Category Archives: Activities

Things we have done during our travels.

Diving Marsa Shoni Kebir and A Crazy Coincidence

Posted on by
Reply

Today we were assigned to a smaller boat than the one we had gone out on the other day. It is also a very nice boat with a similar layout, and with only half as many people on board, it felt even more spacious than the first one. We went to a spot called Marsa Shoni Kebir, in the ocean just south of the Port Ghalib entrance, close to the shore. The site consists of two walls close to one another.

For the first dive, we went to the east wall. Once again, we lounged for quite a while before suiting up and jumping in. It is another nice spot, though once again, not spectacular. We saw more variety of coral, though there is still a lot of the fire and geranium looking soft corals. In one spot we saw some yellow waver coral. We also saw more fish, more variety of fish, and some new fish. Better still, we borrowed a “Red Sea” fish book and wrote down what we saw right away, while it was still fresh in our minds. The specific variety of unicorn fish that we mentioned the other day are called short nosed unicorn fish. The parrotfish with different colors we mentioned is called a rusty parrotfish. We saw both the rusty parrotfish and the short nosed unicorn fish on this dive, too.

One of the new fish is called a bird wrasse, a fish with a bird like beak. Another one is called a sailfin tang, a brown, cream and orange striped fish with a yellow tail shaped kind of like a batfish. We also saw a yellow tang, which is a similar shape but yellow color. Other new ones include hogfish and Arabian boxfish. We also saw Arabian Picasso triggerfish, which have the same markings as a regular Picasso triggerfish, but different colors.

In more familiar fish, we saw Continue reading →

Diving Marsa Mubarak in the Red Sea

Posted on by
Reply

We dragged our gear over to the dive boat at 0800. We managed to get onto the nicest of the three dive boats at the hotel, and, except for the boat in Port Douglas, is by far the nicest dive boat we have been on. It has a big cockpit area for the dive gear, a large salon with plenty of tables and seating for everyone, and an upper deck full of couches for sitting in the sun. There were about 20 divers on board.

The dive spot we went to is called Marsa Mubarak, and it is in the Port Ghalib bay, near the entrance. We lounged for 40 minutes after we were moored before we finally suited up and jumped in. We headed north. The dive spot is quite pretty, but not spectacular. The hard coral is sort of in scattered mountain formations here and there instead of in a wall type formation. The landscape is dominated by a light pink soft coral that looks kind of like a geranium, ranging in size from tiny flower tops to large ones. At several points along the dive it actually looked like a flower field more so than a coral reef. There was also a lot of fire coral, which is bright yellow and looks like distorted pieces of lattice, like something that you would see in a Dhali painting. There were two especially large hard coral rock formations that the dive master referred to as “cleaning stations”. There were zillions of tiny fish swimming about, including glass fish and some goldfish. Those two spots were very pretty.

may08-006-small.JPG

All in all, there weren’t a lot of fish out and about. We did see a few large fish, including a grouper and a couple parrotfish. There were quite a few unicorn fish with the horn thingy on its forehead, and a lot of orangespine unicorn fish, which doesn’t have a big horn, and is pictured below:

may08-028-small.JPG

We also saw quite a few Continue reading →

Mexican Food in Egypt?

Posted on by
1

We unpacked the most basic essentials and went to bed. We slept for a solid 18 hours. It was great to be back in our own house, in our own bed. Now that we are well rested, we are feeling pretty good, but are not particularly motivated to work on our infinitely long list of boat chores.

This morning we went to breakfast at the hotel. Included with breakfast was a selection of juices. We tried hibiscus, cantaloupe, tamarind, and licorice. None of them had a particularly strong taste, and except for the cantaloupe, none were very sweet. The hibiscus looks like grape juice and the taste is somewhat similar to cranberry juice. Had it not been labeled, we would have assumed it was cranberry juice that was somehow not right. The cantaloupe juice is a bright orange and tastes like yummy, vine ripened cantaloupe. The tamarind juice is very dark, almost a dark brown. It is pretty good, something different than we have ever tried. Now that we have tasted the juice, we realize over the past few months we have had quite a few foods that probably had tamarind in them. We both eyed the licorice juice skeptically. It is a light tan color, and had little black things floating in it that resembles pepper. We braced ourselves, expecting it to taste like Jagermeister. Fortunately, it wasn’t nearly as bad. It definitely has a black licorice taste, which neither of us likes much. But it isn’t terribly strong, and we could have drank a full glass if nothing else was available. We also tried a new fruit. We are pretty sure it is called a greengauge. It is the size and texture of a small cherry, but inside there are tiny, edible seeds instead of a pit. It tastes a lot like an apple. They are good.

imgp4156-small.JPG

After breakfast, we booked Continue reading →

Welcome to Port Ghalib, Marsa Alam, Egypt

Posted on by
Reply

We approached the channel entrance at 0000 (midnight). The prudent thing to do would be to do circles until dawn. Since this is a brand new development, we didn’t have charts. The main channel buoy light was out. But there were additional channel markers that were visible, with an entrance buoy and red and green flashing lights. The whole development is well lit, and the ambient light made it bright enough to see well. The wind was still and the sea completely flat, helping with visibility. We decided Continue reading →

Oman to Egypt – Day 10

Posted on by
1

Around 2300 last night, the wind calmed to about 20 knots. Within a couple of hours, seas were a little better, but by a little we mean that conditions have gone from “absolutely miserable” to “miserable”. We were not consistently pounding as hard into the waves, but were still periodically getting pelted by some very hard waves. Speeds were holding steady in low 5’s. Sigh.

By noon, the winds had picked back up to 25 and the seas continued to get worse and worse, going right back to “absolutely miserable” again. Speeds worsened to the high 3’s/low 4’s at 1600 RPM.

Around 1630 (4:30 pm), we turned Continue reading →