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Published: August 19th 2007
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BACK ON LAND
So yeah.. It’s been a while, times fly by down here. Maybe time for an update.
The middle of May, while M was going to do a steam course Divemaster, C was already to start the training on the liveaboards with the one and only trainer of the company: Ahmed. Just before he was going out for his first 6-day trip we decided to move again to another apartment, but this time in another building. Because it’s one thing to not have a proper working aircon in more then 40˚C, but when the smell hanging around the apartment is irresolvable, the worn out furniture doesn’t attract to be seated on, the merciless mosquito’s have their mind set on sucking every last drip of blood out of your body and the cockroaches start running around, it might be time to find a place that could feel a bit more like home. Even more since it seems that with the new job at Emperor Divers, we could be staying here for a while. We had already a look around for some other places, so we choose the best value for money: a nice clean, new, fresh apartment, with
decent furniture and even a bathtub. Beautiful. Apart from taking heavy casualties in an ever ongoing ant war, we are very happy in our home. It even had a sea view when we moved in, but this didn’t last to long of course, Egyptians raise unfinished apartment buildings in every little space they can find to claim land. So, a meter from our window, there is now a building skeleton between us and the nice sea view.
So we moved and the day after C was going on his first Safari on Platinum class boat ‘Serenity’ and M stayed in Hurghada for the courses. What we didn’t know then was that we were again to be separated for another 5 weeks. After M finished the DM course she was going straight on a two-week safari down south with Ahmed, but since C wasn’t back from his third trip in a row, he could not come along. Time seemed to stand still again. This two week trip was quite a lucky shot though; it was an explorer trip deep south, diving at reefs where no one had been diving before, absolutely unspoiled and stunning.
Finally reunited our training together
continued, with Ahmed. It was good to be on the boat together, but to be honest; the training period was not always a joyful experience. But fair is fair, in the end Ahmed has lots of knowledge and experience on the red sea, so we’ve learned a fair bit from him. During this period we moved around on boats a lot, which is from one point of view all right because we got to see the different boats, the different classes and got to work with the different crews. But on the other hand also a big hassle. We have so many boxes full of required stuff to move with us all the time that it would be nice once we get one fixed boat where we would be working on. Although the work was especially at the beginning quite intense and could be tiring, due to a constant build-up of a lack of sleep, it is very enjoyable and rewarding. C’s arm was making some trouble during this whole time, but after check ups and a talk with a DAN dive medic in Italy, we came to the conclusion that it’s probably just a muscular problem. Maybe ‘mouse arm’
from too much gaming! Having rest of mind from that, C caught bacteria in the stomach, was wrongly diagnosed at first, and now a month later, taking 3 types of antibiotics.
MiniCloud is now operating the boats on their own (with of course the 10-man hard working, professional boat crew) and now have a week (or maybe two) off after 8 weeks back-to-back.
High season starts soon: in September. As from then we will be set on a fixed boat, probably doing a lot of back to back turnovers. Two days ago we learned that it’s not going to be just any boat, but we got the boat that we could only dream of and does its name honor: ‘Tranquility’. This platinum class boat is not only one of the two biggest, most beautiful, well kept, steel made ships in the Emperor Divers fleet (check out the webpage). More important, Tranquility has far out the best crew and captain we’ve worked with in the company. This is surely a nice start to the diving season!
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