Dive Review of Sea Dragon in
Africa/Red Sea - Hurghada

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Sea Dragon: "Unremarkable diving with some saftey concerns", May, 2023, by Richard Hart, TX, US ( Sr. Reviewer 7 reports with 2 Helpful votes). Report 12429.
Photos Submitted with this Report Click on an image to see an enlarged version and captions
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude	N/A	Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	With the recent fires and/or sinking of liveaboards particularly in the Red Sea, I was surprised that there was no mention of smoke detector, fire escape routes, evacuation procedures or how the life rafts work. When I mentioned this both verbally and in writing on the "How did we do" questionnaire at the end, all I got was a shrug. The M/Y Sea Dragon is one of two vessels in the Amelie Safari group. The Amelie is a much smaller boat with only 2 bathrooms to be shared with all passengers. The Sea Dragon can accommodate 22 guests and does have ensuite bathrooms. The week I was there, we only had 10 guests and that felt to be about the right number for the size boat. There are two dive guides, so we were broken into two teams. There are 4 dives per day starting promptly at 6:00am and ending with a night dive around 7:00pm. Breakfast is after the first dive and dinner is after the night dive. During the check-in, no diving certification was required. Only if you wanted to use nitrox then you had to show an enhanced air certification. The majority of the divers had less than 30 dives under their belts. The accommodations were ok. I had an upper deck single cabin with what was called a king size bed. More like a twin, but fine for one person. There were on sheets, only two heavy comforters, which made sleeping pretty warm. We were each issued a single beach type towel for use the entire week. No extra towels were available even when asked. The food was only fair with a couple of dinners not having any meat dishes at all. Breakfast usually was eggs, toast, beans and french fries. The diving was disappointing. It was similar to Caribbean diving, but colder water. One of the guides was pretty good at finding critters, but seemed to have a chip on his shoulder. The other guide had a great personality, but could only find a moray eel if it was free swimming. The dive briefings were pretty good and detailed. However, the second guide frequently did not follow the briefing route. frequent we would swim out with a current then have to swim back against the current at the end of the dive. Our guide seemed to like to touch items and hang onto the coral while looking at something. For the European divers, the Red Sea is close and is pretty easy diving. Similar to the Caribbean is to North America. While nitrox was included, it was not what any of us expected. Nitrox was used for the day dives and only air for the night dive. The issue is that the same tank was used for all dives. So, after a 30 minute night dive, the tank is still about half full of air, so when topped off with nitrox we were lucky to get 27% nitrox mix. We usually opt for a liveaboard as they can go where other don't go. Not so on this trip. Each site had at least three other boats with several having 6 to 8 other boats. Again, when asked, a shrug was given saying they can't control the other boats. When I countered with, the other boats were already here, just a blank stare. And last but not least, was the smoking. I get that Europeans smoke, but did not expect the crew (guides) to smoke in the setup area and compressors. Overall, a pretty disappointing trip.
Websites	Sea Dragon
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	251-500 dives
Where else diving	Palau, Moorea, Fiji, Costa Rica, Belize, Bahamas, Utila, Roatan, Bonaire, San Salvador, Cozumel, St Marteen, Phillipines, Madives
Closest Airport	Hurghada International	Getting There	Dallas (DFW) to London (LHR) then London to Cairo (CAI). The Egypt Air to Hurghada
Dive Conditions
Weather	windy	Seas	choppy
Water Temp	74-72°F / 23-22°C	Wetsuit Thickness
Water Visibility	40-60 Ft/ 12-18 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	45 - 60 minutes day dives 30 minutes for night dives
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	None	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish	N/A
Large Pelagics	N/A
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	N specific photography accommodations. Lots of plugs, with only a small rinse tank that everything was thrown into (torches, cameras, computers, masks).

Subscriber's Comments

By Craig A Wood in PA, US at May 29, 2023 14:13 EST

Hi Richard, What route did you take, what sites did you visit? Were your dives from the mothership, tender, or both? What was the average duration of your dives? What were the highlights, sharks, mantas, dolphins, other? Thanks, Craig

By report author: Richard Hart in TX, US at May 29, 2023 17:34 EST

Hi Craig, This was what they called "The Best of Hurghada". All dives but one were from the liveaboard itself. Only one was from a Zodiac. All dives returned to the liveaboard. Frankly, this was a disappointing trip for travelling halfway around the world. Not a single shark or dolphin. Only fish of size were giant travelle. At each site there were from 3 to 7 other boats. Seems this is common. Visibility was good, but the diving was similar to Caribbean diving. There are tons of Red Sea liveaboard and from what I saw, none were in stellar shape. I hate to be negative, but I was really hoping and expecting to see an Oceanic White Tip shark and pods of dolphins. At least creatures different from the usualy tropical reef fish. The diving is pretty easy, but the majority of divers have less than 20 dives under their belts. I did take a couple of extra days to see the pyramids at Giza and also Luxor. Amazing history to see.

By Craig A Wood in PA, US at May 29, 2023 17:49 EST

So, the best of Hurghasda was not all that great. Thanks for the reply.

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Dive Review of Sea Dragon in Africa/Red Sea - Hurghada

Sea Dragon: "Unremarkable diving with some saftey concerns", May, 2023,

Photos Submitted with this Report

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

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

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

Subscriber's Comments

Dive Review of Sea Dragon in
Africa/Red Sea - Hurghada