Luke Evans has travelled extensively with his Editorial Director Dad Mark Evans, but he had never experienced a liveaboard – until now – and a trip around the Egyptian Deep South on the Red Sea Aggressor IV has certainly whet his appetite for this form of dive holiday
Photographs by Mark Evans
You guys might have heard about liveaboards, right? They are pretty cool, I have to say. Out of all the ways I’ve gone diving – on boats, from the shore – they have all been day trips, and involved early starts, minibus transfers, walks to the dock, setting up kit, etc.
Much of the faff-factor is gone with a liveaboard – they are hands down the most efficient and exciting method of going diving.
Imagine a floating hotel, but not the kind where you hang out by the pool. This one has a dive centre incorporated within it, so dive sites are right on your doorstep.
Who knows, you could be over an 800m wall or, if you’re a wreckie like me, something like the iconic Thistlegorm could be right below your cabin.
Liveaboards are often described as ‘dive, eat, dive, eat, dive, sleep – repeat’, and that is a very basic, but accurate, description. Dives are conducted either off the back of the boat or from a RIB tender, there is plentiful food on offer from morning till night from the galley, and you have a comfortable cabin with ensuite facilities right at hand.
Everything is right there, and going from cabin to dive deck to dining room to salon to sun deck is literally just a matter of a few steps. You can return from a dive, be out of your wetsuit, into your shorts and T-shirt and be sat on the sun deck with a cold drink in just a few minutes. Pure bliss.
Initial thoughts
I have been to Egypt before, so was used to the hustle and bustle of the airport, and the usual minibus transfers, but everything changed once we got to the sprawling Port Ghalib complex.
It was late at night when we arrived, so it was pitch black, but instead of staying on one of the well-lit roads heading to a hotel or resort, we took a sharp turn and drove across a fairly desolate sandy expanse before rounding a corner and seeing twinkling lights from an array of boats moored up in the marina.
We went over a couple of severe humpback bridges, and then arrived at our home for the week – the Red Sea Aggressor IV.
The latest vessel in the Aggressor fleet in the Red Sea, she is an impressive site, and even though I was very tired, I was still in awe of the sheer size of it. It was far bigger than any of the dayboats I had been on in the past.
We got on board, were issued our cabin numbers, and then we went below decks to get some well-deserved sleep, though I initially found it hard to drift off as I was excited for the week ahead. In the morning, we emerged from our cabins and walked straight into the large dining room, which is situated on the lower deck.
There was a huge selection of delicious food for breakfast, ranging from fresh fruit to meats and cereals, but I liked the made-to-order omelettes!
Once we’d filled our bellies, I went to explore. It was huge! Next up was the main deck, home to the dive deck and several of the cabins.
I could not get over the size of the dive deck – it was gigantic! I set up my gear and was delighted to hear that I would not be touching it again all week, save for dropping my first stage off the pillar valve at the end of each dive to enable to the crew to fill my tank in-situ at my designated seating area.
Then before the next dive, all I would need to do was analyse my nitrox mix, replace my first stage and I was ready to go. My wetsuits were hung up on a nearby rail, and all my other stuff – fins, mask, etc – went in a box under my seat.
The exploration continued – I ventured up to the upper deck, and found a large open air lounge with comfy sofas, and an air-condition salon, which is where we had our dive briefings.
There were also some more guest cabins, and the dive staff quarters. Continuing up the spiral staircase, I came to the vast sundeck, which incorporated open seating to the stern, and then a section that was sheltered from the sun but was still open to a cooling breeze. Forward of this towards the bow was a large hot tub.
There was yet another deck above this one, with a flying bridge for the captain, and up here was a great location to enjoy the view of the Red Sea surrounding us.
To the open ocean
Leaving the marina, we dwarfed many of the other smaller liveaboards and dayboats, and I waved at the people enjoying relaxing on the beach of the resort near the entrance to the marina. I truly felt like a bit of a rock star or VIP being on this massive yacht serenely cruising past all of these people gawping at me.
The Red Sea Aggressor IV proved to be a very stable platform to be at sea on. Some of the dayboats I have been on in the past have rocked and rolled on the swells, but this 44-metre behemoth was rock solid and took the rolling conditions in its stride.
It was a very strange experience to lose sight of land and still be heading further offshore. I suddenly felt quite insignificant in this vast expanse of water, even though I was on a large vessel.
I was now seeing firsthand what my Dad and Mum had told me about time and again – how liveaboards deliver you to dive sites that are far out of reach of dayboats.
In search of sharks
Over the next few days, we dived some fantastic reefs and walls smothered in a colourful array of soft corals, and I encountered many of the Red Sea favourites, including giant morays, butterflyfish, angelfish, scorpionfish, batfish, barracuda, trevally, snapper, grouper, anemonefish, everpresent anthias and my personal fave, masked pufferfish.
I had yet to see a ‘proper’ shark – I didn’t think nurse sharks in the Caribbean really counted – and I was hopeful that I would manage to achieve that aim on this trip, particularly as my Dad had returned from another liveaboard in the Red Sea just six weeks before and had had a magical encounter with 16-18 hammerheads at 30m for over 20 minutes on the north wall of Daedalous.
Awakening at this offshore reef was something else! Daedalous is a massive circular reef rising up from the depths hundreds of metres below.
There is a lighthouse situated towards the southern side of it, and this area is where all the liveaboards moored up. We then had to jump into the RIBs to go to the north wall, and this is where we were expecting to see the hammerhead sharks.
I was so excited as we headed out on our first dive. It seemed to take ages to motor around the reef, but then we were there, and our guide rolled in to check the conditions. He popped back up, said there was some current, and then we all backward rolled into the water.
Red Sea Aggressor IV
The Red Sea Aggressor IV is 44 metres long and can accommodate 26 guests across 13 spacious ensuite staterooms (ten deluxe and three master).
There are two large RIB tenders, each with ladders to aid exit from the water – so much easier than hauling over the tubes – and tank racks down the middle to hold your gear securely.
I was used to doing negative entries, and my Dad had said for us to get down as quickly as we could if there was some surface current.
I dropped to 4-5m, turned around and started finning downwards. I could see my Dad slightly in front of me and he was beckoning for me to swim towards him. I soon realised why – the current was a lot stronger than I thought, and was pushing us back towards the top of the reef.
I finned hard and once I was down to about 9-10m, the current subsided somewhat, and we began to descend while finning out into the blue, scanning for hammerheads.
We had reached about 25m when suddenly I felt the need to equalise, even though we had been hanging neutrally buoyant for several minutes. I equalised, then felt I had to again, and I looked at my Dad, who was indicating we need to swim sideways.
We were in a strong downcurrent, and in what seemed like a millisecond, we were at 40m. I kept kicking hard to stay with my Dad, and we had to put some air into our wings to aid our escape from the current.
I felt everything calm down, and we deflated our wings a bit as we rose through the water column, establishing neutral buoyancy again around 30m, but just as we were getting relaxed and looking for the sharks again, my dive computer started flashing and bleeping warning of a rapid ascent!
We were now caught in a strong upwelling and again, I followed my Dad as he deflated his wing and kicked strongly across the current. Thankfully, we emerged from this quite quickly, but we had still been forced up to 18m.
Alas, no sharks came to say hello, but as we reached 8-10m drifting along the wall back towards the south plateau where the liveaboards were moored up, a large manta ray glided effortlessly in from the blue and did a little flypast for us, which was amazing.
They are so graceful! Sadly, though we did several dives at Deadalous, we were not able to repeat my Dad’s epic dive from his previous trip, and while one of our dive groups glimpsed a few hammerheads for a brief moment, we never saw any.
That’s nature, you never know what is going to happen. We did see the manta again, though, and also had some nice turtle encounters.
I was able to break my lack of shark sightings later in the week, and in style, too – we dropped down on to a reef for a night dive, and as we headed towards a series of pinnacles, my beam caught a smaller whitetip reef shark, which merrily swam in and around the divers for several minutes.
It might only have been a small shark, but it was still a ‘proper’ shark!
Conclusion
I am now a fan of liveaboards, as you can tell! Having your accommodation, dive centre and restaurant all in one place is just fantastic. The Red Sea Aggressor IV was an amazing experience for my first-ever liveaboard, and it truly felt like some sort of superyacht.
The crew are awesome, always on hand to help, and the food was incredible – the chefs did a wonderful job creating tasty food for the whole trip.
If you have never tried a liveaboard, book one now. They are simply the best. You don’t have to be a hugely experienced diver, and racking up 20-plus dives during the course of the week is a mega way to fill your logbook and really get into the groove of your diving.
So Dad and Mum, when are we going on our next liveaboard adventure?
This article was originally published in Scuba Diver UK #79
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