Before the trip I did consider the alternatives, shore based diving is great to do on holiday, but the day boats do not get the opportunity to be the first on a particular site. Stories of 30+ dive boats bobbing in the water near the most popular wrecks and a veritable swarm of divers chasing each other's fins did not appeal so much. I had a fairly short window in mid May to arrange a late availability holiday and after some ringing around chose a liveaboard, which was headed to the reefs south of Hurgada. The holiday was booked through Hayes and Jarvis and organised by Diving World on the MY Miss Veena.
This boat was launched in Suez March 2000. It is a luxury craft by any standards with a length of 34m and powered by twin 1000hp thrust engines giving her a maximum cruising speed of around 17 knots. The standards of construction are high and her wooden hull was built and fitted out using fittings to the highest standards. The spacious 8 twin berth cabins all have en-suite facilities; there is a large bar with separate dining area as well as TV, video and sound system. An additional TV in the bar is fitted with video and games console to keep the younger guests amused between dives. On the main deck there is an additional double bed en-suite cabin and a large sun deck and main bridge area. Another sun area is on the upper deck with flying bridge. She is fully licensed to dive the southern marine parks.
There were a total of 21 divers on the week I was there. Five of us had travelled with Hayes and Jarvis and arrived first to take the pick of the cabins. Although I was travelling alone we soon got chatting on the bumpy two and a half hour ride from Hurgada to Quesir were the boat was moored. The others arrived during the night from various directions. A party of 4 from France comprising of two couples who were doing their PADI Advanced course during the week, 2 enthusiastic lads from Germany and a party of 10 from a Somerset based dive club. As it happened my room-mate preferred to sleep on deck under the stars so, although he kept his gear in the cabin, I actually had it to myself at night - just as well according to my wife who has a phobia about my (alleged) snoring habit. The youngest diver was Craig at 13 years old who was with his father and the Somerset guys; the oldest were in their late forties/early fifties. The mixture was quite diverse and the number of dives logged ranged between 30 and 300+. I have to say that including some good natured banter between the BSAC diehards and PADI groups we all got along incredibly well. This was helped by a very large kitting up area where all the cylinders were stored and filled after each dive.
On arrival we were allocated cylinders and kit boxes underneath the benches. The scuba gear was unpacked and assembled to the cylinder and left in place for the entire trip. At the end of each dive the cylinder with BCD attached was put back in the rack and only the first stage removed to allow re-filling from long hoses fed by two Bauer Mariner filtered compressors. Nitrox was advertised but was not available during this particular week. This was a slight disappointment as it would have offered a slightly improved margin of safety over a long day's diving but certainly did not spoil my trip. One other point was that the cylinders are all aluminium 12 litre. We were asked on collection at the airport if we were comfortable with 12 litres as 15 litres could be arranged at extra cost. One person asked for a 15 litre cylinder which we collected on the way to the boat. The charge for this was 60 Egyptian pounds (approx. 12 quid) for the week which seemed very reasonable. In the kitting area there were a large number of cubby holes in one wall for masks, computers, torches etc. and these were also fitted with power outlets for recharging torches between dives.
Meals were all buffet style and the food quality and variety was excellent. The chef was a very popular guy with crew and guests alike. Water was in plentiful supply from a large bottle dispenser which also provided a hot water outlet for coffee and tea. Soft drinks and beer wines and spirits were available from the fridge in the bar and a name sheet was kept by the bar to allow these to be marked on as used on a trust basis. Charges of 1 dollar per soft drink and 1.5 dollars for beer etc. were totted up and settled at the end of the week.
Our dive guide for the trip was Sonia Goggel, a very knowledgeable Swiss lady with long blond hair and a year round tan. She spent her childhood in Columbia and has travelled widely. She had fallen in love with Egypt and the Red Sea following a holiday there several years ago and simply stayed ever since. Her dive briefing was thorough and at each site she drew a map on a white board to detail the individual areas and dive plan. This was given separately in English and French plus specific highlights in German where necessary to ensure each group had a clear understanding of the site. Actually, one of the German guys said they were happy to take the briefing in English so they could quickly kit up and pop down to the reef to get their towels on before we got there.
All dive certification was fully checked before the first dive. This was a check out dive and helped group the divers by ability. Of the 5 of us who arrived first, three dived together regularly as a threesome and I buddied with Jon from Bishops Stortford. I am generally a relaxed steady diver with reasonable air consumption; Jon was a similar temperament but seemed to be equipped with a set of gills judging by his air gauge. We kept these groupings for the week so we must have been quite well matched. The two Germans almost always dived together as did the two French couples and Jason organised his party of ten following Sonia's briefing as the dive site dictated.
The diving this week was all reef dives, the reefs to the south are in superb condition and although a few were accessible from the shore, the majority could only be reached by boat. The advantage of a liveaboard is that the first dive of the day can be made before breakfast. Generally, we were kitting up between 6:00 and 7:00 and rarely hit the water after 07:00. Being early in the water was definitely an advantage. By the time the some of the other liveaboards and certainly the first day boats arrive we were usually well on our way to the next dive site being one of the fastest boats in the area. We also had two eight man RIBs which were used to drop us in the best spot and for recovery on the drift dives.
Dive No. | Date | Location | |
| 1 | 12-May | Mangrove Reef | |
| 2 | 12-May | Elphinstone | |
| 3 | 12-May | Na'aba Bay - night | |
| 4 | 13-May | Elphinstone | |
| 5 | 13-May | Sha'ab Ruhr Gota Sharm | |
| 6 | 13-May | Shelinat (Wadi Gimal) | |
| 7 | 13-May | Wadi Gimal - night | |
| 8 | 14-May | Gota Sharm | |
| 9 | 14-May | Gota Sharm | |
| 10 | 14-May | Sha'ab Samadai | |
| 11 | 14-May | Sha'ab Samadai - night | |
| 12 | 15-May | Sha'ab Samadai | |
| 13 | 15-May | Sha'ab Marsa Alam | |
| 14 | 15-May | Abu Dahab I | |
| 15 | 15-May | Na'aba Bay - night | |
| 16 | 16-May | Shouna Reef (North) | |
| 17 | 16-May | Ras Torombi | |
| 18 | 16-May | Sharm El Tahtani | |
| 19 | 16-May | Mangrove Reef - night | |
| 20 | 17-May | Mangrove Reef | |
| 21 | 17-May | Zereb |
STOP PRESS
I got home at 1:30 am Saturday morning - woke early and set off to Boots with loads of film for their 1 hour treatment and guess what? Their machine breaks down! After five and a half hours kicking my heels round town, I finally got several sets of pics back. The manager offered to knock the price down to the 3 day rate but I suggested a compromise and asked for them free of charge, as they had clearly not delivered the service advertised. He agreed with me and also uploaded the pics to their Internet site. This is a new service which allows you to sort and store as well as ordering re-prints and transfer selected images to photo CD. I happily paid for this as it does save a lot of work with the scanner.
Here is a small taster until I get round to doing the job properly:
