scubajasonr
Contributor
After a successful family liveaboard holiday in 2022 : Trip Report - Family Liveaboard on MY Thunderbird (and Breakers)
I planned a similar but different family trip for 2023. Again going with Deep Blue Cruises, but this time on their boat Firebird on a Wrecks & Reef route from Hurghada. My wife and myself have dived this northern route a couple of times in the past, this would be the first time for my kids (14 and 17) and would be the first time they get the opportunity to dive on proper wrecks.
The first five days in Egypt were spent at Breakers in Soma Bay doing some diving with Orca Divers. A similar enjoyable experience here to last year. The main difference to last year was all the rooms were refurbished over the winter, these were noticeably better than last year. Again Orca divers offered a professional service, we only did five dives (four on the house reef and one by zodiac) but they were all very relaxed with friendly and helpful staff.
After five days at it was time for the liveaboard. Deep Blue arranged a taxi from Breakers to the boat for us. This year’s trip was aimed at families with kids over 12 who had some diving experience. As it turned out there were only eight guests on the boat (the boat can take 16). It was my family of four, and then a father and son from Germany and a father and daughter also from Germany. I think my daughter had the least number of dives of any of the guests at 40 or so. All the parents were fairly experienced. We had two dive guides: Moussa, who I dived with last year and is an extremely experienced Red Sea guide having worked on Royal Evolution for many years, and his friend Allah, who is equally experienced. Normally just one guide would be in the water with us, but if they were splitting the group then both would dive. There was also a crew of eight on the boat, so with only eight guests it is fair to say we were very well looked after during the week. I wasn’t sure if Deep Blue would run the trip with this few guests, but they were happy to go ahead with the boat half full. We did leave a generous tip for the crew at the end as they gave excellent service during the week. Food was great, head chef Reda worked on Royal Evolution for many years, and it is fair to say that he takes great pride in the food he cooks – although at times I think he forgot there were only 8 guests given the quantity of food he kept making. I think this was my tenth liveaboard and this one probably had the best food.
Firebird is very similar to it’s sister boat Thunderbird, and is probably fair to say it is more traditional than some of the more modern liveaboards now operating on the Red Sea. It has a combined lounge and dining area, a sun deck on the first floor and all cabins below deck. Having spent a week on one of the newest boats in the Red Sea (Sea Legend) last year, I would happily pick Firebird or Thunderbird again. While it doesn’t have all the modern features of the newer boats, it just works really well as a dive boat.
Dives were all around 60 minutes, night dives around 45 minutes. No pressure to dive with or without a guide, the guides were always happy to dive if we wanted a guided tour of a site. Water temperatures were 28-30 degrees Celsius. Air temperature around 40 in the day and 30 at night. Often windy on the surface, but a very warm wind so it was easy to warm up after a dive. AC worked well in the boat, it was slightly noisy in the cabins so we often turned it off during the night.
On the boat my daughter did her Advanced Open Water, and my son his Deep speciality. Both got great instruction from Allah, I think he went well beyond the course content in his instruction, so I was more than happy with the training offered.
The boat had free nitrox. Fills were pretty consistent at 32%, and 200bar.
Day 1
Dive 1 - Once we had coast guard clearance we left shore and had a check out dive at Poseidon Reef. We did a full skills check at the start, and SMB deployment at the end. A nice relaxed dive, but nothing too exciting to see.
After the first dive the guides made the decision to head across to the Sinai area, as heavier seas were predicted for the next couple of day so making the crossing now would be good. As it turned out it was quite a rough crossing for a couple of hours, but once we got closer to land things calmed down.
Dive 2 – Beacon Rock. This was a dive from the back of the boat and was just a general explore of the area. A really nice site, with lots of hard coral. Plenty of stone fish and morays hidden away.
Dive 3 – Night Dive Beacon Rock. A really good night dive, generally just exploring the area we had dived on the afternoon dive. Highlights were a sea snake, Spanish dancer and a couple of trevally using our lights to hunt by.
Just a note about the night diving. For 2023 Egypt has changed it’s time zone in the summer, so it now gets dark at 8pm (last year it was 7pm) On the boat we would have dinner after the night dive, which did make it quite late to eat. Watching some of the other boats it looked like they had dinner earlier, and then dived at maybe 9pm. I am not sure either option was perfect. I think the other option would have been to squeeze four dives into the daylight hours, which probably would have worked.
Day 2
Today was my son’s 18th birthday. So a pretty exciting day for him. The chef cooked him a large cake for the evening, and they decorated the saloon and his cabin with some decorations we brought with us.
Dive 1 – Dunraven Wreck. This is a wreck from 1876, and the lowest part sits at 29m. From our mooring last night the Dunraven was a short zodiac ride away. For this dive we split into two groups with one going through the hold area, and the other stayed shallower and just looked around the outside of the wreck. This is always a nice dive with a very interesting swim thru, with lots of marine life to look out for . After the wreck it was a drift along the adjoining coral reef before zodiac pick up.
Dive 2 – The Alternatives. After the previous dive we moved to The Alternatives. These are a series of coral covered rock pinnacles on the edge of the Ras Mohamed National Park. I don’t think these are the best sites in the area, but gave slightly easier reef dives, and also worked well for the kids doing the Advanced OW courses. As we arrived lots and lots of day boats could be seen on the horizon heading out of Sharm. This dive was a fairly relaxed swim around one of the pinnacles, and surrounding reef area. Towards the end of the dive it was noticeable that lots of day trip snorkelers and discovery scuba divers had entered the water – it was sort of entertaining watching the random chaos. When we exited the water back on the boat, I was amazed at how many boats had arrived into the area, there must have been at least 50 day boats moored up within sight. The site stretches 3 miles, but it was still a lot of boats.
Dive 3 – The Alternatives. We waited until all the day boats had gone before starting this dive, and moved to a different pinnacle This meant we were the only boat on the site – the advantage of liveaboards! Another very relaxed dive, nothing outstanding to see, just lots of fish!
Dive 4 – The Alternatives Night Dive. We moved to another pinnacle and this time the plan was to follow the boats rear line to the pinnacle, swim around it, back to the line and back to boat. In reality it was a bit different as there was a fairly strong current flowing around the pinnacle. It took about 20 minutes to swim around so we did two circuits, each had a bit if swimming into the current, a bit of drifting and some relaxed water. Highlights on this were thousands of tiny glass fish which just hung out in the torch beams – slightly annoying as they also got into hair and clothes. A couple of jacks hunting, and free swimming morays. At the end of the dive it was a bit of a challenge to find the line to the boat, and a swim into the current back to the boat, although everyone made it back. A really good night dive, but also quite challenging conditions underwater.
I planned a similar but different family trip for 2023. Again going with Deep Blue Cruises, but this time on their boat Firebird on a Wrecks & Reef route from Hurghada. My wife and myself have dived this northern route a couple of times in the past, this would be the first time for my kids (14 and 17) and would be the first time they get the opportunity to dive on proper wrecks.
The first five days in Egypt were spent at Breakers in Soma Bay doing some diving with Orca Divers. A similar enjoyable experience here to last year. The main difference to last year was all the rooms were refurbished over the winter, these were noticeably better than last year. Again Orca divers offered a professional service, we only did five dives (four on the house reef and one by zodiac) but they were all very relaxed with friendly and helpful staff.
After five days at it was time for the liveaboard. Deep Blue arranged a taxi from Breakers to the boat for us. This year’s trip was aimed at families with kids over 12 who had some diving experience. As it turned out there were only eight guests on the boat (the boat can take 16). It was my family of four, and then a father and son from Germany and a father and daughter also from Germany. I think my daughter had the least number of dives of any of the guests at 40 or so. All the parents were fairly experienced. We had two dive guides: Moussa, who I dived with last year and is an extremely experienced Red Sea guide having worked on Royal Evolution for many years, and his friend Allah, who is equally experienced. Normally just one guide would be in the water with us, but if they were splitting the group then both would dive. There was also a crew of eight on the boat, so with only eight guests it is fair to say we were very well looked after during the week. I wasn’t sure if Deep Blue would run the trip with this few guests, but they were happy to go ahead with the boat half full. We did leave a generous tip for the crew at the end as they gave excellent service during the week. Food was great, head chef Reda worked on Royal Evolution for many years, and it is fair to say that he takes great pride in the food he cooks – although at times I think he forgot there were only 8 guests given the quantity of food he kept making. I think this was my tenth liveaboard and this one probably had the best food.
Firebird is very similar to it’s sister boat Thunderbird, and is probably fair to say it is more traditional than some of the more modern liveaboards now operating on the Red Sea. It has a combined lounge and dining area, a sun deck on the first floor and all cabins below deck. Having spent a week on one of the newest boats in the Red Sea (Sea Legend) last year, I would happily pick Firebird or Thunderbird again. While it doesn’t have all the modern features of the newer boats, it just works really well as a dive boat.
Dives were all around 60 minutes, night dives around 45 minutes. No pressure to dive with or without a guide, the guides were always happy to dive if we wanted a guided tour of a site. Water temperatures were 28-30 degrees Celsius. Air temperature around 40 in the day and 30 at night. Often windy on the surface, but a very warm wind so it was easy to warm up after a dive. AC worked well in the boat, it was slightly noisy in the cabins so we often turned it off during the night.
On the boat my daughter did her Advanced Open Water, and my son his Deep speciality. Both got great instruction from Allah, I think he went well beyond the course content in his instruction, so I was more than happy with the training offered.
The boat had free nitrox. Fills were pretty consistent at 32%, and 200bar.
Day 1
Dive 1 - Once we had coast guard clearance we left shore and had a check out dive at Poseidon Reef. We did a full skills check at the start, and SMB deployment at the end. A nice relaxed dive, but nothing too exciting to see.
After the first dive the guides made the decision to head across to the Sinai area, as heavier seas were predicted for the next couple of day so making the crossing now would be good. As it turned out it was quite a rough crossing for a couple of hours, but once we got closer to land things calmed down.
Dive 2 – Beacon Rock. This was a dive from the back of the boat and was just a general explore of the area. A really nice site, with lots of hard coral. Plenty of stone fish and morays hidden away.
Dive 3 – Night Dive Beacon Rock. A really good night dive, generally just exploring the area we had dived on the afternoon dive. Highlights were a sea snake, Spanish dancer and a couple of trevally using our lights to hunt by.
Just a note about the night diving. For 2023 Egypt has changed it’s time zone in the summer, so it now gets dark at 8pm (last year it was 7pm) On the boat we would have dinner after the night dive, which did make it quite late to eat. Watching some of the other boats it looked like they had dinner earlier, and then dived at maybe 9pm. I am not sure either option was perfect. I think the other option would have been to squeeze four dives into the daylight hours, which probably would have worked.
Day 2
Today was my son’s 18th birthday. So a pretty exciting day for him. The chef cooked him a large cake for the evening, and they decorated the saloon and his cabin with some decorations we brought with us.
Dive 1 – Dunraven Wreck. This is a wreck from 1876, and the lowest part sits at 29m. From our mooring last night the Dunraven was a short zodiac ride away. For this dive we split into two groups with one going through the hold area, and the other stayed shallower and just looked around the outside of the wreck. This is always a nice dive with a very interesting swim thru, with lots of marine life to look out for . After the wreck it was a drift along the adjoining coral reef before zodiac pick up.
Dive 2 – The Alternatives. After the previous dive we moved to The Alternatives. These are a series of coral covered rock pinnacles on the edge of the Ras Mohamed National Park. I don’t think these are the best sites in the area, but gave slightly easier reef dives, and also worked well for the kids doing the Advanced OW courses. As we arrived lots and lots of day boats could be seen on the horizon heading out of Sharm. This dive was a fairly relaxed swim around one of the pinnacles, and surrounding reef area. Towards the end of the dive it was noticeable that lots of day trip snorkelers and discovery scuba divers had entered the water – it was sort of entertaining watching the random chaos. When we exited the water back on the boat, I was amazed at how many boats had arrived into the area, there must have been at least 50 day boats moored up within sight. The site stretches 3 miles, but it was still a lot of boats.
Dive 3 – The Alternatives. We waited until all the day boats had gone before starting this dive, and moved to a different pinnacle This meant we were the only boat on the site – the advantage of liveaboards! Another very relaxed dive, nothing outstanding to see, just lots of fish!
Dive 4 – The Alternatives Night Dive. We moved to another pinnacle and this time the plan was to follow the boats rear line to the pinnacle, swim around it, back to the line and back to boat. In reality it was a bit different as there was a fairly strong current flowing around the pinnacle. It took about 20 minutes to swim around so we did two circuits, each had a bit if swimming into the current, a bit of drifting and some relaxed water. Highlights on this were thousands of tiny glass fish which just hung out in the torch beams – slightly annoying as they also got into hair and clothes. A couple of jacks hunting, and free swimming morays. At the end of the dive it was a bit of a challenge to find the line to the boat, and a swim into the current back to the boat, although everyone made it back. A really good night dive, but also quite challenging conditions underwater.
