MV Princess Dalal

  I had been dreaming of a Red Sea Dive trip for as long as I had been hearing about Egypt, the wonderful clear warm waters and the exotic sea-life, the turtles, the dolphins and of course the Sharks……but mostly for the shipwrecks. In my mind were the images of Thistlegorm from the Jaques Cousteau films I’d watched with my father so many years before. I had no perception then of the colour of the water nor of the vibrancy of the corals and reef fish, we had a Black and White television at the time, how could I have had, but I had diver magazine to read and had buried myself in every issue I could get hold of, whilst sat in my dreary bunk in Tidworth learning to dive with the Army. The expectation, built over the years, was of a wreck paradise, a place ships came to display their deaths in glorious technicolour, and I had wished many an hour away in my mind’s eye diving on the wrecks of Abu Nuhas and Gubal. I was determined that I would dive the Red Sea despite Ellen’s reluctance to go to Egypt “My Nan says it smells awful, and she’s been, why would I want to go there?” I knew I would not persuade Ellen to go with me, and I wasn’t sure I could persuade Ellen to let me go there either…….. but I was determined to try!

To be honest I didn’t have to try too hard, despite her reluctance for me to go at first, Ellen, bless her, relented and sanctioned the trip if I could find people to go with me from FSAC, I was elated, I knew there would be someone who wanted to go, but Stoke on Trent was not an affluent city, but would the others in FSAC be able to find the cash? I knew I would be spending the last of the money left from a small Army pay-out, compensation for the leg I’d damaged in Ireland, which essentially put paid to an infantry career. The injury had finally convinced me I needed to get out of the Army, I wouldn’t be able to do what I had joined to do, and I wasn’t going to spend time trying to forge a career watching others enjoying themselves whilst I was sat behind a desk…..no way! I put my idea out to the others in the club well in advance of when I was planning the trip, I didn’t want to go in the hottest times, nor in the coolest, I reckoned October was about right from what I’d been told, it was 1996, round Christmas when I started to ask the guys in FSAC “who was up for it?” the response was encouraging and around a dozen said they were interested……..lessons learned, but more of that later! I wanted to do the best I could to reduce the price of the trip and tried everything, booking “numbers” on a scheduled trip, was there a discount for 10 or 12 divers? How about flights, surely the airlines would do a deal for a group buy on tickets? Then how much was the operator going to charge and who would do the best deal? I knew how to organise groups of people to reach objectives, the Army had taken care of that, it was the wider admin piece that was the bigger challenge, how to get the best deal you could, for the most competitive price, that was what I was about to learn, and learning came quick and painfully too!

The planning assumption was, whenever I could be reasonably sure I could get time off work and get everything sorted in good enough time. I’d figured others would need to be in the “summer Holiday” period too, otherwise the typical “Potters” holiday periods prevalent in Stoke on Trent, would mean those signing up would be under pressure from families and work too….I needn’t have bothered, despite all the preparation for this it was looking more and more likely pricing would kill interest, these were not the “idle rich” I was training at Deep Blue Diving and the members of Fenton Sub Aqua Club were like me, largely just managing to afford to get some diving in! The airlines would offer a “free seat” over every 10 divers booked, the Boats would offer “instructor free” over every 10 divers booked and the package operators would offer 1 diver free over every 10 divers booked, it seemed this was already sewn up good and proper, you had to book 10 divers and then you got to go free, or you could offer a 10% discount on a standard trip price from a magazine or agency if you booked for 11 divers…….That meant all 12 of those who had expressed an interest needed to book, and deposit, if I was going to get anything off the deal…..what were the chances, well……. nil…….. exactly zero! I knew that more than one of the divers was far more chat than action, I guessed he wouldn’t be alone in a “baker’s dozen” and so I decided to stick with the best value trip we could book and that turned out to be on the Princess Dalal, an older Hurghada live-aboard, but one that was in good enough order and looked reasonably comfortable, from the agency pictures and “happy Diver” comments ….so I booked, we had achieved 5 deposits from 12 “definites”…..I was glad I hadn’t offered a discount on the trip, simply put, I’d have been paying towards some of the trips had I done so! When it came to the actual flights we had another two drop-outs, nothing to be done, I wasn’t training sheikh’s and millionaires and one of the divers had sadly been made redundant, you couldn’t hold it against them…….. sometimes shit just happens!

  I put a brave face on it (as you can see from the photo) and, after a short transfer from the airport, the taxi from the airport took us quayside at the working harbour in Hurghada and a sea of Liveaboards, first you have to find your boat, luckily finding the boats is not difficult, wander the line until the name leaps out at you, as long as it is written in English, the staff will generally help with the rest. We boarded the Princess Dalal, and settled our kit in as the dive guides and crew suggested. This was not something I had done before, nor was it something Colin Woodhall or John Keeling, (the other two divers from FSAC who joined the trip) had done before either. It was to be a learning curve for all Three of us, but we were elated just to be in Egypt, land of the Pharaohs, home of the pyramids and resting place to the best shipwrecks in the world…….

The staff gave us our assigned cabins, they were by no means luxurious, but they were cosy enough and the beds were clean and made, there was space enough for our personal kit, not that you needed much more than shorts and T shirts all week, but you needed somewhere for a bag and your wash kit and the little stuff like sun cream…..I was a Ginger even though I was practically bald even then, and being “kissed by Fire” is one thing…..it takes about half an hour to be burned to a crisp by even the gentlest Sun light…… and who the hell want’s that on your first Red Sea dive trip? We managed to stash everything away and made it up on deck for a couple of hours to have a Sakara or Two before heading down to the bunks to get some sleep and to let the crew cast off in the night and head us to our first dive site North of Hurghada…..Sha’ab-el-Erg

Sha’ab-el-Erg is a horseshoe shaped island poking out of the Sea opposite El Gouna and it has been a haven for Dolphin sightings for as long as I have been reading of the Red Sea, there are also occasional Manatee sightings too, as you might hear in another section of this blog if I ever get to tell that story…….. This would be a check-out dive, a settler into the rhythm of the rest of the week, and an opportunity for the dive guide, a lovely German Fraulein called Renate, (I hope she recognises the trip if she ever happens on these poor ramblings….) to assess who was going to be ok to be left to their own devices, and who might need closer attention in the forthcoming days under the crystal clear and beautifully warm waters of the Northern Red Sea! My log records: Red Sea-Liveaboard-“MV Princess Dalal” – Straits of Gubal- Out of Hurghada to Shab-Al-Erg Reef – Basically a check-out dive – fish life included – Pipe Fish Blue Spotted Ray – Clown Fish/Anemone – Glass Fish – Cardinals – Parrotfish – Triggerfish – Smooth Trunkfish – Yellow Tang the list is endless & incomplete by far great dive W Temp 28’ air in 210 out 110 Buddy John Keeling  You can clearly see I had taken out a Red Sea Fish Identification slate, one of the submersible plastic guides common for just about every dive destination on the globe, at least those that are regularly visited by tourist divers. The slate became a reference point for any unusual fish we might want to discuss, but there truly were far too many to keep looking up whilst you dived, far better to remember the main differences and look them up once you were writing up your dive in your log!

From Sha’ab-el-Erg we slipped our moorings after lunch and made our way further North to Siyul between Gubal and Shadwan Islands, at a reef area called Siyul Kebira, another almost horseshoe like reef although smaller than Sha’ab-el-Erg. This was another reef and I was getting restless, we were on the Red Sea, we had dived….and I hadn’t seen a wreck yet….what if I died in my sleep….I had to suck it up and be patient, another lesson learned and not one I am good at even today, (despite my “trying” and lots of encouragement from Ellie!) it’s just not in my skill-set

The log book reads: “Red Sea Liveaboard Reef “Siyul – Kebira” Down to 30m Plenty to see – memorables included Lionfish, Clownfish, Grouper (small) Pipefish, Turtle (from the safety stop away at 20m ish) too much to identify W.Temp 28’ air in 210 out 130 Buddy John Keeling” I had at least seen my very first Turtle, it had been grazing below me lazily whilst I had made my last few meters towards the shallow stop, it had remained around 20m from me, undisturbed, enjoying its algae and munching unhurriedly through its day, wonderful to watch. I had also seen my first Lionfish, Majestic and untouchable, its “banners” flying in the warm current, the modern scourge of the Oceans as it proliferates from its habitual home in the Red Sea out through the world’s seas apparently unstoppable, how long, you might ask, before the first of its kind is seen under Swanage Pier?

Our next dive in the same area was that night on Sha’ab Umm Usk, although my log book calls it Shaab Ummush, which will most definitely be me having heard the name and putting my own spelling on it, rather than the dive guide cocking up the pronunciation! I never asked, so we will never know, even though the guide was, as previously noted, of German origin and therefore having a slight accent, her Arabic far better than either my Arabic (woeful to none-existent)  or my German (laughable to infantile, at best) therefore entirely forgivable! My log book has the dive as: “Night Dive – Liveaboard – “Shaab Ummush” hunting coral and fish – lots to see – 2 Lionfish together very pretty – plenty of Urchins & many Shrimps just Two Red eyes gleaming – Two pretty tube worms, beautiful colour of corals W.Temp 28’ air in 210 out 170 Buddy John Keeling” I had at the time a UK400 hand lamp, it worked very well, I had taken some night dives at Stoney cove and I rated the UK400 as a good, reasonably priced light, far more affordable than those with battery canisters, and far more practical than the rechargeables when on a boat I thought. I was anticipating poor opportunities to use a charging point, with a full boat all wanting electricity at the same time, which turned out to be about right then, and sometimes even these days! But I was getting bored of reefs, even at night, I wanted wrecks, even joking with the dive guide at the next dive briefing “I swear….if you say “reef” another time I will have to murder you”…..I needn’t have worried, we were off to Abu Nuhas the next morning….and wrecks….several wonderful wrecks!

The wreck of the Giannis D is iconic, look at any 10 shipwreck photos and her stern is likely to be in at least one of them, so the shot here is deliberately different, her main deck before the stern bridge area and her funnel, which still carries the “D” on either side to this day. I absolutely love this wreck and those of you who have spent any time on here will know that, eventually, Giannis will get a bigger piece of her own sometime soon. This was my very first Red Sea wreck and the excitement before we fell backwards off the little RIB, tender to the Princess Dalal, was special….I literally could not wait to dive the Giannis D, the dive brief just after breakfast had been anticipated for years, I had doubted I would ever be able to afford to dive the Red Sea, to be waking to the most beautiful Blue Sky over Abu Nuhas on the third of August of 1997 was one of the most memorable days of my life!

My little Red Wreck Log describes the dive: “03/08/97 GHIANNIS D The ideal wreck, the stern leans at 50’ or so & is broken away from the bows, a Greek freighter who ran into Abu Nuhas on 19^th April 1983, so she’s still in fine condition an easy penetration as light is everywhere the engine room is marvellous the huge engines stretching forward with easy access then out and round the stern, along the Port companionway & up onto the bridge area finally out along the huge gantry fabulous dive” Barely a comma to be had, as if, breathless from the dive, I had just downloaded without pausing……bar a little decompression stop on the bridge gantry, and de-kitting for lunch, that’s not far off true! I had never seen such visibility on such a modern wreck before, save for spending hours in the depths of Blue Funnel ships around their engines and generators with my father as a child, I had never seen the sheer splendour of a wreck sunk in gin clear water, with all its tragedy and its majesty, there to see if you had the kit and the inclination…….and I had both! This was the best 35 minutes I had spent, anywhere, in a very long time and I wanted more, in fact I didn’t want anything else……

And then there was the return to reality, the next planned dive was Sha’ab el Odf, now I’d had a taste of the quality of wreck in the Red Sea, to be told we were diving another bloody reef was almost unbearable….but there were more than me on the boat and the itinerary was wrecks and reefs, it’s a shame it was easier for the guides to drop some of the less experienced on more simplistic dives, than to risk them in wrecks it seemed. I’d just have to suck it up, looking at maps and charts of the area today, it isn’t possible to find any mention of a “Sha’ab el Odf”, although from the direction we were headed it is likely this was just another dive on Sha’ab Umm Usk, perhaps on a different side at least. My log records the dive at least with dignity, despite my overwhelming disappointment: “REEF DIVE (Liveaboard) SHAB EL ODF viz down due to haze but still at 10-15m notables were huge fan corals – table corals and many soft colourful Very pretty with a large Napoleon Wrasse about at start and finish of dive. Two table sized Angel Fish (Huge) & many Glass Fish & smaller. A poorer dive than other reefs tho’. W Temp 26’ air in 210 out 120 Buddy John Keeling” You can feel my frustration in every word…….

And so we made our way to Ras Mohammed, which apparently is one of the most beautiful dive sites in the world, I was gutted, the only thing there I had any interest in was the “Yolanda” wreck, famed for her abandoned toilets sat randomly on the reef, oh and the chance of seeing sharks. I liked that idea and it was rumoured that we had a chance of Tiger Sharks, at least if we got out off the reef edge a little, so our Fraulein guide advised…. Now Tiger Sharks interested me, they were big animals, clearly “striped” in a subdued fashion and known to be aggressive, seeing those in the water as a potential meal, if they were mature adults. Who knew, maybe this would be a dive that re-ignited a love of reefs, for a while at least…… “04/08/97 Reef Dive (Liveaboard) Ras Mohammad too much to see & document a beautiful wall that went on into the abyss – Tuna – Barracuda – a White Tip reef shark Many of the reef fish were larger than previous reefs – a Grey Tip reef Shark off in the Blue after Tuna and the scour site of the Yolanda – long since gone down a huge scour – only toilets & baths remain air in 210 out 50 W Temp 26’ Buddy John” So no Tiger Sharks then, but the large enough shadow of the Grey Tip, a big adult, was impressive, I’d enjoyed catching a fleeting glimpse of  her steering out to seaward to avoid us!

It was the 04^th August of ’97 and I awoke to the usual early morning call to breakfast and passed a couple of the crew in prayer, as I went out to see the sunrise over Beacon Rock, an experience I will never tire of. There is something of the mystical about powder Blue, shallow water, and ragged, sand yellow and buff low lying rock outcrops, risen a few bare metres from the sea. They evoke every Arabian dessert scene you ever saw in any film, from Ice Cold in Alex to Jarhead……. This was an auspicious day to awake moored off Ras Mohammed…..it was another wreck diving day! This day opened with the SS Dunraven, launched in 1872 the Dunraven, having left my home town of Liverpool in January of 1876 bound for Bombay in India, carrying a cargo of Steel and Timber (which was exchanged for a return journey carrying cotton and cloth), ended up on Beacon Rock as a result of navigational error. The captain clearly believing he was further up the Gulf of Suez and not, obviously, expecting a reef barring his path. Although attempts were made by the crew to re-float the Dunraven they were to no avail and she sank later that day. My log records: “DUNRAVEN an English steam/sail ship that ran onto Beacon Rock in March 1876 and sank very quickly (portholes still open when found). She turned turtle & is largely empty her cargo having fallen & settled into the coral sand. We dropped to her stern & prop at 30m then entered her Starboard side (Left from Stern) then made our way through twisted broken metal along her propeller shaft to her boilers encountering Lionfish & large shoals of Glass fish. Looked round the boilers on the ceiling then went for’ard to the second section to impact area where it is obvious why she foundered” It was another Red letter day in the Red sea….I loved the warm water, the amazing visibility and the wealth of historic wrecks just lying there awaiting exploration. I wasn’t by any means the first to dive the wrecks here, but every one could’ve held my attention for a dozen dives so far, I was in that special place where life is so good it just can’t last!

Could the trip get any better……..yes it could, and it did, the very next dive the next day was perhaps the wreck that started everything for me back in the 70’s sat in the front room, on the floor of the family bungalow in Ainsdale, with my father, Ian, watching Jacques Yves Cousteau find and dive on the Thistlegorm! I didn’t know it at the time, if you’d have told me then that I would dive the Thistlegorm many times I would have laughed at you, the thought of a scrote from Liverpool, off the Sinai peninsula, days out into the Red Sea, scuba diving, would have been unthinkable at the time, never mind diving on a shipwreck discovered by Jacques Cousteau…….unbelievable! Jesus, only the rich could afford holidays abroad, and most of those were in Europe, only bloody explorers like Cousteau got to places like Egypt! But here I was, and the excitement, kitting up on the back of the Princess Dalal, was unbearable, I simply couldn’t wait to get in the water, I had been reading about the Thistlegorm for as long as I could remember and I knew this dive would be unforgettable….The little Red Wreck Log records the dive: “Thistlegorm Bombed at anchor by a Heinkel HE111 She went down fairly fast after ammunition blew her apart. Sunk 06.10.1941 She was en route to North Africa to re-supply Montgomery’s Desert Rats. We dropped on to her mid-ships and made way to the stern past the bomb shattered area behind the bridge along the deck gunners quarters & along the stern companionway round the prop & over the guns then on to the bridge to the Captains bathroom then a tour to the bows over the holds Magical dive”

Thistlegorm is the jewel of the Red Sea, an iconic shipwreck with diving royalty connections in Cousteau, despite having been located by him in 1956 Thistlegorm’s location was not divulged to the wider diving community until the 70’s, since then has become perhaps the most dived shipwreck in history. The Princess Dalal spent the day over the Thistlegorm and we dived her in the afternoon of the 05^th August 1997 too, again the Red Wreck Log records: “Thistlegorm this time down to the bridge & into the holds, a great root around finding the trucks and fuel tenders, dozens of pairs of boots, there’s one empty area below the bridge don’t know why, so many rifle boxes you can’t believe it but I missed the motorbikes somehow. Everything was so clear and identifiable the loco tenders on deck & the jibs and winch gear. We wandered off to the loco on the Port side & then back in via the ammo boxes & the half-track (Bren carrier) then up the bridge to watch & deco!” This was another magical dive and one I will never forget, half way down the deck run, to the shot line on the bows, John swam up and showed me his gauge, he was lower than I’d have liked for deco and, as I had plenty left, (being something of a fish on air consumption by this time), I felt it would be better to have John on my octopus, at least for the swim back to the shot and up to the 6m safety stop. All went well, John sat behind me on my 2m alternate hose and away we went, after reaching 6m John swapped back to finish off his own air down to around 20 bar and we exited the water, John leading the way up and me following

Now there are a million and one things you can see on Thistlegorm, there are so many opportunities to photograph or film on this wreck that you know where this is going by now I guess……There will be dedicated wreck section piece on Thistlegorm, despite literally dozens of articles and half a dozen books on her going into great detail, but I will cover her to the extent I have enjoyed her in the wreck section, and if you can’t wait, then go to my best ever dives and take a night dive around her with me!

  I very nearly didn’t hold it against our dive guide, Renate, when we moved away from Thistlegorm to moor off Gubal Island, but the morning dive was another reef…. Now there were others to cater for on the boat and this wasn’t a “best of Wrecks” tour, so I had no real say in anything and had to, again, “suck it up” and plod round a reef. I have nothing against reef diving, I have enjoyed many reef dives however I realised a long time ago that reefs, often majestic and full of exotic marine life, were usually what ships ploughed into to become wrecks in the first place, ergo: If you dived the shipwreck first, your decompression could be in amongst the marine life and the coral brains and tables and the gently dancing soft corals and anemones…….why would you seek out a reef on its own, without a shipwreck, when there were practically hundreds of them rammed into the prettiest reefs across the worlds seas……? Anyhow, for what it’s worth the dive log records: “Reef Dive (Liveaboard) Gubal Soraya Notables were one huge Moray whose head was 12” deep, two smaller Morays living on top of each other, huge shoals of Glass fish & other small fish (Red) one tiny White Moray 12” long & very pretty soft corals air in 210 out 110 W Temp 25’ Buddy John” The huge Moray being the abiding memory of the dive but the tiny White Moray being a real high point too, odd the difference in size, but the difference in colour holding completely the same thrall in this case!

The afternoon dive was to be another wreck and I was again thrown into that “can’t wait to kit up” state….This time the Chrisoula K, for years known as “The Tile Wreck” because of her cargo of Italian floor tiles, still evident in her holds. The Chrisoula K was a German built in Lubeck, however, when she sank in August of 1981 she was owned by a Greek company and registered from Cyprus. Chrisoula K is one of the Abu Nuhas wrecks and very popular, being largely intact, the little Red Wreck book records: “CHRISOULA K The “K” was a 1954 made Greek cargo vessel carrying stone block & Lentils en-route from Italy to Jeddah when she hit Abu Nuhas at speed breaking in Two. We dropped to the stern and swam in between the blades of the prop and rudder then round to the holds, she’s on her Starboard side and is rotting heavily we swam through the main hold taking in the bronze spare prop & the stern accommodation then back in to the engine room midships and through the whole of it & out to the hull a great dive which we continued” An odd way to end a dive log entry, until you realise the dive took in Two wrecks, the “Seastar” was next and we swam from Chrisoula to “Seastar” where the next little Red Log continues recording: “SEASTAR a continuation of dive 272. Seastar was a cargo ship carrying Lentils and stone slabs when she hit Abu Nuhas in 1976. Navigation aids were removed during the Arab/Israeli war so nav-error is probable. We came across her at mid-ships and had a good look over her length from the deck area she’s over to her Starboard side but angled at about 20’ there are stone slabs all over her decks, the rigging is pretty intact off her bows she would warrant another longer look, a pretty wreck” Now how the dive guides got this so wrong at the time is beyond me, but what we all logged as the “Seastar” was almost certainly the “Kimon M”, also known for years as the “Lentil Wreck”, as the actual Seastar is a little further to the South of the Kimon M and is down at around 90m

  There was a feeling of elation after this dive, not just a Red Sea wreck….but Two… I was on cloud nine, running the dives back in my mind over and over again, the engine room of the Chrisoula K, the holds of the Kimon M…… two wrecks, both navigation failures of one type or another, both dying within 50 meters of each other barely 3 years between them, the Kimon M going into the reef in December of 1978, the Red Sea, for me had truly become “shipwreck heaven”! But it wasn’t long before I came back to Earth with a bang, we were on our way back in, the week almost over and there was to be a final dive of the trip, it would be a reef dive at Careless reef which I couldn’t help thinking of as “couldn’t care-less” reef as I was finding it very hard to have to leave Abu Nuhas. Well, leave we did, and after watching the clear night sky and the stars overhead, it was breakfast, the last dive brief from Renate, and down to the reef for a fare-well to the Red Sea and all its glory, the log book reads: “Reef Dive (Liveaboard) CARELESS REEF A magnificent last dive to finish the week over two coral outcrops forming a wall. Notables were Scorpionfish, Barracuda, Four White Tip Reef Sharks, one of 5’ long the others around 4’ Very majestic, large Moray eel, bigeye, boxfish and a myriad of others a fine dive. W Temp 25’ air in 210 out 60 Buddy Renate”

And that was it….done, all that remained was to wash off the dive kit and pack before the sorry journey back to Hurghada port and then, after a night on board the boat and breakfast……. on to the airport. I knew only one thing…….I would return, no matter what I had to do to get here, I would definitely be back!

The First FSAC Dive Trip

From its fledgling start in July/August of 1996 Fenton Sub Aqua Club, the home of Deep Blue Diving as a diver training company, had become more and more popular with those having trained with Deep Blue Diving, settling in to Fenton Manor Pool, and finding the opportunity to bring their kids along, test out new equipment buys, or just chill and discuss diving with the others around them and see what we were up to at the weekend…..whatever, it seemed Fenton Sub Aqua Club would offer more than just training and would eventually become a small part of Stoke on Trent culture….if you knew where to look!

  I encouraged a mixed approach to the pool, originally there were a few club members joining us whilst lessons were being carried out for Deep Blue, this meant we had a strict, “you can watch but do not get close or interfere” policy which was self- policed by the club members and very much based on personal space for those in a lesson scenario, if they were tasked to swim the length of the pool with the Divemasters, then all others in the pool moved out of their way, if any were a little slow to do so then the Divemasters would “herd” offenders and have a word with them at the surface. It all worked very well and as the club membership started to grow we divided the pool up on the surface using lane lines, half the pool for the club, the other half for trainees. This had the benefit of giving the trainees a little exposure to other divers entering and already in the water, adding to the need to have an “overall situational view” not just a forward focus, after all, it wouldn’t be the first time I had seen a diver surfacing at Stoney “landed on” by a diver entering the water without paying sufficient attention to what was below him or her…….. On non-training nights it was not occasional that members would “drop in” on the Divemasters whilst snorkelling, or just swimming the pool, and signal “out of air” just for the opportunity to do a lap of the pool in the tow of a diver attached to their alternate air source, something I encouraged as it prepared our divers to always be ready to “donate” and never to question why, an edge I think over those who adopt a less supportive view of that behaviour   

There were exclusive club nights too, when members could relax and have the pool to themselves, and I put on summer Barbecues and had mates from the training and equipment suppliers bring up dive “toys” on special occasions so club members could try-out new kit, Force fins, computers, underwater scooters, even a re-breather on a couple of occasions, with the help of Simon and Fluff from Stoney Cove. On a couple of days in the year we would drag out the Fenton Manor inflatable, a kind of bouncy assault course for kids, and watch as my own and members children tried to out-do each other scrambling across or jumping off the “bouncy castle on sea”, remarkably there was not a single injury the entire Ten years FSAC ran, which is a testimony to luck as much as fervent parenting I can assure you! Every training business needs an enthusiastic support structure and there is no doubt those new to any activity like scuba seem to relish involvement, I was very honoured to have help whenever I asked, and very often offered before I had asked, such were the qualities of those at Fenton Manor and from Stoke on Trent in general, lovely people I loved sharing dive time with!

  The first really exclusive FSAC “Dive Trip” was arranged in March of 1997, I had taken several trips in 1996 to Portland and to Anglesey but the first I arranged specifically for the club was to Portland, I knew, whatever the weather, that we would be able to get some decent dives in and that was important, I wanted those coming such a long way to be assured of diving rather than take a chance they might end up “dry-diving” the local hostelry’s…… not that I wouldn’t enjoy a session in the Breakwater Bar! I had, by now some very competent divers, approaching their second year with me, although, to date their diving had been entirely at Stoney Cove, I knew they would be ready for some real sea diving, as long as it could be reasonably sure to be fairly calm and a relatively easy step from the hassle free diving in a dis-used quarry, as opposed to the swell and movement of the sea, and the likelihood of poorer visibility relatively early in the year. I had kept in touch with Mal Strickland and I knew he was running a RIB out of Portland, I knew Budgie (Eric) Burgess had an arrangement with the Breakwater Hotel, so I could be assured of decent accommodation and relatively cheap food….. and it was done, we were off to Portland and some “Real Diving” as one of my more senior FSAC divers put it!

  The first dive I took them in for was a shore dive off the beach at Chesil, that was deliberate, close in, calm conditions and a shore based entry which would mimic their Stoney Cove experiences, no fumes from the RIB, no sea sickness to deal with and no cramped kitting up on their first sea dive, it worked well although there was not a huge amount to see on the day, everyone got a dive in and there were no issues. My log book describes the dive: 29/03/97 “Shore Dive – Portland – Chesil Cove A Shakeout Dive For 3 Open Water Divers. Fun Entry In Low Surf & Root & Ferret About – Very Little Life About & Low Viz 1 -11/2M Max 9’ W Temp Air In 220 Out 175 Buddy Colin” This set the scene for the next day’s dive, even though there was nothing much to see the execution went well and all of the divers had transitioned into sea diving without any significant events, it couldn’t have gone much better! The next dive was on the breakwater wall, we had been looking for the Countess of Erne, in the confusion of  several new divers getting into a RIB, the confined space, the kitting up protocols, the inevitable “newness” of it all, for some reason we ended up descending the wrong buoy, it meant we missed the Countess and ended up hunting around the largely featureless bottom along the breakwater wall, and I recorded the dive as 30/03/97 “RIB Dive – Breakwater – Portland Missed The Countess – Wrong Buoy Ended Up In Low Viz On Lobster Pots & Sand – Plenty Of Sand Eels! W Temp 9’ Air In 230 Out 175 Buddy’s Jason – Darren – Colin” This was quickly followed by a dive on the outside of the Breakwater, moving the FSAC crew a little further out of their comfort zone and into a little more Open Sea, more of a swell on the un-protected side of the Breakwater, but close enough in to keep the feeling of security the lead-up dives had fostered so far. There was as much life on this side as there was on the inner side and I won’t bore you with the log book entry on this dive, suffice to say it had the right result, all divers gently extending their experiences and all safe back on board with broad grins…..so far so good!

So the dives had built a little more confidence in the diving of our open water converts and now they could begin to call themselves “Divers” in a truer and wider sense, our next dive would be one they would remember and this time there would be no confusion, we were going back to one of my favourite harbour dives, The Countess of Erne!

I wrote up the dive in the little Red Log, my wreck log: 30/03/97 “Countess of Erne Opposite Bunk House 84, (Blue netted buoy) Back Down To the Countess, Viz terrible – plenty of suspended matter made it really murky, great atmosphere though. Took a quiet bimble round the stern then up & onto decks – over the holds up to the bows & then back up to no 3 hold & on up to a 1 min safety stop – a great dive on this once pretty important old Irish Sea – paddle steamer.” I clearly remember the day and the dive, it was a concern that newly acclimated divers might feel claustrophobic in the viz, I needn’t have worried as all our divers coped not only well, but came up having loved the countess. Those of you who have read the “Wreck” section of this blog will know of my liking for this indomitable little paddle steamer and her history, to say I was chuffed at the smiles on Col, Jase & Darren’s faces is an understatement!

The final dive of the trip was to the banks at Lulworth, giving the FSAC team a longer RIB ride out and back, now they had more of an idea how to navigate around the tight space and still kit-up effectively. It turned out to be a good trip and the South Coast gave us a calm sea and a great day, the Sun shone and the trip out was fast paced, something the guys loved, who……especially divers….. doesn’t love a fast RIB ride? The dive was uneventful, and I wrote it up in understated manner: 30/03/97 “RIB Dive – Lulworth Banks – Dorset Just A Scenic Bimble Round The Rocks Managed To Find a Lump Sucker of round 4 lb & Got Close Up Otherwise – Better Viz 3-4m Air In 160 Out 100 Buddy Colin”  I really was bored of “scenic” dives and although I enjoyed being out of Stoney Cove, and, given I had divers to show a wider set of diving to, still knew at the back of my mind that that I was a wreck diver at heart, time in the water was precious, my time was best spent in and around shipwrecks, but the weekend had been a success, all three divers had enjoyed sea diving and had a sense of achievement, the staged introduction had gone to plan, no one had felt over-extended, all three had something they enjoyed on each dive and all three were now used to surge, waves, exiting and re-entering a RIB and the confined space available to kit up in……they were pretty much properly “Open Water” trained now and you could hear it in their post dive chat and see it in their grins, the trip back to Fenton Manor was easy….I was the only one awake……..the van was full of sleeping Divers!

Some of you may be familiar with the huge shopping complex at Cheshire Oaks? Some may wish they perhaps were not, as, to say it is a retail outlet is one thing, to say it is expensive….. quite another! Cheshire Oaks does feature a large range of “High End” shops and designer outlets, in a similar way to the American “Malls” & “Premium Outlets” found in Florida……… Some of you may be familiar with Cheshire Oaks for quite a different reason though, co-located, amongst the Ralph Lauren, Hugo Boss and Armani retail stores sits Blue Planet Aquarium, a peaceful haven amongst all the consumerism of the 21st Century……..

Blue Planet has heritage, it opened as the UK’s largest Aquarium in 1988, and it has prestige, it was no less than Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II who opened the wonderful new attraction, in the north West of England, all those 30 years or so ago. The statistics of Blue Planet are impressive, it has 20,000 species on exhibit, in over 100 displays and 14 themes. I have to say, I love well thought out and well displayed Aquariums, even though I am no fan of animals in captivity. That’s a contradiction, and I guess could even be called hypocrisy, however there is a bigger picture at play here, in very human terms, and I believe it is a vital one to the ecology and well-being of the planet itself………. If you cannot get to see exotic species from around our planet, (and many do not have the resource to do so), and you do not get shown the miracles of nature or engage with them, then why would you care for them….or what happened to them? These wonderful, vital creatures, full of elegance, wonder and grace, would simply be abstract….there….. but of no consequence, a picture, a distant memory. If we do not want the denizens of the sea to become distant memories, then Aquariums have an important place to play in the story of humanity and the more immediate and tactile the better…….as far as I am concerned

It was from that point of view that I wanted to get our divers, especially those who might not get to take the exotic holidays necessary to encounter such creatures themselves, into the water with Sharks. I knew of Blue Planet, having taken my own children there to spend a day, their favourite of all experience, other than the huge glass walled shark window, and perhaps the tunnel under the sea, (where non divers can experience “something” of what it might be like to be underwater), was the Ray pool, where Rays of several types get to swim up and, being curious creatures, stick their snouts out of the water, which both (for an instant) terrifies, and then fascinates, both children and adults alike……… I had been in touch with the Blue Planet staff to see if I could bring some of FSAC up to take a dive there, and had duly placed a poster asking for interested parties on the club notice board in Fenton Manor. It did not take long for the numbers to fill, I had spaces for Ten divers and we ended up squeezing that to 12 on the first dive-night

The trip up from Stoke-on-Trent took around an hour, there were a dozen excited divers, and another half dozen family members (almost as excited), as we assembled in the foyer of the Blue Planet facility. It took just 10 minutes or so to be briefed by the staff, and to be split into the groups we would dive in, and those that would enjoy the attraction, empty now of the public, with unlimited access whilst we kitted up for the evenings diving. Those of us diving went to the kit room for briefing, what we would do, how this would progress and what we could expect…..and then the safety side of things, what to do and what not to do, all usual to divers and nothing unexpected, apart from the “don’t raise your hands, or try to touch the Sand Tigers…….it might not end well………“

There is considerably more to see in Blue Planet Aquarium than the “Star” attractions, there are Moray eel, big Rays, shoals of Atlantic fish species of several types, all happy to get up-close and personal with the divers. As the “Coral” in the Aquarium is artificial, divers are not allowed fins, the “dive” is more a walk through, but it is well worth a visit and I highly recommend the experience if you have been considering it!

This is an opportunity to see behind the scenes at a huge underwater attraction, our divers were just as impressed by the plumbing and filter systems, and the technical introductions to the aquarium, as they were with the underwater wildlife. I was lucky to take divers in several times, the prices rose considerably between 1998 and our last dive there, somewhere around 2002. I was disappointed to see what was a 200% increase at the time, nowadays the price is eye-watering by comparison, but it is a unique experience, and still well-worth the effort, the cost, in comparison to the the outlay for a Red Sea dive to see the same creatures, is nothing

There is something special about Sharks, no matter who you ask, Sharks are emotive creatures, loved and hated equally, featuring as demons of the sea in many block-buster movie and, at best, represented as dangerous animals best to avoid everywhere else. I can only say this has never been my experience of these majestic creatures. My very first encounter with Sharks was in Jamaica, off Port Royal (of Pirates of the Caribbean fame) when told, ” Just get in and descend through them, they aren’t interested in humans as food, especially divers…..” by Don Shirley, who later confessed “I put you in first Col, because I knew no-one else would “go for it” in amongst circling Sharks….and I was “pretty sure” you’d be OK!“…..but more of that in another post later……

I knew the Fenton Sub Aqua Club Divers were excited, and I knew they were also nervous, you can always tell when divers are a little edgy, but here in the aquarium, I knew if they did what they were told then they would be alright. I wasn’t disappointed, all our divers behaved perfectly whilst with the Sharks, no waving, no attempts to touch or chase after the graceful denizens of the Blue Planet, and they had some marvelous encounters with magnificent creatures we should all be protecting and concerned about! These creatures are Apex predators, keeping sick and injured marine life and over-population in check, prejudice that eco-balance and everything under it potentially collapses……….

The visits FSAC made to Blue Planet were always popular, and always well-attended, I think we did Three in the Ten years I ran Deep Blue Diving, and I loved each one. I would not get so close to Sand Tiger Sharks again until diving Torpedo Alley in North Carolina in 2017, that, again, is a story for another time. I suppose the commercialisation of the “Shark Diving” at Blue Planet was inevitable, the alignment with the professional association of dive instructors (PADI) has introduced a more “formalised” approach, I’m sure, and of course a little more “pizzaz”. There were no “certificates” on offer when we dived Blue Planet, and there was an age restriction if I recall correctly, 15, I believe…… now, children are encouraged to dive with the sharks there…….I’m not against that, I am just not completely comfortable with the age of those now involved, just me being “old” I expect………..

As I write this, and look back over the photos here, it pains me to miss one of the nicest people I ever met, enjoying something I was privileged to have taught him, (and indeed Two of his daughters too). Mark Hill was a diver, a member of FSAC and a very close friend, I remember him here with love and affection and I miss diving with him immensely. I dived with Mark in Swimming Pools, in Quarries, in Water Cisterns, in the Red Sea….. and in Blue Planet Aquarium over Ten years, indeed I took him on the last dive he would ever take

Mark Hill was one of the nicest people you could ever meet, with a very giving, gentle nature and a quick wit and ready smile. I don’t remember once seeing Mark sullen, even as he was undertaking the fight that would eventually, after almost Four years, take him from us,…….a fight against an enemy very few beat………

 So, how do you start to describe a bunch of people that you dived with, and that mostly you trained, without becoming self-indulgent then…..I’ve no idea, I’m just going to say that for the most part, those who decided that diving was more than just a dive “course”, and wanted to live and breathe scuba ended up in Fenton Sub Aqua Club (FSAC) at some time or another. Some of them stayed with us for the whole 10 years, some came and went, but I like to think all of them were the best of the best, friends more than anything else and I confess, I miss them all…… 

  I decided that Deep Blue Diving was hiring a huge pool and often only using a fraction of the area, it was the best pool and best sports facility in Stoke on Trent, which is why I developed a relationship there and set up my diver training there, but without somewhere to go after your PADI Open Water Diver course, where would you practice? Who would you dive with? Who could you “talk diving” with? Let’s be honest, if your partner, husband, wife or “significant other” wasn’t a diver…..you were very quickly going to get fed up talking to yourself about diving…..and diving isn’t really a spectator sport, dragging that “someone special” out to watch you step into the water and then disappear for an hour, even if you do come out dragging a porthole behind you, wasn’t really going to impress! No one looks good in a Dry-Suit, so diving isn’t a visual treat either…..and yes…your bum does look big in this (any) dive suit! 

  Dive nights, Sunday evenings in the pool, turned into great events, there were rules, we separated off Two lanes for swimmers and those just enjoying being in the water with family and friends, and kept Three lanes for those being trained, doing course work, or just practicing with new or unfamiliar kit.

There were summer BBQ’s outside on the grass, and fun nights where the inflatables were the main attraction and members brought their kids in to splash around and create havoc

   I had a great relationship with Stoney Cove and some of the staff there were friends as much as dive colleagues, on a regular basis Simon from the Cove would arrange an evening bringing up some of the latest dive gadgets, new sets of fins, computers, once even a couple of dive propulsion vehicles (DPV’s), which went down a storm at the time. Fluff came up too, bringing his re-breather, and gave a couple of our members a 15 minute play around the pool, not only were these events fun, but they brought follow-on sales from the club when members dived at the cove

There was always a core of about 15 or 20 divers and we dived most weekends, many becoming PADI Dive-Masters (DM’s) and assisting in both the pool training and the open water and speciality courses. I could not have been more proud of them, nor could I be more indebted to them, as being a DM was an unpaid vocation, these fantastic people gave up their time and their own money to get to Stoney Cove and to the Pool to help train up and coming divers, they were the back-bone of Deep Blue Diving as much as they were the heart of Fenton Manor Sub Aqua Club………

  There are too many to mention here and that is not a cop-out, I fear I would forget some names, it has been many years since those wonderful days in Fenton Manor and I am sure, as I get older, I’m getting “Old-Timer’s Disease”……..

  This is just a small introduction to the characters of FSAC, their adventures literally span the world, both under-water and on land and I am very pleased to have played some small part in that adventure both for and with many of them down the years……

  I hope some of the former club members get back  in touch and share more of their photos, I was usually training on the club nights so my stock isn’t by any means comprehensive, I know there will be a mass of shots I haven’t seen, it’d be great to share some on here eventually…..

  FSAC travelled far and wide too, with regular trips to Southern Ireland, where we took in Valentia and the Skelligs (those of you who are Star-Wars fans will know Skellig Michael….I promise), Scotland, around  the isle of Skye, diving the Port Napier and the sound of Mull, Wales, regularly diving Anglesey and further South in the UK at Portland, in Dorset, where we often dived the wrecks in and around the harbour and its approaches, even the Red Sea and it’s wrecks, although we didn’t take the club’s 7m Humber RIB quite that far!

  I mentioned the FSAC RIB, I went out on a limb to get her and the expense was worth it, even though I’d have liked to have used her more often, we were out and about at least once every couple of months, and she was fairly widely travelled having done all of the UK , Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England

  I had trained as a BSAC Boat Handler and I enjoyed running the RIB, but it did mean I ended up top-side most of the time and, retrospectively, whilst the RIB allowed FSAC more freedom to explore, it certainly restricted me from enjoying the same freedoms, whilst owning and running a RIB might seem like a wonderful thing to do……there are times when twinges of regret can quietly creep in

  FSAC dived in some rather unusual places too over the years…..but perhaps more of that later………….