Red Sea Wrecks - diving trip

Wisnu

Well-Known Member
Charter Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2016
Messages
839
We recently joined the Get Wrecked red-sea liveaboard trip Emperor Superior. Here - short report and few pictures as usual.
Understood this forum is about expat community in Indonesia. I'm not Indo expat - just a TKI and this thread is not about Indonesia. Seem no restriction in the term and rule of this forum to post this type of thread.
Anyway, mr mods can always remove this thread

The Boat
The Emperor Superior is a typical red sea liveaboard, very well designed boat for diving, very affordable and best value boat.
She can accommodate up to 20 divers; total 17 divers in our trip.
Comfortable cabins with shower delivering warm water with more than enough pressure, very relaxing space on the decks and a spacious dining room with 3 large tables. Unfortunately no camera room.
I'm jealous when comparing the red sea liveaboard with the typical liveaboard in Indonesia. Most of liveaboard in indonesia is wooden Phinisi schooner - many of them are not designed for scuba diving and or not seaworthy. Good liveaboard in Indonesia will cost your arms and legs.
For a week trips, 22 dives, all inclusive, we paid less than Euro 1000 / pax only. I don't think for the same duration and similar boat in Indonesia you'll get less than Euro 2500.

The food was great for a liveaboard - the chef was really amazing - good mixing of Western and very tasty Egyptian cuisine. Local red wine is inclusive on every diner- not Chateau Margaux but nobody complain. Beer and better quality wine are also available at reasonable cost.
Tea and Nescafe instant coffee is also inclusive but you have to pay small extra cost for a cup of proper coffee.

Main deck with large dive deck is located on rear of ship. Every diver gets a basket with number (cabin number) on it to place your equipment and a 12l tank which will be refilled immediately after every dive. Nitrox is included; vary 28 - 32% and 25% in one occasion due to some problem on their Nitrox system.

There is a shower head / rinse station and two toilets at dive deck. There is space to hang your clothes to dry as well as clothespins all along the main deck. On the upper deck is more seating, loungers & bean bags.

All crew did outstanding job, they always ready to help you - even before you ask. They do expect your tip. At the end of the trip, you'll get an envelope and encourage to tip a certain amount of money in Euro.

The Diving
Before every dive we were given a dive briefing by one of the two (2) dive guides - very good briefing. They were not always accompany us in the water. Not a big deal since most of us are experienced divers; and many of us prefer to dive with buddy unguided.
For those who are accustomized to diving guide service in Indonesia will be disaapointed. If accompanied by dive guide, they will guide you underwater but not very good to show you the nice spots or subject.
The boat is equipped with two zodiacs to bring us to the dive sites precisely for particular dive sites. Mostly we jump from the boat.

Total we had 22 dives in 6 diving days. On the first and last night, the boat moored at Hurghada new Marina - sailed up on the next day morning and return to Marina a day before check-out day.
Day 1, 3 dives : Check dive at Gota Abu Hamada (just okay), Salem Express and night diving at middle reef (very quiet, not much to see).
Day 2, 4 dives: Giannis, Carnatic, Chrisoula (love all these three wreck) and night diving at Shaab Mahmoud Beacon Rock (just slightly better than first day night diving). So far I'm not very happy with the night divings.
Day 3, 4 dives: Dunraven, Thistlegorm (3 x incl. night dive with very strong current)
Day 4, 4 dives: Thistlegorm, Kingston, Ulysses and night dive at the Barge (this one is my favorite night dive in Egypt so far).
Day 5, 4 dives: Rosalie Moller (2x, very deep, poor visibility, not very productive for photography), Poseidon Garden reef Shaab El Erg (sorry, boring site) and night dive at Dolphin House (not much to see)
ay 6, 3 dives: Dolphin House (very short sighting with 5 dolphins, no chance to take pics), El-Miniya (mine sweeper boat) and a Fishing boat at Hurghada port (nice wreck with amazing color of soft corals).
My favorite wrecks are Giannis, Carnatic, Chrisoula, El-Miniya and the Fishing boat.

Most of dives had no to mild currents except at Thistlegorm where we experienced strong current during the night dive. The visibilities at Thistlegorm on all 4 divings were poor, lot of particles.

Here few pics from this trip.

Chrisoula-6090993.jpg by Wisnu Purwanto, on Flickr

Carnatic-6090825.jpg by Wisnu Purwanto, on Flickr

Giannis D-6090610.jpg by Wisnu Purwanto, on Flickr

Thistlegorm-6101242.jpg by Wisnu Purwanto, on Flickr

Moray eel at the Barge-6121670.jpg by Wisnu Purwanto, on Flickr

Hurghada Fishing boat-6132127.jpg by Wisnu Purwanto, on Flickr

More pics can be seen here

https://flic.kr/s/aHsmEqDMFZ

I will add more pics to this album.
No big boys on this trip.
Tommorow, we'll be joining another red sea liveaboard to the south, start from Marsa Alam, to visit St. John reefs and Elphisntone - hope to see the big boys - oceanic white tips and hammerhead sharks.
 
.
Beautiful.

I thought it made more sense to do the Thislegorm (with the motorbikes) from Sharm el Sheik?

we paid less than Euro 1000 / pax only

All inclusive? Good price then. Guess you brought all your gear?

Local red wine is inclusive on every diner- not Chateau Margaux but nobody complain.

As long as it's not Château Migraine...
.
 
.
Beautiful.

I thought it made more sense to do the Thislegorm (with the motorbikes) from Sharm el Sheik?



All inclusive? Good price then. Guess you brought all your gear?



As long as it's not Château Migraine...
.

Thanks Jstar
Indeed, most of day boat to Thistlegorm depart from sharm El sheik. But for liveboard, most boat for classic red sea routes start from Hurghada. Less liveaboard from sharm.
For us, hurghada is more convenient, only 4.5 hours drive from Cairo.

Yes, we bring our own gear.
Red sea liveaboard is much cheaper than Komodo or R4.

Sure not Chateau migraine, we always wake up fresh in the morning and ready for 6:30 diving.
I think better than hatten or sababay
 
Wow! Terrific pics.

As to posting the non-Indonesian-expat-specific stuff, why not? This is a varied group of people who have one thing in common: some kind of connection to Indonesia. That's a basis for our community, not a limitation. We can talk (and share photos) about almost anything.*

*Like, here's my cat:
 
Good liveaboard in Indonesia will cost your arms and legs.


Do you know why this is? I have found diving in Indonesia more expensive than many other places.

Great photos. What camera/filter are you using?
 
Wow! Terrific pics.

As to posting the non-Indonesian-expat-specific stuff, why not? This is a varied group of people who have one thing in common: some kind of connection to Indonesia. That's a basis for our community, not a limitation. We can talk (and share photos) about almost anything.*

*Like, here's my cat:

Thanks Puspa,
And the cat, remind me with Mercy - my daughter's cat when we lived in Brunei. Unfortunately could not / very difficult to bring to Kazakhstan. So, we let our friend in brunei to keep him.
My daughter was very upset when we visited Brunei again 3 years later, mercy does not recognize her at all.
 
Do you know why this is? I have found diving in Indonesia more expensive than many other places.

Great photos. What camera/filter are you using?

My friend told me that the cost (particularly import boat) and maintenance of boat is expensive, plus lot of permits, and then fuel cost.
Most of liveaboard in indonesia is wooden Pinisi schooner, local made, less expensive and (not sure if true) more attractive to western market than steel boat.

For the pics, I use Olympus OMD em-1 with Nauticam housing, plus 2 Sea n Sea D1 strobe.
Lens Panasonic 7-14 mm for WA or m. Zuiko 60 mm macro.

Here is
1107
 
update,
we did another red sea liveaboard trip a month later, to the St. John reef, deep south, near border of Sudan. This trip is not about wreck. More about corals, walls, cave, cavern and big fishes at the Elphinstone.
The boat started from Port Ghalib, Marsa Alam, 720 km South of Cairo. This time we used Golden Dolphin II, another nice red sea boat.
Unfortunately, the water was very warm at that time, 30 - 31C, most of big boys went for holidays, We did two dives in Elphinstone but no oceanic white tips. we only saw gimps of sharks far in the deep and napoleon wrasses at other location.
I'll not go into detail, but let me know if you want specific information.
And here few pics from this trip.

Shaab Claudia-7230925.jpg by Wisnu Purwanto, on Flickr

Sataya south-7230827.jpg by Wisnu Purwanto, on Flickr

Shaab Claudia-7230930.jpg by Wisnu Purwanto, on Flickr

Abu Ghalawa Soghayr-7230988.jpg by Wisnu Purwanto, on Flickr

Bearded lionfish shaab maksour-7200134.jpg by Wisnu Purwanto, on Flickr

Umm Chararim-7220607.jpg by Wisnu Purwanto, on Flickr

Gotta Kebira-7200218.jpg by Wisnu Purwanto, on Flickr

Umm Chararim-7220662.jpg by Wisnu Purwanto, on Flickr

liveaboards at Red sea -1010123.jpg by Wisnu Purwanto, on Flickr
 

Users who viewed this discussion (Total:0)

Follow Us

Latest Expat Indo Articles

Latest Tweets by Expat Indo

Latest Activity

New posts Latest threads

Online Now

Newest Members

Forum Statistics

Threads
5,966
Messages
97,385
Members
3,035
Latest member
Les 819
Back
Top Bottom