Long drop into water from jetty. Headed south with Josh. Saw large napoleon fish which circled around us at around 15m. Several cleaning stations with wrasse cleaning grouper and xxx with fishing line hanging from mouth. Turned at 110 bar. Use new SMB which worked a treat - nice start to week.

Long drop into water from jetty. Headed north with Tom. Fairly routine dive until around a coral head appeared 1, 2,...12 large dolphins on their way south.

Off boat and sank slowly to 20m. Followed sloping wall around to east then north. Lots of individual coral heads and small anthers, sergeant major fish. Rose to around 15m and coral heads spaced out a little. Josh got to 110bar after 25 minutes so we turned around and drifted back south at 10m. Saw a shoal of larger fish before Josh pointed out a napoleon fish. Did safety stop on the move back to the boat. Gentle dive.

Off back of boat and to west then north. Down to 15m and along wall. Mohamad pointed at the first of several nudibranchs. Many of the coral heads had feather stars at the top together with peacock worms. Saw floating egg sacs with feeding fish underneath. Tom wound up a couple of clown fish. Fusiliers wandered around us too. Completed first 2 dives on NITROX32. felt pretty good afterwards. Test was very easy.

Off back of boat and to east then north. Underwater looked nothing like the briefing. Turned out that was because we were on a different reef! Did not feel very comfortable: a bit nauseous, Tom only had 170 bar, mask was steaming up etc. Scenery was beautiful pinnacles jutting from sand. Saw two fish circling - mating dance? As toms air decreased we went shallower. Some current on back side made swimming hard. Went all the way around before we ran out of air. Interesting.

Off back of boat and to east then north. Definitely the right site this time. Saw napoleon wrasse while waiting for others to get down to 15m. Swam around the 10m high pinnacles which were covered in shoals of fish. Josh pointed out triangular fish with very odd tail. Followed mohamed around reef into increasingly strong current. He made the "too strong" signal and then led us through a lovely series of swim throughs. Finished up where we had started ready to do safety stop. Wonderful dive.

Humm. Strange dive. Drift dive on the outside of an exposed reef. Off boat like lemmings and down to 5m. Swam towards Ali but Tom very slow. No sign of reef wall and dropped to 24m. Swam over plateau and headed south. Current against us. Told Ali after 10 minutes of banging into stream. Turned around and went with it for 10 minutes. Rose to 10m and was just getting into pootle mode when Ali swam off reef, sent up his blob and signalled the dive was over. Drop off looked spectacular. Very large group of barracuda plus fusiliers.

Aahh that's more like it. Off boat and down to 5m where we spent a few minutes deciding whether current was going north or south. Went south. Large coral heads separated by areas of badly broken up old coral. Clearly a very exposed site. Saw napoleon wrasse, grouper, parrot fish, antheias, and other usual suspects. As Josh hit 110 bar we had another debate about go on and zodiac or turn. Turned and returned to boat at 10m. Finished dive in a lovely bowl of coral heads. Annoyed a pair of clown fish for a few minutes before doing 3@6 under boat.

Decided to go around reef table first and then do caves. A series of coral pinnacles ringed the reef. Large numbers of small fish on each one but no big stuff. When we got back to boat we went into swim throughs. Plenty of room to turn if necessary so felt safe. Several blue spotted rays were resting in caves. Squirrel fish also there in numbers. After loping around swim throughs for a while we went into open water again before doing safety stop under boat. Excellent dive.

Off boat and around series of very large pinnacles at 15m. Loosely kept them on right shoulder. Reached exposed side of reef. Current pushing in our faces from the north. Made finning hard. Didn't see anything large in blue but fusiliers and travellie kept circling. After 30 minutes we turned and drifted with current. Impressive coral heads of usual kinds. Around one pinnacle we saw a large napoleon wrasse and a couple of bat fish. Finished dive under the boat but biz pretty poor there. Nice one.

Off boat and swam between pinnacles at around 15m towards small reef with wreck on it. With reef on left hand side we found wreck 1/3rd of the way around. Prop was in 17m and half buried in sand; rudder visible. Went around stern and alone starboard side. Passed between reef and hull, back to stern and onto where deck used to be. Swam under ribs but nothing much to see. Continued along reef to 1/2 way point. Saw one turtle rising off bottom. It rose to surface and joined a smaller one there. Once we reached the second large pinnacle of coral we returned. On hitting the wreck again at around 10 m we were close to door way to toilet and engine room. Tempted to enter but it looked a bit cramped. A lot of glass fish inside. Continued around reef and found a large overhang with large bat fish inside. Left reef for swim across to main reef and boat. Nice one.

Off boat and straight down to 5m. Around main reef keeping it on right shoulder. Around large pinnacle and into area with small separate coral heads on sandy bottom plus reef wall on RHS. Bottom gradually fell away to around 20m. Tom used sand as springboard to get around. No biggies just lots of shoals of small fish. Very pretty. Tom ran low of air so headed for boat to do safety stop. Pleasant end to a great week in Red Sea.