Need advice for a LOB week in the Red Sea this year.

[Mod63]

- claimed to have ENOS, then told us that ENOS was not available due to missing batteries. Have told the same story again and again over years, as reported to us by people we met on other trips
- minutes before leaving for the airport, they claimed that we had forgotten to report all beer that was consumed, interestingly enough it was 48 cans which is two pallets. We were forced to pay up to make sure we did not miss our flights. Again, same story reported by other people
- over all unsafe operations with a crew that was not up to task when conditions were not 100% smooth
- when mooring at the Thisthegorm, they managed to run one of the main mooring under a protruding beam. When going doing we already saw that due to the movement of the boat the line was chafing. When coming up, I stayed well clear of the line, but other did as told during the briefing and used the line for their accend. It happend as predicted, the line broke, then the crew pulled the dives that were doing their stop rapidly to the surface. Of course it was the divers fault...

 

[Lukasvtrier]

10 croisières avec OCEANOS SAFARI | Croisière Plongée Mer Rouge | Egypte et Soudan et toujours pleine satisfaction ! Good luck !

Many thanks; looks great, but unfortunately no avaibility other than 2-week trip which I can't do (and seems to cater only to French speakers?)

 

[Lukasvtrier]

Thanks @Mod63 for sharing your experience! Not great, sadly. Are you or anyone else willing to share experiences with Sea Serpent? (And/or reflections on how South compares to BDE also very welcome!

 

[Mod63]

No experience with Sea Serpent. You cannot compare South with BDE, as they are completely different from a dive site point of view. I do enjoy it for it's mostly easy, shallow and colorfull sites.

 

[Blackdog017]

Hi there! Realise this thread is from last year, but I'm kind of in the 'same boat' for a trip I'm planning this summer.

Like you, I have done BDE before and - though it was amazing - I'm not super keen on spending again as much time hanging in the blue waiting/hoping for the big stuff to show up. So therfore keen to do Zagharbad (and Rocky Island) but with JP Marine is the only option for that route for my specific dates. You were not sure that you wanted to 'deal with them' and I have seen some less-than-great reviews on them elsewhere too. What was your concern/hesitation based on? Do others here share this?

What route did you end up taking and on which boat? Would be interested to hear your experience. If I slightly adjust my dates, I could do a similar south itinerary with Seawolf Dominator or Sea Serpent Excellence. Does anyone here have experience with (either of) them? For these too, I have seen rather mixed reviews on some platforms...

Or is the South not worth the hassle of dealing with lower-quality operators and should just do BDE again!?

Thanks in advance for any insights!

Hello,

I ended up doing one week on the Sea Serpent doing the Fury Shoal route, and then the second week I went with the Dune Alia on the St. John's Reef.

The Sea Serpent was a first for us, and we were not very impressed. The guide was just doing the bare minimum and the service in general was not exceptional in any way. With the guide we had a not so friendly exchange at some point, and from that moment on he hardly spoke to us anymore.

A couple of years before we had a very good previous experience with the Dune Aurora in Komodo, and the Alia did not disappoint. Service and boat were exceptional, and so was the dive guide. As a matter of fact we repeated some of the dives of the previous week/boat and it was a completely different experience. Highly recommended.

That said, the condition of the reef is significantly worse than 5 years ago when I first visited the area. Lots of dead coral.

I did not want to use the JP Marine based on bad comments I read on line.