Question Red Sea (Explorers) liveaboard in December?

[Edwaty]

Hi,

I'm about to book a liveaboard trip in the Red Sea with Red Sea Explorers from 14th to 21st December.
It will be my first liveaboard and my first trip to Egypt / Red Sea.

There are two available routes:
- BDE on MV Nouran
- North on MV Tala

Any recommended route?

I'm open to everything but more interested in sea life than wrecks. I would love to see big mammals, but not sure to be able to appreciate the big washing machines, dives in the blue and nothing else to see around that may come with it.

Dive experience: CMAS 3*, GUE Fundamentals, somewhere around 100 dives.

Thanks!

 

[berndo]

I would love to see big mammals, but not sure to be able to appreciate the big washing machines, dives in the blue and nothing else to see around that may come with it.

Other than dolphins and dugongs (not that far from shore though) I don't think there are any big mammels in the red sea.

 

[Edwaty]

Other than dolphins and dugongs (not that far from shore though) I don't think there are any big mammels in the red sea.

I assumed that sharks were mammals Thanks, I'll go there a bit more intelligent

 

[MB NZ]

Given your preference, I'd go BDE. While you will dive wrecks on a North itinerary, there will also be a lot of reef diving. Some of the reefs in the north are very good, others less so. BDE will provide spectacular reef/wall diving with a chance of seeing sharks.

 

[scubaozy]

Hi,

I'm about to book a liveaboard trip in the Red Sea with Red Sea Explorers from 14th to 21st December.
It will be my first liveaboard and my first trip to Egypt / Red Sea.

There are two available routes:
- BDE on MV Nouran
- North on MV Tala

Any recommended route?

I'm open to everything but more interested in sea life than wrecks. I would love to see big mammals, but not sure to be able to appreciate the big washing machines, dives in the blue and nothing else to see around that may come with it.

Dive experience: CMAS 3*, GUE Fundamentals, somewhere around 100 dives.

Thanks!

Red sea diving is not that hard for a cmas P3. There can be currents but rarely washing machines. You are traveling in December, winter months have rougher weather conditions, in BDE, trip you may feel this more significantly as there are long stretches crossed in open sea. Most of the LoB visit Abu Dabbab after diving Elphinstone for the last day and you might be able to see the resident dugong there.
Between the two, I would recommend BDE because it is a classic, if you are lucky you might see, sharks, I do not remember not seeing any shark there.

 

[Sunn]

Hi,

I'm about to book a liveaboard trip in the Red Sea with Red Sea Explorers from 14th to 21st December.
It will be my first liveaboard and my first trip to Egypt / Red Sea.

There are two available routes:
- BDE on MV Nouran
- North on MV Tala

Any recommended route?

I'm open to everything but more interested in sea life than wrecks. I would love to see big mammals, but not sure to be able to appreciate the big washing machines, dives in the blue and nothing else to see around that may come with it.

Dive experience: CMAS 3*, GUE Fundamentals, somewhere around 100 dives.

Thanks!

If more interested in sea life, go BDE !

(la croisière nord, c'est beaucoup de ferraille...)

 

[Dubio]

I'd be interested in your general experience with Red Sea Explorers. Planning to hop on their south tour this years Nov/Dec. I did the north with Emperor last year and was very pleased. I'm diving my JJ CCR though and I feel like RSE is better in terms of providing technical stuff like O2 top offs or even Helium. It reads like they cater for that in basically all of their turns. So how was it?

 

[Alekseolsen]

I did a (non-tech) Liveaboard with Noran last year. Several CCR's onboard including Faisal (founder) himself, so at least O2 seems to be covered

 

[ColinT3]

BDE - I did BDE Nov/Dec just gone, first dive at Big Brother was 2 Threshers and an Oceanic Whitetip, Whitetips on every other dive, up to 4 at a time up close, a silky on one dive too. You'll probably dive in the blue at Daedelus looking for Threshers, that had some pretty stiff current too, but as a 3* you'll be fine. No washing machines, but you'll get some nice drift dives. Most dives from/to the Zodiacs. We had 1 dive where the plan was back to the main boat, that had some current and was 'interesting', my buddy and I hung on the line for the boat marker waiting our turn on the ladder, otherwise we'd have been some way away . You'll probably get to dive the Salem Express too, we chose a day and night dive there (we had the entire boat so could choose what we did within the basic bounds of the route).