Liveaboard Elphinstone Fury Shoal
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Elphinstone Fury Shoal
The trip can be started and finished from Marsa Alam or Hamata (depending on the previous liveaboard and the next), and will not affect any exciting part of the itinerary. Accessible to a large number of divers, this trip is characterized by easy and shallow dives with a great variety, such as caves and cracks, coral gardens, drop-offs, current , wrecks and dolphins, that are great fun for families, clubs and groups of divers. The trip will start with an easy and stunning dive at Abu Galawa Soraya. The wreck of a 14m sailing boat is sitting on its starboard on a sandy bottom at 16m depth and hides a myriad of glassfish. Along the way we will find small coral heads covered with little fishes, anemones and after a tunnel at 4m depth we will enjoy the superb view on a beautiful coral garden adorned with many pinnacles. Abu Galawa Kebir The hull of the Chinese wreck Tienstin (sunk in 1947) is listing slightly to starboard with the stern firmly wedged into the sand at a depth of 18m. The wreck is twenty meters long and exposed to currents that allow the colonization of corals, to such an extent that in places it is impossible to make a distinction between the end of the wreck and the beginning of the reef. But from the other side, we easily distinguish the captain's cabin, toilets and the hold of the ship. A night dive belongs to the possibilities as we will be spending the night here by the protecting lagoon. Day 2/ Monday Sha’ab Claudio and its wide beautiful caves in the shape of a cathedral (maximum 9 m depth) are offering a spectacular light show. It is not uncommon to encounter small white tip sharks in the morning and most of the time a huge Napoleon is swimming underneath the boat. We will finish the dive at a coral garden lying at a depth of 5 to 20 m. Sataya Sataya is a huge 20 km long reef. In summer, the water temperature is exceeding 33° in the lagoon. This dive site is home to a colony of more than hundred dolphins (Stenella longirostris) often divided into several groups. Depending on the time of the year, you can see the baby dolphins with their parents. It is also possible to approach these magnificent marine mammals via snorkling. We will finish the dive on a beautiful coral garden at 5/8 m depth with beautiful schools of fish (mullet, jacks) and napoleons. A night dive belongs to the possibilities as we will be spending the night here by the protecting lagoon. Day 3/ Tuesday Malahi consists of a maze of canyons where labyrinthine caves and craggy corals are on the menu (max. depth 23m). A school of banner fish will be welcoming you at the beginning of your dive. The atmosphere is close to magical with beautiful light effects, which makes it a paradise for photographers! Very often the canyons are filled with schools of yellowfin goatfish and you might see a turtle passing by during your dive. Gotta Even In the event the main reef is not interesting, the blocks with their beautiful colours surrounded by small fish will certainly be. A white tip shark has found here his home. After the dive we will return to Sataya to spend ther Day 4/ Wednesday Maksour is a plateau that is similar to, but larger than, Elphinstone. Depending on the current you will be making 2 dives from a zodiac from the north to the south via the east or west side of the reef. The depth is around 20/25m and when diving on the south side, you will find lots of soft corals visited by turtles. It is a safe bet that they will be waiting for you. Two beautiful, richly garnished pinnacles will help you make your safety stop. After the dives we will continue to Wadi Gimal to spend the night. e the night. Day 5/ Thursday Wadi Wadi Gimal There are over a dozen of dive sites at this protected reef. Diving here is also highly dependent on optimal weather conditions (wind, current, visibility). These easy dive sites, inhibited with fish (turtles, napoleons, jacks, tuna, barracuda), soft and hard corals, and large table corals, perfectly reflect what divers can see during their dives in the Red Sea. Shaab Sharm is a coral mountain of 700 m long, with plateaus at each end that are falling to a depth of 30m. The reef is characterized by many types of hard and soft corals. During your dive you will disc Day 6/ Friday Elphinstone is offering 2 plateaus, one on the north and the other one on the south. The tip of the reef is often visited by hammer heads, and down on the edge a school of barracudas will be waiting for you. Drifting to the east side big tuna will be visible in the blue, but keep an eye on the reef as well so you don’t miss out on the pipe fish (family of the seahorse) and sea cucumbers on the reef. The second dive on the southern plateau will offer you the chance to encounter large trevally, Napoleon wrasses and, the highlight of the show, the Oceanic White tip shark. You can sometimes even see them from the boat when they swim in shallow water. We will arrive in Marsa Alam on Friday afternoon for the dinner and the overnight stay (for technical reasons it can be possible to spend the night from Friday to Saturday in a hotel in Marsa Alam). The holiday will come to an end on Saturday morning after the breakfast around 9.00AM. In the event the departure would take place from Marsa Alam, a check dive at Shouna will be scheduled before the dive at Elphinstone.over a good number of large table corals, as well as large tuna, schools of barracudas, white tip sharks and napoleons of all ages and sizes. The itinerary and dive sites stated above are only an indication. There are so many interesting and varied dive sites that it is impossible for us to show all the possibilities. The captain and the dive guide will offer you the best dive sites from this region depending on the weather conditions (wind, waves, currents, visibility) and flight times. |