Justin Dean

Diving The Red Sea onboard MY Hurricane.

‘Simply the Best’

25th May to 1st June 2007

At the end of April, my friend Ben and I were chatting and decided that we could both do with a break from work. Neither of us had done any diving over the Winter and our feet had become incredibly itchy. Within 4 weeks we were on our way to the Red Sea, diving on board the MY Hurricane. The trip was a package holiday arranged by Tony Backhurst Travel . Their web site has a complete list of all the liveaboards that they organise and one in particular caught our eye.  The tour was called ‘Simply the Best’ which involved leaving from Hurghada in Egypt, travelling to The Brothers islands, Daedalus Reef, and Elphinstone Reef on board MY Hurricane before returning to port and a one night stay in a hotel before returning home.

MY Hurricane moored at Daedalus Reef

When we booked we were asked for payment and for our travel / dive insurance details. I have diving insurance from DAN so this was no problem, if you don’t have any you can buy some from Tony Backhurst when you book. Buy the Egyptian Visa from Tony Backhurst – it saves a lot of hassle when you arrive in Egypt. The booking staff were very friendly and helpful but didn’t seem to know much more than the website when it came to the exact details of the trip, but we were reassured that everything would come through the post in due course.

Our travel documents came through about a week before the departure date. They included the plane tickets and a checklist of what to bring.  Some of the documentation was ambiguous or left us asking more questions, so for the sake of anyone thinking of taking the same trip here are some tips to help clear things up.

The checklist advises you to bring torches, but there are no night dives on this tour because of the sailing times involved in reaching the various reefs. You could use them on the reefs or wrecks if you wanted too, but the natural light was pretty good for most of the dives.

The flights are with a company called, Astraeus, from London Gatwick to Hurghada. The travel documents say arrive 3 hours before departure time and that the baggage allowance is 20kg.  There is no point turning up 3 hours before the flight, because that is what everyone else does. You either need to turn up four hours before the flight to be at the front of the long check in queue or 1.5 hours before the flight to be at the back of it. Luggage allowance was not 20kg. I don’t know what it was but I checked in nearly 45kg. Each item has to be less than 32kg.

 
A Sawtooth Feather Star clings to a Gorgonian Fan Coral at Elphinstone reef

The checklist says to take currency. Ben and I assumed that this meant Egyptian Pounds, and that we would only need enough for incidental expenses. For starters everything is either in US Dollars, Stirling  or Euros, so there is no need for Egyptian Pounds whatsoever. We did not take enough cash; here’s what you will need your money for:

a) Astraeus Airlines charge you for everything. Earphones for the in flight movie (use your own and listen to it in Mono). They even charge for water. They do not accept Egyptian Pounds.
b) Nitrox is not free on MY Hurricane. A week of Nitrox will cost you £60. Most divers have grown accustomed to having Nitrox included in the price and this was disappointing for a lot of people on board.
c) A 15litre Tank will cost you an additional £25 a week.
d) A tip for the Egyptian crew is almost mandatory and will cost you about £35
e) A tip for the dive guides is not mandatory but you may want to consider something. Perhaps £25.
f) The beer and wine on board is not included. A bottle of beer will cost you about £3 and a bottle of wine about £15. You pay your bar tab to the crew on departure.
g) A DVD of the trip will cost you £15
h) An official MY Hurricane T-Shirt will cost you £15 (if they have any in stock – on our trip they didn’t).
i) On The Brothers or Daedalus Reef there is an opportunity to buy a T shirt from the lighthouse keepers. £10 each.
j) The hotel stay on the final night includes food, but not drinks etc.

MY Hurricane moored at Little Brother

I brought with me a 3mm short wetsuit and a 5mm full body wetsuit. The water temperature at this time of year was as predicted – around 24°c. Packing the 3mm shorty was a waste of space, the 5mm was perfect for me.

The checklist says bring a towel, but you can do without one. The Hurricane provides towels and so does the hotel on the final night.

Ben, on his way to dive Little Brother

The flight left more or left on time after the pilot fed us some cock and bull story about their departure slot being rescheduled by Brussels. More likely they missed it and had to wait for another.  Astraeus Airlines are a distinctly average airline to fly with, and take every opportunity on the 5 hour flight to sell you anything they can from water, to duty free and cuddly toys. Interrupting the continual selling are announcements from the crew letting you know what they will be selling next. It felt like being trapped in a Turkish Bazaar. It is probably best to sleep if you can ignore the continual announcements and the typically uncomfortable seats.

We were picked up from the airport by a Tony Backhurst representative, and put on a coach. Within 15 minutes we were boarding the Hurricane and being greeted by the crew and our dive guides for the week – a Dutch Couple, Nicole and Thijs (pronounced Tice) – who immediately made us feel very welcome. There were 20 people on our trip from a broad demographic; old, young, married, single, but all sharing an enthusiasm for diving, and everyone seemed to get on reasonably well. Hurricane never felt crowded and is big enough to find your own bit of space if you need it.

 
Me, just back from Hammerhead hunting on Daedalus Reef

The Hurricane is an amazing boat and exceeded my expectations. It’s not the Ritz, but there were hot showers in our en suite bathrooms in each cabin located on the lower deck. There are plenty of 240v outlets for charging phones, laptops, cameras etc. The main deck consisted of the dive deck and the main dining room. The upper deck had the bar and inside and outside general living spaces. The sun deck is full of sun loungers to relax or sleep on in between dives. MY Hurricane is owned and operated by Tornado Marine Fleet, and is a regular winner of Diver Magazine's Liveaboard of the Year award.

Once on board we set up our dive equipment and the crew made our large dive bags disappear for the week. We unpacked everything else into the cabin, and whilst we were still moored to the jetty in Hurghada it was time for dinner. The food on board was exceptional. There were two chefs and they managed to cook a wide variety of excellent food throughout the whole trip. The standard day would consist of roughly the same schedule; 6.15 am dive, 8am breakfast, 11am dive, 1.30pm Lunch, 5pm Dive, 7.30pm dinner. Before every meal or dive briefing the ships bell is sounded. As Nicole explained on the first day, ‘your stomach will tell you if it’s time for a meal or for a dive’.

The first night was spent moored to the jetty at Hurghada. The cabins had air conditioning and we slept soundly.

Day One; MY Hurricane left port very early the next morning, and had us tied up at Abu Ramada reef, about 2 hours cruise from shore. It was a busy dive site, easily accessible by all the day boats from the main tourist resorts, but it was a suitable place to practice our dive skills and for Nicole and Thijs to check that their new group of divers had no suicidal tendencies. The reefs were typical of the Red Sea and we were treated to Eagle Rays, Moray Eels, Blue Spotted Stingray, and Lionfish.

 
Lionfish at Elphinstone Reef

Almost immediately all 20 people on board fell in to the routine of Dive, Eat, Sleep, and before you know it, it is time for bed, only this time we are on our way to The Brothers Islands. This is a 9 hour cruise from Abu Ramada. I had moaned about the noise of the air conditioning on the first night in port, but sleeping whilst the Hurricane cruises through the night was difficult to say the least. We were lucky as the sea was calm, but the engines were noisy.  In addition whenever we arrive somewhere the Hurricane has to tie up to the reef, and this is a very loud procedure. I ought to mention that the vast majority of the dive sites do not have moorings for boats. The crew literally use a mask and snorkel to tie the boat to the reef. It is clearly not good for the reef, and considering that we are briefed in detail about not touching the reefs or removing anything, it seems hugely hypocritical that the boats tie up to it like this. I understand from speaking to divers that the Egyptian government have been promising to do something about it for years, but continually fail. It’s a great shame.

Days Two and Three; The Brothers Islands are 36 miles from shore and consist of two small islands rising almost vertically from the sea bed. The smaller is called Little Brother and the larger island with a lighthouse is called Big Brother.  Diving the islands is simply amazing. We spent one day on Little Brother and a second day on Big Brother. Most dives from the Hurricane are done on the boat’s two Zodiac ribs. The vast majority are drift dives and an SMB is an essential bit of kit. The reefs are beautiful and amongst the usual Red Sea reef life we also saw Hammerhead and Grey Reef Sharks. In fact on our first dive on Little Brother we dropped in directly over a cleaning station and immediately saw a Grey Reef Shark with its mouth wide open being cleaned by some wrasse. Other life in Little Brother included Crocodile Fish, Scorpion Fish and a very Large Napoleon Fish.

 
Big Brother Island

Big Brother has two wrecks on it, The Numidia and The Aida, both are bizarrely almost vertical, lying as they are on the side of this island. The Aida - lies on the northern plateau of Big Brother with the stern wedged into the island at a depth of 80m. Built at Nantes in France in 1911, this 1426 ton Egyptian steamship carrying Egyptian troops, struck the west face of Big Brother Island and sank in September 1957. The Numidia. was a 130m, 6400 ton British steamship that was on her maiden voyage from Glasgow with a cargo of rolling stock and locomotives for the Indian Railways in Calcutta, when she ran onto the northern plateau of Big Brother Island. With her bow well fast on the reef she broke her back, the hull settling on the reef slope down to 70m.

Exploring the wrecks in detail is not possible without additional air, and decompression techniques, and that was simply not the type of diving we had come here to do.  Even so we had a good look around the top of the wrecks, and whilst on The Numidia were lucky enough to see 6 Grey Reef Sharks swimming  around.

The lighthouse here was built by the British at the end of the 19th Century, and has been in use ever since. The Egyptian lighthouse keepers are keen to receive any visitor  (they work for two months on the islands before taking one month off), and are hospitable enough to prepare tea and shish pipes for any that would like them. The climb up the lighthouse provides a panoramic view of the two islands, but no sight of shore!  You feel obliged to buy one of the T shirts they have for sale before leaving the little island.

 
View from Big Brother Lighthouse with MY Hurricane and Little Brother in the distance.

Our last dive on Big Brother had some strong current under water and was hard work, when we surfaced the surface current was even stronger and despite having an SMB deployed there was no sign of the Hurricane’s skilful Zodiac drivers. We waited 18 minutes before being picked up.  We were worried that we were going to end up in Saudi, but in the end were told that we had nothing to worry about, apparently they had been watching us the whole time. The explanation was that the Hurricane crew were busy untying from the reef ready for the long 12 hour cruise to Daedalus Reef. Hmmm ….. Certainly not something that you would read about in the Surface Management section of the DIR book.

Divers from the Hurricane explore the wreck of the Aida on Big Brother

Day Four; After a night of intermittent sleep we woke up on Daedalus Reef. Daedalus Reef again rises almost vertically from the sea bed. The reef here is beautiful coming up to within one or two metres of the surface. The only wreck here, The Zealot, lies between approximately 80m and 110m so, far beyond our diving range. Another lighthouse has been built here, a very similar experience to the last, and another opportunity to buy a T shirt.

 
Daedalus Reef as seen from the top of the lighthouse

Daedalus Reef is famous for schooling Hammerheads.  Waiting in the blue, keeping sight of the reef, and hoping to see some sharks come buy is surprisingly exciting.  I would have happily spent all week doing this, and maybe my next trip will need to involve some serious shark hunting! We saw at least six or seven, individually or in small groups. One group of divers from the Hurricane saw a group of 10 schooling together.

The lighthouse at Daedalus Reef

Unexpectedly we spent all afternoon watching a pod of Dolphins hunting and playing around the liveaboards that were moored up at Daedalus. Sail fish could also be seen psychotically throwing themselves out of the water. On the way back from the lighthouse trip the zodiac stopped right next to some of the Dolphins and they were swimming right next to us as they jumped out of the water. Sadly in the excitement my photography skills failed me and I ended up with a lot of pictures of the back of people’s heads rather than dolphins. Although we didn’t get the opportunity to swim with them it was still a memorable experience.

A lone Hammerhead on Daedalus Reef

Day Five; A nine hour overnight cruise saw as arrive at Elphinstone Reef. You get used to the noisy engines as the week goes by, and sleep gradually becomes easier. It’s never a huge problem though as there is plenty of time for sleep in the day time between dives. Elphinstone is a long cigar-shaped reef rising from the seabed, but not quite breaking the surface. It is within range of the day boats and is extremely busy. Divers are everywhere. We did two drift dives, one down each side of the reef. It is truly spectacular wall diving and I took lots of photos of the local inhabitants. The weather started turning after the second dive, a mist had set in and the wind had picked up. Most of the day boats disappeared, and it was all quite eerie. When the Captain requested we changed dive sites for something a little more sheltered I think we were all quite relieved. Our last dive this day was an unscheduled stop at Ras Shona, a delightfully quiet sandy reef where there was allot of wildlife.

It was the last night on board Hurricane. We were treated to a huge roast dinner, one of the best meals we had on the boat. The crew put on some entertainment, which involved some interesting party games, belly dancing of a sort, and allot of singing and clapping. We were all invited to join in, but after such a large dinner I struggled. One of our co-divers, Estelle, a retired teacher, and quite remarkable diver, was due to celebrate her 70th birthday on our return to the UK. The chefs baked her a spectacular cake and she celebrated in style on the boat. Incidentally Estelle could teach us all a thing or two, she was knowledgeable about the marine life, and dived in a thin body suit – no neoprene whatsoever – and never complained about being cold!

 
Ben joins in with the party games on our last night on board

Day Six; Our last day on board Hurricane. The night had been pretty sleepless. Although most people had grown used to the engines, the sea conditions had worsened and we were riding the swell and the waves all night. We woke up on a reef called Panorama, and had a choppy ride out in the Zodiacs for a drift dive back to the boat. After breakfast we cruised further towards to Hurghada and stopped at a little reef called Ras Dhisa. A dive to and from the boat was a great way to end the holiday, and it was great to see a series of Octopi having an afternoon snooze amongst the corals.

The rest of the day was a bit of a rush. I would have liked more time to rinse my kit and pack properly. As it was I felt quite stressed trying to get everything ready to leave the boat, pay for all the extras, (three separate bills), and we had to rush to the ATM near the landing platform to get additional funds. We said our goodbyes to Nicole and Thijs, and a coach took us to a hotel.

The hotel was OK. It was full of Russian and German package holiday makers, and there was some very bizarre late night entertainment. Fortunately we were only staying for the night, and the room was comfortable with a sea view and they had a bar by the pool. The reception staff were less than friendly, but we checked out of the hotel on time and Tony Backhurst arrived to take us to the airport. Our friends at the flying Turkish Bazaar were an hour late to take off –  there were no announcements made to the passengers until the very last minute - this time it was something to do with the wind in Italy.

All in all, this was a fantastic diving experience. I would have liked to have been better prepared before coming and maybe someone at Tony Backhurst could help provide better information for future clients. The diving was amazing, the crew friendly and professional, and our two dive guides Nicole and Thijs deserve the highest commendation. There was so much life on the reefs and I will be studying my reef guide for some time to try and remember the names of all the creatures we saw. My underwater photography skills have improved, but there is still a long way for me to go. I would highly recommend a trip on MY Hurricane to anyone; it’s an experience not to be missed. Now I just need to book my next trip ……

Foolishness at Little Brother