Red Sea (Egypt) in late March... Is it worth it? Is this chart accurate?

[dflaher]

It was great! Had an outstanding time and we were treated to some great dives.

Great shots! Do you mind sharing your itinerary? Also how was the Emperor?

 

[Pillpusher]

Great shots! Do you mind sharing your itinerary? Also how was the Emperor?

Thanks! I flew into Cairo and spent a day there before flying to Hurghada and transferring to the boat in Port Ghalib. Did the far south route and the BDE route back to back with them. Then did a private tour from there to Luxor for 2 days, then back to stay in El Gouna for a couple of days before flying back home.

Emperor was good, for the most part... But, I've never done a liveaboard with such large dive groups (10-14 per guide), though. I don't know what the norm for the region is, but this seemed way excessive. My only other issue is that they have a tendency to overtighten the crap out of your first stage if you have yoke. Because of this, o-rings blowing pre-dive was a daily occurrence. Not a huge deal, but I had one blow mid-dive, which I had never even heard of happening before. Luckily we were only at 45 feet or so and I was close to the group at the time, or that could have gone VERY badly for me. Makes me consider carrying a pony bottle from now on. Oh, and one crew member that apparently professes his love for and/or proposes to a different female solo traveller each trip...lol.

Outside of that, the food was great, and most of the crew was a lot of fun and very friendly. They found out that a guest on board was having a birthday, and went out of their way to decorate the dining room and make a cake for him before dinner while he was out on a night dive, which I thought was very cool of them to do.

 

[dflaher]

Thanks for your responses - much appreciated.

Emperor was good, for the most part... But, I've never done a liveaboard with such large dive groups (10-14 per guide), though. I don't know what the norm for the region is, but this seemed way excessive.

I'm thinking about doing a first ever LOB to the Red Sea about this time next year, so I don't know whether that's typical as well. That does seem like a lot. Were most of the dives from RIBs/Zodiacs or from the mother ship?

Luckily we were only at 45 feet or so and I was close to the group at the time, or that could have gone VERY badly for me.

Yikes! What did you do - grab a neighboring octo or head for the surface?

 

[Pillpusher]

Thanks for your responses - much appreciated.

I'm thinking about doing a first ever LOB to the Red Sea about this time next year, so I don't know whether that's typical as well. That does seem like a lot. Were most of the dives from RIBs/Zodiacs or from the mother ship?

Yikes! What did you do - grab a neighboring octo or head for the surface?

It was about half and half.

I banged on my tank like crazy and made a b-line to the guide. He gave me his octo while he shut it off, retightened it, and turned it back on. Lost half nearly my tank in less than probably 20 seconds. I still had 1500, so I kept going. But it started leaking, again, though a bit more slowly, so I went up to do my safety stop and put up the DSMB for the zodiac to come get me.

When they got back, he told me it was because it wasn’t tight enough, which was BS. I looked at the oring and it was completely shredded.

 

[Christian]

The norm on liveaboards in the off shore Egyptian Red Sea itineraries has always been to go with your buddy and not with a guide. BDE sites are easily navigated, just pay attention to the briefing. Don't confuse that with easily dived, which they are most of the time, but they can be demanding and also dangerous. A 'standard' Egyptian liveaboard have some 24 guests when full, which are divided into 3 or 4 dive groups with 6-8 divers in each. Groups depart from the mother ship in zodiacs with some interval to the drop to not crowd the site. Same when on a few occasions dives are done from the dive platform, groups kit up with an interval in between. When there are muliple boats on a site captains/dive guides try to organise it between them to make it work as good as possible. Does not always compute, but most of the time. One, perhaps two of the dive groups will be led by a guide from the boat. If there are more divers than usual wishing to go with a guide –– the guided group will be large. As I said, being led by a guide is not the norm in the Egyptian Red Sea, most guests tend to prefer to go on their own with their buddy, or with their club friends (it is not uncommon to be a prt of a dive club in Italy, GB, France ...).

 

[Pillpusher]

There were two groups on the boat. Yes, some of us would go “unguided”, but we geared up, got in, and went down as two groups. And when you’re just on a pinnacle, often with a lot of current, it’s not like there is a ton of space to spread out, so each group ended up in the same area regardless, until the “group” either went back to the boat or surfaced and the rest stayed under for longer to make a full hour dive.

 

[Christian]

Hmm ... 12 diver groups is a lot and inme not the norm. I'd say nine out of ten times -- 24 divers would be divided into three groups, each group given different kit up and zodiac times. For the off shore sites, you also go a little deeper, which restrain bottom times. A ten minute interval or so in between groups effectively gives some alone time on the deeper points for each group. Lots of life and things to see on the walls in the shallows after that, so no need to rush back to the boat. Sometimes of course there are reasons for not doing things as usual. Did you go with Emperor Divers?

 

[Pillpusher]

Hmm ... 12 diver groups is a lot and inme not the norm. I'd say nine out of ten times -- 24 divers would be divided into three groups, each group given different kit up and zodiac times. For the off shore sites, you also go a little deeper, which restrain bottom times. A ten minute interval or so in between groups effectively gives some alone time on the deeper points for each group. Lots of life and things to see on the walls in the shallows after that, so no need to rush back to the boat. Sometimes of course there are reasons for not doing things as usual. Did you go with Emperor Divers?

Yeah, the two groups were separated enough to where we rarely ran into each other, but there were only two groups. And yes, I was with Emperor.