Which month for BDE?

[Asanoth]

On a LoB there is one tank per diver - you set up your gear once and dive with the same tank the whole time...

Really? I thought this was an Egypt thing. If I recall correctly, during my (only ever) LB in Komodo there were more tanks and BCDs were switched among them. But might be as well that I confuse that with day dives...

How is is every topic of mine drifts toward tanks and gases . And I still do not know when to go . Pretty much choosing between June (more light, more chance for 4 dives), September and November (I guess no chance for 4 dives, run by my local school).

 

[Asanoth]

By the way, I just read this topic, which also says that reefs are not at their liveliest in Summer...

Trip Report - JP Marine trip report (Brothers/Daedalus)

JP Marine trip report – Brothers/Daedalus/[Elphinstone] Hi folks! As promised, a little trip report from my recent trip to Egypt on the JP Marine. Hopefully this will be helpful as there wasn’t a lot of information about the boat on this or other fora. Overall, I would recommend this boat –...

scubaboard.com

 

[Mod63]

How is is every topic of mine drifts toward tanks and gases . And I still do not know when to go . Pretty much choosing between June (more light, more chance for 4 dives), September and November (I guess no chance for 4 dives, run by my local school).

Wrong train of thought. The number of dives does not depend on the time of year, but on the itinerary and the dive sites. I've had plenty of 4 dive days in December and trips in June where we only had 3 due to the fact that we were mostly diving marine parks.

 

[Mod63]

By the way, I just read this topic, which also says that reefs are not at their liveliest in Summer...

We had plenty of hammerheads in June 23 at Deadalus and none in November 23. You never know.

 

[Asanoth]

I would not call a hammerhead a "reef" creature, and these are seen mostly in the summer, as far as I know.

I know what you mean about the itinerary, and it does also seem that at least Dive Safari Master who I inquired also do mostly 3 dives a day in the marine parks, even though their itinerary says 3-4...

 

[Asanoth]

Hello, coming back to this once again.
Eventually, we are taking land holiday in June and my wife has an important examination in the end of September. So both June and September are off. Given our other restraints, we can go in:

- August - hot, hard to visit land sites (but diving is priority), (+) supposedly good wildlife, chance for hammerheads, longer days
- October - better weather, shorter days, many divers in water, but (+) probably for the reason, good for land visit
- November - we can go with our local diving club (not sure if that is a (+) or (-) ), starting Nov 9th, complicated for gear rental, colder water (my wife is not Dan and will get cold in 24 °C), good for land visit. This liveaboard only visits Dedalus and Elphinstone, does not mention other sites

Our budget restrains us to pretty much one or two boats choice, if I cut out the Russian owned boats (might end up on them in the end, but it is not the first choice), and we can do either BDE or DE + Fury shoals.

Would you have any opinions for me, please?
Thank you.

 

[scubajasonr]

If you are planning land excursions I would avoid August. I go to Egypt most summers and it does get very very hot in the daytime in August, I really wouldn't want to be walking far outside during the day. However around the water it is fine, I been on liveaboards the last two years during August and the heat really hasn't been an issue. I haven't dived BDE at this time of year, but am doing DE as part of a trip in August this year. I doing a Southern Solitude route with Emperor which looks a bit different, so will be interesting to see what marine life shows up.

October is a good time of year, but as you have mentioned the main dives sites can be busy, equally can be empty it just depends on what boats turn up. Water is still warm, and air temp is good. At the start of October it is nice to sit on deck with a beer in the evening, by the end of the month you will probably want to sit inside in the evening when you are away from port.

I have never dived that area in November but I would think water will still be warm (26-27 degrees?) but air temp will be starting to get colder, especially after the last dive of the day.

If you are looking for a budget boat I would highly recommend the two boats that Deep Blue Cruises operate. Only small and fairly old boats, but very seaworthy with great service and food. They put some of the more 'luxury' boats to shame. They mainly target the German market, but have guests from all over Europe.

 

[staggsSevin]

Good thread, I'm toying around with the idea of going for a week in July/August this year but looking at basically just a liveaboard with no sightseeing and just doing the dive. I'd say @Asanoth is a good rule of thumb for how July/August would look.

 

[ColinT3]

I did BDE Nov/Dec last year, saw more OWT than we could shake a stick at, along with Threshers and a Silky. We didn't see any Hammers.
I did a Northern Wrecks, Ras Mohamed, Tiran and The Brothers a week ago, we saw a Whaleshark at Little Brother, along with Threshers, no OWT, no Hammers.
The week before they saw a Manta, the week I was there there were 2 sightings of OWT at Elphinstone.
Generally for OWT on a BDE people would still recommend an Autumn trip.

 

[Asanoth]

Thank you.
Would you recommend BDE, or DE + Fury Shoals?