Liveaboards in the Red Sea - Minimum number of dives/Advanced Diver qualification?

[loopylou]

Hello. I'm new here and wonder whether anyone can help me? I've dived a bit, all in Egypt, probably 40 odd, though I've just checked my logbook and only have 33 entries signed by my instructor (including his instructor number), and only 28 stamped by the dive centre (last time I was there the revolution broke out, and I kind of left in a hurry ). Anyway, I'd say I was fairly proficient, but that was back in 2011, and I did have an instructor with me.

I'd like to go back now, and I've been reading about liveaboards - it looks pretty perfect for me. I'll be travelling alone; which costs a mint when you're staying in resort, what with the single supplement.

However, I've read that a lot of Red Sea dive sites require a minimum number of 40/50 logged dives and/or an Advanced Diver qualification. I've looked at getting to that standard in the UK, but it's verging on £600, and for that I may as well go with plan B and stay at a resort and do it in Egypt.

Should I just shelve the liveaboard idea for next year? I'd love to do it - I stuck to tame sites before up in Taba/Dahab - but I really want to see some pelagic species - the Thistlegorm, Brothers and Yolanda sites look amazing. I just don't fancy spending £600 freezing to death in the UK trying to get up to that standard.

I'd be really grateful if someone could point me in the right direction.

 

[Tippytoes12]

To see Pelagics, the Brothers and especially Daedalus are awesome. We had hammerheads , oceanic white tips , thresher sharks and three manta rays on one trip last October.

There are a number of issues in these sits with inexperienced divers ...which we all were once! They can be very currenty and deep ..about 30 mts for much of the dive. So an inexperienced diver might run out of air relatively quickly ...if you are by yourself you will need a buddy, who might have much better air consumption and might not be too happy with this.

We have been going to these sites for a few years and very year they seem to get better and better. So one option would be to do land based this year and LOB the following year. Alternatively you could take two weeks , do land based diving the first week and then the LOB the next year.

You our might want to consider calling one of the UK operators like Sucuatravel or Blue O 2 and asking their advice.

hope this helps a bit .

 

[jameseg]

On some Caribbean liveaboards you can take certification courses while you're out as sea, usually with little disruption to your daily dives. My wife did her Advanced on the T&C Explorer II. You might see if this is an option on any of the Red Sea liveaboards, and if it is, whether it would satisfy the Advanced prerequisite. If it does, consider reading through the course work at home, so all that's left for the boat is the skills work and test.

James

 

[FinnMom]

Taking your advanced class on the boat is likely to be an option on some liveaboards. I would not recommend doing Brothers, Daedalus, Rocky Island until you have a little more experience. No worries though, there are lots of great places to visit and the other routes often offer more dives because you can do night dives.
Go enjoy a northern reefs and wrecks cruise or (perhaps the very best idea) a southern trip to neat places like Fury Shoals and St. Johns. You will have a wonderful time and get in lots of diving.
Wish I were going too!

 

[Shasta_man]

You can take a class on a liveaboard but unless you only have to demonstrate skills and you are done, using your liveaboard time to take a class is not so fun because while everyone else is relaxing, you've got reading and tests to do.

 

[FinnMom]

Shasta_man is right, but it beats not being able to do all the dives or being concerned about your abilitiies. Taking the theory in advance (as post #3 suggested) is an excellent option.
I just wanted to confirm that many Red sea liveaboards also offer the opportunity to take a class or do your class dives while onboard.

 

[Freewillow]

Just go for the north cruise. They accept OW with less than 50 dives. It is really really nice and much more stressful than brothers and a few other. I have done them all ( cruise on liveboard ) and I would go back to the wrecks of the North cruise any day

 

[FinnMom]

The north cruise I have been on required AOWD. Thistlegorm, Abu Nuhas wrecks, all below OW depths. Even the more shallow sites had walls and it was nice to cleared to go deeper even just to see them, but esp. if we saw dolphins or a shark (both indeed happened).

Not having the AOWD or equivalent can create annoying problems. Get the problem solved sooner, not later. To see how annoyed one can get please search uTube for "Hitler AOWD"