alexmaclennan
17-09-06, 06:52
This trip report was originally posted on the YD forum. I have reposted in case anyone is interested.
Just back from a great week's diving on MV Juliet. Booked through OOnas divers in Britain. This was my first liveaboard so I don't have anything to compare with but more experienced divers gave the trip and boat the thumbs up. Trip was mixed reefs and wrecks. Mike Ward was on board to give us background on wrecks and gave a series of fascinating short talks on some of the major wrecks and reasons for the wrecks in the north red sea. Good mix of maritime history and detective work. Dive guide Rob Hunt was excellent, generally laid back but very good dive briefingsand took responsibility of nitrox and wreck speciality training seriously. Generally dives at 7am then breakfast, 11 am then lunch, 4pm then afternoon tea and 7pm then evening meal. Beer from fridge afterwards.
2 zodiacs, big kitting up area, 12l aluminium tanks, filled to 200 bar with air or nitrox 32. Sites visited included:
19/8/05
Temple - easy dive through coral pinnacles, surfaced by post on the largest pinnacle - bad idea given the number of dayboats and zodiacs in the place. 18m, 40 mins
Ras Ghoslani - easy drift dive through lovely coral garden(s). 18m, 40 mins
Alternatives, Sha'ab el Utat - 2 dives including night dive - easy dive round three pinnacles during the day and one pinnacle at night. 14m, 60mins and 12m, 45 mins.
20/9/05
Dunraven - fantastic dive dropping onto bow then swimming with reef to left dowm to prop, penetrating stern and swimming past boilers to exit midships. First time inside a wreck for me. Loads of ambient light. No glassfish. 30m, 50 mins.
Small Crack, Sha'ab Mahmoud - fantastic drift through the beautiful coral gardens of the crack then northwards at outer edge of reef 18m, 50mins
Giannis D, Sha'ab Abu Nuhas - another fantastic wreck canted at 45 degrees so short swim throughs were slow so as not to rise too fast. lots of surge at the 5m safety stop on the superstructure. 20m, 50 mins
Abu Nuhas reef as night dive - only 4 of us. 2' giant triton, moustached conger. lovely dive. 16m, 40 mins
21/9/05
Carnatic, Sha'ab Abu Nuhas - very atmospheric due to the rotted spars of the decking, either looking out from them or watching the bubbles of other divers dribble out through them. 24m, 40 mins. Those on the other zodiac spent 15 mins snorkelling with a pod of wild dolphins. Derek - 'first time in 650 dives'.
Marcus, Sha'ab Abu Nuhas - felt like we spent more time swimming through the holds and crews quarters than on the outside of this wreck. Rob just kept on leading us through swimthroughs. 25m, 50 mins
Ulysses reef, Gubal island - fantastic fast drift dive, though the zodiac crews intended to drop us on Ulysses, current took us off the wreck before we could drop onto it. Great dive with lots of morays and a turtle. 18m, 60 mins
Barge, Gubal island as night dive - probably 20+ divers from other liveaboards as well as ourselves. Biggest moray I've seen. Strong current so by the 5m stop we had a long surface swim back. Should have taken the zodiac drivers offer of a lift. 14m, 40 mins
22/9/05 Ulysses, Gubal island - dropped onto the ship, swam round outside it, and then a repeat high speed drift dive on the reef afterwards. 26m, 50mins
Kingston & reef, Shag island - Rob's only blunder. Dropped from zodiac several hundred meters from Kingston, intending to drift past reef onto it. Current split so within 50m we were swimming against current. Reached Kingston with 70 bar. Beautiful corals and very territorial Surgeonfish. Wreck made up for the swimming. 16m, 50 mins
Thistlegorm - Swim from bows to No 3 hold, continually dodging very strong current by hiding in holds or behind superstructure. Great dive but a bit scary. 22m, 35 mins.
Thistlegorm - Mike, Lars and I did a night dive through No 1 & 2 holds upper levels. No-one else from other liveaboards(or no-one elso I noticed). No current. Finished by swimthrough forepeak onto bowline of Juliet. 24m, 40mins. Fantastic feeling, ascending to safety after being through holds.
23/9/05
Thistlegorm - swimthrough of upper and lower levels of No 1 & 2 holds. Next time swim over bows as other divers saw big fish in current just below the bows. 25m, 33 mins
Shark & Yolanda reef - Derek's favourite dive. I'm not sure why. Big Napoleons. Lots of other divers about. 26m, 60mins.
Kormoran & reef - Bow and lots of flat plates is all that remains of most of wreck. Mike - 'now this is what British wrecks look like'. Again lots of territorial surgeonfish. Lovely gentle drift over reef to finish. 10m, 60 mins.
South fortuna, Tiran island as night dive - coral pinnacles and sand. Big buried stingray and huge sleeping parrotfish. Crew were catching squid when we returned (next afternoon's lunch). 10m, 40mins.
24/9/05
Jackson reef - Great drift, by ourselves, turning round as current changed. Turtles and blue spotted rays. 28m, 36 mins. On our return, dayboats were filling up moorings. There were 29 boats at Jackson by 11am!!
Thomas reef - Good drift dive, by ourselves. Rob - 'Jackson would be lemonade'. 24m, 50 mins.
Ras um Sid as sunset dive - gentle final dive finishing by torchlight in the darkness. 25m, 50mins.
Very funny last night show by crew. Dancing, party games, dressing up. Finished all the booze.
Rob & I spent the next day at OOnas sinking a lot of beer.
Boat accommodation, crew, food all excellent. Always two zodiacs on station when we were diving. Two of the divers had been on many liveaboards before and both gave this 9/10 (with 10 being their best ever liveaboard trip). Well done OOnas! We would definitely recommend this liveaboard.
Checkout website www.julietdivers.com
alex
Just back from a great week's diving on MV Juliet. Booked through OOnas divers in Britain. This was my first liveaboard so I don't have anything to compare with but more experienced divers gave the trip and boat the thumbs up. Trip was mixed reefs and wrecks. Mike Ward was on board to give us background on wrecks and gave a series of fascinating short talks on some of the major wrecks and reasons for the wrecks in the north red sea. Good mix of maritime history and detective work. Dive guide Rob Hunt was excellent, generally laid back but very good dive briefingsand took responsibility of nitrox and wreck speciality training seriously. Generally dives at 7am then breakfast, 11 am then lunch, 4pm then afternoon tea and 7pm then evening meal. Beer from fridge afterwards.
2 zodiacs, big kitting up area, 12l aluminium tanks, filled to 200 bar with air or nitrox 32. Sites visited included:
19/8/05
Temple - easy dive through coral pinnacles, surfaced by post on the largest pinnacle - bad idea given the number of dayboats and zodiacs in the place. 18m, 40 mins
Ras Ghoslani - easy drift dive through lovely coral garden(s). 18m, 40 mins
Alternatives, Sha'ab el Utat - 2 dives including night dive - easy dive round three pinnacles during the day and one pinnacle at night. 14m, 60mins and 12m, 45 mins.
20/9/05
Dunraven - fantastic dive dropping onto bow then swimming with reef to left dowm to prop, penetrating stern and swimming past boilers to exit midships. First time inside a wreck for me. Loads of ambient light. No glassfish. 30m, 50 mins.
Small Crack, Sha'ab Mahmoud - fantastic drift through the beautiful coral gardens of the crack then northwards at outer edge of reef 18m, 50mins
Giannis D, Sha'ab Abu Nuhas - another fantastic wreck canted at 45 degrees so short swim throughs were slow so as not to rise too fast. lots of surge at the 5m safety stop on the superstructure. 20m, 50 mins
Abu Nuhas reef as night dive - only 4 of us. 2' giant triton, moustached conger. lovely dive. 16m, 40 mins
21/9/05
Carnatic, Sha'ab Abu Nuhas - very atmospheric due to the rotted spars of the decking, either looking out from them or watching the bubbles of other divers dribble out through them. 24m, 40 mins. Those on the other zodiac spent 15 mins snorkelling with a pod of wild dolphins. Derek - 'first time in 650 dives'.
Marcus, Sha'ab Abu Nuhas - felt like we spent more time swimming through the holds and crews quarters than on the outside of this wreck. Rob just kept on leading us through swimthroughs. 25m, 50 mins
Ulysses reef, Gubal island - fantastic fast drift dive, though the zodiac crews intended to drop us on Ulysses, current took us off the wreck before we could drop onto it. Great dive with lots of morays and a turtle. 18m, 60 mins
Barge, Gubal island as night dive - probably 20+ divers from other liveaboards as well as ourselves. Biggest moray I've seen. Strong current so by the 5m stop we had a long surface swim back. Should have taken the zodiac drivers offer of a lift. 14m, 40 mins
22/9/05 Ulysses, Gubal island - dropped onto the ship, swam round outside it, and then a repeat high speed drift dive on the reef afterwards. 26m, 50mins
Kingston & reef, Shag island - Rob's only blunder. Dropped from zodiac several hundred meters from Kingston, intending to drift past reef onto it. Current split so within 50m we were swimming against current. Reached Kingston with 70 bar. Beautiful corals and very territorial Surgeonfish. Wreck made up for the swimming. 16m, 50 mins
Thistlegorm - Swim from bows to No 3 hold, continually dodging very strong current by hiding in holds or behind superstructure. Great dive but a bit scary. 22m, 35 mins.
Thistlegorm - Mike, Lars and I did a night dive through No 1 & 2 holds upper levels. No-one else from other liveaboards(or no-one elso I noticed). No current. Finished by swimthrough forepeak onto bowline of Juliet. 24m, 40mins. Fantastic feeling, ascending to safety after being through holds.
23/9/05
Thistlegorm - swimthrough of upper and lower levels of No 1 & 2 holds. Next time swim over bows as other divers saw big fish in current just below the bows. 25m, 33 mins
Shark & Yolanda reef - Derek's favourite dive. I'm not sure why. Big Napoleons. Lots of other divers about. 26m, 60mins.
Kormoran & reef - Bow and lots of flat plates is all that remains of most of wreck. Mike - 'now this is what British wrecks look like'. Again lots of territorial surgeonfish. Lovely gentle drift over reef to finish. 10m, 60 mins.
South fortuna, Tiran island as night dive - coral pinnacles and sand. Big buried stingray and huge sleeping parrotfish. Crew were catching squid when we returned (next afternoon's lunch). 10m, 40mins.
24/9/05
Jackson reef - Great drift, by ourselves, turning round as current changed. Turtles and blue spotted rays. 28m, 36 mins. On our return, dayboats were filling up moorings. There were 29 boats at Jackson by 11am!!
Thomas reef - Good drift dive, by ourselves. Rob - 'Jackson would be lemonade'. 24m, 50 mins.
Ras um Sid as sunset dive - gentle final dive finishing by torchlight in the darkness. 25m, 50mins.
Very funny last night show by crew. Dancing, party games, dressing up. Finished all the booze.
Rob & I spent the next day at OOnas sinking a lot of beer.
Boat accommodation, crew, food all excellent. Always two zodiacs on station when we were diving. Two of the divers had been on many liveaboards before and both gave this 9/10 (with 10 being their best ever liveaboard trip). Well done OOnas! We would definitely recommend this liveaboard.
Checkout website www.julietdivers.com
alex