I, Jindrich Dvorak (Junior), and my dad spend our holiday diving in Egypt with GetWet.

Accompanying us were:

Klaudie, Michel, Michiel, Jos, Fathy, André, Nils, Ellen, Hans, Iwan, Tim, Peter, Vincent, Corrie and Ben.

On the morning of 19th October we met at Transavia, Schiphol Airport. We sorted out our tickets and we checked-in our luggage. We enjoyed the remaining hour on the airport. The flight was quite pleasant. We even saw the Alps from the window.

When we arrived at Hurghada, we had our passports checked, and Ben arranged the Visas. We took a taxi to the boat, the zodiac took us and our luggage to our boat: The Aqua Star One.

We occupied our cabins (Pic. 1) and went to the saloon (Pic. 2), for an introduction with Angie, our Dive Guide.

Our first dive was at the Dolphin House (Sha' ab El Gag). To our disappointment we saw no dolphins. We did see a variety of other (smaller) fish, including a beautiful Lionfish. There were a great number of corals and other Red Sea vegetation. It was a nice dive to start with.

On the second dive we went to explore the Ghiannis D., a wreck of a Greek cargo ship that is only twenty years old and unfortunately collided with the reef that sunk it. We used the zodiac to get to the wreck on this dive. We created two groups as there were too many of us to fit in the zodiac, and it is also quite uncomfortable to prepare your diving equipment, and dress into your diving suit with too many people and too little space.

Some of us also made a night dive on the Sha'ab abu Nahas reef, where we saw a beautiful Spanish Dancer. (Shown on Picture).

The following morning we dived at the Carnatic. The Carnatic is a beautiful 19th Century British, iron framed, planked construction cargo ship. The wreck is a favorite among the Red Sea Divers, and I myself liked it the most of all the wrecks we visited, just after Thistlegorm. When we were returning with the zodiac we saw a couple of dolphins.

Chrisoula K.

The Chrisoula K was a Greek freighter, and on its final journey its cargo consisted of Italian floor tiles heading for Jeddah (Saudi Arabia). It sank in 1981. The Italian tiles are still well preserved; I could actually make out the inscription "Made in Italy" on some of them. Klaudie was making her movie on this site. We used the zodiac to get to all of those three sites.

Reef Sha'ab Ali

We made a Night Dive on the reef. The corals were very nice; we saw many fish; Parrotfish, Lionfish, and a great heard of smaller and faster fish. We also saw a very pretty Pyjama Slug (Shown on Picture). The water temperature was 24Celsia and it stayed like that for the whole week.

THISTLEGORM

We dived on the Thistlegorm all of the third day.The SS Thistlegorm was a British armed Merchant Navy ship, built in 1940, in England. She was sunk on 5 October 1941 near Ras Muhammad in the Red Sea . Thistlegorm was a sitting target for two German bombers returning from Crete. They dropped two 450 kg bombs directly onto the ship. These bombs penetrated Hold No. 4 detonating much ammunition. The explosion was so forceful that it launched two railway carriages stacked on deck into the air. They currently stand upright alongside the wreck at a depth of 33m. When she sank she was carrying a wide range of supplies ranging from rubber boots to an armoured Rolls Royce. Bedford Morris and Ford trucks, light Bren Carrier MK II tanks, BSA motorcycles, Bren guns, cases of ammunition, and .303 rifles as well as radio equipment and aircraft parts can still be seen.

This was also my 100th dive; and I could not have wished for a better one. We made several more dives on this wreck, as it was worth it every dive. Me and my buddy went almost everywhere on the ship. We even saw cannons on the stern of the ship and the railway engine that has been catapulted from the ship, when Hold no. 4 exploded. There was a great amount of life in, and around the wreck; we saw three Crocodile fish (Pic.1) and many groups of huge Batfish (Pic.2).

Chief Mahmud and Mohamed made great meals for us every day. This is one of the dinners:

On the 23rd of October, our 4th day, we dived on the Kingston (Also referred to as Sara or Sarah H) In the maximum depth of 20 meters at Shag Rock lies this 18th Century twin mast British merchant steamship. The wreck is still intact but there is so much vegetation living on it that at some part it is quite hard to distinguish from a piece of rock on the seabed. We experienced quite a strong current, because of the position of the wreck on the edge of the Gubal Straits.

The Wreck at Bluff Point

We had a Night Dive on this wreck. There was not much left of it. There was an enormous Moray Eel (On the Picture) that no-one who came to the wreck could miss. We went there the following morning and the same one was still there.

That evening we went to have fun and dinner on Kubal Island. This is a group photograph of the members of Get Wet and the crew of Aqua Star at Kubal Island.

The following morning we went to the Happy Eye at Bluff point, where we encountered a peculiar whirlpool effect. The following afternoon we went to the Wreck at Bluff Point again, and we encountered many interesting creatures; a cute Puffer fish (Pic 1.), some Needlefish (Pic.2),loads of Cornet fish (Pic.3) and a Scorpion fish (Pic.4).

Our last dive was the Marsa Abu Garden, also known as the "Eel Garden". The Eel Garden is the home to Garden Eels (Pic. 1). We actually saw them rise out of their homes in the sand. We had to be very cautious about our movement because any sudden movement would scare them away. We then explored some grass field in search of Sea Horses, but we found none. There were many different colored and sized upside-down Jelly fish on the sandy floor. I did notice a beautiful sepia resting in the sand. (Pic. 2.) I swam closer to get a better look at it, but when it noticed me, it majestically rose up and started to swim away. The dive lasted very long, as we didn't go deeper than 11meters; more than an hour and a half in our case.

In the evening we went to the Centrum of Hurghada, and we enjoyed a pleasant evening.

I very much enjoyed this week, and I think that everyone else did as well. We had a lot of fun living on the Aqua Star One and diving in the Red Sea, Egypt.

Any more information about Aqua Stars: www.aqua-stars.com

By Jindrich Dvorak (Junior)