1994
As a surprise December 1994 birthday present for me, Eve booked a holiday in Eilat, Israel. Eilat, the southernmost city of Israel, lies adjacent to the Egyptian village of Taba and the Jordanian port city of Aqaba. The sun almost always shines in Eilat, indeed it only rains about half a dozen days a year and the weather certainly lived up to its reputation. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay at King Solomon’s Palace and our first Red Sea holiday. The Oriana took us for a cruise out of Eilat into Egyptian waters to an island know by the Egyptians as Pharaoh’s Island or Coral Island by the Israelis. Eve announced that she wanted to do a Try Dive, I wasn’t keen but reluctantly joined in, not wishing to look too pathetic! I’m pleased I did. To my surprise I really enjoyed the Try Dive, so much so that I had two more Try Dives, at Dolphin Reef, Eilat, before we went home. Little did I know that we would soon be returning for more dive trips to Coral/Pharaoh’s Island aboard the Oriana as well as L’Amie.
1995
As a Christmas 1994 present Eve enrolled us both on a BSAC Novice Diver Course with Aqua II of Sandgate, Kent, UK. We completed our first open water dive in Leybourne Lake near Maidstone, Kent, UK on 12th March and just 17 days later did our second open water dive at Moses Rock in Eilat with Chris Orbitz from Red Sea Sports Club. This was a group dive and given that it was only our second open water dive, our first dive in the sea, it was a significant step up from swimming pools and one brief dive in a cold English lake! To speed up our progress Ronen of Siam Divers took us on some private guided shore dives in Eilat which we thoroughly enjoyed. By the end of our holiday I had completed a grand total of 12 dives! In November Eve and I returned to Eilat to once again stay at King Solomon’s Palace and to dive with Siam Divers and Red Sea Sports Club.
1997
In 1997 we visited Eilat twice, staying a fortnight in both April and September and based again in King Solomon’s Palace. By the end of the second holiday I had done a total of 52 dives and had begun to seek more challenging diving. For example Eve and I went on a one day diving safari from Eilat to Dahab, Egypt and I did a private shark dive. Rumour had it that early in the morning sharks would investigate the nets of a fish farm located on the Israeli-Jordan-Red Sea border off North Beach, Eilat. I persuaded an instructor (who will remain nameless!) to take me out on a RIB to the fish farm at 7.00 a.m one morning. As we approached some guards shouted a warning that there were sharks in the water which of course was good news to us! It was a surreal experience finning around the outside of a fish farm looking at the shoals of fish trapped on the inside. Twenty minutes into the dive I saw two 2.5 metre long white tip reef sharks beneath me. They quickly disappeared into the distance but I had now had my first shark encounter!
1998
In April Eve and I again stayed at King Solomon’s Palace in Eilat diving primarily shore dive sites around Eilat as well as boat diving at Coral/ Pharaoh’s Island in Egyptian waters. We also crossed the border on foot for a boat dive on the Taba –based Kewet Salem. In September we returned to Eilat for the last time to stay at King Solomon’s Palace, once again diving with the Red Sea Sports Club or crossing the border to dive in Taba. Eilat with its current free warm waters had proved a wonderful resort to develop our basic diving skills but now it was time to seek more challenging diving.
1999
In June while staying in Taba, I crossed the Israeli-Egyptian border into Eilat for an underwater ride in Reef Ranger, a three-man open mini-sub. With speeds of up to 4.5 knots the mini-sub was great fun and I was even allowed to pilot the vessel for part of this dive.