Red Sea liveaboard trifecta?

[Mod63]

Hi!
The Seawolf fleet is not exactly a budget option in the Red Sea. I also believe they are German-owned. Would you care to say what went wrong on your particular trip? Many thanks in advance.

- claimed to have ENOS, yet we were told that it was currently not working due to no batteries available
- after we had setteled the bill, shortly before leaving, they told us that there were unpaid beers and that we had to cough up the money
-> we heard both storries repeatedly over the next years form various other people
- an overall unsafe operation, with the crew clearly not up to the task
- boat was listing to port

 

[MB NZ]

MB, were you happy overall with the Serpent?

Boat, food and crew were great. I think most people would be happy with the boat. I didn't enjoy the way they organised the diving. Large groups and limited unguided diving. If you were to book with them, I would consider hiring a private guide.

An issue of equipment hire came up at the last minute. I had paid for something and had a voucher from the travel agent to prove it, but they said they hadn't received payment from the agent. I had to send some emails on my last evening to get it sorted out when it was really a problem between the travel agent and Sea Serpent. Not the end of the world, but they were pretty pushy and it left a bad taste. Couldn't help but feel it was a classic Egyptian attempt at money extraction.

 

[rmorgan]

The following Red Sea liveaboards have zodiacs fitted with aluminium ladders:

- Seawolf Dominator (operated by Seawolf Diving Safaris)

That's a pleasant surprise--I saw what I thought was a recent video of the Dominator which appeared to show no ladders--that's the boat we're looking into. So -- thanks! (I ran some searches and saw the Emperor boats, but not the Seawolf boats.

If you were to book with them, I would consider hiring a private guide.

How does this work? Do you pay both the guide and the boat? Are there extra crew quarters for private guides on the LOBs?

boat was listing to port

Yikes. "Boat listing to ____" was a feature of one of the recent Red Sea capsizes, as I recall.

 

[MB NZ]

How does this work? Do you pay both the guide and the boat? Are there extra crew quarters for private guides on the LOBs?

The guides are provided by the company and you pay an extra charge to the company for a private guide. Where it fell down on my boat was they didn't seem to employ any additional guides for the trip, so among the four guides, there was one group of two divers (private guide), one group of five divers (private guide) and two groups of ten divers with the remaining two non-private guides which was too many for how they ran the diving.

 

[Parlem]

- claimed to have ENOS, yet we were told that it was currently not working due to no batteries available
- after we had setteled the bill, shortly before leaving, they told us that there were unpaid beers and that we had to cough up the money
-> we heard both storries repeatedly over the next years form various other people
- an overall unsafe operation, with the crew clearly not up to the task
- boat was listing to port

That's a bit alarming. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Parlem]

That's a pleasant surprise--I saw what I thought was a recent video of the Dominator which appeared to show no ladders--that's the boat we're looking into. So -- thanks! (I ran some searches and saw the Emperor boats, but not the Seawolf boats.

To be clear, I got a good look of the Seawolf Dominator from the liveaboard I was on while we were moored side-by-side at the Thistlegorm in early December 2022. I took several pictures, which I'd be happy to share with you if you message me privately. The Dominator had 2 (small) zodiacs, both fitted with sturdy-looking aluminium ladders. Some of their divers used 12L steel tanks, which I thought was very nice and made a mental note to check the boat out after my trip.
Now, Mod63's experience is rather alarming ...

 

[divezonescuba]

If you end up on a boat with dinghys without ladders, you still have a few options.

I have dislocated my right shoulder about 200 times and my left shoulder about 20 times, so I am very sensitive to the dinghy boarding process.

These techniques all involve removing your bcd first.

Method one is to have the dinghy crew run a line between the bow and the stern hanging in the water. You can use the line as a step to get in.

The second method is to bounce in the water to the point that your head is below the surface. If you time it correctly, you will be half in the boat.

A third method which I have not used, but have seen on youtube is to hold on to the line around the dinghy with your back to the tube. Again, you bounce up and then can curl your legs in and land in the boat upright. You may need to do a lot of situps for that to work.

 

[NorCalDM]

Just returned from a week on the Red Sea Aggressor IV were we did the deep south. Most of the diving was from the main boat but had a few dives from the tenders and were picked up a few other times. Their tenders both had fold down ladders but you would take off your gear in the water and hand it it off before boarding. We had a couple divers onboard with shoulder issues and the crew would carrier their gear to the back of the boat so they could sit and put it on then just roll off. They would also load it onto the tenders for them as well. Just need to tell them what you need and they will accommodate.