The Lady Jenny V is the most famous ship for this itinerary. She only made it a few times. The entire trip took a month+, but you could do different legs, jumping on in Sharm El Sheikh, Massawa, Hodeida or Djibouti, I think it was. She was actually a german-built ship - a luxury yacht from the 1920-30's. I did not go on her myself, unfortunatelly, because I couldn't afford it at the time. Even back then, she wasn't in that great shape. She now rests on the bottom of the Red Sea (sunk outside Hurghada). You can always send a mail to John Bantin on Diver Magazine if you want to know more about her. He used to work on her as a guide. There are also a few trip reports floating around on the Internet from the early 90's. You can also try to locate Alex and Tamara Double, they also worked on Lady Jenny, I think.
The Sea Surveyor did similar trips for a short period of time, with Massawa as her home port. Steel hulled. She was owned by Israelis. Don't know where that ship is today. Last I heard she was leased to the US Navy, working in the med. A fellow diver went on her in the mid 90's, just after the Yemen/Eritrea quarrel over the Hanish islands and ended up getting shot at by the Yemeni navy (only small arm fire - AK47:s).
An Italian managed boat who did trips in Djibouti/Yemen/Eritrea and also in Sudan in the 90's was Connda Vennessa, but she was sold to a young scotish lady 4-5 years ago, Rosie something?, who did run her in Sudan for a season or two. Don't know where that ship is now. But not steel hulled.
As far as I know, Don Questo has only been operating withing Sudanese waters for the latest ten years or so, with the exception of going home to Italy for service and development once in a while.
Unfortunatelly there are not many 'cross-country' trips available today. The Royal Evolution make 14-day RT trips Port Ghalib-Port Sudan, but you don't get to dive the best Egyptian sites in that trip - it is more concentrated on Sudanese waters. But in contrary to the trips made in earlier days, the Royal Evolution is a very comfortable one, I would say almost luxorius (fantastic ship). It is also easy to get to Port Ghalib nowadays with direct flight from many european countries. To really take in the different waters and aspects of the Red Sea in one trip, you really would need to embark in one country and disembark in another, unless you have three-four weeks to spend at sea, going forth and back... And all the politics and red tape combined with the costs and the sometimes cumbersome infrastructure in the countries involved, makes these trips unrealistic. The average dive tourist of today wants something different.
cheers
