How good is Rocky in terms of large pelagics compared to for instance Brothers?

[KenGordon]

I was at Elphinstone, Daedalus and Rocky until last Wednesday. There might have been one dive without oceanic white tips. At Daedalus there was a school of hammerheads and at Rocky the odd tiger shark.

I considered taking in a wet note reading 'BEHIND YOU!"

A couple of times we ran into divers from one of the other boats but not in a crowding way.

 

[FinnMom]

That's a lot of shark sightings! Sounds like a fantastic trip.

---------- Post added December 9th, 2015 at 08:56 PM ----------

...

FinnMom, which boat do you use?

Been 3x on private charters using the Aprodite. Whole crew is very nice, reliable, friendly.

M/Y APHRODITE - Schedule, Red Sea Liveaboard - Boat Diving Safari: Egypt,

 

[ClairevL]

Even Tiger sharks - sounds amazing! Elphinstone, Daedalus and Rocky sounds like a wonderful itinerary to me! Where did you book this - which boat? I couldn't find this combination anywhere. And how many dives per day did you do?
What else did you see at Rocky? And do you know when is the best season to see tiger sharks? Recently they were also spotted around St Johns a couple of times.

---------- Post added December 14th, 2015 at 09:08 AM ----------

Thanks Claire, I'd love to hear more from you about Emperor fleet and those boats of the fleet you were on.

Sorry for the late reply! I often don't get any notifications and miss things.
I've been on LOBs with the Emperor fleet twice. Once Emperor Asmaa (budget) and once Emperor Elite (fancier boat). Both boats were perfect for me. Sufficient space on the dive deck, cabins clean and big enough; cabins were a bit larger on the Elite. The Elite has a good camera table, which is great if you bring a DSLR. On the Asmaa you'll need to use one of the tables in the dining room to assemble the camera.
On the Elite we had great guides and excellent briefings. Safety concerned and lots of information about the dive site, which animals to look for where etc. The briefings we had on the Asmaa were ok...not that great, but I'm not quite sure if these guides still work for the same company. Depending on the itinerary you do 3 or 4 dives per day. Brothers, Daedalus, Elphinstone is only 3 dives per day. I think this holds for all boats, except the Red Sea Aggressor.
The food was excellent on both boats, but on the Elite there was an enormous selection of beautiful home-baked cakes (I ate so much on this trip). I would certainly recommend Emperor, but I can not compare them to other fleets that have boats in Egypt like Aggressor, Sea Serpent, Blue O Two etc.

The great thing about the Rosetta is the price. They really are quite a bit cheaper than most other boats. We paid 750 each for the BDE trip incl reef tax.

 

[Topper1972]

I am itching to go back to Rocky Island...I would love to see those tiger sharks again
I did a Daedalus - Rocky - Zabargad - Elphinstone itinerary October 13-20.
October 15 we had 20+ hammerhead circling us at Daedalus on our first dive...but they were deep because of the warm water and on the following 5 dives we only caught glimpses of them deep below us. Here some of my video footage from the first dive on October 15:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBXlsYmwiEA
But the big treat was our 3 dives at Rocky October 17 where we had tiger shark on every dive (one tiger shark was even cruising at the surface between our dives).
We encountered 4 different tiger sharks and 3 longimanus during our dives at Rocky Island. I shot this video during our third dive at Rocky...amazingly the 1,8m longimanus seems to bully away the 2,5m tiger shark.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-5_NsTxdPA

I have done some 10 liveaboards with BlueOtwo in the Red Sea, but that liveaboard fleet only very seldom has Rocky Island and Zabargad Island as part of their itineraries.
I was on another liveaboard November 26 - December 10 with the German boat SevenSeas (Brothers-Daedalus-Elphinstone+Brothers) and I must say that I was very impressed with their boat - the boat, cabins and food were definitely the best that I have ever experienced (amongst other things the bathrooms had real shower cabins ). At Daedalus again lots of hammerheads (20+ on 2 of our dives there) and also 4-5 big silky sharks under the boats...and at Big Brother lots of longimanus (I counted at least 8 different ones) and on 3 occasions thresher shark. But sadly Rocky Island was not part of the itinerary.
I will definitely be back on SevenSeas - also as they regurlarly do the Daedalus-Rocky-Zabargad-Elphinstone itinerary.
When will you be going? I plan to be back for a Daedalus-Rocky-Zabargad-Elphinstone trip in May 2016 - in May the water temperature should also be a bit lower, so that the hammerhead sharks at Daedalus Reef should be nearer to the surface (the hammerhead sharks seem not to like warm water and therefore can be quite deep in Summer and Autumn).

These are the webpages of 3 liveaboard fleets that I know regurlarly do the Daedalus-Rocky-Zabargad-Elphinstone itinerary (of these I can heartedly recommend M/V SevenSeas):
Seven Seas Online
M/Y Longimanus - Barakuda Diving
Egypt live aboard – Red Sea Explorers

 

[KenGordon]

I was on Hurricane with Scuba Travel. I booked about a month before and travelled November 25th. It was the boat's last trip of the year. I only ended up on that trip due to timing constraints at home. I was not setting out to search for sharks.

We did two dives on the first and last days, three otherwise, with about 3hr surface intervals.

Night divers are not allowed. Perhaps the chances of being slightly nibbled are too high.

There were claims by the guides that Zabargad is slightly off limits at the moment.

MV Nouran (Red Sea Explorers) was on several of the same sites at the same time as us.

 

[FinnMom]

Park rules prohibit night diving. Nibbles might be a problem but the biggest risks are probably currents that can carry divers away. You are on one or two tiny island far (FAR) from any other land, there are currents all around the island (or islands in the case of the Brothers) and the currents can often be strong, or in unexpected directions. Then for good measure there are some really big ships in the shipping lanes that might never notice a diver in danger of getting mowed down. All of those islands are places you would not want to have a drifting diver at night, even without nibbles.

 

[ClairevL]

Topper1972, your trip sounds incredible! And the movies are amazing! Love to see the tiger shark swimming away when he sees the longimanus:-D After hearing this, I can't wait to go to Rocky. Thanks so much for listing the boats that go there. I'd love to do the combination with Daedalus. My next Red Sea trip will also be in May or June to see the hammerheads. Do you know if it is likely to meet Tiger sharks in spring? I actually don't really know if sightings of them are seasonally dependent...do you? I was planning to do BDE again, but if it is likely to see tiger sharks in Rocky, I'll definitely go for the Rocky itinerary. Which boat will you go with? Seven seas again?

 

[Topper1972]

ClairevL: A friend and I am planning to visit Marsa Alam and do a liveaboard May 15 - May 27.
So far I have found 3 boats that definitely have a Daedalus-Rocky-Zabargad-Elphinstone itinerary during that timeframe.
The boats are: M/V SevenSeas (May 19-26), M/Y Longimanus (May 19-26) and M/Y Hurricane (May 18-25 - this boat is part of the Tornado Marine Fleet).
The price is also important to me - but I like the M/V SevenSeas best (fantastic boat and good dive guides), so I would be prepared to pay a little extra for a trip with this boat (also they don't charge extra for nitrox).

The tiger sharks have been hanging around at Rocky Island for at least 6½ months now (that is since late May 2015).
The biggest one is most likely a female, so it is a mix of males and females which is a good sign.
Latest sighting was just 2 weeks ago - then one of them was apperently seen gorging on a dolphin (I heard somebody filmed part of this, but I did not see the video footage myself).
There has been 2 uploads to YouTube of the tiger sharks at Rocky Island this November. Unfortunately it is now low-season for liveaboards in the Egyptian part of the Red Sea, so for the next 2-3 months it will be hard getting confirmed that the tiger sharks are still around at Rocky Island - I think the first liveaboards to return to Rocky Island will be in February 2016.
But I hope that the tiger sharks will stick to Rocky Island and that they will still be around come May next year...fingers crossed!

Update: I have found 3 other liveaboard fleets that also do the Daedalus-Rocky-Zabargad-Elphinstone itinerary. So now the list looks like this:
Seven Seas Online
M/Y Longimanus - Barakuda Diving
Egypt live aboard – Red Sea Explorers (but their schedule does not seem updated?)
Tornado Marine Fleet - Red Sea Liveaboards
Schedule - Golden Dolphin Safari World
http://www.diversheaven.net/termine.html
http://www.blueplanet-liveaboards.com/termine

 

[ClairevL]

Topper, thanks so much for posting the list! I will definitely look into them and compare. I don't know how much more expensive the Seven Seas is actually, so I'll have to find out. For me the most important things are the actual itinerary and the price. I don't want to spend 3 of my 6 diving days in places like Abu Dabab and Marsa Shauna and I prefer to do more than 3 dives per day, but that is hard to find on these trips. As far as I know, on the Brothers Daedalus, Elphinstone trip only the Red Sea Aggressor offers 4 dives a day. I'm not sure about the Daedalus and Rocky trip yet.


I really hope the Tiger sharks will stay around Rocky!!

 

[KenGordon]

I don't know about the summer, but in late November more than 3 dives would have been hard to do without short surface intervals. We were getting up at 6, in the water at 7, 11 and 3 ish. Once the last dive was done there was not much light left. These dives can be moderately deep so a proper surface interval is good, especially so far from a chamber.

We did one checkout dive at Abu Dabab and then went to Elphinstone, on the return we ended up diving there again as it was too windy for Elphinstone. Even so 4 of our 6 days were 'proper' sites. Actually I really enjoyed the shallow reefs.