Diving in the Red Sea - a quick intro...
Red Sea marine life and diving conditions are legendary. There are creatures from the very tiny to some of the largest on earth, and plenty of shipwrecks. Some are real wreckies wrecks, as intact as any shipwreck you're ever likely to see, whilst others have been there a while and are well on the way to being a part of the reef.
Lionfish, seen at the Alternatives, a regular liveaboard check-dive site
Visibility is reliably 20m or more, and the water temperature varies from 32 degrees in summer to 20 degrees in winter. It's the closest warm-water, coral-reef, high visibility diving to the UK, and deservedly popular with divers from around the world. The dive-travel industry in Egypt is well established and provides excellent facilities for every level of diver, from the complete beginner to advanced mixed-gas techies.
Giannis D at Abu Nuhas - a favourite wreck for many
Put all these factors together and it's no surprise the Red Sea is the most popular overseas diving destination for British divers.
The very best way to see the Red Sea is from a liveaboard dive boat, and I work with Tony Backhurst Scuba Travel and the superb vessels of the Tornado Marine Fleet to offer a variety of Escorted Trips.
Liveaboard dive-boats are floating hotels where the attraction is the very best diving, and if you have a birthday, anniversary or mark a significant diving milestone the crew will be very happy to throw you a party. On a liveaboard trip you transfer from the airport to your boat where you'll stay for the next week, just set your kit up and you're ready for the week.
The first dive of the trip will be a mandatory check-dive, to make sure you and your kit have survived the attentions of the airline baggage handlers intact, then you're away.
Liveaboard, this is Tony Backhurst/Tornado Marine Fleet's Whirlwind
We usually offer three day-dives and a night-dive each day of the trip except the last, when you'll do two or three dives dependant on return flight times. Each day you'll wake up either over the dive-site or very near to it, and be in the water by 7am, giving you nice long surface intervals to make the most of subsequent dives. After each dive you put your kit back in your space and remove the first stage from your cylinder to show it needs filling, and that's it. You'll find the cylinder is done long before the next dive.
Food is excellent, with three full meals a day plus an early morning pre-dive snack and an afternoon snack after the third dive. Soft drinks, tea and coffee are included, and available twenty four hours a day, plus a bar stocked with beer and wine, payable locally.
Dining room aboard Tony Backhurst/Tornado Marine's Whirlwind
Red Sea Diving
The length of each dive is up to you, but with four dives a day a maximum of 60mins is often requested. If you want longer just SAY SO! Depths will usually be 30m or less - that's where the seabed is on most of the northern wrecks - though some deeper dives are possible. Rosalie Moller really needs 35 to 40m, and Aida on the Brothers starts at 35m, whilst the wall at Ras Mohammed goes down to 900m or more and there are plenty of 60m walls all around both Sharm and Hurghada.
Time to go diving!
Cylinders
Single 12l cylinders and air or Nitrox are the norm, but you can hire 15l steel cylinders, a manifolded twin-set (Or you can build your own indy-twelves using the cylinders on-board), stages and even rebreathers. On the Tornado boats we can organise helium, oxygen, Sofnolime or whatever else you need, just let us know in advance.
Decompression
No-deco was the rule (And still is on some boats, though not on one of my Escorted Trips), but properly trained, equipped and experienced divers can plan and execute deco, especially on the deeper wrecks.
Just be aware that the Red Sea is very salty, the sun is very hot and you're likely to be dehydrated, added to which you'll have a very bumpy RIB ride to a chamber if it all goes horribly wrong.....
Suits
Suits are something of a personal preference - it largely depends on how cold you're prepared to be! The Red Sea can be as warm as 30C in summer, but a realistic in-water temperature in summer is 26C in the north and 28C in the south, falling to 20C and 22C respectively in February, which is the coldest month. After a few days of long dives you'll start to get chilled without adequate thermal protection, except in the height of summer, and as it's always windy in the Red Sea the wind-chill between dives can come as a very nasty surprise for divers expecting hot sunshine, especially in winter.
I dive in a drysuit from November to April, and a full length 5mm wetsuit from May to October, though in August a 3mm full suit or 5mm shorty is enough.
Knives and Gloves
Knives are generally frowned on, though a discreet little knife attached to your BC isn't going to cause upset, and unless you have a medical problem, NO GLOVES anywhere in the Red Sea. The idea is that if you have to touch things with your bare hands you'll make more effort not to touch anything, which benefits wrecks and reefs alike.