we had a week on land due to lack of bookings, so the theory and confined water training was easily completed with help from Theresa (my colleague on the boat) acting as a victim. We had a great time and since Ashleigh worked as a life guard at a swimming pool, prior to coming out to Egypt, she also had some interesting input for us to pick up.
The next week we were taking a group of 13 divers from a Dutch Harley Davidson bikers club to dive the wrecks north of Hurghada plus a few days spent on Brothers Islands and Elphinstone. I thought to my self: “How difficult can it be to get these people to act as victims for an 18 year old, very cute, English girl and get the final scenarios acted out?” And as I expected every one was happy to help out. The first day on Abu Nuhas the group was diving with Theresa on all the four wrecks while Ashleigh and I was finishing the preparation training. As I had planed the whole thing we could after this have some divers go “missing” and divers popping up “unconscious”.
First dive went excellent and I have to say that Ashleigh is a dream-student who is really keen on learning this stuff as well as clever enough to understand what’s going on. We exit the water and as we are climbing up the ladder to the dive deck I see three Zodiacs on top of the reef. This is worrying because when the wind is strong from the North the waves are breaking over the reef right next to the wrecks and this to get swept over the reef is potentially very dangerous.
Due to the distance I couldn’t make out if it was our Zodiacs or if they were from some of the other liveaboards moored up next to us. This question was answered within minutes when Imad, one of our crew members, and Ian one of our guests, came speeding towards the boat. As it turns out, a massive random wave had taken, not only our Zodiac drivers; Imad and Montassar with surprise but also one from the next boat, and sent the three inflatables over the edge of the reef and landed them in a big pile. Imad was swept overboard in the pandemonium and had cut a piece of flesh out of the bottom of his foot when trying to regain his balance in addition to the control over his bumping vessel.
Ian had been the first one out of the water and had managed to stay onboard. Montassar stayed to wait for the remaining guests to resurface while Imad and the guest now were back on the boat. To be served this kind of action on a silver plate while teaching a Rescue Diver course is not common. Consequently Ashleigh got some really good hand-on experience taking care of Imad’s wounded foot. Even if you never wish for things like this to happen I have to admit I give fate at least 10 points for the timing… Excellent!
Having put this behind us together with our lunch break, it was now time for the second dive. The group headed out in the Zodiac (after a fairly explicit briefing on the subject of avoiding getting swept on top of the reef) to make the second dive for the day, this time on the wreck of the steam-sailor Carnatic.
At the same time Ashleigh and I kitted up and this time we were going to practice “Respond to Unconscious Diver on the Surface”, “Exiting the Water with an Unconscious Diver” plus “Treating Decompression Illness – Administration of Oxygen”. Everything goes according to plans with the in-water skill practicing but as we’re hanging on the surface, debriefing the dive, one of our Zodiacs are back with only one guest (Ian again) onboard… Hmmm… I look up and Montassar, who is driving the Zodiac, gives me a look that in a nano-second tells me:
“Hey Mr. Samaka, Can you come back to the boat please. We have a problem”.
I’m thinking “Huston, forget that other thing”! Ashleigh and I are both back on the platform in 20 seconds. It turns out that the poor guy (read clumsy guy) got entangled in the line while deploying his Surface Marker Buoy and got dragged to the surface from 5-6 metres with a speed way quicker than the recommended 18 metres/min. This is not a life-threatening situation but tagging along the modus operandi “better safe than sorry” we administrate oxygen. Ashleigh gets to participate in a sharp situation that we otherwise would have to act out. Even if you never wish for things like this to happen I have to admit I give fate at least 10 points for the timing… Awesome!
Diving is not a forgiving sport and we do enter a hostile environment every time we jump in the water. There is also an infinite well of more or less likely problems to scoop from.
This can include easily handled situations as cramp, badly trimmed buoyancy or simple equipment failure. The more serious problems can embrace passive- or active panic or out-of-air-situations. While Theresa took our guests for the third dive of the day, on the wreck of Giannis D, Ashleigh and I had planned a dive with a combination of skills to practice such circumstances as malfunctioning equipment and out-of-air. We jump into the water and start our descent. After a few seconds I turn to look at Ashleigh and notice a vast amount of bubbles surrounding her. She still acts unruffled and aware of the fact that her alternate air source is free flowing. Normally this problem is solved simply by turning the mouth piece down and let the membrane fall back in to the right position but this is clearly not working. Hmmm… Slightly discombobulating…
Tapping the regulator with her hand she still gets no result and as I look at her pressure gauge I see that she already lost about half of the air in her cylinder. This is not yet a life-threatening situation but tagging along the modus operandi “better safe than sorry” we start our ascent. I am holding my alternate air source up in front of her face as to say “No worries Ash. I’ve got plenty of air… for sale…” We turn her air off and practice the use of the alternate air source. To get this action during your Rescue course is of course not usual and even if you never wish for things like this to happen I have to admit I give fate at least 10 points for the timing… Blinding!
We move on to Brothers, sailing over night. The weather is not too bad and we have a smooth ride. 05:30 we wake the guest up and Theresa goes out in the Zodiac to make a current check. Considering the conditions we decide to go for a dive on the wreck of Numidia on the north tip of Big Brother. On this dive I ask Ashleigh to observe my behavior and spot small problems that might grow into bigger problems and that she take actions accordingly. Just as we reach the point to roll in and I’m asking the group: “Everybody ready?” I feel my tank fall out of the strap that’s holding it to my BCD but there is no time to fix it now so I continue: “Roll in on three then… One… Two… Three” and we all roll in simultaneously. We make a negative entry, swim down, and regroup on 5-6 metres… Before I even get a chance to turn around and see if Ashleigh has noticed my tank swinging above me she’s on it and has reattached it to my BCD. Normally I would have just taken my BCD off and fixed this myself but this time it fitted quite well with what was planned for the Rescue Course. Of course you never wish for things like this to happen, but I have to admit I give fate at least 10 points for the timing… Brilliant!
In the early morning hour the next day we move to Little Brother where we look forward to to dive with sharks. Two Oceanic Whitetip Sharks, size 180 cm, had been playing around the boat most of the night and the enthusiasm amongst the guests to get in the water was obvious. We wake up at 05:30 to beat the other boats to the north plateau, where most of the shark action normally goes on at a depth of about 40 metres.
However, the wind has now picked up to the point where the north plateau is no longer an option and the current will give us no option than to drift the north east side where the waves are breaking over the reef with such ferocity that it would be very difficult, if not impossible to get back in the Zodiac. I decide to cancel the first dive, tagging along the modus operandi “better safe than sorry”. All guests agree with me after I explain the situation and we sit down for breakfast. The wind keeps picking up and after serious consideration involving a discussion with the guests Captain Mustafa and the crew let the moorings slide and we head towards more merciful dive sites closer to land. I feel that there is no need to push our luck. The scenario that might be the outcome of diving in these conditions could be a little bit more than we desire for the Rescue Course. It’s time to leave The Brother Islands, 10 points to me for good timing.
Situations like this are exactly why the rescue course is so important. To know that you can handle potentially dangerous circumstances and make decisions according to conditions. This will make your diving safe and more relaxed. Ashleigh completed her Rescue Course with flying colours. There is no doubt in my mind that she is capable of handling a sharp situation. Maybe it’s not 100% according to PADI Standards to give credit for real incidents as oppose to acted scenarios but hey… What happens in Egypt stays in Egypt… It’s like Las Vegas… It’s like the bloody Bermuda Triangle!
You can run out of air… and die.
You can go to deep… and die.
You can ascend too fast… and die.
You can slouch on your couch… and die.
Get off the couch!!!
Samaka
Dive Instructor/Philosopher/Dirty Old Man
Popularity: 20% [?]
The biggest threat to coral reefs: Prices on Underwater cameras.
December 11th, 2009It’s been said that every photo taken of you shortens your life with one day. I’m not sure that this is intierly true since people like Brittney Speers is still around. However, Anna Nicole Smith might be of a different opinion. I am sure though, that this is true for the coral reefs in tourist dense areas. Divers have become the new “Japanese”…
How many more bad pictures of bluespotted rays do we need?
The last few years the prices for under water housings for cameras has dropped like a dumped weight belt at the same time as digital cameras has become everyone’s toy. I’m not sure if this is a blessing or a curse. All of the sudden the majority of divers coming to dive the Red Sea carry a digital camera with an under water housing. Some small pocket cameras some big semi-pro cameras and most of them first time users that bought their photo equipment just before leaving for this holiday. Now, I don’t say that there is anything wrong with the desire to document a holiday, nor feeling the need to get a new approach to diving by picking up U/W photography. However, divers bringing photo equipment are likely to be the main reason we see so many broken corals when we dive.
It seems like the moment you put a camera in the hands of a diver is the
How many more bad pictures of parrotfish do we need?
moment he forgets the half metre extension of his feet, everything he ever learned regarding buoyancy control and the ability to listen to good advice. Dive centres rent out camera equipment to the left and to the right with no other advice than how to take care of the camera. Not a word about taking care of the reef. Divers of course have the same desire, and right, to document their holidays as the next bird watcher. Every one wants to show friends and family pictures from their trip to Egypt when they get back home. Especially if you have done something as exciting as scuba diving! On land this is hardly ever a problem. You take a photo of the pyramids or the sphinx, no harm done. Under water the situation is different.
You have delicate marine life that might have taken centuries to grow that can be destroyed in a jiffy by the smack of a fin or a thump of a knee. I have seen it so many times; the side of the reef getting both figuratively and literally scraped clean by divers with cameras that I’m actually surprised that we still have any soft corals left on reefs like Brother Islands or Elphinstone.
But it’s not only the reefs that are in danger. I’ve seen divers with cameras follow sharks out in the blue, way too deep or up to fast to get the “digital evidence” they need, risking to get swept away by the current, get bent or agitate the shark to a point on the brink of a leave-me-alone-nibble. Add some nitrogen narcosis to this equation and you have a potentially dangerous situation.
How many more bad pictures of masked butterfly fish do we need?
Some sea creatures get stressed easier than others, the carefree turtle for example, and the laidback dugong. They seem easily choreographed and willing to pose for the photographer but the reality is that they easily get stressed and might suffer mental and physical injuries if approached in the wrong way. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the diver is stupid or a bad diver, just that he is distracted or preoccupied with his camera.
When buying an under water camera equipment it’s easy to think “it’s a harmless camera that can hurt no one” and we have all heard the expression “leave nothing but bubbles, take nothing but pictures” as a way to describe environmental awareness. It might be time to change the second half of that expression. The truth is that a camera is not as harmless as one might think. It can make you, unwillingly, take unnecessary risks and make you damage the very marine life you love, what made you take up diving in the first place.
There are diving photographers and there are picture snapping divers. The photographers know how to compose a picture and how to get a good result. Also they are cautious and alert, not to add to the bad reputation under water photographers already have. The picture snapping divers have no idea how to create a good photo and they return home with hundreds of crap pictures of fish swimming away taken from above. In pursuit of these earthly useless pictures they often tear down the reefs like bulldozers.
A lot of divers are now also upgrading to their “second generation” of camera
How many more bad pictures of goatfish do we need?
equipment. This means that many people who finally got used to diving with a compact camera in a small housing have to start all over again. This time it’s a NIKON D70 in an IKELITE housing and two big strobes. All of the sudden they have to think about shutter speed and aperture. And… oups… the subject left already… The strobe-arms are sticking out scraping soft corals off the overhang. The water resistance increases and the air-consumption skyrockets… And… oups… no air for safety stop…
I’ve also noted that the enjoyment factor of the dive often fades as soon as the diver brings a camera. Often they get out of the water saying they weren’t pleased about the dive and that there was nothing to see. Simultaneously other divers go into raptures over how fantastic an experience it was. Most of the time, the reason is that you miss a lot of what’s going on around you, if you spend the entire dive looking through a view finder.
When I used to teach U/W Photo courses I always started with the sentence “Today we’ll learn how to avoid taking the crap ones” and I think this is one of the most vital piece advice dive guides and instructors can give to guests who come to dive with camera equipment. Don’t take the crap photos! If you concentrate on getting only the nice shots and plan your photo dives, you would probably spare the reefs immensely. And you would actually learn how to get nice shots rather than just keep the “not so bad ones” out of a few hundred bad. Instead of picking on the divers after the dive for the mistakes they did during the dive, try to come up with hints and tips before the dive. Here I would like to quote my friend Kimmo Hagman, one of the old-school-photographers who lives by the rule; “If you can’t get the photo hovering, don’t try to take it.”
At the end of the day I think the task lands in the lap of the dive guides and dive centres to advise and teach divers with cameras to remember to respect the marine life. To create rules and enforce them. Take our responsibility when renting out under water cameras and include environmental aspects in the pre dive camera briefing. And why not offer a course in underwater photography combined with peak performance buoyancy?
In the Red Sea we ask our guests not to use gloves to avoid damaging the corals but can we really ask them not to bring their brand spanking new camera equipment? Of course we can, and I think it’s our duty to do so if we see that the diver can’t dive sensibly. Or we might loose the beauty of the reefs and the very source and motivation of the dive industry.
Anders Samaka Jälmsjö
Diver – Philosopher – Nagging Old Man
Popularity: 12% [?]
Another Day in Paradise
November 25th, 2009
I’m back on land for one evening and leaving again tomorrow morning I’ve had a fantastic week in the southern Egyptian Red Sea with great diving and lots of sharks. Next week we’re going up north to dive wrecks like Thistlegorm, Rosalie Müller, Ulyssis, Carnatic and many more. Here comes a little description how nice it can be to work on a liveaboard.
Our first stop after the check dive at Shaab Marsa Alam was Abu el Kizan a.k.a. Daedalus. About 55 miles straight out from Marsa Alam on the way to Saudi Arabia this Reef emerges from the abyss. Shaped like an egg on a north-west, south-east axis, 450 meters across and with vertical, almost inverted walls this reef has rightly earned a reputation to be one of the best dive spots in the world. We stayed for one day and made three dives. I could have stayed there all week.
There is a lighthouse on Daedalus. It was built 1861 by the British. It’s got a staff of four that gets relieved every 45th day when the supply boat comes to stock up food, water and fuel. Visiting the lighthouse is free of charge and the view is nice from the top.
The latest addition is the new jetty that was built 1992. This construction together with the old jetty offers superb photo angles during low tide. However, most people do not come to Daedalus to admire the view from the lighthouse of play creative with the camera under the jetty. They come here to experience an encounter with one of the most mystical Red Sea inhabitants: The Scalloped Hammer Head Shark, Sphyrna Lewini that school here in vast numbers. Normally it’s female gathering together, as they do.
We moored up the boat in the shelter at the south-east side of the reef, next to this landing stage early in the morning and take the zodiac to the north side of the reef. We roll in and swim for a few minutes against the current to get to the split point. Here we hang and look at loads of Grey Reef Sharks circling just a few meters outside the reef. Out of the blue a dark shadow appears and we almost drop our regulators when a school of 10 female Scalloped Hammer Heads slowly pass by. They slow down and look at us for a moment and decide we’re ok and then continue around the bend. Magical!
Over night the boat sail to Elphinstone that. It was a bumpy ride from what I heard from the guests the following morning. I slept straight through so I missed the action. Apparently the entire boat was out of the water between the waves a few times…
Out of the ordinary, Elphinstone had nothing to offer. Elphinstone has become famous for the good chances to encounter one of the oceans big predators; the Oceanic White Tipped Shark, Charcharhinus Longimanus. Especially October and November this magnificent sharks curiously approach divers to the point you wonder who is watching who. Sometimes up to six or even more circle around the boats over the south plateau, inviting for one of the more exciting snorkel excursion imaginable. Though this time they were not to be found and after two dives we went to Abu Dabab instead.
El Akhawein is the Arabic name for these two islands which means just the same “The two Brothers”. This is one of the classic dive sites that everybody is talking about. In the middle of the ocean, from great depth two tiny islands emerges, encircled by a reef so pristine it takes your breath away. As this would not be enough the chances of shark encounter is right there at the top of the list.
We didn’t have the weather to dive Big Brother this week but that’s ok with me. I like the smaller island more. The reef is better and the chances to see sharks light-years better. However, conditions can be fierce here as well, anyone who’s got a little brother knows what they are like and this one is no exception. Wicked currents, strong wind and waves that easily drag you on top of the reef if you don’t know what you’re doing are a few things that dictate the dive plan.
It is essential to make a good current check in order to know where to start the dive. I take the zodiac out before I wake up the guests and spend a few minutes snorkelling. I look at the fish and suspended particles in the water to make out what the current is doing. There are other ways of course and easier ways, but this is the most exact way. One thing is sure though: Never trust that groups from other boats have done a current check and know what they are doing. Just because they roll in from the zodiac over there doesn’t mean that that is the right spot.
We went to the north plateau, found the split point and stayed there for a while, looking at all the sharks. Though, it’s not so much a plateau as a bump in the wall pointing north. Here we saw Thresher sharks circling the bump together with Grey Reef Sharks. Then we followed the wall with the current. A few fin kicks south we found shelter in a narrow canyon and we had front-row seats to another merry-go-round of Grey Reef Sharks.
All of a sudden a female Scalloped Hammer Head Shark comes up really close to check us out. She stayed for a few minutes and then continued her patrol along the wall. Further down south-west we bumped into a group of dog-toothed tunas chasing a school of sardines. At one moment it felt as if I was a part of the sardine school while the huge tunas were chasing around just a meter away. I could hear the tuna’s jaws banging together as they were snapping after the fleeing sardines. When we arrived to the depth of five meters to make our safety stop the current was going in the direction across the reef and straight out in the open ocean and it was so strong that my Surface Marker Buoy went 20 meters away from me before it made it to the top. I had to stay at the reef and send my divers up one buddy team at the time along my SMB line while I was fighting the current by myself. However I got my reward when a huge Napoleon Wrasse came up to and winked at me as to say “Good job mate! You can take the rest of the day off”. So I did.
All in all: A dive to remember! We did five dives like that one before we moved on north towards the night dive at Tobia Arba in Safaga. I love my job!
Anders – Samaka
Diver / Philosopher / Super Hero
Popularity: 3% [?]
Status Report Egypt 6.5
November 19th, 2009Noah built his ark before it started to rain. To wait till the water was up at his knees would have been a mistake.
I agree with Noah: It’s better to prepare for potentially dangerous situations and take necessary percussions to avoid the risks. Guiding divers means that you have to stay on top of everything. You have to make sure that every one is following the rules and practise the standards of safe diving because you’re supposed to get all guests back to shore in one piece and with a heartbeat. Especially important is this on dive sites like Brother Islands or Elphinstone. Sometimes guests imply that our rules are too austere or they debate that we should make exceptions in one way or another. I try to make our dives as safe as possible and therefore I don’t make exceptions. I tell the guests how important it is to, for example keep to our maximum depths, that it is necessary to surface under an SMB (Surface Marker Buoy) close to the reef and that they have to stay close together within the buddy teams.
This, I repeatedly stress and emphasise in every briefing and still some divers ignore the rules.
The other day I had a hard time making some of our guests keep close enough within their buddy teams and I talked to them after each dive, trying to make them understand why we have these rules and guidelines. It’s fairly easy: “In the Red Sea it’s easy to make an OK signal 10 meters away from each other. However in a potentially dangerous situation, 4 or even 3 metres can be too far away. Diving is not a forgiving sport and if you ignore the risks you might die.”
As faith would have it, I got some unexpected, as well as unwelcome, help to portrait the importance of avoiding buddy separation. During my briefing for the first dive on Elphinstone there was all of a sudden a racket going on next to our boat. Divers was popping up and shouting for help. Some divers were lying lifeless on the surface while others were performing rescue breaths. Zodiacs came up to them and brought them to one of the other big boats nearby and now there was full CPR going on with rescue breaths and heart compressions.
Finally the commotion calmed down and I could continue the briefing. We completed our dive, got back onto the boat and got in contact with Dr Whael at the decompression chamber in Marsa Alam Hyperbaric Clinic, who provided the information regarding the nature of the accident we had witnessed. When I, during the briefing for the second dive, got to the point to where I normally explain that I want the buddy teams to stay close together, I explained what had happened earlier. “You all noticed the action we had next to the boat this morning” I said. “There was a group of four girls, whereof one lost her regulator at a depth of 18 metres. She started sinking and her friends caught her on 33 metres. When she reached the surface was already dead.” I looked around at all my guests to make sure that everybody had got the message so far and continued: “Since she was unresponsive they wanted to get her to the surface as quickly as possible, so they all ascended to fast and on the way up one more lost consciousness, probably due to a lung over-expansion injury.” I finished with a simple question: “How far do you think the girl who died was from her buddy, close enough or too far away?” Everybody agreed on that she had most likely been too far away from her buddy. “So, which distance is too far away in this case?” I asked. Everybody agreed that 4 metres, maybe even 3 metres would probably be too far away. To be close enough you would probably have to be maximum 2 metres away from each other, preferably even closer. I rounded up with pointing out that when I ask of them to stay close together within the buddy teams; I do so for a reason.
We kitted up, got into the Zodiacs and travelled the short distance to the point just south of the reef where we rolled in. When we got down to a depth of 11 meters I noticed that one of the divers is sinking rapidly on his back, with a completely empty BCD. I got the attention of his buddy, signalling “look at your buddy!” and the guy looks and waves to his sinking friend to come closer! Fast as a bat out of hell I shoot after the uncontrolled sinking man and manage to catch him around 20 metres. I get the inflator out of his hand and establish neutral buoyancy. Furious I signal to the other guide to take the rest of my group away from me before I loose my temper and get my knife out. The rest of the dive I swam with the man who’s life I most likely just saved thinking about how to put this to the buddy who’s life I’m likely to end next time I see him.
Fortunately I tend to cool of quite quickly, and back on the boat I take the man aside and explain in a peaceful way that I’m on the borderline to take him of the dive-roster and only allow him to snorkel for the rest of the week. I say that if he wants to continue diving, he and the buddy (who is happily unaware of how close it was) will have to be next to me and hand in hand until I say otherwise. This was accepted.
After the action we had next to the boat and the very clear way in which I explained the importance of buddy contact in the briefing, this man still was letting his friend sink uncontrolled towards a bottom he would not have hit until at least 200 metres below him. People never cease to astonish me.
At the first dive on the Island of Little Brother, one of my divers lost his fin while rolling in from the Zodiac. The rest of the group made a negative entry, as was agreed, and swam down to regroup on the depth we had agreed on during the briefing. I had emphasized the importance of a fast descent due to the strong current. “If anyone has any problems that make the descent impossible, or even slows it down, you abort the dive instantly and swim back to the Zodiac. Do not try to rejoin the group!” had been my exact words. Maybe that was a bit vague or unclear because this diver, after bobbing around on the surface and being taken away by the current over the top of the reef, decides to try to rejoin the group on the other side. He comes sliding down the side of the reef, scraping soft corals of the sloping reef like a bulldozer and ends up in the back of my head. He looks at his pressure gage and signals that he’s got 70 bar left… We’re at a depth of 25 metres. I now have to rearrange the group and signal to the new guide-trainee to take over and lead the divers along the wall. Then I take the idiot up to the safety stop level and send my surface marker buoy up to signal to the Zodiac that it’s time for pick up. I see the reef disappearing in the distance and try to keep it in visual range but the current is so strong that my SMB is dragged below the surface. Hmmm… decisions decisions… Either we will be without surface marker or we will be flushed out to the open sea right into the reflections of the rising sun where no one would see us. The safety stop is cancelled and we ascend under the SMB. As we break the surface I glance at my computer. The dive lasted 17 minutes.
On the way back to the boat in the Zodiac I tell the diver that we’ll talk about this later. Right now I’m too angry. We get back to the boat and he starts to explain: “I got some problems with my fin…” I turn and look at him and interrupt him by putting my hand up: “I don’t want to hear any excuses from you. I know exactly what happened and I have to say that you are an extremely dangerous diver who just put not only yourself and me, but the whole group at a great risk.” He is now hushed and his eyes are not meet mine. I continue: “During the briefing I told you all what to do if you had problems descending and you did the exact opposite!
Then you descent with not even half of your air supply left and forced me to change the dive plan, leaving the rest of the group with one guide only!” To further more paint a picture of how I felt I finished my speech with: “If we would had been swept away by the current and they would have had to send a search party out for us, that would have taken at least 10 hours and in that case I would have swam away from you, because I don’t want to spend 10 hours with you.” He got the message. I banned him from diving the next dive. The dive after that I sent him in the other group telling him to prove that he should not be taken of the dive roster and put on the snorkel roster for the remaining time of the trip. According to my college he behaved very well on that dive.
Some people think that our safety rules are too strict and that I’m a pain in the arse when I never make any exceptions from them. Well… Some people were also laughing at Noah when he started to build his Ark on dry land miles away from the sea. Noah and I have that in common: We like to be prepared to prevent and avoid the risks of potentially dangerous situations. I’m surprised that some people disagree with this way of thinking when it’s actually their life we’re trying to keep safe. I find it even more surprising that people neither listen to, nor follow the safety rules even after seeing dead divers popping up next to the boat during the safety briefing as a perfect image of what might happen if they don’t. Still, on the third dive of the second day on Little Brother one diver left his buddy on 18 metres and went down on his own to 33.6 metres following a shark he wanted to film. This man was not allowed to dive more during this trip.
And now over to something more positive: “Myth Busters ‘R Us”
There are myths and there are myths. Some myths are widely recognised as long-established truths and facts because “I’ve got an uncle who met a guy who said that it’s true” badabim badaboom, it’s a truth. There are other myths that are well long-established myths because; “I’ve got an uncle who met a guy who said that it’s only a myth” badabim badaboom, it’s a myth. Hollywood is continuously providing us with building-material for both kinds. Like: If you fire a bullet into the petrol tank of a car it will explode. Or: If you’re a prostitute on Sunset boulevard you might be picked up by a millionaire with car problems who falls in love with you, and you’re sorted. Or: Dolphins are nice, friendly and intelligent creatures while sharks are mean vicious killing machines. Nothing of this is of course true, possibly with the exception that the prostitute probably would be sorted if the millionaire in fact did fall in love with her.
When it comes to Sharks and dolphins there are hundreds, if not thousands of long-established truths and facts that would be good to bust once and for all. Everybody probably heard stories about how friendly dolphins have been saving people lost at sea from sharks and that you never find sharks and dolphins next to each other. Well, I just dived with a pod of dolphins and oceanic white tipped sharks mixed in a big group so that myth is busted from now on!
Here is another one for you: Dolphins are gay sharks! Myth or Truth?
It has been an eventful week and I’ve got material for at least five status reports. Some of it positive and some of it negative, but in the end of the day all experiences gives exactly that; Experience! For me it also ads motivation to continue maintaining a high safety level on the dives I’m leading and not make any exceptions from the safety rules. Maybe some of it will appear in later issues, but I think this will have to be enough at this time.
May the force be with you…
You can run out of air… and die.
You can go to deep… and die.
You can ascend to fast… and die.
You can slouch on your couch… and die.
Get off the couch!!!
Anders – Samaka
Diver / Philosopher/Dirty Old Man
Popularity: 3% [?]
