Unknown Sea Story lob sinks

[Jai Bar]

I don’t go on any cheap liveaboards. I research them before hand. I’ve been on > 30 liveaboards for 19 years of diving and haven’t gotten into any boat accidents (knock on wood). However, when sh*t hit the fan, I’d make sure I’m ready (more ready than you are).

I bring my own gears too, other than scuba tank & dive weights.

Check out the kinds of liveaboards I have been on in 2023:
1. Infiniti in Cebu, Philippines
2. Agnes in Similan, Thailand
3, Amira in Forgotten Island, Indonesia
4. Ferox in Malpelo, Colombia
5. Agnes in Bali-Komodo, Indonesia
6. Nautilus Belle Amie, Sea of Cortez, Mexico
7. Blue Horizon, Maldives
8. Maldives Aggressor, Maldives

In 2024
1. Blue Manta in Raja Ampat, Indonesia
2. Infiniti in Tubbataha, Philippines
3. Mermaid 1 in Bali-Komodo, Indonesia
4. Damai 1 in Alor-Komodo, Indonesia

In 2025
1. White Manta in RA-Triton Bay, Indonesia
2. Maldives Master in Maldives
3. Ferox in Malpelo, Colombia
4. Blue Manta, Banda Sea, Indonesia
5. Nautilus Gallant Lady in Mag Bay, Mexico
6. Galapagos Master in Galapagos, Ecuador
7. Nautilus Belle Amie, Socorro, Mexico

You may notice Red Sea is not in the list.

I see Agressor in your list, as far as I remember one of them caught fire a few years ago and you can read how well the guests were treated here

Thread 'Fire on safari boat Suzana in Egypt (Red Sea Aggressor)'

Nov 1, 2019

The Rescue of 18 tourists and one American is dead in a boat fire in Marsa Alam | Hurghadians

Sources : the dead American tourist tried to save her laptop from the fire. | Hurghadians

• Miyaru
• Replies: 551
• Forum: Accidents, Incidents, & Near Misses

Some of their Maldives boat are from Egypt. So how does your research takes this into account? Does your research include where the boats were built, do they have reputable insurance, licensing and annual inspection? Or does your research takes into acocunt expensive and customer's opinion- that in most cases is meaningless?

 

[encarnizado]

Liveaboard.com is basically like Kayak or Expedia. They assume zero responsibility for the quality of the services advertised on their website.

Having said that, I emailed Liveaboard.com four days ago to say that they should consider dropping the Tillis and the Sea Pearl, the two remaining Dive Pro boats, from their list of boats. Aside from the reputational risk to Liveaboard.com of continuing to have their name associated with a company like Dive Pro Liveaboards, which had two deadly accidents in one year that killed a dozen people, I would hope that Liveaboard.com would just want to do the right thing.

I have not received a reply, and am not holding my breath.

Thank you. Right now, actions like this are among the most important steps people outside this incident can take to help bring change.

 

[Dan]

I see Agressor in your list, as far as I remember one of them caught fire a few years ago and you can read how well the guests were treated here

Thread 'Fire on safari boat Suzana in Egypt (Red Sea Aggressor)'

Nov 1, 2019

The Rescue of 18 tourists and one American is dead in a boat fire in Marsa Alam | Hurghadians

Sources : the dead American tourist tried to save her laptop from the fire. | Hurghadians

• Miyaru
• Replies: 551
• Forum: Accidents, Incidents, & Near Misses

Some of their Maldives boat are from Egypt. So how does your research takes this into account? Does your research include where the boats were built, do they have reputable insurance, licensing and annual inspection? Or does your research takes into acocunt expensive and customer's opinion- that in most cases is meaningless?

My research is based on what company policies towards safety, boat design, age, layout and trip reviews, especially in Undercurrent and Scubaboard.

I was in Red Sea back in 2019 when I was still inexperience and stupid. Here’s my trip report:

Trip Report Thread 'BDE Trip Report, 21-28 December, 2019'

Feb 9, 2020

Summary
This is an eight-day (21-28 December, 2019) liveaboard trip to Red Sea BDE (Brothers, Daedalus, Elphinstone) route, with Scuba Scene, Red Sea Aggressor 1 (RSA1) replacement, after RSA got burnt & sank in November 2019. The itinerary, as shown in Table 1, includes 6 days of diving, 3 dives / day, except on the last 2 days of diving, there were 4 and 2 dives / day, respectively.

Figure 1 shows the Scuba Scene cruising routes (marked by yellow dash loop line) stopping in Brothers, Daedalus and Elpinestone, which is commonly known as BDE route.

We did 1st day of...

• Dan
• bde egypt liveaboard oceanic whitetip shark red sea red sea aggressor scuba scene
• Replies: 21
• Forum: Red Sea

• 

BDE and Luxor were on my bucket list and I wanted to check them off the list, while the region was still relatively peaceful then. So, I researched which liveaboard to go on beforehand. I had been on few of Aggressor liveaboards (Palau & Maldives) and like their fleet & mindset towards safety. So I picked on Red Sea Aggressor 1. A month before I went there, it burned down.

Aggressor replaced it with Scuba Scene. I became more vigilant to check their safety protocols and emergency plan. I asked the cruise director during safety briefing for him to show me to emergency hatch at the lower deck. He did that after the briefing. We walked from the main deck to the lower deck, pointed a couple of fire extinguishers on the hallway and he opened the emergency hatch that led to the kitchen area and out to the bow.

Few months later Scuba Scene burned down. So, I have enough with the Red Sea. It’s off my future dive destination for awhile until this Middle East crisis is over.

 

[Dan]

Well it is now.
Along with some of the crew and passengers.


View attachment 873121



View attachment 873120



View attachment 873119

The last guy looks familiar. Did he work in Scuba Scene back in 2019?

 

[Dan]

From December 6, 2024 Undercurrent:

The Red Sea Disaster

“…avoid Red Sea wooden-hulled vessels at all cost.”

 

[Bookworm11]

Notice I said cheap liveaboard IN EGYPT! I did not say don't go on any liveaboard in another country! Notice I also said dive on a safe liveaboard. You are reading more into my statements than I said. I am going back to Egypt in August 2025. I thought about going on a liveboard, looked here and promptly changed my mind. Please don't quote me and respond to things I did not say.
I was discussing the safety issues of liveaboards in Egypt in a thread about the unfortunate sinking of yet another Egyptian live aboard and the significant loss of life.

I am going on my first live aboard this January. I am going on the Velocean to Raja Ampat and am adding to my gear to address safety issues after reading here. The Velocean is certainly not cheap.
And as an extremely experienced diver, I'm sure you would be more prepared than me when something bad happened. I've only been diving for three years. At a bare minimum, you have 10 times the dives I have and perhaps 20 times!

 

[Dan]

Another red flag from that latest issue of Undercurrent article:

“Experts from The Yacht Report (a YouTube channel that reports on yacht incidents worldwide, formerly Superyacht News) point out that although Sea Story was recently built, it had an insufficient number of life rafts, inadequate navigation equipment, and no AIS, which vessels use to avoid collisions at sea and enables tracking by third parties. (It is mandatory for IMO-registered passenger vessels of this size.) But it wasn’t registered with the (IMO) International Maritime Organization as are most commercial vessels.”

 

[Dan]

Undercurrent also refers to this Superyacht News:

 

[Kendall Raine]

Undercurrent has done a good job of keeping track of the topic of LOB sinkings. The attached is from June 2024.

 

[Dan]

Another red flag from that latest issue of Undercurrent article:

“Experts from The Yacht Report (a YouTube channel that reports on yacht incidents worldwide, formerly Superyacht News) point out that although Sea Story was recently built, it had an insufficient number of life rafts, inadequate navigation equipment, and no AIS, which vessels use to avoid collisions at sea and enables tracking by third parties. (It is mandatory for IMO-registered passenger vessels of this size.) But it wasn’t registered with the (IMO) International Maritime Organization as are most commercial vessels.”

Liveaboard with AIS is one of my diving safety criteria as I carry PAB (Personal AIS Beacon) & PLB (Personal Locatoy Beacon) just in case I get lost at sea. PAB is my fist signal device when the zodiac fail to see my DSMB, but I still can see the liveaboard in the horizon. When I launch my PAB (Nautilus nexGen Merine Rescue GPS), it’ll send VHF radio signal of MOB (Man Over Board) to any boat equipped with DSC & AIS. It’ll also sends my GPS coordinates for their zodiac to locate where I am. No DSC or AIS on the liveaboard, that means they would not know where I am nor aware that I am lost at sea. I’ll be relying on other liveaboard equipped with DSC / AIS to help find me.

If no boat is on the horizon, then I will launch my rescue device of the last resort, my PLB (PLB1), which will send 406 MHz signal to SAR (Search and Rescue) satellites monitored by NOOA, which would relay the distress signal to local SAR organization (in US they are US Coast Guard & Navy, I venture to guess in Egypt would be Egyptian Navy).