Nitrox needed on Brothers/Daeldalus/Elphinstone liveaboard? & few related questions

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DazedAndConfuzed

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Hi,

I will be going on a liveaboard in Sept with Brothers/Daeldalus/Elphinstone as the itinerary. I was wondering based on the usual dive profile, and ocean condition, would I need nitrox to do all 4 of the daily dives offered? If the current are strong where there is alot of fighting with it and/or the profile has most of the dives in moderate depth, then I would presume I would run low on air before reaching my NDL. Otherwise, if much of the dive is below 15 fathom, I would reach the NDL pretty fast if I am on air.

Also, are all the dives off the zodiac? Wife wasn't so crazy on the getting back on the zodiac in galapagos, and the mass back flip then fast descent there is a bit chaotic, especially when a few adjacent people are holding camera gears on rough seas.

Is the deployment of delayed SMB required by every diver, including the use of the reel? Since not everybody in my group has reels.

I also noticed on the critter time table, almost nothing is there in the month of september. Is that the month where I won't be seeing much of anything?

RED SEA YEAR - TIME TABLE
 
i've done this trip multiple times. nitrox is not needed, but i would strongly recommend it from a safety point of view. you will be doing a lot of repetitive diving; these sites are remote and a hyperbaric chamber will be some distance away.

there will probably be some zodiac diving. the better operators have this well organised.

i've not come across DSMB being compulsory, but every diver is usually required to carry an SMB which is very sensible. i would recommend carrying DSMB and being capable of deploying one. a small spool is all that is required rather than a large reel.

you can see anything at any time, those sites are probably the best places to see sharks in the egyptian red sea.

enjoy.
 
thanks for the info.

How close is one diving to their ND limit when doing 4 dives? If it is right on the limit, it is obviously safer to use nitrox. I might just use it because due to feeling less groggy, but my wife it a PITA to use the analyzer and reset the computer every time. She is probably much less suspect to DCS given how little air she takes in, but then its either both air or both nitrox or else one computer's NDL would be reached much sooner and the nitrox diver would have to follow the air diver's profile.


Mid sept is very close to the windy season, so I guess its rough riding on the zodiacs, or maybe even cancellation.
 
Try learning to launch a DSMB with a spool. I can't imagine why people would want to bother with reels for SMB/DSMBs. Spools are so nicely small and multipurpose, they never jam and don't need to have so much line that even a dropped spool is fairly easy to sort back out underwater and w/o help.

4 dives/day at Brothers and Deadalus would be hard to accomplish because at these sites night diving is not allowed: marine park rules.

Not just sharks, we also saw LOTS of mantas at Deadalus.

There can be very strong currents and there is a huge open ocean around these places. I would happily carry 2 SMBs/DSMBs and always took 2 lights because I figured a strong light with a good battery could make a big difference for being found if things went badly.

I generally dove air at these outer sites (3 dives/day) so I could go deep and often get a little closer to the sharks we saw (also rented doubles so I always had the gas to dive deep). You don't want to see something great below you and be unable to get as close as you could have done if you had air. If this kind of deep diving was not preferred or planned I would indeed have used a nitrox mix appropriate for our planned max depth.

If you go to the lighthouse on Deadalus take money for a T-shirt and get to the table in good time so the last/only one in your size or preferred color has not been sold.
 
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How close is one diving to their ND limit when doing 4 dives?

that's going to be up to you. the dive guides won't be holding your hand.


sept is very close to the windy season, so I guess its rough riding on the zodiacs, or maybe even cancellation.

i've dived the red sea in every month of the year. september is my favourite month because the air temp has started to drop, but the water temp remains high. it may be windy, it may not. hard to predict. the zodiac rides will usually be very short and the egyptian boat handlers are very game when it comes to rough conditions :)
 
Hi,

I will be going on a liveaboard in Sept with Brothers/Daeldalus/Elphinstone as the itinerary.

My friends & I are doing that iternary in Sept too.
Which boat are you diving with?
 
You don't have to go deep at the Brothers, although some of the more fun stuff to see is down there (like the top of the Numidia). If my memory is correct (and I haven't been there in several years) the reefs at Elphinstone and Daedalus break the surface, so you can probably stay shallow there, too, although one of them has a long shelf that is a bit deeper. The sharks you go to see, though, tend to be deep. I'd plan on Nitrox if I were you; when I did the trip, I used it.
 
Did this itinerary in October 2011 on Blue o Two's Horizon. I did use nitrox because of the repetitive dives. All dives except for one were done from RIBs (zodiacs) with a back roll and negative descent because of the strong currents. More significant to me, though, was the crowded diving conditions. Americans were being discouraged from going to Cairo and Luxor at the time so we had a direct flight from London to Hurghada. Because of the hostilities in the northern Red Sea area many liveaboards moved further south to the Brothers. At one point there were at least 17 boats on Elphinstone and many of the boats were tied together because of lack of moorings. Except for one boat, all of the operators were cooperative with each other and tried to separate their dive groups from each other. The other boat however regularly dumped their divers on top of other groups which because of the strong currents caused mass confusion and mingling of groups. I am still amazed at the skill of the RIB operators in locating their divers and quickly picking them up when they surfaced or, in some cases, the divers were not able to get down to the dive because of the interference from the other boat and the strong current. I loved my boat and its crew, but the crowded diving conditions were not to my liking. I need to go back when there aren't so many boats and one boat in particular.
 
My friends & I are doing that iternary in Sept too.
Which boat are you diving with?

I am on the Red Sea Aggressor from the US. Didn't know there were tons and tons of liveaboards until I booked it and looked into other things to do/stay, and with so many so cheap. In the Americas area, liveaboards for $1k has dormitory style cabins and communal bathrooms.

4 dives/day at Brothers and Deadalus would be hard to accomplish because at these sites night diving is not allowed: marine park rules.

I generally dove air at these outer sites (3 dives/day) so I could go deep and often get a little closer to the sharks we saw (also rented doubles so I always had the gas to dive deep). You don't want to see something great below you and be unable to get as close as you could have done if you had air. If this kind of deep diving was not preferred or planned I would indeed have used a nitrox mix appropriate for our planned max depth.
Apparently this liveaboard has 4 dives w/o night dives. The 1st dive is a dawn dive, maybe that's how they get in 4 dives per day.

How deep are the shark actions? We generally don't go more than 40m with air and a little less on 32% EAN. Not thinking of going down to 50m to check out the action.

You don't have to go deep at the Brothers, although some of the more fun stuff to see is down there (like the top of the Numidia). If my memory is correct (and I haven't been there in several years) the reefs at Elphinstone and Daedalus break the surface, so you can probably stay shallow there, too, although one of them has a long shelf that is a bit deeper. The sharks you go to see, though, tend to be deep. I'd plan on Nitrox if I were you; when I did the trip, I used it.

How deep are the shark actions? And are everybody on the liveaboards limited by 40m recreational limit (and less if on EAN)?
 
i believe the red sea limit is 40m if not tech qualified. have heard stories of major shark action at 47m on elphinstone north plateau. i personally just came back from doing daedalus and st johns itinerary and saw a manta at daedalus and a hammerhead at about 30 metres. if you want to see big things we were instructed to go down to about 25m-30m swim away from the reef but so you could just about it see it and stay there as long as possible. i have never been so disorientated on a dive. but very enjoyable and rewarding. i have been told it's uncommon for hammerheads in september, as it is too hot for them and the best time to see them is may-july, and then november. not sure about the manta time table, but also saw a manta at st johns! i'm not sure how you are going to pack 4 dives in on daedalus, and the other marine parks per day as said before, there is no night diving at these sights. we woke at 5:30am for our first dive at 6:30ish and still only did 3, this is because daedalus is very remote and our crossing took 10-12 hours to get to st johns. (not sure the time to brothers or elphinstone) to sum up.

daedalus = awesome, stay deep (30m) as long as possible out in the blue
elphinstone = north plateau at around 40m
brothers = can't remember the brief i'm afraid.
 
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