There is no more relaxing way for the experienced diver to observe the classic Red Sea and her more remote locations than by liveaboard.
Our northern and southern liveaboards have excellent reputations for service and hospitality and are very well established.
Our northern charters depart each Saturday, and provide some of the most dramatic wall diving, coral gardens and wrecks to be found world-wide. Our unique southern charters, with embarkation each Wenesday to access the most southerly reefs and islands of the Egyptian Red Sea, providing adventurous diving in the solitude of this remote territory.
“Between the Tiran Straits and Port Sudan are the most diverse concentrations of marine life and greatest profusion of soft corals in the entire Red Sea. Here more than one thousand species of fish, some five hundred species of coral and thousands of invertebrate reef dwellers weave a rich tapestry of colour in waters that offer outstanding visibility”.
The Blue Planet fleet charters are suitable for experienced divers. These boats operate far from ports, medical & chandlery services. Please be aware that due to logistics, it is not possible to maintain the boats to the same standards as you would expect where these facilities are available.
We cannot always dive Zabargad & Rocky Island at present, however, we cover so many stunning reefs, the exclusion of these sites is not detrimental to the dive itinerary and means we avoid busier sites. We have the advantage of starting from the ‘deep south’ thereby avoiding lengthy sailing transfers and strong headwinds on the return trip.
We do not sell alcoholic drinks on our Red Sea liveaboards, but you may take your own supply onboard and fridges are provided to keep drinks cool. You can purchase spirits & beer from the airport Duty Free in Egypt upon arrival. (Apart from Marsa Alam Airport).
We have operated liveaboards in the Egyptian Red Sea for the last twenty years. Of all the tours we organise we have come to appreciate that liveaboards are the hardest to operate because so many factors contribute to an ideal charter. For this reason we have compiled a liveaboard fact-sheet with answers to common questions plus information, which we hope will be useful.
Unfortunately boats by their very nature, no matter how well maintained, can suffer mechanical failures which can cause disruption whilst you are on charter or may even mean that you have to change boats if the problem has appeared prior to embarkation. There is an engineer onboard all our boats and in the event of a mechanical failure they will do their utmost to cause as little inconvenience as possible to the guests and their diving programme.
Although the boat is thoroughly checked before it embarks on a charter, marine air-conditioning can be temperamental and if it breaks down on your charter the crew may decide not to dismantle the system to discover where the problem is, but will instead wait until an air-conditioning engineer can come onboard. If one cabin’s fan is damaged, this won’t have any influence on the other cabins. In any instance the maximum time needed to re-operate the system is only one night. In the event that this happens you will have the option to sleep on a mattress on the fly-bridge, if it is too hot to sleep below. Even if the air-conditioning is working, during the summer many people opt to sleep on the fly-bridge anyway, as sleeping under the clear star-lit sky can be a wonderful experience. In summer the air-conditioning is often kept on during the day in the salon and in the cabins at night. If the system is getting too hot the crew will turn it off after the last guest has retired.
When we supply information on our liveaboards they are believed to be accurate. Many of you will contact us at the Oonasdivers UK office to discuss the merits of various liveaboards. We try hard not to give any misconceptions about our boats and when we describe a boat’s merits it is our own opinion and you need to look at the specification sheet to get an emotive description.
Do not expect that because liveaboard tours are often more expensive than accommodation tours, the cabins should be as comfortable or more so than a hotel room! Unfortunately, cabins on most liveaboards tend to be cramped with limited storage space. On all our liveaboards, dress is informal and we suggest that you keep your clothes to a minimum, shorts & T-shirts/sarongs in summer and add tracksuits, jeans & jumpers for the winter evenings. If you pack your clothes in a holdall rather than a suitcase it will be much easier to stow away in your cabin. Bed linen is supplied on all liveaboards but towels are not supplied on all boats. We recommend that you bring 2 towels, one for seawater and one for showering.
A simple rule on all boats is not to put anything down the toilet that you have not eaten first! Even a small piece of toilet paper will block marine toilets and it is unfair on the crew member who has to go and eliminate the problem. Instead a bin is provided beside the toilet for all paper/tampons etc. If you find that the bin needs emptying please tell a member of the crew.
Unless there is desalination onboard your boat will have a limited supply of water. When our boats go to sea they do not intend to return to port until you disembark. The amount of water you have onboard should be enough for the maximum capacity of guests to be able to have one short shower per day. Where there are showers on deck they can be used to rinse off your face & hair, cameras, regulators & computers. If you are using too much water the boat will run out and if you are not close to port you will have to forgo showers. This situation is rare, but please be sensible about the amount of water you use.
The meals on our liveaboards are mixture of European and Egyptian cuisine. If you have any special dietary requirements e.g. vegetarian, gluten-free, please let us know in advance so we can inform the cook. Mineral water, tea, coffee and soft drinks are free. (Soft drinks are extra on board Juliet but free Marine Parks). We do not sell alcoholic drinks on our liveaboards but you are welcome to bring your own duty-free spirits and beer onboard. These can be purchased from the airport duty-free. Fridges are provided to keep your beer cold.
All of our liveaboards have a TV & video onboard as well as a CD and DVD player. The TV is really there to be a monitor for those using video cameras. There is no satellite TV and reception of Egyptian TV is poor, so you are welcome to bring some videos or DVD’s. The voltage onboard is 220v / 110v and is 2 x round pin so you will need a travel plug adapter. The boats have two generators and whilst one is cooling the other will be in use, so there should not be a problem re-charging batteries. The re-charging points are normally in the salon and cabins. If you cannot see enough points, please ask a member of the crew. Because of the visibility you do not need huge lanterns, and torches are ideal. Some non-rechargeable torches such as Underwater Kinetics SL4 and Scuba pros ‘blue light’ take 4 alkaline batteries which will give you 8 hours of light - more than enough for a weeks liveaboard and saves carrying spares.
All dive sites and itineraries are sea condition dependent and are decided by the skipper and dive guide. Wrecks tend to lie in exposed locations with navigation hazards. We do not promote ‘Wreck’ charters because it is unrealistic to ask a skipper to compromise the safety of his guests, crew & boat when sea conditions are not favourable. Likewise, we do not guarantee sharks as although reef sharks are territorial they tend to be very shy and the larger pelagic sharks are cruisers and you are simply lucky if you spot them.
Your dive guide has a responsibility to cater for the least experienced diver onboard. If you feel that you would like to do more advanced diving than that being offered, if the guide is looking after someone with less experience, - speak to the guide and at their discretion you should be able to conduct your own dives in buddied pairs. As we are frequently a good distance from a recompression chamber, none of the dives are decompression dives and the maximum depth is 30m. The guides will give briefings before each dive - if you feel that you require a more in-depth briefing, please tell the guide and they will be pleased to elaborate.
All our boats carry a comprehensive medical kit and emergency O2. Remember to bring sun-lotion, even in winter when there can be a cold wind, you can burn. If snorkelling it is a good idea to wear a white T-shirt to reflect the surface ultra-violet rays.
For strategic reasons the Egyptian Ministry of Defence may decide to place temporary bans on certain sites. If this happens we will amend your route and provide a different dive itinerary. We will never compromise the guests or the boat by visiting sites we have not been granted permission to dive.
Divers visiting Ras Mohammed will have to pay a €5 per person, per day fee for Marine Park maintenance. This is only applicable to divers at Ras Mohammed. You will be asked to pay the Marine Park fee at the end of the charter. You can pay in Euro, US dollars or sterling sterling.