‘Ultimate Wreck Trips’ – A review of the liveaboard holiday onboard M/Y Infinity November- 2006

As the final Warm Water Rush trip for 2006, this one we really wanted to make sure we went out in style, and boy did we do just that. Our “Ultimate Red Sea Wreck” trip was a joint venture, between our new Techpursuits and regular Scubapursuits divisions, bringing together the best of both worlds. After a mass convergence at Manchester Airport, and the usual haggle; discussion and disagreement with the check in staff over luggage allowances, we headed through to await our Red Sea departure:

The mission of course was to find a calm and peaceful place, to meditate on the superb weeks diving that lay ahead, ah no sorry what I meant to say was find a café for a fry up.

All on board, and gear (all be it heavily) stowed away, we were off, off and away. As we sprinted across the skies the taller ones among us, namely John and Joerg, did do their very best to tell every other traveller on the flight, how squashed their legs were in the seats. In the mean time, the more normally apportioned ones of the group did what all good travellers should do, we crashed out.

Touchdown ! and hooray, our Warm Water Rush had begun, as we were met by the Emperor Divers Team. Our base for the week was the seriously impressive MY Infinity, one of the new Gold Class liveaboard boats from Emperor Fleet. It is no exaggeration to say that she was simply the best liveaboard boat any of us (even the seasoned salty sea-dogs) had ever been on. With fully air conditioned cabins; BBQ deck; massive (yes massive) Dive Deck and ultra-essential Jacuzzi, we felt right at home.

The sites for the week were carefully chosen by our guides, to offer all levels of diver the best possible diving, to suit their abilities. In general terms this took us to the majority of well known sites in the Northern Red Sea. With the normal divers (well almost normal) doing some great dives around the regular areas; and our Techpursuits divers (who are far from normal) opting to scour the far less frequented bottom of the wrecks and walls, for hidden treasures.

Our itinerary included the wrecks of the Giannis D; Thistlegorm; Dunraven; and Kingston, all of course within the reach of all divers on the trip, but with the increased scope for Techpursuits divers to extend their adventures. Our Techpursuits manager Phil and his trusty Inspiration Rebreather did their best to stretch almost every dive into a 100+ minute exploration, hotly pursued by Jon and Joerg on Twin 12’s (who weren’t far behind). This added time allowed these members of the group, and the other tekkies, to penetrate deep into a number of the wrecks and pass through areas far beyond the reach of regular divers. Not to be out done, that left the rest of us plenty of opportunity to scour the upper decak for the best sun loungers, and the galley for the best chocolate (Ha Ha !).

It was not only a week of wrecks and metal, the spectacular walls at Ras Mohamed and reefs of Giftun were also visted. The life was, as always, simply superb and plentiful, with loads of Reef Fish; Turtles and of course Dolphins, throughout the whole week.

The highlight, besides the great company; super wrecks; deep walls and lovely food was without doubt the first ever sighting of the legendary (all be it a little chilly) “Naked Matt Fish”. Yes you read it right, the final night dive was frequented by a “Naked Matt Fish”, and fair play to him he stuck it out for a full 30 mins. We’re not sure if he (or for that matter his little fella, will ever be the same again), but well done for the comedy, my sides are still aching.

So that was it, a superb week of twisted metal; craggy reefs and barmy antics, thanks to you all, and we’ll see you next time !

You really can’t beat that ‘going on holiday’ feeling – up half the night doing the last minute packing, then up again with (or in fact long before) the lark to get to the airport for the mile-long queue to check in. Still, with a combined luggage weight of half a tonne, we made it on to the flight for Hurghada and a journey into the unknown for many of us.

Having run the gauntlet of locals offering us airport trolleys for the price of a pound, in the Airport (Egypt that is not Gatwick) we headed for the hotel to check in, have a quick look around the place and then straight over to the ‘Big Brother’ bar to meet up with the rest of the group and of course to sample the local beer – which had the dual benefits of tasting great and being very cheap (Ahhh Heaven)! After dinner at the ubiquitous Hard Rock Café, we received our instructions for the following day (i.e. be at reception for 8am or else) and called it a night.
Ok its here, 8am came around all too soon (remembering we were on holiday, and still on UK time, so it was really 6am, aaarrgh !) but we duly all met up in reception full of excitement and anticipation of what the first days diving would bring. The Emperor Divers minibus picked us up and took is to the marina where we met our guides and crew for the week. We then unpacked our gear and put our kit together, with much fumbling, as we tried to remember how this all this stuff is meant to fit together. At least now we know why Mark sent Shane out to keep an eye on us. Ok, jobs all done, now down to the import job of relaxing, so as the captain set sail for our first dive site (a check dive at Abu Ramada), we all collapsed on the sunbeds and caught some sun and zzzzz’s.

Any nerves that we had soon vanished as we jumped into the warm, crystal blue waters and took a first look at the amazing new world that we’d entered. There was an abundance of marine life including huge Moray Eels (a bit of a theme for the week, as these boys seemed to get bigger at each successive dive site!), Parrotfish, Antheas, Clownfish, Triggerfish, Bannerfish – the list goes on and on. It was just staggering, and bode well for the rest of the week.

The week really did just get better and better. The coral gardens that we were guided to were just stunning, with huge Gorgonian Fans, massive Table Corals, and every shape, size and colour of coral imaginable. The sightings continued, with Napolean Wrasse, Eagle Ray, Octopus, Jellyfish (Strawberry, I think), Lionfish, Turtle and even a reported sighting of a juvenile Tiger Shark…. We were also lucky enough to see Dolphins on our travels between sites – oh to be that graceful !

One of our more unusual sightings was of the ice cream boat, a small motor boat complete with a domestic freezer, a generator and a skipper who looked like he consumed most of the stock and all of the profits – a very welcome visitor on board at ‘The Aquarium’. We counted 22 day boats at this site whilst we were there, so I guess he did a roaring trade!

In addition to the reef dives, we also took the option of a really early start and headed out to Abu Nuhas, and to a new experience for many of us, wreck diving. We visited the wrecks of the Carnatic, and Ghiannis D, both very different in their characteristics and ages, having sunk after hitting the reef 100 years apart. Again the abundance of marine life was overwhelming, and there was something quite stirring about seeing how the sea had reclaimed the structures, covering them with coral growth.

Then came the night dive, and what an amazing experience that was! It was really disorientating, with the darkness enclosing us, broken by the beams of light from our dive torches – it was just like a scene from Close Encounters – even more so for the half of the group who were ambushed by a French group who steamed through the middle of us with the usual Gallic charm. The real highlight of the dive was the Hawksbill turtle who put in an appearance, no doubt confused about how it had suddenly got light again! It was fascinating to watch the plentiful cunning lionfish that followed our lights and made sushi from any fish that we lit with our beams.

It really was a fabulous week, and I’ve deliberately left out references to taxi splinter groups, the visit to the home of a security guard for a crafty smoke of some questionable substances, and navigation practice in the bedroom with the lights out, so as not to incriminate or embarrass anyone! We wouldn’t want to cause any discomfort by mentioning the DMC who got lost on the PADI Navigation Speciality Dive, or the diver who lost all sense of direction (on several occasions) as soon as his camera came into play, much to the frustration of his buddy, or even the diver who realised that the reason he couldn’t descend was that he’d left his weight pouches back on the boat!

So with the dignities of the guilty still in tact, on to some congratulations – To Sam and Sophie, who successfully completed their PADI Open Water Diver qualifications, to Adam for his PADI Underwater Photography qualification, to Scott, Sophie, Michelle, Carl, Peter, Marion, Steve and me for our completing our PADI Advanced course. Also to Wayne, a.k.a. Mr Gadget of ‘interesting half hour’ fame who, very quietly, celebrated his birthday during the week.

Thanks to Shane for his patience and organisation, our excellent guides Simon, Nick and Jo and of course to the crew of Pegasus who really looked after us. I’m sure we will be back!

Ok, so if you’ve visited the Red Sea before then no doubt you have already sampled one or maybe two of the spectacular wrecks it has to offer, but now we’re giving you the chance to do the ‘lot’.
The choice of M/Y Infinity has been made simple by the fact that it is literally the best one on offer within the Emperor fleet, launched only in October 2005. Its features list is exhaustive and luxurious; including a massive overall length of 38m; twin en-suite accommodation for 20 people; separate Dining Area, Bar and Salon; TV, VCR, DVD; and spacious Dive Deck.

Once on board the experienced Emperor Dive Team and Crew will ensure you have an Adventure of the Decade, taking you to pretty much every Wreck in the area. As with all our liveaboard trips the advantages are endless, from beating the day boats; hitting the out of reach dive sites; no early bus rides to the jetty, right through to the sheer overall comfort and ease of life on board.

This particular itinerary is new for 2006 and is simply titled “Wrecks n Reefs”, so no surprises what its all about. Heading out from Hurghada the weeks sights will include the Giannis D; Carnatic and Chrisoula K; at Abu Nu Hass, along with the Thistlegorm and some of the greatest reefs in the world.

As one of our most popularly timed trips each year, there is no doubt that this one will fill up fast, so if a week of Wreck Adventure floats your boat then don’t miss this one …

This is it, the ultimate report from what was without doubt, the “ultimate” Warm Water Rush, our Simply the Best trip, 2006 !

We’ve never added this one to our schedule before, and even this year the take up was a little slow, but ‘wow’ its got its place secure for ever now. With the number of Scuba + Outdoor trips John has taken over the last 12+ years, to destinations including The Red Sea, Maldives and more, it is an amazing feat for this one to be (by his own admission) THE BEST DIVE TRIP EVER.

Ok so down to the finer points, exactly what did make it the best ever…. In a word “sharks”, and lots (and lots) of them, in every conceivable shape, size and variety. The role call for them is almost limitless, including Hammerheads; Thresher Sharks; Grey Reef Sharks and Oceanic White Tips.

The travelling was a pain, although once on board we were acquainted with our dive guides, Jim and Uta, and our fellow Shark enthusiasts “The Germans” (guess where they’re from ?). After John did his bit to build Anglo-German relations, by introducing them to fine Scottish Malt on the first evening, we all awoke early to scoff down a tasty breakfast. Check-out dive completed, and then we were off on a 6 hour steam south to The Brothers islands.

Whilst we completed a total of 5 dives on Little Brother, over the latter half of day 2 and all of day 3 we were treated to the most majestic of wall dives; the best and quickest ever Red Sea drift dive (Wahey !), and introduced to the joys of “heading into the blue”. Although we were still warming up our Shark detecting senses on these dives we did see a couple of Sharks on each dive, however the best of these saw us head out into the blue at approx 30m. Jim had briefed us that we would have to wait there for some time and then the Sharks would come in, but no-way, the Sharks were everywhere in minutes. On this dive alone we had a multitude of ‘big’ Grey ReefSharks, and even a couple of Threshers.

So a big ‘tick’ in the box for Little Brother, now off to Big Brother (no not the infamous Channel 4 reality show, the world class reef island in the Red Sea). Here we left the Sharks in peace for a while, while Jim and Uta gave us a guided tour of the 2 wrecks to be found here. A quick reef dive to wrap the day up, and off to Dadaleous, with the promise of Hammerheads.

Ouch, a really early start for today, with an early dawn dive planned. We all listened more intently than ever for this one, the plan being to head out into the blue at about 30m, just at the point at which the current splits. We followed our instructions to the letter, and hovered almost motionless. With 15 divers all scouring the blue for the slightest sign of anything with a fin, there was no way we could miss anything. Waiting, waiting, waiting and then all of a sudden there they were 4, 5, 6, 7 no 10, 12, 14 (or maybe more) schooling Hammerheads all around us. As they patrolled around us, no more than a few meters away from us, every single one of us was mesmerised. The time of course kept ticking, and reluctantly we had to head back to the reef and back to our boat, but wow what a dive.

After a power summit akin to that normally found at an EU summit, the decision was made to stay another day at Dadaleous. It truly was probably the best reef any of us had ever dived on, oh and of course there were the Sharks. Unfortunately one of the Zodiac (small inflatable shuttle boats) had developed engine trouble, so it was going to be “first group come, first group served” in the morning. This normally wouldn’t be a problem but of course on this dive we were all acutely aware that the first ones in would get the Sharks. So the competition was on, and in true national spirit “The Germans” truly lived up to their reputation, with Dethen actually sleeping on the dive deck in wetsuit and mask. Don’t worry though, they didn’t bank on our speed kitting up, and Johns distraction techniques, so yes we made it in first, and yes it was worth it. On this dive alone we had masses of huge Tuna; the biggest Barracuda any of us had ever seen, and (yes you’ve guessed it) loads of Sharks, big Grey Reefs this time.

Several dives later, both here and on Elphinstone, with Oceanic White Tips and (believe it or not) even more Hammerheads, it was time to wrap up the week in style. How else of course but with a BBQ on top deck, with much laughing; joking; what could loosely be described as dancing; and of course more Anglo-German relationship building (yes drinking !) we whiled away the evening right through to the early hours. Despite their best efforts our two resident ‘Alch-ies’ didn’t quite manage to finish all the booze, even they couldn’t face Jane’s Malibu, but hey who could blame them.

So in the best traditions of all great Oscar Speaches, I’d like to thank all those who helped make this THE BEST LIVEABOARD EVER. Here goes a great thanks to John; Hev; Andy (aka Trog); Jane (aka Mrs Trog); Phil; Kevan (the yank); John (the other John); Jim & Uta (our really great dive guides); The Germans and of course our boat Empress Frazer and her captain and crew, Captain Sala !

It all started one very cold April morning, standing at the Tesco island, in Shirley, at an ungodly hour, waiting for our pick up. Having boarded the good ship ‘minibus’, we set sail on the tarmac sea for Gatwick, boarded a plane then landed in paradise (ok with a few hours snoring in-between).

The fun and adventures began at the airport, but somehow we managed to get scuba gear, ourselves and our unbridled enthusiasm squeezed onto our transfer chariot, heading seawards (well to the hotel first anyway).

We didn’t know what to expect, would the Red Sea actually be Red, how salty was it, (did we need tequila & lime chasers once exiting the water), would we as ‘newbies’ have to undergo some initiation ritual & lose body parts ? Oh well it was too late now to worry about it, so we just dived right into the group and mucked in with the rest of them.

Having only ever experienced the murky (and very cold) depths of Stoney Cove, arriving at our first dive site proved to be the experience of a lifetime. Water so clear that you could see just about everything swimming within it, especially that “Big Bob” fish that was always buzzing around us.

Our first thoughts as we arrived at the calm blue waters of Raskaty (our first real dive site) was ‘just throw us overboard’. All our nerves flew out of the window as we jumped in, looked down and gazed at a completely different universe, (no hair balls, plasters, shopping trolleys, abandoned cars) instead we saw everything from Antheas to Parrotfish. The amazing coloured coral gardens were so much more than we’d bargained for, from that moment on we were completely hooked. How on earth were we going to focus on our Advanced Open Water course without getting distracted? Simple, I think it was just a question of ‘let’s get it out the way so that we can get on and enjoy all of this!’.

As we were new to deep & wreck diving, our pre Thistlegorm thoughts of confined spaces, overhead projections, divers in front, behind and poor viz had us wondering whether we should actually dive it or not. Of course within seconds of sighting this truly spectacular WW2 wreck, we were so glad that we did. As we ventured inside the famous wreck, it was one of the best moments of the holiday with memories that we shall never forget. We crammed in everything that we could, from letting off our SMB to signalling to the wrong boat with the pre-agreed teapot sign.

So if we had to select the ‘piece de resistance’ for the entire holiday, what on earth (or sea) would it be ? The Thistlegorm?, The Napoleon Wrasse, which swam right up to us and peered at us with its googly eye ? Seeing Bob and Barry sunbathing in their Speedos ? No, to beat all that, on our very last dive at Shark Reef and Yolande Reef, we’d talked about not having seen a turtle, (with all that we’d already seen this must have sounded like the moans of a spoilt child!), but on that last dive as if on cue, out of the blue popped the most beautiful Hawksbill turtle.

You could tell how much we enjoyed watching it swim past us, because all that could be seen was a torrent of bubbles that surged out of our regs up to the surface. Now of course to our question, ‘Do laughter bubbles make a sound at the surface?’ We ask of course because, every single one of ours encapsulated so many giggles and gasps that absolutely everyone on the surface must have through we were mad !

Oh and yes, its was that good, we’ve just booked our next Warm Water Rush – The “Ultimte Wreck Trip” in November – See you there !

The group this year was made up of a mix of old timers (that we just can’t seem to get rid of!) and newbies making the “playing the host” role a little easier for Mark and Maya.

The week started, well, absolutely terribly … With an almost break down at the top of the M40 and an actual break down at the bottom of it. So that was it with Highways Agency support, and our luggage offloaded all down the hard shoulder the challenge was on to find a way to get all 20 people to the airport. In a “Challenge Anneka” style Mark and Paul set about calling every taxi company in the area to bail us out, and fifteen calls and £270 later the 3 rescue taxis arrived. Ahhhhh was that a swift journey, but hey they got us there and with 30 seconds to spare before the gate closed.

Once on board we checked that we had all the important things, like Gez and Rog (of course only because they had the Raspberry Smirnoff !) … Ok, and relax ….

Once on firm ground the usual assortment of ruffians from Regal and Emperor were there to meet us, again only because they wanted their assorted requests of contraband – Mini Cheddars / Ribena / Cider / New Mobile / Cadburys and so on. Then it was off to the hotel, the Sulten Beach this time, and wow it was nice (probably too nice for us).

After our sign in and briefing session at the dive centre on the first morning, and much consoling of Irena our Emperor guide (well i’d cry too if I knew I was stuck with our lot for a week – he he he) we were off for a great weeks diving. The list of funnies from the boat is almost endless but the ones to make the grade have
already been swiped by a large department store as potential new family games for Christmas.

My personal favourite, although a little painful was the aptly titled “see how many people you can get in a 12 seater mini-bus” game – the clue of course is somewhere in the title, but hey we managed 22 – ouch !!!

Whilst the “bobbing for tubby” game – was a real crowd pleaser and wow if ever there was an award for timing, Roger’s six pack is superb in this photo, and hey the camera never lies.

On the odd occasion we did stay in the hotel for more than 5 minutes we did honour the great British tradition of being polite by always “bringing a house warming gift” whenever we visited each others room – as you can see in the photo we were pretty good at this one – although the manager did wonder where his 1 table; 2 chairs; 5 ashtrays; 2 potted plants; 15 bedslats and 1 very large tree had disappeared to, when we visited Ray and Becks room.

Although the laughs kept rolling in the evening and the odd beer was consumed, during the day the whole group really did focus on and enjoy the diving, with the whole week passing trouble free and smoothly. The best day being that spent at Abu Nu Hass, where the Carnatic dive resulted in Mark, Irena and Old John spending over 15 minutes hovering in what must have been the worlds largest shoal of silver-sides – awesome.

As the week progressed the sightings list, besides the normal plethora of reef fish, included Dolphin (above and below the waves); turtles; napolean wrasse (and boy was the one of them huge !); white tip reef shark and loads more besides, including one vary rare pregnant Maya-Fish.

Ok, yes we know you’re waiting for it … Yes of course Mark put on one of his famous Belly-Dancing outfits for the last night, but this time we even managed to persuade Regal Rep Mark to don one too.

So we really did end the week in style, well we thought we looked good anyway !