This is the third and last part of the liveaboard in the Red Sea, Egypt. The first and second part of the story can be found here (1 and 2). After visiting the Thiestlegorm, we continued diving in the shipwrecks of Abu Nuhas and then visited some more reefs of the way back to Hurghada.

Thursday

After a night in Abu Nuhas, we had light breakfast and prepared to dive in another shipwreck.

Ghiannis D Wreck

Ghiannis D Wreck

The Ghiannis D was a Greek freighter of Japanese manufacture that ran aground in Abu Nuhas in 1983. The most impressive part of it is its enormous bridge, which is very well preserved. Below it, we entered through a narraw corridor that reaches the engine room. Inside the wreck there was a moment I fell disoriented by how crooked the boat is. As we made the safety stop, we were able to watch a group of Italian apneists coming down to the main bridge of the ship.

Ghiannis D engine room

Siyul Kebir

After Abu Nuhas, we sailed eastward to the reef of Siyul Kebir. We started the dive going down to about 25 meters where there was a sand bottom. There, we got carried away by the current and some minor coral spots appeared. We saw a pepper moray eel moray and several scorpion fish.

Sailfin Tang

Lion fish

Dolphin House – Sha´ab el Erg

Again we sailed for an hour to get to Sha’ab el Erg, where we did the first “calibration” dive. This time the plan was to go to dolphin house, where is common to find a  family of dolphins. Once down, we went to the wall of the largest islet and began to surround it towards the channel that separates it from the smaller islet. The current became intense and we had to struggle to cross the channel from side to side. An athletic dive! Unfortunately we did not see the dolphins underwater. Once again on the boat we saw them from the surface as it got dark.

Pustulose Wart Slug

Later we did the night dive in the same place and it was very good. We saw another pepper moray eel, a giant moray eel, several nudibranchs and flatworms, a speckled streak with one eye (!?) and a hermit crab with anemones on top.

One eyed bluespotted stingray

Friday

And the last day arrived. Our bodies were feeling tired. As we headed back towards Hurghada, our first stop of the day was at Umm Gamar.

Umm Gammar

It is a very nice wall reef. We went down about 25 meters and we started swimming with the reef to the left. After passing through two large pinnacles we entered a small cave that is just below the second one. We then went up to the shallow end of the reef where there was a very colorful landscape.

Fanous East

A little further south we submerged in Fanous east. This time, we jumped from the zodiac and, with the reef to our right, we started to circle the islet. The water was quite murky (rare!) but we did see several stone fish, a sea snake and some octopus among the rocks.

El Mina wreck

Already in front of the port of Hurghada, we prepared for the last dive. El Mina was a Russian minesweeper ship sunk by Israeli fighters in 1970 and now lays in the bottom only a few meters from the coast. It is fully anchored and the entrance to its interior is not simple. We went down and crossed the upper deck to the bow, then went up and back just on top of the hull. Finally we did a long seafety stop of 2 minutes at 15 meters and 3 minutes at 5 meters.

El Mina wreck

El Mina wreck – Last dive in the Red sea

Arriving in Hurghada

We returned to the boat and minutes later we were docked at the marina in Hurghada. We washed and dried our equipment and went for a walk around the town. We had dinner on the boat, made our last night aboard and at dawn much of the group left for the airport. I had a transfer booked to Luxor that picked me up  at noon. I will comment that visit in a future post.

As a summary of the trip, I think my first experience in a liveaboard was wonderful. The service of the Emperor Superior was simply impeccable. A huge thank you to the crew and the guides Ana and Sergio who were very friendly and professional. Definitely a memorable trip!

You can read all the Red sea post clicking here!

Bye Red sea… we´ll return soon!