Dolphin Pod

19th May 2026

First dive of the the day (Dive #1), and of the trip, was as usual a check dive at Shaab El Erg (Dolphin house). Everything checked out for me, and everyone else it seems, and so we descended to the reef below. True to it's name, the first thing we saw was a pod of four Dolphins, this had the makings of a fantastic trip already.

After lunch and a quick move to Shaab Abu Nuhas, we dropped in for a visit to the SS Carnatic (Dive #2), the fifth time I've dived it since 2011. It lies on it's side at a 45 degree angle beside the reef between ~18m at the highest point and ~24m at the lowest and the structure is nice and open, so a nice easy dive. Finning up along the mast towards the hull I came across a jet black Octopus at rest actually on the mast. As I approached it moved off and down the side of it to hide and turned the same colour as the seabed. Cool.

The night dive (Dive #3) that day was at Temple Reef. Of note, there were lots of good sized hunting Moray, an Octopus, at least two Spanish Dancers along with the other usual reef life.

20th May 2026

First dive today (Dive #4) by zodiac was a wreck I have not dived before called the RSS Cormorant (aka Thor Guardian) a 36mtr cargo ship which ran aground on a reef north of Ras Gamila (near Gordon Reef, made infamous because investigators discovered all of the doors were wide open and secured with ropes and the emergency beacon intentionally disabled and they suspected insurance fraud. Subsequently an insurance payout was denied. A nice and a rare wreck to dive, it lies almost vertical on the reef from 20mtr at the stern to 60mtr at the bow. For me this was a 40.8mtr dive, so about halfway down. I stopped there as I wanted time to explore without hitting deco, even so, it was only a 26 minute dive. There was lots of current away from the wreck and also surge at the shallower parts.

Jackson Reef (Dive #5) was a gentle drift passing lots of hard and soft coral. An Eagle Ray passed by out in the blue too far away to get a decent picture and a nice Turtle was enjoying lunch munching on the coral. Redtoothed Triggerfish, Masked Pufferfish, Brownspotted Grouper, Masked Butterflyfish and Potato Cod along with all the other usual reef inhabitants.
It's only when you are enjoying the tranquil serenity of a gentle, relaxed drift, when you stop finning and just enjoy the passing reef and its inhabitants, that you may start to notice that things are not quite right with your weighting. In my case I noticed a slow but sure rotation to my left, indicating that my weights were not quite balanced. I had equal weights in my BCD pouches and a 1kg weight in each BCD pocket. When I got back to the boat I took the 1kg weight out of my left pocket, which should, on subsequent dives, have made me rotate to the right. But it didn't! All was good for the rest of the trip. I must say I have noticed this happen before so it was not a surprise.

Mid afternoon we dived (Dive #6) another new wreck for me called Million Hope, the largest wreck in the Red Sea at 175mtr long and with 5 huge cargo holds, which sank on June 19th 1996. It is now at 24mtr at the deepest, teaming with marine life and coral but flattened in most parts. It is, however, still penetrable in places. A large tracked crane can be found on the seabed off the bow. Marine life of note was a large Crockodilefish.

I skipped the night dive today which is one of two I missed this trip.

RSS Cormorant

Million Hope Tracked Crane

Napoleonfish at Shark Reef

SS Dunraven Rudder & Prop

21st - 22nd May 2026

First dive today (Dive #7) at Ras Mohammad National Park was Shark and Yolanda. The Yolanda sank here in 1980 but slipped off the reef in 1985 to very deep water, but not before shedding a lot of its cargo of bathtub, sinks and toilets. This was a drift dive around the vertical wall of Shark Reef, into the saddle between that and the satellite reef where, in the shallow water, you can see the split cargo, and then around the satellite (Yolanda) reef. A large Napleonfish passed in the opposite direction as we began our drift, there was a Giant Moray, head out of a cave in the reef wall, a swimming Moray, two Bluespotted Stingrays, lots of Bluespine Unicornfish, Coronetfish, Giant Triggerfish, Blue Triggerfish and all the other, smaller, usual reef life.

After breakfast we paid a visit (Dive #8) to the SS Dunraven which sank in April 1876 after running aground on Beacon Rock. This is a great wreck to dive, I've done it 5 times now and I never get bored with doing it. There was some current but not difficult, another Napoleonfish on the descent, down to rudder and prop, swim through the gap, then in through the side just above the rudder to the twin boilers, past them through gap to the left, continue up and then out. Marine life on the way through included Giant Triggerfish, Glassfish, Redsea Bannerfish, Arabian Angelfish, Masked Pufferfish, Whiteedged Soldierfish, Goatfish and more.

After lunch we arrived at the SS Thistlegorm (Dive #9), a truly awesome 126mtr long wreck to dive which was sunk by . It is bursting at the seams with all manner of goods sent to aid the British war effort in North Africa during WW2. It sank after being hit by to bombs dropped by German aircraft with the loss of nine lives. The last dive today (Dive #10) was also the SS Thistlegorm as were the first two dives (Dives #11 and #12) on the next day, making a total of 4 dives on this wreck this trip and 13 in total for me. During the dives I covered most of the wreck and holds/bridge on these dives, including the port to starboard passage at the bow of the ship which was a new one for me. I have documented the contents of this wreck a number of times in previous blogs so I'll just add a few photographs on this one, see below.

Vickers Manuf. Plate 4.7 inch AA Gun

Motorbike - Norton 16H or BSA WD M20?

Truck in Hold

Thistlegorm Rudder and Prop

Tracked Vehicle

Motorbikes in the back of a truck

Ordinance

Stanard 8F Tender

Nudibranch on Tyre unidentified

22nd May 2026

After the first two dives on the Thistlegorm today, we next dived (Dive #13) another new one for me; the Ulysses, a 95mtr British iron steamship which sank in 1887 in the Strait of Gubal. It is a nice skeletal wreck, broken in half and easily penetratable at the stern. The bow is quite shallow at 4 - 6mtr and the stern around 27mtr and it lays on it's port side.

Descending to the rudder there was, what looked like, a bathtub on the seabed. We entered the hull and went as far as possible up inside, then out and along mast to the end and back to check out the marine life. Down near the rudder I saw several Flabellina Nudibranch and then inside I saw Boxer Shrimp and many Sgt Major fish.

I did not do the night dive.

Flabellina (Nudibranch)

Engineering Bench and Vice

Spanish Dancer

23rd May 2026

First two dives today (Dive #14 & #15) was The Roaslie Moller. with these two dives of 37mtr and 34mtr I have now done 5 on this deep wreck. For the firts dive we dropped down the shot line to the stern and went into the stern hold, then into the engineering compartment where there is a bench and vice. As we moved forward we entered the engine room and saw the triple expansion engine then back out and down the port side to the stern where we went back up the shot to end the 34 minute dive with 54bar left.

The second dive, again down the shot to the stern, we slowly finned to the bow and saw a small moray in the anchor winch gear then turned around and slowly finned back to the stern to ascend the shot after 32 minutes with 83bar left.

After lunch (Dive #16) the dive was the Kimon M (aka The Lentil Wreck) which I have only dived once before. It has split into two pieces, the bow on the top of the reef and the stern down the side from 13mtr to 30mtr. Nice wreck to penetrate, plenty of room inside for nearly the full length of the stern.

Last dive of the day (Dive #17) was a great 46 minute night dive at Shaab Abu Nuhas. There were some great critters out and about; Spanish Dancers, Scorpionfish, Stonefish, Banded Cleaner Shrimp, Four Colour Chromodoris, Egyption Starfish, Sea Cucumber along with all the other usual life found on a busy reef at night.

24th May 2026

Only two dives on this last day before washing all the kit and sailing back to Hurghada. The first dive (Dive #18) was the Chrisoula K at Shaab Abu Nuhas, aka the Tile Wreck. The Chrisoula K hit the reef and sank in August 1981. It was carrying a cargo of floor tiles from italy to Jeddah.

Dropped down from Zodiac to stern of wreck and visited the prop and rudder, then up in through the holds full of neatly stacked Italian Marble Tiles to the bow. Back down the side past the funnel to the stern then back up over the deck to the shot line and Zodiac. Just about every surface is coral encrusted with Red Sea Anemonefish hiding in the stinging Bubble-tip Anemone, Batfish and Arabian Angelfish eye you curiously as you navigate the tile holds, Bluespotted Stingray share the surrounding seabed with old sinks, and other fallen debris making this a truly nice and easy dive.

The final dive (Dive #19) was The Giannis D, a greek 99mtr cargo ship which ran into the reef in April 1983. We went out by Zodiac and dropped in for a reasonably shallow (20mtr) dive, again going past the funnel to the stern. Into the engine room and passageways for a quick look around before leaving the wreck. Leeping the reef to our left shoulder we did a half hour underwater swim back to the Ghazala Explorer, passing yet another Bluespotted Ray on the way.

Italian Marble Tiles