Advice for single diver planning a liveaboard on the Red Sea in December

[Donaldreid]

Hi everyone

I am would like to do a liveaboard on the Red Sea in late December for about a week. I have 22 dives and have completed my advanced open water. I am a 33 year old male and will be traveling alone. Can anyone make any recommendations on: The best liveaboard to look at as a single diver; which part of the red sea is best to dive at that time of year and with my experience? I am particularly interested in wrecks and big game fish. Any tips and pointers will be most useful.

Donald

 

[ElChe]

Hi, I recently collected my advices on Red Sea liveaboards here, but I share some of my experiences. If you're interested in wrecks, choose the northern route from Hurghada, you'll see the Thistlegorm, the Salem Express, the Dunraven, the Giannis D, etc. And most of these trips visit the Ras Mohammed national park too where you have the chance to see pelagic animals. In december you can expect 23-24 Celsius degrees water in the north and a bit warmer in the south. Contact some liveaboard organizers (here is one and another who I trust) and ask them about the prices, routes and possible groups to know if you want to join or not. With your experience maybe the real open water reefs like Brother islands aren't the ideal choice, I'd suggest northern route or southern routes from Marsa Alam.

 

[Crowley]

South is probably best - contact Samaka for the safaris that his company offers.

December is late in the year but there should still be some oceanic white tips hanging about, and I believe they run a "wrecks and reefs" type safari out of Hurghada

Cheers

C.

 

[Red Sea Shadow]

The minimum requirements for some areas (called marine parks) in the southern Egyptian Red Sea is 50+ logged dives. For the northern itinerary, a lot of operators required 30+ logged dives. On the other hand, mini-safaris (3 or 4 days) normally require only 15+ logged dives. AOW is good enough for any of these.

 

[TSandM]

As mentioned, the northern itinerary has a lot of good wrecks. I don't know about that time of year, but both times we've gone (September and October) we have encountered some high winds and some rough surface water conditions, and some current. I'd say it's a good idea to be comfortable with getting out of your gear in the water (required for reboarding the RIBs) and for handling a boat ladder in rough water.

We did both of our trips on the MV Tala (Red Sea Explorers) and loved the boat and crew, but we did both trips with a group. I don't know how they handle single divers.

 

[ocdiver1]

Hey Donald...it sounds like this is your first liveaboard so I thought I'd address the single diver thing. Any liveaboard should take a single booking, and would match you up with a same sex roommate or give you your own room if a roommate doesn't turn out. I've almost always travelled solo on liveaboards and never had a problem, and you'll probably find at least one other person also going by themselves.

 

[DeepGeek]

I can echo ocdiver1 - I've done plenty of liveaboards in Egypt as a single, it's dead easy, they just put you in a cabin with another guy or on your own. The guides will help match you with a suitable buddy. Being easy-going and chilled will help on both fronts. Personally I found it a very relaxing way to get a last minute holiday when no one else's schedule was free, you get to be social and meet people and dive!

 

[Donaldreid]

Thanks for all the replies, sounds like great advice on all fronts. On the water temp issue I am assuming going earlier in the year would be better. If I decide to only do Red Sea next year, any suggestions on where on the globe would be good to go in Dec? I did Thailand last december which was amazing! That way I could ratchet up more dives to meet the minimum number of dives required for Brothers. As you can tell I am relatively new to this but totally hooked!

 

[samaka]

Hey there Donald! I have had a few South Africans on the boat with me lately and I have to say that I have had a great time with them. Also I can honestly say that even with not so many dives they all seem to be good divers. Probably good training down there. For the offshore marine parks the requirement is 50 logged dive or AOW (or similar level exceeding entry level). There are itineraries that suits inexperienced divers better than sheer walls in ripping currents in the marine park and Northern Wrecks and Reefs is a good example. You can also chose St. John's and Borderlands are two others. December can be windy but you never know, you can also get a week with completely flat sea. If you're interested in what happens in what area at what time of year you can check out my Red Sea Info Website where you find a page with details of the yearly cycle in the Red Sea RED SEA YEAR - TIME TABLE and if you want to read about the itinerary earlier mentioned called "Borderlands" you find an article in issue five of the the magazine The Equalizer

If you have more questions feel free to contact me.

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