Sunday, 3 February 2008

Dom's Top 5 dives of 2007




There is no doubt that 2007 was an absolutely mint year for my diving. Not only were there some fantastic sites, both in the Red Sea and the UK, but the experience was multiplied by the great group that we’ve got. For me, it is really special being able to go diving with my family and friends and share the experiences with them. It’s difficult to narrow it down to 5 but I’ll go for:

1.
Wreck of the M2. This is a legendary dive that I always enjoy although I don’t think that Suzi enjoyed this quite as much as me! We caught it early in the season so it was cold but also very, very murky. Vis was limited to a metre or two and it was very difficult to get much of a feel for the size or shape of the wreck. Anyway I enjoyed it!

2.
Wreck of the Scylla. It’s my top 5 so you can all poke off! I enjoy it and this year it was great to see the significant change in marine life as the sea starts to claim it for its own. As well as the shrimp that festoon the inner passageways, Suzi also saw a large Conger and we both saw a cuttlefish lurking under the prop shaft. This is a wreck that will just get better and better .....

3.
Wreck of Rosalie Muller. In my opinion, equally as good as the Thistlegorm with the added bonus of being considerably less popular! Although lacking the prettiness of its much better known neighbour, it makes up for it with far more atmosphere and being far more intact. As ever, my biggest disappointment was the limited time that we had to fully explore although Suzi did manage to clock up 45m on this one....

4.
Jackfish Alley. Although we started this as a group, Suzi and myself stayed in the cave a bit longer than everyone else and ended up in the drift by ourselves. The current was something I’d not really experienced before in the Red Sea and it made for a great dive especially as there was plenty of life moving round for us to see. You know that this dive must have been good as it has pushed some of my favourite wrecks out of the top five!!

5.
Sara H/ Kingston/ Shag Rock. I’ve done this a few times before but it has never been as good as this year. The vis was awesome, coral stunning, the current just about right and we ended up by ourselves just drifting along in a beautiful warm sea for over 70 mins! On the way we encountered 4 turtles and a whole host of other marine life ......


Dom

Neill -Thank you very much Dom. I note this is posted just as you return from service in the desert. Surely you can't be serious about the Scylla!

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