A DAY TRIP FOR THE MEMORY BOOKS>>>>>>

It’s been a while so this update will be a long one, here goes:
A day off, the second one I have had since I arrived. Well needed not only because I was tired but also to recover from my snorkel test the previous night, a story I will have to tell you all in person. After a day of nothing it is off to bed early, have to be up at 2am the next morning.
I awake to my alarm and snooze until 2:30am on the 26th October. I make my way over to the dive centre and meet with team Netherlands, a group of Dutch divers, family and friends, that I will be joining for a dive on the Thistlegorm. The wreck is about a two hour boat trip out of Sharm El Sheik, so we board the taxi at 3am and set off through the Sinai mountains.
We arrive 45 minutes late and hurry down the jetty to board the boat at around 4:45am. We depart, after stocking up with tanks, into the gulf of Aquaba. After drifting off to sleep on the top deck I am awoken by screams of joy as we find dolphins surfing our bow wave and playing in the early morning light. I stay awake to watch the beautiful sunrise. As we turn north at around7:30am we make our way up the Gulf Of Suez while tucking into pancakes and coffee.
We arrive at the wreck to find around 10 other boats moored to the ship, apparently this is not as busy as it can be.
We enter the water for our first dive around 9:00am, wow. We are greeted by the stern of the ship, appearing out of the mist as we descend to around 30 meters. There is no current, we come first to the rear gun, an awesome sight almost as if it was lifted from the film set of alien. The stern sits at an angle on its side, we then get to the blast hole, bend shards of metal bending up to 10 meters in the air. On the deck we find live rounds and shattered metal.
We are then greeted by the bow section of the ship where we enter the hold, torches on. One of the first things that we find is army jeeps parked end to end, windscreens in tact, 10 maybe 20 of them. We then twist and turn through the hold, over numerous motorcycles, all still in good condition. We then enter the captains cabin to find his bathroom still in tact, bath toilet and all. Trough the front door and onto the bow, looking up to find giant travally hunting and spade fish circling us. We swim back over the top deck and ascend up the mooring line for the surface interval.
After a cup of coffee and a chat about how amazing the dive was we were ready to go again. We kitted up and entered the water. Our group was second in and the instant we hit the water we could feel there had been a change. The current had picked up and was rushing from the bow to the stern. We pulled our way up a rope to the bow of the boat and began to pull ourselves down the mooring line and onto the wreck once more. As we descended I looked down to see the first group fining against the current. We where pulled horizontal on the rope as we continued down. We eventually made it down and began to swim, the original plan was to look at the exterior of the ship on this dive but it would not be possible. We swim into the hold once more, the water is calm inside and many of the smaller fish take refuge around the cars and cargo.
We find our selves in a one way traffic system for divers, every room and corner is filled with visiting humans all eager to look around the famous wreck. After battling through Trafalgar square we once again arrive at the bow, this time its different. When I emerge from the hatch I have to fin, full power, to catch hold of the hand rail. We stay for a while, the water rushing past us, it feels like the ship is powering along under the sea like a crazed ghost ship. Giant tuna and spade fish swim along side us. I look back to see masses of bubbles bellowing out of the old chimneys like smoke. Its instantly dragged into the distance by the current. We decide to leave, letting go of the rail we fly down the side of the wreck at an amazing rate. Just as we reach a train carriage that is on the top deck two of the Swedish divers I am with ask me to take a photo, I oblige and swim backwards. After getting the shot we once again are swept by the current to the rear mooring line, we ascend and get lunch, awesome.
Toby dives down to untie the mooring lines and we set off for home, but not without a final dive. After around two hours we reach shark reef. Unfortunately no sharks today but the strongest current I have ever felt, we are swept past a beautiful reef then our guide says we have to swim against the current. After making slow progress for a while, hoping from rock to rock, we give up. We let the current carry us, then a giant moray is spotted and a blue spotted ray. The current carries us round further and we deploy our DSMB (delayed surface marker buoy) for the boat to locate us. As I look down I see a very large pile of porcelain toilets and baths, a very strange site, obviously dumped or a lost cargo. We return to the boat and head for harbour. As the sun goes down we relax with a couple of beers, after being awake for nearly seventeen hours we head for home, and a well needed sleep.