The Dive Right crew set off on their journey to meet M/Y Blue Fin – part of the Blue O Two fleet, with a 5am early morning start to Gatwick. Sixteen hours later we arrived at Port Ghalib to board the boat, tired but excited about the week ahead.
The morning brought the usual briefing about itineries, food and general etiquette on board and with formalities finished, the boat departed for the legendary Elphinstone Reef via Abu Dabbab with the latter a small reef to undertake the usual liveaboard “check dive”. With the Dive Right crew armed with Nitrox 32, we looked forward to a long and fruitful dive which, in this instance, lasted approximately one hour :). Whilst Elphinstone Reef was nice, we all agreed that it was perhaps not as legendary as we had hoped and certainly no better than a number of reefs in the north including Thomas, Jackson, Woodhouse and Gordon on the Straits of Tiran.
After the two dives of the first day, we settled down for dinner and then a four to five hour overnight trip to St Johns which was to be one of the southern most points in our itinery. Dives on this day included Big Habili, which we dived on both the north and southern sides, together with Om Aruk and a night dive. The day gave the usual wonderful sights of Dolphins, Moray Eels, Napoleon Fish, together with one of the most outstanding sights of the trip. As usual, the Dive Right crew were the first in the water and the first member in was brushed by an Oceanic White Tip Shark. The shark was also complete with pilot fish and this was truly one of the most memorable occasions of the dive. Unfortunately, the members of the Dive Right crew had sadly failed to turn on the cameras and the moment was not recorded although we did take pictures, sadly from some distance away. To add to a fantastic day, the night dive brought the amazing yet gruesome sight of a Moray Eel catching an Orange Striped Surgeon Fish. Nature can be so beautiful yet so cruel at the same time.
Another long journey saw us reach another site called Small Gota where we again witnessed sharks, this time White Tip Reef Sharks. Perhaps one of the most spectacular dives of the holiday was in St Johns caves with the dive known as Umm Karareen. This was a nice shallow dive through a cave system with many beautiful light effects and silhouettes created internally. From there, we had another fairly extensive boat journey to another legendary site, Fury Shoals. Here we carried out two dives together with a night dive again, with nice caverns and swim throughs on many of the sites. Highlights included Box Fish, Blue Spotted Rays together with Hooded Cuttle Fish, Boxer Shrimps and Porcelain Crabs, the latter three to be found on the night dive.
The next day saw us heading north to Abu Galawa Soriyah together with another site called Shelinat. Some beautiful coral gardens were observed together with a nice small wreck of a sunken yacht. Unfortunately, one of the members of our crew was caught by a small piece of Fire Coral leading to treatment with a bottle of vinegar on board! We also observed an unusual sight on the second dive with a Titan Trigger Fish fighting with two large Groupers – needless to say the Trigger Fish appeared to win that fight. The night dive that evening had a wonderful highlight with a fantastic Spanish Dancer display which the crew of Dive Right had not witnessed before. A memorable event.
Our next day saw more extensive travelling via Elphinstone Reef which, again, failed to live up to its legendary status and instead gave us very strong cross currents where many of the divers used some 50bar in approximately two minutes!. This reef surely is legendary at times although unfortunately our two visits failed to reveal any large Pelagics – Oh well, maybe next time! The next days were spent heading north towards the end of the trip including Marsa Shounu where a wonderful sight was to see some eight to nine Peppered Morays on one small rock surrounded by Lion Fish! Once the Lion Fish had been photographed, they decided to take on an attack formation and head to other divers! Other exciting sights included a large Titan Trigger Fish building a nest which we gave a particularly wide berth to.
The final day saw two dives with perhaps one of the most moving dives on the Salem Express outside Safaga. This was a “role on, role off” ferry carrying pilgrims back from Saudi Arabia who had just visited Mecca. The official on board figures were seven hundred although many people believe that this figure could have been double. The boat went down quickly on a stormy night in view of Safaga Port with horrific loss of life, believed to be in excess of six hundred people. A number of bodies are believed to still remain in the deeper parts of the wreck and it is therefore a dive which can only be done with a degree of decorum and respect for the dead. Many of the local dive guides will not dive the wreck and penetration is forbidden. The Dive Right crew, as usual, were the first to enter the water at 6am on a sunny morning after watching a beautiful sunrise. Descending onto the wreck, which is set in thirty metres of water, was a moving experience, particularly given the circumstances of the sinking. The wreck itself is some 126m long and was an awesome sight in the early morning sun. A further dive was carried out after this, closer to Hurghada which was a very relaxed seventy minute dive followed by a short trip back to Hurghada itself.
The final night was, again, spent consuming Sakara Gold in Papas Bar, a divers haunt in the modern marina in Hurghada. The final day was spent in the Marriot Hotel curtsey of Blue O Two which helped while away the hours, particularly with the usual delays at Hurghada and then Gatwick.In conclusion, a great liveaboard trip with a great company.
