First
day diving will be on two local sites between
Ras Nasrani and
Ras Katy.These
sites have slight reef slopes and are much better to acclimatize
to the area than the extremes of the area, which have a potential
for strong currents and very deep water. The whole mainland area is of uplifted coral;
all sites are close to shore as the coral starts at the waters edge.
This means the shore reef extends 10-30m out at about 1m depth.
The
reef then drops vertically creating the typical walls of the
area. These drop offs range from 10-800m. Care needs to be
taken in crossing the reef if diving by shore and control
of depth is needed during the dive. With very deep water the
possibility of strong currents is present. These can occur
at any headland called "Ras" in Arabic,
Ras Mohammed
being a very good example of this. The narrowing of the Gulf of Aquaba
at the site of Tiran Island creates a funnel effect and is
prone to strong currents caused by tidal action.
