A trip to Eilat, lousy visibility, great finds, and surprises

It is summer and hot. It was a long time since I last dived in Eilat (April). And so it was generally agreed that diving is a priority.

Matan and Efrat decided to spend three days after pre-arranging babysitter for the girls. Alon and I decided to join for two days. In the last moment Roy got a leave from the army and joined us.

Eilat in the summer is very hot (> 40C in the shade). The water is warmer, and we could dive with shorts without being cold. 

Our first dive was to the Sun Boat, a sunken boat on the north shore of Eilat. It was early AM and so we had nice light in the shallows. The visibility in the water was poor, and indeed at one point Alon and I lost Matan & Efrat. Since Alon was low on air (we had only a partially full tank to start with), we started heading back.

When we got out of the water we met Matan & Efrat who preceded us by few minutes and already removed their gear. Matan reported that he saw a Frogfish in the shallow water and asked if I want to photograph it. I immediately said yes. He went to get his mask and fins to show me the place. 

He returned with his equipment but also with a cup that contained a small octopus that was found hidden in some  of the junk Matan collected from the water. Matan released the octopus in the shallow water (knee high). I went to photograph it. 

The octopus (who was probably unhappy after being exposed to air and taking a mud bath before being saved) decided that my camera was a great shelter. It attached itself to the port and did not let go.

I took few pictures with the octopus "attachment".

Eventually we gently managed to get it off. I took a picture, and immediately found that it returned to the lens. After a while we did manage to convince it that the rocky bottom was a better hiding place.

After this rather funny incident, we went to locate the frogfish. Since frogfishes tend to stay in one place and pretend to be a sponge or a weed, Matan found it. I must say that I would not have noticed it without the pointer. It looked like a piece for seaweed on the bottom.

I tried to photograph it. But apparently it didn't like me, the flashes, or maybe its reflection in the dome. It kept moving away from me, "walking" in funny bouncy steps. I spent more than 10 minutes and managed to get some photographs.

We later learned that this was the first sighting of this species of frogfish in Eilat, and this observation led to some excited comments from the experts.

Our next dive was at the Sateel, a very classic dive to a relatively big wreck. This is one of the sites where no one can get lost. The visibility was again very poor. On the way into the water we met a dive leader who saw the camera and told me there are two big octopi on the "10m rock", which is a well known landmark on the way to the boat, and of course there is the resident red frogfish. I told Matan (who forgot something) that Alon and I will wait at the rock.

The visibility was really bad, and we started going down until the 10m level. We found a rock there, but it was quite different from what I remembered. There were no octopi nor frogfish. And so we resigned to wait for Matan & Efrat. After 10 minutes we decided that they probably missed us, and continued to the boat.

After getting to 25m depth, we should have hit the boat, but it was clear we were in the wrong place. For some reason I thought we were south of the boat, and kept correcting toward north against the current to correct for that. After a while we hit some pinnacles, and then I know where we were - directly north of the boat.

 Going south we reached the boat.

Above the boat there was an amazing spectacle. A large school of small fish (sardines?) that was forming flowing shapes. There were various predators that were trying to feed on them. These included the slow lionfishes that waited for their chance and the fast open water fishes that darted into the school. 

Each of these attacks lead to a sudden shift and movement of the whole shape. We floated there and I tried to get some sense of the shapes we saw.

When we decided we have to start heading back, we swam directly west and then hit the correct "10m Rock". And indeed, there was a red frogfish waiting for me. I started composing a shot, but was not happy with the results. 

Then I moved to photograph the big octopi. The male was sitting in the open with one arm (the one carrying the sperm) leading into a hole were the female was hiding. They were totally immobile and ignored the divers who kept looking at them.

We came out of the water very happy. Meeting Matan & Efrat topside we learned that they did the oposite route (going to the boat and then north), which was kind of ironic.

Matan & Efrat went to shop for presents for the girls. Alon went to take a nap on the beach, and I took Roy to snorkel in the coral reserve. We saw schools of small fish just below the water surface. We also big needlefish that were hunting these baits. However, they kept their distance from us, so no pictures.

I then switched from wide angle to macro setting, with my new ringflash (version 3, and probably the last for now). Alon and I headed toward the Yatush, a small boat in 30m of water just next to home base. 

As the dive started I took few pictures to check the camera setting. After about three clicks the camera suddenly froze. The screen was on and showing a piece of seafloor (as though the camera was pointed at it) but it wasn't updating. None of the keys managed to snap the camera out of this, even the on/off key had no effect. I was sad and for the rest of the dive did not take any pictures.

Going out of the water, I opened the housing, and managed to reset the camera only after removing the battery. I then reinserted everything and was ready for the next dive. By the time the tanks were refilled and Matan & Efrat returned, it was pretty late. We decided to go for the south shore, but could not find parking. In the end we compromised for a place we didn't know that well, but decided that like all of Eilat it would be full of life once the sun set. 

Just as we were about to say goodbye to Roy who took us there and was planning to retreat to a coffeeshop while were in the water, I remembered that we need extra lights. One of them did not work, so I had only three lights. We got into the water and started diving (as everyone was tired of waiting for me). Two minutes into the dive and after several failed test shots, I realized that I probably flipped down the flash when inserting the camera back into the housing. The flash was in "off" mode and would not fire. This means no pictures in a night dive :-(

I did try few pictures using Alon's torch as a light source. This was interesting but not too satisfactory.

Later when I told this story, few people reminded me of the "curse of the red frogfish". There is a legend that most encounters with a red frogfish are followed up by some mishap, sometimes with flooded cameras. From this perspective I got a light version of the curse, maybe because the fish was still relatively small :-)

The next day we went on two dives. The first was to the "Caves" a sight with a lot of sea life. I had few finds, the most interesting was an Emperor Shrimp. This is a very impressive shrimp that is known to "hitchhike" on other animals, usually sea cucumbers. It is very common in some areas (Philippines for example). However, some of the dive friends told me that if I would scan every sea cucumber I encounter, I will find them. Now, there are quite a few sea cucumbers in Eilat. Actually many of them. So the habit of scanning each one I encounter seemed like an obsession. Finding a shrimp was a surprise. I barely saw it, and Alon didn't manage to see what I was so excited by. 

For the last dive of the trip we decided to try to recapture the fish ball on the Sateel. Since it was Friday the place was busier than yesterday, and there many divers in the water. This time I managed to find the way. On the 10m rock the big male octopus was still in the same position although it retracted its arm. The female was still hidden in her hole. I didn't see the frogfish (although when we came out Alon told me he saw it on another rock nearby).

On the Sateel itself we didn't see any fish. After we gave up and started leaving, we realized the fish were still there, but somewhat off the boat (as there was so many divers on the boat). We did get to see some of the action, but the images were not as exciting as the previous ones.

We packed our stuff and headed home, making sure Alon makes it in time for Friday night dinner ....

A short Eilat trip with Matan and Alon

Due to complex set of reasons Matan, my old time dive buddy, did not dive for almost six months. On the first opportunity to correct this, we took off to Eilat for a weekend. Alon joined us to complete the merry team.

The water in Eilat was quite cloudy with uncharistically bad visibility. The remains of the algae that bloomed in the winter were still visible. In some places they formed webs of dead materials that served as a shelter and food source to many small creatures.

On this occasion I brought with me several DYI gadgets for creative lighting. Most notable was a ring flash. This gadget uses optic fibers to make a ring of light around the lens. This particularly useful for close subjects that hard to illuminate. While the other gadgets were disappointing (and need to be revamped) this one worked quite nicely.

And if you are curious about the contraption:

To see it in action note the reflection on the eye of this very small fish.

On a night dive we bumped on a sandy area full of these dead algae and many nudibranches all over them. Sadly due to stuck zoom ring and empty batteries I had only poor images of them and so we will need to rectify this in the future :-(

The next morning the sun came out a bit and things were looking better. I decided to go back to old fashioned gadget-less photography for a bit.

On a deep dive next to the IUI we run onto a large lobster. These are usually hiding during the day and are uncommon. This fellow was very big and did not mind being photographed.

 

Two days in Athens

A week after returns from the US, I had to attend a meeting in Athens. Since I just returned from a trip and since it was the week of passover, I did not extend the trip beyond the minimum possible.

We took off from Israel early in the morning and landed in Athens toward 9am. I took a cab to the meeting hotel in Vouliagméni, a suburb of Athens to south of the main city. After spending the whole day inside, I was yearning to get a glimpse of the beautiful day outside. 


In the early afternoon Ido and I managed to sneak out of the poster session and go for a walk before dinner. The hotel receptionist suggested we walk down to a small nature reserve on a small peninsula.


As promised, the peninsula was very impressive. Ido wanted to try the water, and we had hard time to find an accessible beach. 

After jumping in, Ido immediately decided that the water was too cold to bath in :-)

We continued walking along the road and reached a very fancy marina. We decided to explore and saw that there is a local pub/restaurant. Since we were thirsty, we stopped for a beer, and ended eating a salad and a small meal. The place was super fancy, and we got small appetizers "on the house" with the beer.

We continued down the beach to the ruins of a small church. 

From here we climbed to the top of the hill, and proceeded down some impressive rock structure toward the tip of the peninsula. 

Since dinner time was nearing, we headed back along the coast toward our hotel. On the way we saw the sunset.

The next day was cloudy. After a day of talks, we finally finished our business. I went with Allesandra and Marco, and we decided to start with the obvious destination - the Acropolis.

Unlike the peak of the tourist season, the acropolis was fairly empty at this time. And so we got a chance to see the ruins without walking in a crowd.

The hill of the acropolis is pretty impressive. It stands high above the surrounding city and looks like a natural fortress. 

Some of the structures were under-renovations. I learned that the whole place was rebuilt in the early 20th century in an attempt to reconstruct the past. The current renovations are intend to save some of the structures that started to become unstable, and also to correct errors. At some places we saw "spare" stones that were collected during the work and apparently didn't fit in.

From up here, we could see the large spread of Athens in every direction. 

Going down from the Acropolis, we climbed on a hill that serves as "shoulder" of the big hill. From here there was an impressive viewpoint on the whole Acropolis compound.

From there we picked a small footpath and followed it down the hill. We ended on a wide avenue with many blooming Judeas Trees and many outdoor cafe/pub establishments. We stopped for a refreshment and chat about science.

By now it was late, and so we continued down the avenue to the local subway line. Being obsessive photograph I tried to make a composition with the brightly painted subway cars, but was approached by a security person who told me that photography was prohibited. I found this odd, but decided not to start a scene.

We rode the subway to Piraeus, the local harbor. We exited just after sunset next to the big ferry terminal. These provided a wonderful background for the sky.

We continued to a small, but famous, restaurant few blocks from the harbor where we met other participants from the meeting to have dinner. I thought this was going to be a traditional place, but it turned out to be a fancy tasting dinner of about 10 courses. It was very very good and enjoyable.