Red Sea Liveaboard - "Get Wrecked"
SS Carnatic
November 2025
I heard from a couple of dive buddies that they were on this "Get Wrecked" trip with ScubaTravel, and being a bit of a rusty metal fan
myself I decided to join them. The "Get Wrecked" trip, as you can imagine by the name, is all about the Red Sea wrecks, many of which I have
already dived but you always see something new no matter how many times you dive a good wreck.
Once again flying from Gatwick (North) Terminal with TUI, and having booked parking in the Gatwick (North) Long Stay car park, it involved an early
morning drive down to get there in time to check in for the 09:40 flight.
We arrived in good time at the liveaboard Ghazala Explorer to do the
requisite paperwork and have the obligatory presentation on safety and boat configuration, etc. before retiring to bed for a 6am start the next day.
In some
respects the boat was looking a little bit tired and dated, the charging station out on the boat deck could do with a considerable upgrade, and expansion. On a
recent liveaboard in Komodo the boat had universal plug sockets which would accept any plug configuration, no more messing about with loose fitting "two round
pin" plugs. It would be great if these could be added in the upgrade. The matress in my room was, as always, as hard as concrete and for me, very difficult to
sleep on, I hope they upgrade to softer ones (but I doubt it). My cabin was right next to the engines so when they used them at night it was very noisy,
fortunately they only did that once and my cabin aircon gave a little trouble, but that is part of the refurbishment to make the aircon better.
The crew
and guides were brilliant, so very helpful, nothing was too much trouble. Most of my dives were unguided but those I did guided, the guides were great. We
had a full briefing before each dive, often by a guy named Mike Ward, who gave some excellent and really interesting briefings, including the history behind the
wreck in question and how it happened to meet its fate. Mike also produced a YouTube video of the trip which can be found
here.
We dived some really great wrecks on this trip, some of which I had dived before and some of which
I hadn't, see the details below. I did all 21 dives this trip and managed to avoid ear infections and stomach problems which was great for a change.
The early
evening (17:55) flight home resulted in landing back at Gatwick around 22:00, time through customs and baggage claim it was 23:00 and I still had a drive back
home of several hours, finally arriving there at 4am.
A funny thing happened on the car park transit bus: it was very crowded, many people wanting to get on at the terminal to get back to their cars. I got on at the rear
door to an already crowded bus with many people choosing to stand with their cases in the open area by the door. Unable to get to the racks to stow my dive bag,
I placed it bag as unobtrusively as possible on end next to a partition and vacated myself out of the way up the few steps to the seating area. A chap pushed his
way on after me and shoved his bag against mine, thus pushing mine out of the way and blocking the bottom of the steps to the upper seating area. The bus driver
was imploring people to move from where they were standing, up to the seating area, but everyone was steadfastly ignoring her. The chap looked at my bag and
then at me and said, "Is this yours?" to which I nodded, at which point he picked it up and placed it on the steps, thereby causing an obstruction to the exit should
there need to be an emergency evacuation of the vehicle, saying, "Its causing a bit of a wedge!" I found this amusingly ironic when it was actually him that was
causing "a bit of a wedge" by a) blocking the exit and b) standing where he was instead of moving to the almost empty seating area as the bus driver was
requesting. It takes all sorts :-)
Blog Under Construction
Chrisoula K rudder
11th November 2025
A 6am start and the first dive (Dive#1) of the trip was, as always, a check dive at Sa'ab El Erg, a lovely chill dive over white sand and coral bommies. The usual reef critters to be seen, including Blackspotted Pufferfish, Rusty Parrotfish, Bird Wrasse and Coronetfish, to name just some.
Having fine tuned my weights I was a lot more confortable on the second dive (Dive #2) which was the wonderful Chrisoula K wreck, a.k.a. the Tile Ship at Abu N'has. This was the 4th time I've dived it and I'm getting to know it quite well, enough to be confident to take an an unguided dive. Went through the tile holds then around the outside to the rudder and propeller and then to the bow. Several Batfish and surge by the wreck, and the sea was quite lumpy on the surface when we returned to the rhib.
The last dive of the day (Dive #3), the night dive, was at Abu N'has reef. Not a great night dive as far as things to see went; a Lionfish, Masked Pufferfish and a Red Sea Garden Eel about 18 inches long, which quickly wriggled out of sight under some coral before I could take a picture.
It was good to be back in the lovely warm water of the Red Sea again, the first day not too taxing with just 3 dives. Early to bed for another 6am start tomorrow.
12th November 2025
Dive #4 continued at Abu N'has and commenced with an early morning dive on the SS Carnatic. I love this wreck and have dived it 4 times now but each
time you see something new. It is a fabulous open wreck at a comfortable depth, easy to penetrate both fore and aft. The wooden structure has rotted away
giving the interior plenty of light and leaving the steel skeleton to be colonised by an amazing variety of coral.
The usual reef/wreck life is found in and
around the wreck, Parrotfish, school of Batfish, Striped Butterflyfish, school of Sergeant Major, to name just a few.
Next up (Dive #5) was the Giannis D, a.k.a. Markus, a cargo ship built in Japan in 1969 and sunk in 1983. Another great wreck dive at a comfortable depth, it is pretty broken up into several parts, the most intack being the stern which is possible to penetrate into the bridge, engineering and accommodation and engine room.
A move over lunch time to Ras Mohammed and another favourite wreck of mine, the SS Dunraven (Dive #6). Since 2009 I have now dived this wreck 4 times and am always thrilled to do it, swim through the rudder hole where the propeller rotates, then inside the wreck at the deepest part (~28m), up through the ship through the engine room and past the boilers (a bit of a squeeze), seeing the large school of Glassfish, and emerging amidships at 24m.
The night dive (Dive #7) was at Beacon Rock, a nice bimble but nothing much seen on this dive apart from massive Pore Coral, three Morays out hunting and a large solitary Barracuda seen in the distance.
SS Carnatic Bowsprit ring
Giannis D Command Bridge
Giant Triggerfish
Thistlegorm Port Loco Firebox
13th November 2025
Today's first dive (Dive #8) we are at Shark and Yolanda Reef in the Ras Mohammed National Park. We did a nice drift dive along a wall and then between
the two atolls and past the strewn white goods from the Yolanda wreck, a Greek Merchant Ship which sank in 1980 and was carrying hotel furnitire, including
bathroom white goods. The picture on the left was so funny that I had to include it. The triggerfish was swimming along minding its own, when it saw a school
of black rubber clad monsters heading towards it, at which point it decided to play dead, descending to the bottom and onto its side, anxiously looking at us
with one, very mobile beady eye, until we passed.
Along with the bathroom white goods and the triggerfish, other wildlife of note were two Bluespotted Stingrays,
Napoleonfish, Coronetfish, Crocodilefish, Stonefish and Devil Scorpionfish.
After breakfast we did the first (Dive #9) of 4 dives on the Thistlegorm, adding to the 5 times I've previously dived it. This has to be the best wreck dive in the Red Sea, if not the world, and you see new things each time - you never get bored! This dive was all about the outside superstructure of the wreck, so down the shot to Captains Cabin, along the starboard side to the bow, past the bridge and starboard water and coal tenders, back down the port side and then off to visit the remains of the Stanier 8F Loco, then back to the stern to the two anti-aircraft guns, finally returning to the shot and back up.
After lunch we dropped in (Dive #10) to descend the shot in current, a Napoleonfish swam by as we did. Penetrated into the wreck at the Captains Cabin then down into the lower deck, progressing anti-clockwise through holds 2 and 3, moving up to the upper level to return. The holds are stuffed full with empty trailers and Bedford truck carrying motorcycles, Norton Motorcycles, some with sidecars, rubber boots, tyres and aireplane spares, electric cables, Lee Enfield Mk lll Rifles, Portable Electric Generators, Mortars, 4" shells in cases and more.
13th November 2025 continued...
Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio, a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy. He hath bore me on his back a thousand times, and now how abhorr'd in my imagination it is! My gorge rises at it.
