Liveaboard options for Red Sea in July

[scubajasonr]

I did the Brother and North trip with BlueOTwo a few years ago. I thought it was a great itinerary, visiting a good variety of some of the best dive sites in the Egyptian Red Sea. We did have a pretty rough overnight trip from Brothers to Sharm, but apart from it was all good. There look to be quite a few boats offering this route in July.

 

[karnold]

Thanks all for the feedback - there are a few North + Brothers options available that I've been looking at for July - specifically Red Sea Explorers but maybe Blue o Two. Anyone have any experience on this route with either?

 

[Parlem]

Thanks all for the feedback - there are a few North + Brothers options available that I've been looking at for July - specifically Red Sea Explorers but maybe Blue o Two. Anyone have any experience on this route with either?

I did North & Brothers with Red Sea Explorer over New Year in 2021-22. It was, overall, a positive or very positive experience. What would you like to know?

 

[scubajasonr]

I did the Brothers and North route with BlueOTwo in October 2017. Overall it was a good trip, with good guides, safety and food. The guides on the boat Elke and Ahmed are now running the ScubaScene company, so probably not very representative of how the trip is now. Ahmed was teaching some sort of tech course while we were on the boat, I am not sue what the course was. Also bear in mind that BlueOTwo went into administration in 2021, and then reformed as a new company - sadly leaving many divers out of pocket for booked trips - so the experience could be totally different now.

 

[Christian]

Have done a few one weeks in Egypt with Blue o Two, including a North and Brothers in October 2017. But not after the "re-construction" in 2021, so cannot say for sure if things have changed. But they used to have a very solid offer inmo, with focus on working with some of the best local guides onboard their boats. Ahmed mentioned in previous post -- one of the best in Egypt. I think he is back with Royal Evolution now (as a EDIT operations manager). Boats comfortable and well maintained, food always good and plentiful. Not luxury, but high quality. Also ... 9 out of 10 BoT guests are Brits. You need to find if you prefer to hang with Italians, French, Germans, Brits ... Or if you don't care.

paging

@Ahmeddawood

 

[scubaozy]

I had not so stellar experience with blue o two (Melody) last March. Service levels and guides were ok but the sea worthiness of the boat was not so great. We had some rough seas, bow cabins were taking in water, so, people staying there were pretty scared, they slept most of the time at the lounge area. While we were doing the crossing in storm at night, the water in the ceilings of the bow cabins caused short circuit and smoke alarm went off. I took my drybag containing signal devices, my passport and other important documents, banged the doors of the other rooms and woke as many divers as possible, as well as the guides. I do not think I would book that boat again, nor recommend unless it goes through a major refit.

 

[Parlem]

You've got to love this forum ... such a wealth of information!

 

[divezonescuba]

There are not a whole lot of liveaboards operating in the Red Sea that offer technical diving on board. I was told that the reason for that is that one of the CDWS dive guides on the boat has to be a technical diving instructor. Not sure if that is actually true or not. A more serious issue is what happens in the event of an accident.

What we do is to do a liveaboard the first week and dive with backmount doubles or sidemount to prep everyone for the second week. We then spend the second week in Dahab conducting technical diving courses. Since everyone taking the courses have already been diving for a week, a lot of the bugs have already been worked out. The extremely easy access to technical diving gear and depths from the shore make Dahab ideal for technical dive training.

 

[karnold]

Do you have any recommendations for instructors or shops in Dahab? At this point I think that's what I'm leaning towards, if I can figure out the transportation details (solo female traveler going from Hurghada to Dahab)

 

[divezonescuba]

You would probably have to take a flight from hurgada to Sharm and then a webus to dahab.

We like to use planet divers in Dahab. Zac is the technical diving manager. He is very even tempered. Andy Seuss with dahab divers is also good.