Thursday, April 26th and Friday, April 27th, 2012
It only took me a couple of weeks but I found myself back in Jeddah and back "Under da sea" for another weekend of diving. It is safe to say that I'm pretty hooked on this diving thing. I had a few concerns before I started but those have quickly been replaced with joy and excitement every time I get set to enter the water. I actually find it much easier than I thought it would be (although I am still learning that whole neutral buoyancy thing and I don't navigate under water any better than I do above water) and just find the world under the water so peaceful and quiet.
This time I went for a couple days of boat diving with Desert Sea Divers (the shop who organised my dive course a few weeks ago). Pretty good deal. A full day on the boat, 3 dives, meals, drinks and all the equipment and air tanks for 350SAR (around $100CAD......each day).
The weekend ended up being pretty cheap (until I went shopping) because another girl from my orientation group decided to to come as well and she had a friend who let us stay at his place for free. I made up the difference by buying a dive computer (you wear it on your wrist while you dive and it keeps track of things like your depth and your dive time and water temperature and how long you can safely stay at the depths you're at (etc. etc)) but I will get lots of use out of it so totally worth it. I bought it after the first day of diving and must say it made it a lot easier to keep track of things on day 2.
It was a really beautiful compound, weekend and summer homes for some very rich Saudis. The fact that it was a Saudi compound was the downfall however since that meant we still had to dress modestly. So no sunbathing in a bikini. At least I spent most of the time out on the boat.
The house did come with a couple very annoying birds (one of who spoke 3 languages and rarely shut up) and this very nice little cat (Lucy).
Yeah, that is the actual colour of that car. You also would have seen more than one Rolls Royce, some vintage Ferrari's and the usual BMW's etc.
Thursday morning, the guys from Desert Sea Divers very nicely came to pick us up to take us to the shop where it was a quick fitting with some equipment and then down to the boat.
On the way out to the first dive site. You always meet some good people on dives. Divers are just good people.
Heading through the canal. The only time we had to wear a life jacket on the boat.
Look who's driving.!!!! Not sure I did a good job but we didn't hit a reef and we weren't off track so it's ok.
On Thursday we did 3 dives starting at Guy's Wreck (my first wreck dive), followed by Dorrah Reef and a No Name Reef ( a new reef they hadn't been to before). All were great spots and it was a great day of diving. It further confirmed that it is time for me to get a good underwater housing for my camera. There were a lot of things that I would have loved to have captured but am still relying on others at this time.
Swimming around Guy's Wreck. An older wreck, it would be hard to note that it actually was an old boat most of the time. However when you looked closely you could tell that the plant life were not growing amongst coral but ship parts.
Swimming around the reefs. The visibility was not perfect on this day but I am quickly learning that I don't need to see tons of stuff to enjoy being underwater. I just like being underwater.
Thursday was a long and very enjoyable day so it's easy to say that I was looking forward to Friday and another day out on the Desert Sea Divers' boat. The day started much as Thursday did (however equipment gathering was quicker because they had all the equipment from the previous day ready for me) and we headed out to the boat and off to some new dive sites. The boat can hold about 20 people so these trips are a great place to meet fellow divers. It also means in the future I can pop over for a weekend and not worry about not having a dive buddy. Both days I dove with the boat's diver master, which is good because they always know the best ways around the sites.
Today's first site was also a wreck.....Cable Wreck. This wreck was far more obvious than Thursday's wreck dive.....plus the visibility was perfect.
You can see the ship in this picture. You can also see that my oxygen tank is about to fall off. I wasn't happy from the start with where it was and it was swinging around like crazy every time I moved. When I saw this picture I understood why. Not to worry shortly after this picture my dive buddy noticed my dropping tank and reattached it for me......no harm done.
Relaxing next to the wreck. Such a peaceful spot....even with the giant eels swimming around.
A look at some the reef at are second stop, Crazy 8's. This is a very cool dive spot with long canals and underwater pillars and a super strong current. Some really fun diving.
Floating around in the current. It was really strong. Sometimes it felt like we weren't even moving regardless to how much we kicked. Gave us extra time to look at stuff though.
This is Karsten (my dive buddy). Most of the underwater pictures from Friday are from his camera. Lucky for me he also wanted some pictures of himself so gave me the camera for a while. Once again totally confirmed that I need to buy a camera.
I took this picture with Karsten's camera.
And this one.
And this one too as we were surfacing.
Just as I got out of the water at this spot I was told there were some dolphins just a short ways off. They were too far off for me to get too close to (which I was actually ok with because they were really big) but one of the other divers got up close and personal with them.
Not to worry they swam along with the boat for quite sometime. They were clearly having fun in the wake of our boat.
Getting the last checks on my gear before heading in for the last dive at Anas Reef.
Another really cool spot, this reef had lots of little tunnels and caves to swim through. Some spots were just big enough for us to get through, although I did end up with a couple little scraps on my legs. So worth it. So much fun.
A little spotted ray. They are always so cute and trying to hide from us. But we always find them.
As always eventually the weekend came to an end and I had to head back to Riyadh (don't worry I waited my required 18 hours before I flew). It was another great weekend of diving and I met some great people. Plans for more dive trips are officially in the works.
Julie
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