Swallowed by the sea

My dive buddy Mohammad

The blue Hole

The Blue Hole is a diving location on east Sinai a few kilometers north of Dahab on the coast of the Red Sea.

The Blue Hole is a submarine sinkhole (a kind of cave), around 130 m deep. There is a shallow opening around 6 m deep, known as 'the saddle', opening out to the sea, and a 26 m long tunnel, known as the arch, the top of which lies at a depth of 56 m. The hole itself and the surrounding area has an abundance of coral and reef fish.

The Blue Hole is notorious for the number of diving fatalities which have occurred there earning it the sobriquet, "World's Most Dangerous Dive Site" and the nickname "Diver's Cemetery".

 

For those that went too deep

Ok so that is what Wikipedia has to say about the blue hole.  I had to go and see for myself!! My dive guide Mohammad had dove the blue hole many times and I quickly determined that all I wanted to do was take a look so after an refresher dive to review my skills (that is mandatory in Egypt if one has not dove for six months) we head of to the blue hole. The entrance for our dive was through a narrow channel they call the bells it gets this name because as you descend the sides of the rocks are so close that it is very difficult not to bang your tank and this makes a ringing sound in the water hence the bells. Well after making it through the bells without the ringing the sea opens up to wall of coral going in both directions and straight down. Very impressive we turn right and do a drift along the wall in the direction of the blue hole. We hold our dept at 20 meters and slowly glide along the wall It is awesome but once again I see the corral is dying here, just like in so many other places in the world. We drift along for about 25 minutes stopping as Mohammad points out different fish. There were many Butterfly fish, always swimming in pairs their bright yellow body with strong black and white markings has them standing out against the coral like the headlights of a car at night. Later Mohammad told us that this fish mates for life but if for some reason the male dies the female will go off and seek another mate, but on the other hand if the male should lose his partner he becomes so distraught the he will swim of to the deep and commit fish suicide. What a nut case he is!! I also had one other new experience while down on the wall Mohammad signaled me to remove my regulator and open my mouth wide, I then had the privilege of having my teeth cleaned by this tiny blue white and black striped fish about the size of my little finger quite amazing as all I could really see was its tail as it darted in and out of my mouth, OK enough of that time to put my reg back in and take a breath again. We continue on to the blue hole and enter over the saddle a spot where the reef dips down like the saddle on a horse. As I glide over the coral now at about 5 meters I see the hole as it drops away and wow is it blue. I don’t think I have ever seen that color of blue before. The bottom is somewhere down there but it is creepy. We had determined before the dive that our way out would be to swim straight across rather than to follow around the perimeter this is the best way to experience the vastness of this hole in the ocean. It is about 50 meters across but in the middle you can’t see either side and have now way to judge your depth without the use of you gauges. Just like the brochure says THE BLUE HOLE We glide across at about 10 meters and my eyes strain to see the other side. My breath is a little faster at this point but there it is the wall on the other side comes in to view and I see my exit. As we surface I am surprised to see we are literally only 2 meters from the shore and there waiting for me is my lovely mate, yes she will have to put up with me for a bit longer yet no looking for a new mate today!! I survived the blue hole.

The site is signposted by a sign that says "Blue hole: Easy entry". Accidents are frequently caused when divers attempt to find the tunnel through the reef (known as "The Arch") connecting the Blue Hole and open water at about 52 m depth. This is beyond the maximum recreational diving limit of 40m and the effect of nitrogen narcosis will be significant at this depth. Divers who miss the tunnel sometimes continue descending hoping to find the tunnel farther down and become increasingly narced.

I'll be back later honey

My chosen dive store