Diving Ras-Za'atar and Ras-Ghozlani

[emoreira]

Hi, for those with experience in Ras-Mohammed National Park, are those two dive sites Ras-Za'atar and Ras-Ghozlani drift dives or the current is low enough to dive without the requirements of drift dives. Which is the speed of the current ?
I've seen web pages mentioning that those are drift dives and some videos in youtube where there seems to be no current at all.
Some web pages mention that dive boats do not anchor there, and there is no mooring buoys.

 

[diverLux]

Hi,


I was at Ras Mo. last week. Not sure I understand your message correctly. All are drift dives, at some locations currents were stronger than at others, Shark & Yolanda was quite challenging, the guides would know and you follow their instructions.


Indeed the boats don't moor and keep moving, the crew is on alert looking out for the surface marker buoy. The guide is deploying the marker and the boat moves towards the divers to pick them up.


Typically the boat would then move to the second dive site. If there are snorkelers onboard or introduction dives the boat would moor at a quiet shallow site, you can also go in for a 3rd dive here.


Happy diving

 

[Tigerman]

ALL dives in/near sharm can be drift dives, pretty much all in ras mo WILL be and most/all in sharm and strait of tiran can be done as mooring dives (and sharm local sites can be beach accessed).

Reason why pretty much all dives in ras mo is drift dives is simply theres no moorings..

 

[Solly]

drift in the sense that you jump off the boat without being moored and getting back to the boat in the same way, having current or not is up to the conditions, some sites are famous of currents like the tiran sites or shark/yolanda .... others I haven't seen much current in like jack fish alley...

 

[emoreira]

Is drift dive certification required ?

 

[Tigerman]

There is a certification for it, I know nobody that has it... If youre with a reputable op in sharm, youll have everything you need to know covered in the predive briefing if you pay close attention and nobody mind if you ask if theres something you didnt understand.

Shark and Yolanda can have pretty badass current and its VERY unlikely that you go to ras mo, especially in the summer, without doing atleast one of your dives there.

 

[Crowley]

to confirm - as an ex-Sharm instructor with hundreds of dives in Ras Mo:

All dives in Ras Mohamed are "drift dives" because there are no moorings, however, as Solly says, which way the current goes (or even if there is any at all) will be dependent on the conditions on the day, Ghozlani is usually a mild current running south to North, Za'atar is a wall/corner/slope which usually starts at the wall with mild to no current, the corner has current which is often against you and then the slope has a mild current against you which is no effort to manage and so you pootle along and then turn and drift back towards the corner after 45 - 50 minutes of the dive (well, that's what I used to do, anyway).

It's not always drifting, more like "go in here, come up there", whether there is current or not. Shark and Yolanda is a must-see and the normal current direction is from Shark towards Yolanda, but NOT ALWAYS! If it's going the other direction, and you jump at Shark, it can be a most un-enjoyable dive. The current can pump there big time, in either direction, or both, and any decent dive guide will ALWAYS make a current check before jumping with their group. As in - physically get in the water and see which way the fish are swimming, not just have a quick look over the side. I'm really anal about this - if your guides are not jumping in to check the current at Shark and Yolanda, they're not doing their job properly! I would check at all but a few sites, and the only ones I wouldn't check would be Near, Middle Fiddle Garden, and White Knight - because it's usually pretty tame, and it doesn't really matter for most of the dives at these sites.

You don't need a drift certification; most people don't, and if they do, it was just the Drift Adventure dive as part of their AOW course.

Hope that helps,

C.

 

[Tigerman]

Its actually a very good way to pick what ops you DONT want to go with at shark and yolanda - watch which boats jump in without checking the current themselves

 

[Crowley]

Its actually a very good way to pick what ops you DONT want to go with at shark and yolanda - watch which boats jump in without checking the current themselves

Exactly. And there is only one place to check, which is over the wreck between Shark and Yolanda. Even then you don't always get it right. Checking at Shark does not always work because it depends where the split is, and checking and nearby Anemone city gives a false positive because it can go either way there and still be okay to drift from Shark to Yolanda.

Cheers

C.