Red Sea liveaboards

Photo: Charles Hood Photo: Charles Hood Photo: Charles Hood

DIVE readers select their favourite boats from the mass of vessels that currently sail the Red Sea. Interviews by Kate Quarry. Photographs by Charles Hood.


All in a week - Pat Morrissey

Pat Morrissey, 49, used to be in the building trade, but is now a writer with a doctorate in medieval Spanish. He lives in the St Paul’s area of London and is currently writing a novel set in the Middle Ages. He learned to dive in 1990, and has two sons, Colum, 23, and Dan, 21, both of whom are divers. His most recent Red Sea holiday was in October 2001 and booked through Diving World, on the Sea Serpent liveaboard.

My one-week trip on the Sea Serpent was the second holiday I’ve had with Diving World. I’ve been on a lot of liveaboards, and to the Red Sea about a dozen times, but the Sea Serpent – a brand new boat – was the most luxurious I’ve ever seen. In terms of pure physical comfort, it has all you want. The cabins were like being in a five-star hotel: each had its own little fridge, which was useful for keeping film cool, and the other thing I liked – a silly, thing, really – was that every day when the cabins were cleaned, they folded the toilet paper into a point, just like in a hotel! Blue towelling robes with the boat’s logo were provided, which everyone wore at breakfast.

When I started visiting the Red Sea in the 1990s, liveaboard food was generally regarded as a bit ‘iffy’, although I never had a problem with it. However, on the Sea Serpent the food was excellent, with three meals a day plus snacks. There was always a big tin of biscuits open, with tea and coffee, and even someone to make hot drinks for you most of the time. I usually eat only one big meal a day, so although it was tempting to eat all the food they provided, after the first day on the boat I had to cut back! The Sea Serpent has a large dive deck with room to pull up the two RIBs when we were travelling, and the dive leader, Mohammed, made a point of giving us a general safety briefing before our first dive. He not only showed us where the oxygen was kept, but also showed us how it worked.

The difference between the Sea Serpent and a ‘normal’ liveaboard is like the difference between a microwave oven and a conventional oven: the microwave cooks something in ten minutes that a normal oven takes an hour to cook. In the same way, the Sea Serpent does all the best sites in a week, as it has a licence to travel at night, which makes all the difference. We started in Hurghada, with a check-out dive at Abu Ramana. We then dived Panorama Reef, and on the second day were at the Brothers, followed by Daedalus, Dolphin and Elphinstone Reefs and returning to the Brothers before heading back to Hurghada at the end of the week.

One dive in particular stands out. It was at the Brothers, where there is a lot of current which attracts larger animals. I turned around to see this couple, who’d only recently learned to dive, right next to the biggest manta – my favourite animal – I’ve ever seen. They obviously thought that every dive was going to be like that! I also saw pipefish, Spanish dancers, turtles and blue-spotted rays; and others in the group saw dolphins at Dolphin Reef, but I missed them. We saw sharks on at least half of the sites: on one dive at Little Brother I saw a thresher shark, three hammerheads and six white-tips.


Wreck safari - Jane Heaton

Jane Heaton, 48, lives in North Hykeham, near Lincoln, and is a social work practice supervisor. Jane learned to dive in 1997 on one of the first BSAC ocean diver courses with her partner, Andy, and is now a BSAC advanced diver. Andy and Jane have been on six Red Sea liveaboards, including most recently the
Cyclone, on a trip booked through Tony Backhurst Scuba Travel.

Our trip on the Cyclone was the fifth we’ve booked with Tony Backhurst, and was the fourth time we’ve done a northern itinerary. We went in November 2001, and it was essentially a wreck safari. As we’ve done a wreck tour before, there were some repeat dives, but we were also able to visit sites that we hadn’t seen before – for example, last time we weren’t able to do the Rosalie Moller, because conditions were too bad, but this time we did two dives there. The Rosalie Moller is quite deep – our two dives were at 45 and 38m – and because of that there isn’t a lot of light down there. The wreck is not spoiled, and is swarming with glassfish. We watched huge tuna and jacks coming down for the glassfish, and there were dozens of lionfish as well.

The Cyclone also went further up the Strait of Tiran than we’d been before, to the wreck of the Million Hope, which is new and has only been there since the Nineties, so doesn’t have a lot of life on it. The Cyclone is very sleek-looking and comfortable. I was very impressed with the water pressure in the showers – you could definitely have a good shower, unlike some other boats I’ve been on! I also liked the fact that the bunks are side by side rather than one on top of the other.

There were 20 guests on the boat, as well as Tony Backhurst and the photographer Peter Collings, but the saloon was able to seat us all comfortably at two tables. The crew was great, particularly the skipper, who took any rough water very well, and the food was excellent – with plenty of it. With so many of us and the two Egyptian dive guides, the two-level dive deck did seem a bit busy, but since our trip, the boat’s owners have made adjustments to improve things in that department. Peter Collings, who has a particular interest in wrecks, did very detailed briefings for all of the wreck dives. In the four years since we’ve learned to dive, we have dived quite intensively, so I had a little celebration for my 200th dive on board the Cyclone.

We’ve been on trips to the Sound of Mull, the Normandy wrecks, the Farnes, St Abbs and the South Coast, as well as the Caribbean and Lanzarote, but we keep coming back to the Red Sea, as it’s close and the diving’s so colourful. We’ve recently bought an underwater videography system, so tend to look for smaller things to video, while keeping an eye out for anything large. The Cyclone has two RIBs, which were used for most dives, although sometimes we simply jumped off the back of the boat. There was a huge variety of coral and life, and some of the bigger things we saw included a leopard shark, a white-tip reef shark, and the biggest titan triggerfish I’ve ever seen. There were also very large morays. The Cyclone is probably the nicest boat we’ve been on, and we wouldn’t hesitate to go on it again.


Floating hotel - Napoleon Maciejewski

Napoleon Maciejewski, known as Mac, is 26 and lives in Battersea, London, where he has worked since March 2001 as chief instructor for Diving Leisure, a dive store and training centre. A former soldier, care-home administrator and security guard, Mac learned to dive four years ago. Through Goldenjoy he organised a trip to the Red Sea on the Tiger Lily for 16 people in August 2001.

My first experience of warm-water diving was in the Red Sea, on a land-based trip, which my boss and I organised for 40 people at the Red Sea College in Sharm. This time we decided to go on a liveaboard for a week, which included six days’ diving and the final day at the Hotel Intercontinental in Hurghada. The 16 people on this trip were mainly friends, a few of them doing diving courses while we were away. Going on the Tiger Lily was an amazing experience.

It’s a steel-hulled boat that’s like a floating hotel – all the cabins are ensuite, with their own fridges and TVs. The main saloon is bigger than my flat, with a great sound system, and we’d have the Red Hot Chili Peppers blaring out while we were getting kitted up. The food was amazing: there were two proper chefs, one who used to work in a five-star hotel, and the other a pastry chef, who made fantastic little nibbles to have after dives. All the soft drinks were included in the price, except for tonic, and most people had brought their own gin or – my favourite – Jack Daniels, although beer was served on the boat. The crew was great, and made you feel really welcome, especially Mahmoud, the dive guide, who is built like Arnold Schwarzenegger. He’d challenge people to arm wrestling, and practically broke an arm each time!

Underwater, we saw everything. On one dive on the Thistlegorm I was at the bow doing a Leonardo di Caprio, looked down and saw two grey reef sharks. On my second dive there, a turtle that wasn’t looking where it was going swam straight into me. We dived the Dunraven, the Giannis D, the Carnatic, the Chrisoula K and the Sarah H on Shag Rock. On one dive near Shag Rock with a stonking current – I don’t even drive as fast as that drift – we saw turtles, and surfaced to find dolphins. We put our scuba gear on the boat and got back in to swim with the dolphins. The next morning the dolphins were there again, swimming around us so close that I could have touched one.

The whole thing was awesome. Late one night I was sitting in the wheelhouse with the captain, trying to learn Arabic, when I heard the whole crew singing and drumming on the sundeck. All the guests were in bed at this point, but I knew they’d want to hear it, so I asked the crew to play for us another night.



Sharks at Sharm - Alan Larsen

Alan Larsen, 45, is an accountant who used to be the financial director of an advertising agency but is currently between jobs. He learned to dive three years ago in the Maldives, and visited the Red Sea over New Year 2002 aboard the Juliet, on a trip arranged by Oonasdivers.

The Juliet was the first liveaboard I’d been on, and I chose Oonasdivers partly because they had availability – the trip was booked at the last minute – and partly because their brochure was the most professional looking, which appealed, as I work in the marketing area myself. The trip was out of Sharm, which I had visited a couple of years ago on a land-based trip, so some dives were repeated. However, as one’s experience gets greater, one notices more on dives, so repeating them didn’t matter. The boat was comfortable, although the cabins are cramped, which is true on any liveaboard.

As the Juliet takes 16 guests and there were only eight of us, we had a cabin each. The living areas and decks seemed large enough, and the food was good – surprisingly, since the galley was the size of most people’s downstairs loo. The boat didn’t stock alcohol, but we took our own and had a little party on New Year’s Eve. Generally, though, I didn’t feel like drinking much, what with doing three dives a day. Underwater, the visibility varied from site to site, but on a day when the visibility wasn’t particularly good I saw my first shark, 15m away.

The dives that really stick out in my memory are the Thistlegorm, Ras Mohammed and a couple in the Strait of Tiran. The Thistlegorm impressed me hugely. There was a very strong current, and our 7.30am dive was on the stern, the deep part, and the 11.30 on the bow, by which time there were quite a lot of people on it, as the dayboats had arrived. Diving the wreck was like going through a time capsule, and words fail me when I try to describe it to people who’ve never been there. I did remember Ras Mohammed from my first Red Sea holiday, and on my second dive there I turned a corner to see great shoals of jacks and barracuda, and found a huge gorgonian with a turtle. By Yolanda Reef we watched a large resident Napoleon wrasse feeding, but we were really fighting the current at the time. The North Lagoon in the Strait of Tiran was just fantastic, like a giant vegetable garden, with very colourful corals.

Unlike the Maldives, you don’t need to go deep in the Red Sea to see fantastic corals. I didn’t do any night dives, as the thought of putting my still-wet wetsuit on in the dark in the cooling wind wasn’t very appealing. I had been slightly apprehensive at the thought of going on my own, wondering if the boat and the diving were going to be any good, and I was worried that I wouldn’t get into the experience.

However, the dive guide, Alex, was very good and was already known quite well by the crowd on the boat. I also learned a lot from the others on the trip, who were very keen to share their knowledge and enthusiasm. I’m completely sold on the whole idea of liveaboard diving, as it takes almost all the effort out of diving. It may seem expensive, but in fact it’s not, because one forgets how much the diving actually costs on a shore-based diving holiday. In the past I’ve paid for the holiday, but not paid for the diving until the end, when the price can come as a bit of a surprise.


Built to last - Trevor Jenkins

Trevor Jenkins is 54 and lives in Ilford, Essex. Hespent 30 years in banking and is now a qualified videographer, with his own underwater videography business, All dive Video Productions.

He learned to dive in his early twenties, but ‘marriage, mortgage, career and children’ all intervened, until he started diving again in the early Nineties. He met his partner, Christine, on a Red Sea liveaboard, and always books his Red Sea trips through Red Sea Divers. Christine and I go out to the Red Sea three or four times a year. It’s our favourite haunt: only five hours away by plane, good marine life – in fact, everything you want, at a good price. We’ve been to the Maldives and Florida, but you have to go a long way to beat the Red Sea. Our last trip was in September 2001, on the Valerie, and we’re going on the same boat again in February 2002.

The Valerie is a fairly new boat, and was launched early last year. It is fully air-conditioned and takes 16 passengers. The thing about the Valerie as opposed to many other boats in the Red Sea is the immaculate craftsmanship that has been used to put the boat together. While Egyptian joinery skills on other boats may not be the best, and some look rather thrown together, the Valerie is immaculately designed and maintained, beautifully managed, and has an excellent crew. Simply going on a new boat won’t guarantee you a great trip – it also depends on the crew. With a good crew you can forgive a bad boat and have fun. On the Valerie the dive guide, Amro, is also part- owner of the boat, and takes the maintenance of the vessel very seriously, so that preventative maintenance is the order of the day instead of, when it’s broken, mend it.

We picked up the boat at Marsa Alam and went south, although not as far as St John’s. We then travelled up to Hurghada, diving all the way. The Valerie is one of the few liveaboards that sails right through the night, as its navigation equipment actually works. Sailing into a headwind at night was very bumpy, as the bunks dropped two feet down and then we’d land back into them, but we did see the funny side. I’ve dived the Thistlegorm more than 30 times, but dives are never the same twice and the quality of the dive is partly down to the dive guide. Amro on the Valerie must be the best in the Red Sea. His briefings were superb, with a full-colour map drawn afresh each time, and he dived 99 per cent of the dives, including night dives. Christine and I always tried to tag along with him, as we knew he’d point out things we’d otherwise miss.

Where other boats might put you on the local refuse tip for a night dive, with plastic bottles and all sorts of rubbish, Amro always chose good night-dive sites. On night dives I’m after Spanish dancers, and I was finding three or four a night. There were also a lot of lionfish, who’d use my torch beam to find sprats and shrimps to eat. It wasn’t just the lionfish that ate well: the Valerie’s food was astounding. It was very good all week, and then on the last night we had fillet steak, which is a bit outrageous for a Red Sea liveaboard! Now we’ll only ever go diving in the Red Sea on the Valerie – anything else would be second best.


Dolphin deluge - Max James

Max James, 47, lives in West London, and is a journalist. He qualified as a diver in 1992, and has visited the Red Sea more than a dozen times, often using liveaboards. Last summer he visited the Red Sea aboard the Virginia liveaboard.

The Virginia is one of the new generation of Egyptian liveaboards – quite spacious, well-built and perfect for exploring the wrecks of the northern Red Sea. She also has one of the few English skippers left in the area – Kelvin Deacon, a former fisherman from Barnstaple in Devon. The boat specialises in the classic tour of the northern wrecks – the Thistlegorm, the Carnatic, the Giannis D and if the weather and tides are right, will also get you to theRosalie Moller and other lesser known, but equally exciting sites. Kelvin knows what British wreck divers want and has a nice line in sardonic humour to keep everyone in line. His is a class act and he knows the waters inside out.

We hit appalling weather at the Rosalie Moller and lost a RIB, which we had to dump at Hurghada before a monster 12-hour journey back to Sharm. All through the white-knuckle ride home, Kelvin clung on to the bridge cracking jokes. He made the whole thing seem fun. Although it was in the middle of the season, we rarely arrived on a wreck with another dive boat in view, except, of course, the ever-popular Thistlegorm, but even then Kelvin timed it right and we escaped the worst of the crowds. The Rosalie Moller is being touted as the next Thistlegorm as it is a big, fairly deep wreck with lots to see. However, it rarely has great visibility and the currents can be even more demanding than those on the Thistlegorm. Get it on a good day and it is a fabulous dive bristling with fish, and sits intact and exactly upright at 50m to the sea bed with lots to see around the 30–35m mark. Kelvin has been diving the northern Red Sea for more than six years, knows the stories of the wrecks and has plenty of tips on how to get the best out of every dive.

The Virginia also has a good library of reference material and uses very experienced dive guides from Camel Divers in Sharm. We struck lucky while diving the Giannis D and spent 45 minutes diving with four incredibly curious bottlenose dolphins – the dive of a lifetime. They wouldn’t leave us alone and had no fear of our bubbles. The twin cabins are quite roomy as the showers and loos are not crushed en-suite – a set-up I much prefer. You might have to walk two paces to a separate cabin to find the shower, but you get a far bigger sleeping space and the shower is less cramped. The saloon is vast and the top deck comfortable, with plenty of shade. The dive deck can easily accommodate between ten and 12 divers. The food is well above average for most hotels and arrives in vast amounts. All in all the Virginia is a great boat, with a skipper who can make the most out of difficult circumstances and who knows the wrecks of the Red Sea extremely well.