Colona IV, October, 1994. "Two cabins had strong diesel smell. Crew was not able to locate problem, but crew most accomodating. . . . Excellent food. Plenty of it. . . . It is sad to see boats fighting for mooring spots at Ras Muhammad. We had a boat try to tie onto us. There was no way the mooring line at the dive site would hold both boats. Our crew had to cut their lines because the other boat tried to tie to us without permission. Had the mooring anchor failed our boat would have been sitting on the reef. Better regulations are needed and they should be enforced. It was a wonderful dive site but the worst dive of the trip." Anon.

Fantasea, March, 1995. "The diving was excellent. Divemasters were well­informed and helpful. Trip to the Andaman Islands and the Burma Banks was uneventful, though long. Strong currents and limited visibility make for diving for the experienced only. The crew celebrated my 800th logged dive with a special party. It was a trip to remember. Whale sharks, mantas, turtles, and many kinds of sharks - what more could you want? I got a cramp in my mouth trying to smile in my regulator. It was a wonderland of diving. Well worth the long trip from New York to Thailand. I'll go again." Daniel Jensen, Maryknoll, NY

Fantasea II, July, 1995. "Boat is superb. Cabins spacious, particularly owner's cabin, common living areas comfortable, all conveniences (a/c etc.) were flawless. Boat could use a minor facelift, but the needed improvements are cosmetic, not functional. . . . Food is great, more than you could possibly eat. We outweighed a couple of the napoleon wrasses we saw by the end of the trip. . . . Crew is great. Divemaster Wade Seymour is knowledgeable and has a great attitude, deck hands took care of everything and boat crew kept the boat immaculate. No practiced restrictions on diving, they let us dive as much and as long as we wanted. . . . Red Sea diving is everything it's made out to be. We've been to Great Barrier Reef, Hawaii, Sea of Cortez, Belize, and everywhere in the Caribbean and there's no comparison. The only things we didn't see were mantas and whale sharks. We saw everything else big and small multiple times. Loads of sharks (hammerhead, over a dozen times, reef sharks, and various other big pelagic sharks). Dove three different times with a couple of ducky sharks at Little Brother that nearly crawled in our BC;s. Beautiful hard and soft coral covered with the Red Sea Anthias, turtles that had no fear of people, big and small eels, loads of lion fish, etc. . . . Other highlights of the excellent service include: hot towels, cool drinks and snacks at the end of each dive; almost a 1:1 guest:crew ratio; excellent assortment of Red Sea reference books; two fast dinghies always ready; flexibility to rearrange meals to work around requested dives. Plenty of fresh water. Everyone was smiling all the time. A perfect vacation. An amazing boat. The best service from the best crew anyone could ever hope for. . . . A word of warning: We ran into the departing passengers from the Poseidon's Quest and they were angry. It seems that they were unable to get permits to dive anywhere south of Ras Mohamed (a great dive, but tough to do for eleven straight days). While we don't know what the process is for getting permits (perhaps it could've happened to us), we got to where we wanted to go." P.M.P., NY, NY

Fantasea II, August, 1995. "Water rough in morning; would be difficult for a beginner. Water was much warmer than we had expected. Pluses: Great, helpful crew. Red Sea is a great dive area. Overall, boat clean and in good shape. . . . Minuses: Air conditioning marginal, always hot in salon. Food more to European tastes, but plentiful, well prepared. Frequent o­ring blowing (maybe 12-15 overall in trip). John Scruggs, Loveland, CO

Fortuna II, June, 1995. "Boat lacks adequate camera tables, rinsing tanks and equipment storage. Brothers Islands world class; rest of Red Sea is good, not great. Food good, crew needs better training to be more diver friendly. Colors of coral great, but not as thick as was told. Close contact with sharks on Brothers." Harry Cure, Jr., Fort Worth, TX

Fortuna II, July, 1995. "Boat in service three years. Cabins were good; liked cabin better than Aggressor fleet, windows (ports) and light colored wood. However, one morning gusty winds caused large waves over bow. Found 2-3 leaks in cabin forward starboard and forward port. Found deck shoes, clothing wet in closet, wet floor but bunk high and dry. . . . Diving was great, lucky no currents. Dove both sides of Big Brother Island, still no current. Marine life plentiful and soft corals spectacular. . . . Dive operation needs work. Dive deck poorly laid out, inadequate room for divers. Only four cameras in group and had to work on cameras in parlor. No E-6 processing on board. Only on deck gear storage, milk crates. Upper deck OK. Had to store dive bags and camera boxes on upper deck, in way of guests and boat crew. . . . Food good, plenty to eat, lots of chicken, rice, eggplant and other vegetables. Soft drinks not free, bottled water was. . . . Boat set up for up to 18 people; no way, maximum it should take is 12. Boat operators were concerned about our remarks and wanted the input before we got into port. Good transport to and from airport, no problems." Bob Cabcino, Houston, TX

Number One, August 1994. "Possibly the best trip that I have been on. The only negative is that we were charged for the bottled water." Michael Caron II, Mesquite, TX

Number One, August, 1994. "The ship was impressive from the outside. Cabins were great ­- a lot of space, more than the Belize Aggressor, not to mention the Sea Dancer. No problems with the air-conditioning, but in some cabins (fortunately not ours) you got wet from the AC and through the windows. . . . Wonderful salon (beautiful with mirrors on the ceiling and wood on the walls) for the meals and socializing, but there were a lot of smokers, so there was always a bad smell inside. . . . The dive deck was messy as there were no benches to put your dive gear in; we missed a photo table (no slide processing on the ship). We got five towels the first day for the week. . . . We missed fresh made cookies. After one week on the Sea Dancer or the Belize Aggressor I had some pounds, not so this time. The meals were enough but not more. In the beginning it was international standard hotel food (or what an Egyptian cook thinks should be international standard hotel food). After a complaint and questions why they didn't cook the local stuff the last three days was better. We were astonished that only tea and coffee were free but no soft drinks ­- you even had to pay for drinking water. (This is Red Sea Standard -­ usual on boats in this region). It is also usual that unlimited diving means two or maybe three dives a day. If you push the divemaster you may do four, but not more and this is an exception. . . . The water was really warm. Although the sun was hot (I had to stay in the shade and put clothes on to avoid getting a sunburn) it was comfortable because there was always a cooling wind blowing. . . . There is an Egyptian crew of 10 people on the ship and one divemaster. Sometimes he is in the water, sometimes not. Nobody wanted to see c­cards, you had to sign no waiver. You are free to dive where and how deep you want, so we dove twice to 50 meters (only because of the sharks). There is no control by logging dives or control of the computers. They want only experienced divers on the boat. The briefing were superficial (no maps). We made some drift dives with the Zodiac and we made dives from the boat, depending on the current and wishes of the guests. The night dives were nightmares because they didn't put any light in the water, so you couldn't find the boat on the way back. . . . We saw three sharks, only for seconds far away; Once we had a young white tip reef shark right in front of the camera, but only for seconds. We saw more fish than ever in the Caribbean; thousands of scalefin and shortnose anthias, lots and different species of surgeonfish, groupers, lionfish, triggerfish, pipefish, anemonefish, blue spotted rays, butterflyfish, angelfish, scorpionfish, barracudas, and unicornfish, big Humphead wrasse, big porcupinefish and turtles. Most of the fish are more colorful than in the Caribbean. There are many tridacnias and all is overgrown by colorful soft corals (leather corals). It's really an underwater paradise." Alex Kugle, Dietikon, Switzerland

Sea Surveyor, July, 1994. "19­day cruise covered Egypt/Sudan/Yemen. Ethiopia and Eritrea left out due to bad weather. Air­conditioning in several rooms not working. Crew was good/helpful. Diving is for advanced. Many dives were far away from mothership and combined with slow organization of dives on deck, and only one rib at the site did cause occasional safety problems (divers drifting away and overloaded ribs). Boat is stable. Water temperatures reaching 90° in Sudan. Rocky Island was best spot. Yemen was surprisingly good. Lots of fish life." George P. Gross, Regina, Sask., Canada

Sea Surveyor, July, 1995. "One of the best trips I've done. The Northern Red Sea is one of the premier dive sites on the planet. Mantas, dolphins, whales every day come off the walls and dive the blue water. They're out there. . . . Did somebody say shark?. Threshers, hammerheads, black tip reef, oceanic white tips, bulls in more numbers, up close and personal. Soft corals gorgeous. Good variety of tropicals and big jacks and tuna. Watch out for the titan triggerfish - they are nasty. Water 75­83, vis 40­100 ft. . . . Boat overall pretty good. Food is not fancy but prepared with care and pride and plentiful - mid week BBQ was great. Some minor plumbing problems but no big deal. Accommodations good. Dedicated camera room with lots of work and storage space. Air conditioning works well and you'll need it because it's hot. . . . Egypt is a snake pit ­- nothing happens there without somebody getting a bribe. Pass through and don't stop." Gary A. Lindenbaum, Rose Valley, PA

White Shark, April, 1995. "Night diving was excellent, with Spanish dancers, cuttle fish, octopus, morays, snake eel. Some of the best night dives I've done. Great variety of fish. Bad: Sharm El Sheikh has no live-aboards that meet U.S. standards. White Shark was no better or worse than other boats in the area. . . . Dive sites all much too crowded with top sites like Thistlegorm Wreck and Ras Muhammed having up to 15 boats on the site at one time. Always saw other divers from other boats on dives. Lots of Europeans fill these trips months in advance, so there is not much incentive to change. Water was much colder than advertised 71 degrees F. I barely got by with a full 1/8' suit. Vis, 50­175 ft." Richard Litsch, Solitude Wines, Windsor, CA

Copyright 1996 by DSDL, Inc., publishers of Undercurrent. All rights reserved. No portions of this report may be reproduced in any way, including photocopying and electronic data storage, without prior written permission from the publisher. For more information, contact DSDL, Inc., P.O. Box 1658, Sausalito, CA 94966.