Marsa Alam 23rd Sept 2006
Day 2
The routine stayed pretty much the same throughout the week consisting of an early morning dive followed by gas prep, breakfast, dive, lunch, gas prep, dive, dinner, gas prep and night dive if you fancied it. By gas prep I mean; let the guys know what gas you want by taping up your set/stage and the rest was taken care of.
Me and Dave Dowson pre-checkout
Dive 1- 23m max for 35mins - Shuna @ back of MV Tala
Checkout dive with S-Drills, shutdowns and bag deployment followed by dumping gas until your reserve was reached in order to perform a weight check. AG grabbed some video footage of this just in case there were any arguments on whether you made the grade or not! This was not a test but merely a gauge to find out where everyone was. For this dive I was buddied with Dave Dowson.
Me and Dave post-checkout
Dive 2- 18m max for 45mins - Shuna @ back of MV Tala
I was de-kitting from the first dive and re-adjusting my backplate when Faisal offered me a AL40 and an X-Scooter with a view to introducing me to what would commonly be known throughout the week as a “monkey dive”. Not being one to refuse a little fun I jumped in and had a good play. The freedom the plate and stage give you is unreal and barrel rolls and corkscrews became the norm….Just too much fun and good times!
Keira braves the blue
Once everyone was happy with their weighting and trim we moved to a new reef called Abu Dabab for a night dive. My buddy for this dive was Andy Bryson and we soon dropped of the back of the boat and down to the reef just as darkness was setting in. We had a really nice dive along the reef with lots of coral and fishlife to see and before long we hit 3rds so turned the dive. We were just past the fixed mooring when one of the pair of lion fish that were swimming with us launched it’s attack. I signalled to Andy that I had been stung and he thumbed the dive. I had been stung on the pinky and had never felt pain like this before. I started squeezing my finger on the way back to the up line and a small trickle of either blood/poison could be seen streaming from my finger. By the time we surfaced my whole hand was throbbing and the pain was substantial.
A Lion Fish Andy was out of the water first and quickly advised the crew. By the time I got onto the boat, Faisal, AG, Mo and Tala were all busy on their phones to the hospital, on call doctor, ground base and tinternet checking on symptoms, remedies, precautions etc. I was a bit embarrassed by all the attention if truth be known, but felt in very good hands. The guys soon had my hand in a basin of boiling water and one of the Zodiacs were prepped and ready to take me ashore if I went WAHHHOO NIK NIK!The pain soon passed and I enjoyed the remainder of the evening with the guys keeping a close eye on me.
It’s worth noting that everyone reacts differently to a sting based on the location of the sting, size of the fish, exposure and strength of the victim; so make sure you inform someone if this happens to you as lasting effects can include paralysis and CNS issues!!
