Diving With Sharks, The Brothers, Grand Sea Serpent, Red Sea
by Tom Battell

Did you know that the Oceanic White Tip is the 4th most dangerous shark known to man? No, well nor did we when we joined the liveaboard trip to the Brothers in the Southern Red Sea last January !
We, that is Kim and Tom, have lived to tell the tale - so that is what I now propose to do.

Life on a liveaboard.

Well to start what is a liveaboard? It is simply a boat that you "live aboard" for the duration of your diving holiday rather than staying in an hotel. In our case it was a monster of a ship called the Grand Sea Serpent - 41 metres of luxury cruiser (the largest in the Red Sea) with 12 double berths each with self contained bathroom and individual air conditioning.

All finished in highly polished wood and furnished in velour - or at least heavy duty Egyptian cotton. A widescreen LCD TV hung on the lounge wall wired up to a quality sound system and DVD player. On the outside were a number of sunbathing decks and two Zodiacs (powered inflatables) to get us close in when diving.

Port Ghalib, near Marsa Alam International Airport, was our starting point. Just the Port and one hotel in 2006 but give it five years and I am sure that it will grow like Sharm.

Going out our first bit of fun was to be accompanied by Dolphins riding on the bow wake. A good omen for the week ahead they said.

The only downside was the journey overnight was really rough and we needed the ensuite bathroom facilities - many times.











So back to the diving. The routine was:
* Up at 6am with a cup of tea, kit up, jump into the Zodiac, avoid being tipped out by the waves and in the water for first dive at 6.30 am.
* A one hour dive and out for biscuits followed by breakfast at about 8.30am. Breakfast was huge - cereals, eggs or omelettes, meat , sausages, onions, salad, cheese, you name it.
* A slight repose before kitting up again and getting back in the water at around 10.30/11 am for dive 2.
* Up for lunch followed by a short sunbathe, re-kitting and down again for dive 3.
* Up for cake and afternoon tea and another sunbathing session. Kim used to take the time for a quick nap waking up just in time for dinner.
* The evening was rounded off watching DVD's of more fish or the latest blockbuster release interspersed with beer, gin, rum, southern comfort or whiskey or a mixture of the lot.

This induced deep sleep as you can well imagine allowing us to wake fully refreshed (hung-over) for the next day's diving. It is a wonder that we saw anything on our dives.

However we did see some amazing sights:

An Oceanic White Tip - one of eight we encountered at The Brothers.





































Wonderful corals on the Aida wreck, Big Brother and Pink Rose Coral















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