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Dive Review of Red Sea Explorers in
Red Sea/Brothers, Daedalus, Elphinston

Red Sea Explorers: "Sharks and Walls", Nov, 2015,

by Lisa C. Evans, CO, US (Sr. Contributor Sr. Contributor 24 reports with 11 Helpful votes). Report 8618 has 1 Helpful vote.

No photos available at this time

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Accommodations 4 stars Food 4 stars
Service and Attitude 4 stars Environmental Sensitivity 4 stars
Dive Operation 3 stars Shore Diving N/A
Snorkeling N/A
Value for $$ 4 stars
Beginners 3 stars
Advanced 4 stars
Comments This was our second week on the same boat. This company seems to deal mostly with a travel agent out of Scandinavia - everyone else on the boat was from Norway or Sweden. Very friendly folks, though.

The focus of this trip was sharks, and we saw at least one on most dives. We spent two days Brothers Islands - we saw grey reef sharks (2) and thresher sharks (2) and several oceanic white tips. There were also more medium/large fish here than I had seen. The Numidia wreck had lots of potential, but it's deep and there was a pretty strong current, so we didn't get to spend much time there. At Daedalus (2 days) we saw scalloped hammerheads on 2 out of the three dives we did. Most of them were quite deep (45m) but we saw a few at 75-90 feet. Also oceanic white tips near the boat.

The other dives - one at Elphinstone and a couple nearer the mainland - were fine but not spectacular.

This itinerary had only 3 dives a day, which meant very long surface intervals - 3 hours - and a lot of spare time on the boat. Not sure why the wake-up call was still at 5:30am and first briefing at 6am. Last dive ended about 4pm, so again, lots of time with not much to do, being on a liveaboard. Dives were deep, for sharks, but with nitrox I think we still could have done 4 a day, at least some days.

Food was good and varied. Facilities were nice - warm showers, comfortable cabins, nice salon (other than the fact that the DM watched loud movies there a lot, which made it a less comfortable place to hang out.)

Diving was done from zodiacs, two groups. One group used scooters most of the time, and there were some tech divers going deep, but that did not interfere with the rest of us (except the sound of scooters on some dives - not all that pleasant..) Lots of dives had negative entries - though the currents weren't what they expected (less) so it wasn't that important most of the time. But beginners might have a bit of a tough time with those.

Great to see sharks! Coral was healthy, but like the southern itinerary, there were fewer medium sized and small fish than I expected (except tons of anthias.) Cool to see the endemic species, though - Picaso triggerfish, some angels and butterflyfish.
Websites Red Sea Explorers   

Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience 501-1000 dives
Where else diving GBR, Philippines, Raja Ampat, Komodo, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Lembeh, Caribbean
Closest Airport Hurghada Getting There Egypt Air from Cairo. Direct flights from Europe.

Dive Conditions

Weather sunny, windy, dry Seas choppy
Water Temp 75-80°F / 24-27°C Wetsuit Thickness 6
Water Visibility 40-80 Ft/ 12-24 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile no
Enforced diving restrictions Max depth 35 meters or MOD.
Liveaboard? yes Nitrox Available? yes

What I Saw

Sharks Lots Mantas None
Dolphins None Whale Sharks None
Turtles None Whales None
Corals 3 stars Tropical Fish 3 stars
Small Critters 1 stars Large Fish 2 stars
Large Pelagics 4 stars

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Subject Matter 2 stars Boat Facilities 1 stars
Overall rating for UWP's 2 stars Shore Facilities N/A
UW Photo Comments Wide angle opportunities and some fish shots, though the fish were very shy. Not much small stuff. The boat had only 2 small rinse tanks that were supposedly for cameras but other things ended up in there. No photo area on the boat - they suggested putting cameras in the salon on the floor but I felt better taking it to my cabin.
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Note: The information here was reported by the author above, but has NOT been reviewed nor edited by Undercurrent prior to posting on our website. Please report any major problems by writing to us and referencing the report number above.

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