Sudan diving and sea conditions?

[Liberty01]

I thought about a liveaboard trip off Port Sudan or from Ras Ghaleb in next spring.
What are the diving conditions like? Strong currents? Other particular difficulties?
Rough seas, particularly along the way from Ras Ghaleb to Northern Sudan?
Are dives usually guided?
I consider a 2-week trip. What would you recommend?
Cheers,
Liberty

P.S.: I am Padi OWA, 270 dives in tropical waters, mainly walls, pinnacles, but occasionally might need help with equipment set-up as I just bought new equipment.

 

[Christian]

It's fairly easy diving. Currents can be strong sometimes, but seldom are. Wind can blow diving out from some places, like Angarosh, for a day or two.

If you go to Port Sudan I would reccomed the Don Questo, they have a great captain that is very flexible and will try to arrange what the guests want to do - no bs. Also true unlimited diving (most boats in Sudan normally only do 2-3 a day).
The Royal Emperor is a nicer boat, allthough I haven't been on her since she was sold, rebuilt and moved to Port Sudan, so I can't really comment on how she is run nowadays. She used to be my favourite in Egypt a few years back.

The third option, and the easiest, is to hop on the the MS Royal Evolution in Ras Ghaleb, Egypt. I was on her this summer and there are n o boats that compares favourably to her in the Red Sea. Fantastic ship and crew. Hurry up and book though, because her Sudan-trips in the spring gets filled up pretty quickly. March-may is the best time.

Defientely go for two weeks. From Egypt it is the only option and going for one week via Port Sudan is too much travelling (10-day trip) for 5.5 days diving. Two weeks is the only sane alternative.

You can be guided on all boats I mentioned (and on most) if you wish to.
good luck

/christian

 

[Red Sea Shadow]

As Christian mentioned, the only alternative from Egypt is a 2-weeks trip. And yes the dives are guided.

If you want more info on Sudan sites, visit Red Sea Shadow - SCUBA diving all over the Red Sea

 

[WildRover]

Egyptian boats wishing to enter & dive in Sudanese waters have to first report to Port Sudan to complete the necessary paperwork. This means a long sail down from Port Ghalib to Port Sudan before you can get in the water. So if you are going from Egypt you want 2 weeks.

If you are going in early spring Jan/Feb I'd suggest you go from Port Sudan because if the winds blow they can be strong which means the sail back to Egypt involves beating into the wind & short surface chop. Royal Evolution is a big beast & can probably cope with these kind of conditions. I believe she's currently the only boat which meets SOLAS requirements for travelling across borders like this.

The newest boat operating out of Port Sudan is Sherazade (built 2005). Great boat, great crew (I should come clean that I have a commercial interest, see our offers posted in Scubaboard Travel: Group trips, Cruises and Dive Trips but we wouldn't offer the boat if we weren't confident about her & her crew)

Sudan's diving is great & with only a handful of liveaboards in the Sudan I'm sure you'll have a great trip, but you did the right thing by posting here I'm obviously biased but you want to get personel recomendations because there are a couple of boats down there you do not want to be on (1 week or 2)

 

[stevewirl]

sudan is great . but what i would recomend is that 1 week divin in sudan live aboard and a week in Sharm el sheik in Red Sea Diving college . Iv done both . a week on a small boat is long enough . dive are usually repeated week after week as new diverss join .

 

[Christian]

Egyptian boats wishing to enter & dive in Sudanese waters have to first report to Port Sudan to complete the necessary paperwork. This means a long sail down from Port Ghalib to Port Sudan before you can get in the water. So if you are going from Egypt you want 2 weeks.

If you are going in early spring Jan/Feb I'd suggest you go from Port Sudan because if the winds blow they can be strong which means the sail back to Egypt involves beating into the wind & short surface chop. Royal Evolution is a big beast & can probably cope with these kind of conditions. I believe she's currently the only boat which meets SOLAS requirements for travelling across borders like this.

The newest boat operating out of Port Sudan is Sherazade (built 2005). Great boat, great crew (I should come clean that I have a commercial interest, see our offers posted in Scubaboard Travel: Group trips, Cruises and Dive Trips but we wouldn't offer the boat if we weren't confident about her & her crew)

Sudan's diving is great & with only a handful of liveaboards in the Sudan I'm sure you'll have a great trip, but you did the right thing by posting here I'm obviously biased but you want to get personel recomendations because there are a couple of boats down there you do not want to be on (1 week or 2)

Is Renato the skipper on Sherazade? I heard roumors that he was going to captain this boat after many years on the Ernesto Leoni.

Also, if you go for two weeks from Port Sudan, don't make the mistake of going on two consecutive 1-week-trips as the earlier poster did. Make sure to book a dedicated 2-week trip and get the extended range to visit reefs to the far north or south.

I've done several trips from Port Sudan (always 14 days) on different boats and once I did a three week Egypt-Port Sudan-Egypt. You have to go into Port Sudan for a couple of hours and do paper work before you can dive in Sudanese waters. But we dived on the first day in Egyptian waters and then went over night to Port Sudan. So in practise, you miss half a day of diving. And you get fewer days in Sudanese waters compared to a 14-day out of Port Sudan. On the other hand you don't have to stay over in Cairo on both legs and you don't have to go with Sudan Air, which usually is fine, but sometimes there are dreadful delays.

good luck

/c

 

[WildRover]

Is Renato the skipper on Sherazade? I heard roumors that he was going to captain this boat after many years on the Ernesto Leoni.

Yes Renato & Mariacristina run the show on Sherazade

 

[Christian]

Yes Renato & Mariacristina run the show on Sherazade

He is very competent and one of the most knowledgable about the area, but he, at least used to, be very, very strict on only two dives a day (sometimes an extra night dive) - it was not negotiable - with safety being the argument... Do you know if he has changed his mind on that point?

/christian

 

[WildRover]

In a week long safari you’ll probably get 16 guided dives in, 3 per day, plus night dives (18 on the Sudan Classic itinerary). On a 2 week trip we normally add/encourage one day of no diving mid week for safety.

As you know the remoteness of the Sudan dive sites means the guides do need to be extra tight on dive profiles. Any risk assesments will show you that there's no real alternative for a diver with DCS than to sail them back up to Egypt and that'd not be comfortable.

Prevention is most definately better than cure.

 

[Christian]

Interesting. Many will only offer two dives per day (Renato used to be one of them), and they'll give you exactly the same arguments you just used. I guess what is considered safe is very relative and personal. Some would say you are completely nuts doing more than two dives a day in a remote place like Sudan. Well, well...

cheers

/christian