Tauchsafari Sud Rotes Meer
Sadly having read the previous reviews we can only confirm this was very true. The boat allegedly was refurbished earlier this year but there was no sign of this. Our week long trip having arrived at Hurghada airport around 1830 began with a coach transfer to Marsa Alam which took 3 hours. This was because there was no space for the boat to dock at Hurghada marina. Instead we were taken by coach to an unofficial beach/marina (at Marsh Alam) and paddled out to the main boat via a Zodiac around 2300. We were greeted by a friendly crew and given a cooked meal at midnight. I guess this added to the adventure?
The general condition of the boat was not good and during our week, we experienced a toilet flushing problem (we lost time here as parts for a pump needed to be bought locally), an electrical shorting issue (someone got shocked from a metal handrail) and our porthole/window leaked quite badly during the bumpy passage south (my suitcase which was sitting on a shelf by the window was soaked and towels had to be placed on the shelf to stop the water spilling onto the floor).
However, despite all of this the crew managed and resolved these problems and most importantly communicated constantly with us. There were a few dive cylinder issues concerning the handles sticking and we found on occasion the air-nitrox mixes to be tainted but did not cause any sickness to our knowledge. A number of our dives were from the Zodiacs and the condition of these were not good ie lacking in grab handles.
The passage south to Daedalus reef was quite choppy and resulted in many of us being sea-sick. I wasn't totally convinced that it was all due to the rough-seas and maybe something related to the boat shape? The food and drink on the boat were all good. One minor point was all the soft drinks were with sugar and it was not possible to have diet Cola etc. The crew were very helpful and quick to please!
We were told that over the last couple of years (where Covid affected tourism) this had resulted in less groups booking and reduced money coming in and therefore lack of boat maintenance. We were also told that the boat is going to have a complete overhaul this winter.
Overall we had a good week of diving and visited most of the popular dive sites. We did not allow any of the boat-related issues spoil our enjoyment!
The general condition of the boat was not good and during our week, we experienced a toilet flushing problem (we lost time here as parts for a pump needed to be bought locally), an electrical shorting issue (someone got shocked from a metal handrail) and our porthole/window leaked quite badly during the bumpy passage south (my suitcase which was sitting on a shelf by the window was soaked and towels had to be placed on the shelf to stop the water spilling onto the floor).
However, despite all of this the crew managed and resolved these problems and most importantly communicated constantly with us. There were a few dive cylinder issues concerning the handles sticking and we found on occasion the air-nitrox mixes to be tainted but did not cause any sickness to our knowledge. A number of our dives were from the Zodiacs and the condition of these were not good ie lacking in grab handles.
The passage south to Daedalus reef was quite choppy and resulted in many of us being sea-sick. I wasn't totally convinced that it was all due to the rough-seas and maybe something related to the boat shape? The food and drink on the boat were all good. One minor point was all the soft drinks were with sugar and it was not possible to have diet Cola etc. The crew were very helpful and quick to please!
We were told that over the last couple of years (where Covid affected tourism) this had resulted in less groups booking and reduced money coming in and therefore lack of boat maintenance. We were also told that the boat is going to have a complete overhaul this winter.
Overall we had a good week of diving and visited most of the popular dive sites. We did not allow any of the boat-related issues spoil our enjoyment!