Our Week 

We welcomed our 23 new guests for the week with cold beverages and and showed them to their cabins. Then it was time to set up their gear, got weights sorted and introduced themselves to one another. Once everyone had settled in the first bell rang for dinner. Chef Hasan wowed everyone with his delicious salad, salmon, rice, strawberry cheese cake to finish off. Cruise Director Mahmoud gave the welcome briefing and then we did a man overboard drill. Shortly after, the guests retired to their cabins after a long day of traveling.

In the morning we woke up rested and it was time for fresh coffee and hot breakfast. Once we got the permission from the coast we left the harbor and went to our first dive site Abu Dabab I. We presented our dive safety briefing and then it was time to splash! We dove here for twice and saw pod of dolphins on the first day! Great start to the week! We also saw titan trigger fish, wart slug, free swimming giant moray eels and  masked puffer fish.

Over lunch we drove over to Abu Dabab III where we saw a beautiful turtle munching away on some coral. We also ran into blue spotted sting ray and some adorable puffer fish.  Night dive offered us lots of creatures such as cuttle fish, anemone crab, massive, massive moray eel, nudibranchs and feather stars. The day ended with happy divers, excited for the next day of adventures.

We started our morning off at north side of Daedalus reef. All divers dropped in during dive one to three rays feeding directly under the tender. Later we encountered 3 different Manta rays and large Napoleon wrasse. Second dive was quite memorable with 4 hammerhead sharks. Third dive at Anemone city where divers spend happy time with lovely anemone fish. After lunch we dove the south side along the wall Not only did we get to see scorpion fish, moray eel and flute fish we also encountered Manta ray, barracudas and tunas. We then payed a visit the lighthouse before we took off and went to our next destination - Rocky & Zabargad Islands.

Tuesday morning we woke up to dive  2 times Rocky Island. We were greeted by a friendly Hawksbill, rays and multiple moray eels. We also encountered 3 bottlenose dolphins and 2 hammerhead sharks! we need to mention trevafllies, pipe fish, nudibranchs and flatworms. After lunch we moved to Zabargad Island for the last day dive and night dive. Divers really enjoyed the coral formations, pinnacles, coral garden and swim through. Not only did we get to hangout with Napoleon, turtles, and rays.. on the night dive we also got to see the hermit crabs out and about. We also git to see free swimming Spanish Dancer and divers could confirm that the the nudibranch deserves its name

Wednesday we found ourselves at a one of our all time favorite sites, St. John’s Paradise and the Caves! Here the highlight of our dives were multiple swimthroughs! Also spotted on our dives dart fish, several twin chromodorids, pajama chromodorid, crabs, bluespotted stingrays and lots of anemones. Doing the night dive here the guests spotted octopus, cleaner shrimp, sea stars, different kind of crabs and hunting giant moray eel. The hunt was succeed, the moray caught a black tang! After the night dive, we made a crossing back north to Fury shoals  where we planned to spend last full day of the charter.

In the morning we dove Sataya reef followed by Erug Sataya. We saw a hawksbill turtle out to get some brekkie, some crabs, spotted sting rays, a giant moray and a puffer fish.  After 2nd dive we left tanks, took fins and snorkels and rushed snorkeling with a huge pod of spinner dolphins! We spent wonderful and happy 1,5 hours in the water among at list 100 dolphins! Then lunch time came and it was time to head to Shaab Claudia our next dive location for the afternoon dives. One swimming turtle, moray and a big grouper made an appearance. We explored beautiful swimthrough and payed a visit to a carpet anemone. Night dive was great as well as divers got to see a cuttle fish, an octopus, crabs and Spanish dancer again.

Before we knew it, it was Friday. We dove Elphinstone for our two final dives and there were dolphins again! What more could we ask for? Dolphins to start the week and dolphins to end it, it was perfect!

Back at the dock, we all laughed and enjoyed each others company and stories of our week up on the sun deck during the wine and sushi party. We took pictures, handed out awards and exchanged contacts. What an amazing and fun week we all had!