scuba girl

Trip Report - Red Sea Deep South

This was my fourth trip to the Red Sea as a solo female traveler, and I had a fabulous time

In summary I booked this very last minute (because my office messed me about) and this was the only boat that had space for me - Tony Backhurst was completely full so I ended up going on an Emperor Diver boat ….. never again!!!
The boat was clean (apart from the bathrooms which were shared), comfortable, not nearly enough space for twenty people to sit/ sunbathe
The cabins were bunks and as basic as it gets
Food was good and lots of it
Only beer and soft drinks – no spirits – which didn’t bother me
Tanks were not always filled ready for the next dive
I would much rather have traveled on Excel – there was absolutely no comparison
Next time will always go for a boat with en-suit bathrooms – the shower only trickled and the loos were broken and held together with tape
l’m diving on Hurricane in three weeks and can’t wait

My buddy was fantastic – we were so perfectly matched
She turned out to be a grandmother who was also a BSAC Instructor – must have been close to twice my age
She was great I was really very very lucky to dive with her
The diving was perfect
Enough walls to keep our hearts racing, our minds interested and our eyes peels on the look out for sharks
Enough coral gardens to relax among and wonder at the beauty of the underwater world
My favourite sites were St John’s Caves and Shaab Maksour - Fury Shoal
Although Shaab Maksour is not as good as Elphinstone or Daedelous

The tour guilds on the liveaboard were completely different to Grant and Sonia on Excel and not my kind of people at all
I was treated like I was on an 18-30 holiday and was made fun of by one of them for the first four whole days
I just ignored him and he eventually stopped – no idea why he chose to pick on me
He had none or very little input on the trip, he got lost three times and had total disregard for the inexperienced diver that he was accompanying as he went off and did his thing
For those of you who have traveled with Grant and Sonia will know exactly what I mean
The other guide gave the best dive briefings possible

October 24th
o Departed Gatwick only one hour late
o Found tour rep eventually
He decided to stand outside the building when all the others were inside
- l later found that this was because Regal representatives were not allowed in the terminal building and that it had clearly stated this in the orientation documentation
- which it was
o We were taken to a hotel in the town for one night – don’t understand why this was
- Southern Red Sea trips with Hurghada fights, as far as I know leave the same night without a hotel stay
o Left the hotel later than when we were supposed to
o Stopped at the Hilton to pick up kit for those who did not have full set of gear
Why wasn’t this done last night
- it just delayed our journey even more
o Checked on board the liveaboard (Hamada) at 3.30pm, even though the itinerary specified 12pm
- we had an 8 hour journey in a tiny mini bus !
- this bus was not large enough for 20 adults plus all their gear
- some of the bags were on the roof and some inside the bus
- no chance to stretch your legs and only one bathroom break the whole way

o 1st dive was a check out dive\ night dive! at Sataya – Fury Shoal
o 27 degrees, max depth 15 meters for 79 minutes
o Drop in from the boat and returned to the boat
o Weight check in the dark
- and gave me the chance to find out more about the others on the boat
- there were people with less than 50 dives and were unexperienced on reefs and night diving
- one lady only had 18 dives, others had never used DSMBs, others were allowed to dive without computers
o Spotted wray, sea snake, pipe fish - no Spanish Dancers this time
o There was supposed to be a sunken fishing boat nearby, but no-one found it
o on our way back to the boat I noticed that Excel was moored along side up
- I dumped my stuff jumped straight back into the water and swam over
- I traveled on Excel two months ago – excellent boat, I really missed Grant with his video camera and Sonia’s happy smiling face and the sweetest accent to wake up to

October 26th
o First dive at Habili Ali – St Johns
o Steep wall and a plateau on the east wall at 30 meters
o 30 degrees, max depth 34 meters for 68 minutes
o Drop in from rib, return to boat
o 3 grey reef sharks, 2 white tip sharks, giant moray, barracuda, lion fish, trigger fish, napoleon
o Hard coral, gorgonion fans, little soft coral

o Second dive at Habili Ali – St Johns
o 30 degrees, max depth 30 meters for 71 minutes
o Drop in from boat, return to boat
o 1 white tip, turtle (seen by buddy), barracuda, trigger fish, napoleon

o Third dive at Abu Basal – St Johns
o 29 degrees, max depth 19 meters for 81 minutes
o 1 grey reef shark, porcupine fish, napoleon, spotted wrays, lion fish, trumpet fish
o Caves and swim thru on the reef, lots of hard coral formations
o Pinnacles - not much there, hard coral, very little soft coral, therefore little fish life
o Barron sandy bottom between the reef and the pinnacles

o Fourth dive - night dive Abu Basal – St Johns
o 29 degrees, max depth 16 meters for 41 minutes
o Drop in from boat, return to boat
o Free swimming giant moray, burrfish, banded boxer shrimp, spotted wray, pearl sea star

October 27th
o First dive at Habili Gafa – St Johns
o 29 degrees, max depth 35 meters for 60 minutes
o Drop in from rib, return to boat - went round one and a half times - clockwise
o Strong current at first turn then dropped to nothing
o 50 meters in diameter - small erg
o Plateau at 30 meters
o 3 reef sharks, moray, free swimming moray, manta (seen by some divers), trumpet, schools of barracuda, lion fish
o Hard coral, colourful soft coral, teaming with marine life - really nice

o Second dive at Umm Aruk – St Johns
o 29 degrees, max depth 24 meters for 81 minutes
o Drop in from boat, return to boat
o Bighorn nembrotha-sea slug, arabian box fish, lion fish, baraccuda
o Small reef, pinnacles, sandy sea bed at 25 meters
o Hard coral, some soft coral, not as much soft coal as Habili Gafa - only minutes away but not as nice - should have gone back to Habili Gafa

o Third dive at Umm Aruk (Umeroog) – St Johns
o 29 degrees, max depth 30 meters for 66 minutes
o Nothing significant, giant moray, bumphead parrot fish

o Fourth dive (night dive) at Umm Aruk – St Johns
o 29 degrees max depth 25 meters for 33 minutes
o Spanish dancer, spotted wrays

October 28th
o First dive at Gota Soraya – St Johns
o 29 degrees, max depth 44 meters for 70 minutes
o Conditions were very rough - took ages to moor, Suzanna 1 cut our mooring lines - start over - waited for ages to get in, so many other boats at this site - did not bother us once we got in
o White tip sharks, lion fish, spotted wray

o Second dive at St John’s Caves – St Johns
o 29 degrees, max depth 19 meters for 105 minutes
o The most amazing swim throughs and tunnels openning out into caverns
o South side has a lagoon with a perimeter of pinnacles
o Tunnel entrances are via the logoon and from the west side
o North has no tunnel entrances and is covered in hard coral
o Network pipe fish, pyjama brownish coral crab, napoleon
o Third dive at St John’s Caves – St Johns
o 29 degrees max depth 19 meters for 76 minutes
o Drop in from boat, return to boat
o Network of tunnels, caves, caverns
o Came face to face (literally) with a white tip shark in one of the tunnels, network pipe fish, pyjama brownish coral crab, napoleon, arabian box fish, ruppells wart slug

October 29th
o First dive at Abu Diab - Fury Shoal
o 28 degrees, max depth 41 meters for 61 minutes
o Five white tip sharks, one grey reef shark
o Not much soft coral, marine life only toward the end of the dive on the west side, south side has pinnacles and shingle of dead coral

o Second dive at Malahi (Heaven) (Maze/ Laberinth) - Fury Shoal
o 27 degrees max depth 22 meters for 84 minutes
o Not at all like St John’s Caves, few swim throughs and overhangs
o Four main pinnacles joined in places to make the areas between the pinnacles 6-8 meters deep
o Smaller pinnacles around the outside
o Slug, lndian tube worm
o There is a family of white tips living in one of the caves (we were told) but did not see any on this dive

o Third dive at Malahi (Heaven) (Maze/ Laberinth) - Fury Shoal
o 27 degrees, max depth 22 meters for 79 minutes

o Fourth dive at Abu Galawa (Father of Pools) - Fury Shoal
o 27 degrees, max depth 15 meters for 28 minutes
o Tug boat on the west side contains schools of glass fish and shows the early years of soft coral growth
o This tug boat allowed us to do some wreck penetration - if it can be called that ?!

October 30th
o First dive at Shaab Maksour - Fury Shoal
o 27 degrees, max depth 33 meters for 62 minutes
o Two turtles, grey reef shark
o Strong up current on drop so quickly decended to 33 meters
o Two of the group from the rib were swept up over the top of the reef and we later found that their dive ended before it had begun
o The sea was so rough that we wondered if we would actually make it to the correct drop off point - it was quite some distance from the liveaboard
o Dropped in at the north, negative entry from rib and travelled down the east side
o Long thin reef, similar to Elphinestone
o Current too strong on west side so travelled along east
o South side plateau with pinnacles, dead coral shingles, therefore very little marine life
o North side soft coral, marine life

o Second dive at Abu Galawa Soraya (Small Father of Pools) - Fury Shoal
o 27 degrees, max depth 17 meters for 80 minutes
o Zodiac drop at the entrance to the gully, swam past it at first then backtracked to find it - not so easy to spot
o Sandy bottom within the gully, amazing architecture of hard coral - rather like Heaven, only better - stunning
o On the west side is the wreck of a small boat, another opportunity for some wreck penetration much to the amazement of the onlooking German divers
o This wreck also contained a school of glass fish and had very little coral growth
o The area under which the liveaboard was mored was littered with dicarded rubbish - bottles, batteries, an ashtray

October 31st, 2007 Posted by scubagirl | Red Sea Deep South October | 2 comments