Bows of the Thistlegorm.
Deco Lines attached to winches. Which leads to our boat?
I spite of the huge number of divers visiting it, and the loss of coral growth and taking of souveniers by unscroupuloud divers, The Thistlegorm must still be one of the best wreck dives in the world. I am not usually much interested in wreck dives, preferring the marine life, but the Thistlegorm is something different.
The dive meant a 04.15 a.m. start. Once on board the boat at Sharm El Sheikh we all crashed out wherever we could find a comfortable spot during the 4 hr trip to the wreck site. You can spot the site from miles away by the number of boats on it, 22 during our trip (that's about 300 divers). Our guide dived down to attach our line to the bows, suitably marked by the instructors T-shirt. There are so many lines crossing in various directions that you can easily end up in the wrong boat at the end of your dive! We were lucky in that the current was running from stern to bow making for an easy return to the line at the end of the dive.
The first dive was to be an orientation dive. Entering the water you can immediately see the top of the wreck 17m below, with streams of bubbles ascending. Visibility was not as good as we had experienced on reef dives earlier in the week, mainly due to the activity of the may other divers, but was still around 30m (not bad when you are usually used to around 5m or less). At the bottom of the line the first thing I noticed was a heavy stream of bubbles exiting from a ventilation port, coming from divers exploring the hold below. Setting off towards the stern a large winch and a railway tanker truck are the first objects of interest. Following the port side of the wreck we reached the damaged area where the 2 German bombs struck, almost blowing off the stern. Due to my buddy and I being fairly large, somewhat out of practice and only having 12L tanks and a meager 200bar fill (normal out there) we did not examine the stern section, but this does have AA guns and of course the prop. We arrived back at the line with 60bar, as instructed, the 5m safety stop area got a little congested but during the short stop we were entertained by large bat fish, swimming around above the wreck.
Bows of the Thistlegorm. |
Deco Lines attached to winches. Which leads to our boat? |
The second dive was made after a 1.5hr surface interval and this time we entered the the No.1 hold where the remains of aircraft and lorry parts are to be found, plus a very large grouper which hung around in one corner presumably waiting for the crowed of divers to bugger of in the afternoon. Swimming through the connecting passage we moved into the adjoining hold which among other things contains the remains of many motor cycles. A door led out to the deck and the entrance was almost obscured by thousands of small fish. On the way back toward the bow we entered the captains quarters and examined his loo and bath. Unfortunately I had used up all my film and was unable to take the customary photo of 'Buddy in the Bath'.
Exploring the Holds.
If you go to the northern Red Sea on a dive trip a visit to the Thistlegorm is definitely worth the early start and extra cost, and that comes from someone who does not usually bother with wrecks, except for taking anglers to them.