Egypt: M/Y Heaven Saphir
Heaven Saphir
Port Ghalib, Red Sea, Egypt
Brothers - Daedalus
November 14th-26th 2017
Dives: 17
Time Under: 14 hours 43 minutes
Had a stopover in London, spent the day exploring downtown and seeing the sights. Then flew to Cairo and overnighted at Le Passage hotel, they picked us up from the airport, helped us with visas/security and then drove us to the hotel and back for our flight to Hurghada. Once we landed in Hurghada, waited at Dream Beach then drove down to Port Ghalib, only about a 3 hour drive.
The boat was nice and comfortable. It had on deck showers and bathrooms, as well as plenty of space on the upper and sun deck to sit and relax between dives. The food was good and had a wide range of different types. For Thanksgiving, they cooked a full turkey which was impressive on a boat. We had some rough crossings and rougher days but all in all the weather was good. We were also suppose to dive on Shaab Torombie, but due to conditions we were unable and spent additional days on the Brothers Islands.
The diving was nice, good visibility. Saw oceanic white tips, the other group saw a couple thresher sharks and a hammer head. Lots of different corals, and interesting formations, not a lot of macro things, but also didn’t look as closely as I have with other dive sites. Most dives were on the deeper side, to hopefully see sharks, and then came up shallower for the ending parts of the dive.
Ras Torombi
62’ for 48 minutes & 56’ for 45 minutes
77°
Little Brother
66’ for 56 minutes & 80’ for 54 minutes
103’ for 56 minutes
77°
Big Brother
107’ for 48 minutes & 110’ for 46 minutes
141’ for 47 minutes & 79’ for 56 minutes
77°
Little Brother
112’ for 45 minutes & 57’ for 53 minutes
77°
Elphinstone
101’ for 50 minutes
68°
Abu Dabab #2,3
46’ for 63 minutes & 54’ for 70 minutes
51’ for 50 minutes
77°
Ras Sail (Torfa)
81’ for 42 minutes
77°
Ras Shona
74’ for 54 minutes
77°
Cairo
After the dive portion we returned to Cairo and stayed at the Cairo Pyramids Hotel, which was fine. Saw the pyramids (via a CAMEL!) and the sphinx, followed by the Cairo Museum and a Nile Cruise . The next day we explored several mosques, synagogues and Old Cairo. Most everyone returned to the United States after the museum. A handful of us stayed and explored the Khan el-Khalili, the Cairo Tower, and had an adventurous Uber ride back to the hotel before a fun adventure in Cairo airport before heading back home.
