The Lusong Gunboat


 

 

This is almost exactly the same type of boat as the East Tangat gunboat and is similarly situated in shallow water giving it great light for photography. The boat itself is so small you can swim end to end in only a few minutes however the reef upon which the boat lies has been fed by the nutrients which are thrown into the water at the pearl farm close by. This is something of a double edged sword in that the coral has gone mental on the food it receives by default but on feeding days the visibility can be absolutely atrocious. That said the coral on the reef is as good as the best I have ever seen anywhere in Egypt (and better by far than most) and the dive on the wreck is followed by a long, leisurely drift dive over beautiful table corals, brain corals, fan corals - the complete works really!

So we have another sub chaser here with all that that entails. Built small. light and fast, these boats were designed for attacking submarines which were operating close in shore and they carried a formidable armament in the form of depth charges backed up by small calibre guns for surface engagement and anti-aircraft defence.

It was on this wreck that I saw a worm of the same sort as the horrible juvenile white worms which inhabit the Olympia Maru. The difference though was the size of this hideous beastie. It must have been 10 or 12 metres long and had twined itself up and down a bulkhead within the wreck. Oh ok then, perhaps it was a bit more like 6 feet long but you are talking to someone here who tends to find wor... erm... squiggly things somewhat scarier than your average 32 foot long Amazonian anaconda. And it had horrible big fangs and a humungous mouth and when you went really close it went, "Icky icky wiffle wah ffftannggg"... honest it did! And besides, I personally don't do the W-word so there was absolutely no way that I was going to get up close to this minger to play happy-snappy. So you'll just have to take my word for it that it was big...

With a capital B...

On steroids.

You can see a shot of the wo... wor... W-word taken at a suitably respectful distance in the gallery below - picture number 5...

All this talk of W-words is making an intimate part of my anatomy pucker up very tight... I don't do w**ms... I don't do w**ms...

 

 

 

                                 

Don't forget that if you wish to see a larger version of any of the images below all you have to do is click the relevant thumbnail and it will open a new window displaying a much bigger version of the photograph. Don't



Our January 2007 visit...



An explosion of bubbles and neoprene as Tracy enters the water...

Clownfish defend their anemone on the hull of the Lusong gunboat...

Mike, Tracy and Tan swim past the bow of the gunboat wreck...

Tracy...

A really big W-word thing about 6 feet long inhabits a bulkhead within the wreck - a regular ring clencher if ever I saw one!

Tracy drifting along the reef after we left the gunboat wreck...

Despite dynamite fishing in the past the coral reefs around Coron have recovered extremely well and are now protected...

A large fan worm within the coral...


 

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