This feature on diving the Red Sea is the first of a three parter that I had originally written for Scuba Diver Magazine’s North America issue (# 28, 2025)
Now, this is my idea of a check out dive!
Shortly after pulling out of Port Ghalib on the central region of Egypt’s Red Sea coast, we pulled up to our first dive site at Abu Dahab Reef. Abu Dahab along with it’s neighboring reef Shaab Marsa Alam featured a general reef profile that I would see again and again in that top reef starts near 0 feet from the surface dropping sharply downward.
Being that this was going to be our first dive of a 13-day dive adventure aboard the 159-foot liveaboard Scuba Scene, the bottom edge of the reef bottoms out at a depth between 32 ft / 10 m and 65 ft / 20 m. Across this broad plateau stood an interesting collection of 8 to 15-foot column shaped coral formations, on top of which were alive with an assortment of orange anthias.
Working on some shots to get things started for my Red Sea photo library. I saw something large and grey colored on the edge of my peripheral vision coming at me. Turning my head, my mind instantly clicked; that’s a bottlenose dolphin!
Before I could get a decent shot, this spirited cetacean had zipped off before buzzing a few other divers in the group. Thinking that encounter was over, my assumption was quickly proven wrong. Not only did this little guy come back, but this time he also brought a few friends which took turns in making several close passes around me.
Wow! If this is what a Red Sea check dive is like, what’s the rest of the trip going to be like?
The Dive Yacht
Promoted by American based live-aboard operator, All Star Liveaboards, pushed their global dive options eastward to the Red Sea with their single entry the Scuba Scene in 2023. Spanning 159 feet (48.5m) long by 34.5 feet (10.5m) wide, is a massive vessel, even by current live-aboard standards with total of 5 deck levels. Steel hull construction, the vessel accommodates up to 28 guests between 14 twin bed cabins each with their own ensuite bathrooms. While 6 of the cabins located on C (Deck) have doors leading to the outer deck, all feature large sea view windows.
Being that this is Egypt, expect the climate to be very hot most the year. Thankfully all cabins include adjustable temperature-controlled air conditioning. The only other areas of the vessel with air conditioning is the Dinning Room below deck, the TV Room on C Deck, and the main Salon on the upper D Deck. My one disappoint was seeing the camera are did not feature any form of climate control, which most of the time became a sweaty affair when working on my underwater photo system.
The itineraries offered on Scuba Scene are categorized between the Northern and Southern region of the Red Sea in its relationship to their positioning along the Egyptian coast.
As a means of reference, the Southern itinerary covers Egypt’s Central/Southern region that includes Rocky Island, St. John’s Plateauis, Elphinstone Reef, Daedalus Reef along with both Little and Big Brother Islands.
During the winter season (October-April) when water temps range from 82 and 76 with lows down in the low 73 / 23 range, the Brothers, Daedalus and Elphinstone become the star attraction for divers looking to see sharks like oceanic whitetips, scalloped hammerheads (sometimes in a schooling formation) to even the off chance of catching a glimpse of a thresher. Throughout most of that season All Star often runs what they call a BDE (Brothers, Daedalus, Elphinstone) itinerary for those particularly interested in coming face-to-face with a few of these large grey toothy creatures.
Compared to the Southern itinerary, the Northern itinerary is a totally different animal with greater focus on the reefs and wrecks around the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula. For anyone who has heard anything at will recognize names like Ras Mohammed, the Straits of Tiran at the entrance into the Gulf of Aqaba to classic wreck dives like the Giannis D, SS Dunraven at Abu Nuhas known as a ship graveyard, and of course the SS Thistlegorm to name a few.
When I was offered a single back-to-back itinerary last July that included both the Northern and Southern regions of the Red Sea, well… this was an opportunity (being that I have never been there) to pass up.
Onward and South Bound
In addition to the first couple of dives at Abu Dahab and Shaab Marsa Alam for day, the next four days was spent sampling some of the prime locations the Red Sea’s Deep South had to offer, which included Rocky Island, Zabargad, Habili Ali, Habbili Omran, St. John’s Plateau (aka the Cave Reef) on out to the furthest from shore Daedalus Reef.
Laying a little further offshore Rocky Island and Zabargad not only took on a more dramatic set of profiles, starting again at zero feet from the surface, Rocky Island feature a vertical face that plunged well past 131 ft / 40 m whereas neighboring Zabargad Reef’s contours were more like a giant stair step, dropping almost straight down to a broad shelf at 32 ft / 10 m – 82 ft / 25 m before dropping off into blue.
Adding to their dramatic nature, the presents of marine life was more visible which included my favorite among coral communities – Alcyonacea soft corals.
While this species of coral do not produce a stony skeleton like hard corals (making them non-reef-building), colonies of these corals are famous their flamboyant hues ranging from pale yellow to vibrant shades of orange, red, purple and pink.
By day 3 we hopscotched our way through three more sites highly similar (minus their small islands) to Rocky Island and Zabargad, which included Habili Ali Reef followed by a site called Habbilli Omran finishing with St. John’s Caves.
Running east to west, Habili Ali Reef can be best described as a elongated flat top seamount with the flat on top running ankle depth with its contours below the surface plunging straight down to around 103 ft / 31 m before turning outward into a sloping profile.
To best describe the underwater terrain of Habbili Omran is as a broad subsea out in the middle of nowhere in the center of with 5 massive 60-foot-tall formations with flat tops and steep sides very akin to the Mesas you would see in the arid southwestern regions of the United States.
Giving this reef system additional flavoring, this grouping of enormous coral formations is surrounded by a dozen plus number of 10 to 35-foot tall pinnacle shape structures.
As I was quickly discovering, the Red Sea is full of stunning coral reefs with St. John’s Caves regarded as one of the you really got to see it dives when doing the Deep South. The attraction is the main reef line is reddled with an expansive network of shallow caves, swim-throughs, and coral-covered tunnels. From a photography standpoint, the setting has an ethereal ambiance with shafts of sun light filtering through the narrow openings above creating illuminated passageways ideal for wide-angle imagery.
Depths within this maze of ancient coral is suitable for divers of all experience levels as they never go no deeper than 59 ft /18 m, with most of it averaging 36 ft / 11 m well within the inside. Furthermore, no matter where you go there is always going to be light at the end of the tunnel.
Going to the Big D
If you were able to peel back the ocean you would see Daedalus Reef (also known as Abu Kizan) is the top of a lone underwater mountain near the middle of the Red Sea. Rising straight up like a giant skyscraper from the seabed 1,610 ft / 490 m below makes for dramatic wall diving. Upon it’s cap is a extremely shallow reef flat spanning 1,310 ft / 400 m long by 330 ft / 100 m wide with a lighthouse (first constructed in 1863, rebuilt in 1931) maned by the Egyptian Navy.
Due to its far-off nature 55 miles / 90 kilometers and propensity for strong currents, it’s recommended that divers without plenty of experience should reframe from going to Daedalus Reef.
For years, I have heard plenty about the big D’s reputation as an attraction point to large variety of pelagic marine life from dogtooth tuna to oceanic whitetip and hammerhead sharks, to even manta rays. After arriving there for a two day stay in our itinerary, I was able to see for myself that there is plenty of truth to this. Even with the water temperature excessively warm (88 F / 31 C is often the norm during the peak of summer) for larger forms of marine life, we still manage to take a few sightings scalloped hammerhead sharks cruising the depths along a short flyby by a moderate size manta.
On other dives, the peak of the action amounted to a sizeable school of blackfin barracudas to hefty Giant Trevallies cruising along the wall of the reef. For the record, the Giant Trevally is the largest member of the jack family (Genus Caranx) which can obtain a maximum length of 67 in / 170 cm coming in around 176 lbs / 80 kgs.
Underneath the Scuba Scene, a place where oceanic whitetip sharks are known to sometimes to hang out, we had instead had a robust 4-foot plus greater barracuda that would sometimes venture out from the liveaboard’s shadow to look us over.
I should add that Daedalus is not only about the big and toothy. There is also plenty of small stuff to see as well. During our second day before departing for our next rendezvous point, Elphinstone Reef, we dropped in a spot called Anemone City.
Tucked into a corner of the reef’s vertical face is a large colony of iridescent yellow/green hued sea anemones with an equal size colony Red Sea Anemonefish. Primarily bright yellow orange in coloration with two dominate ice blue bands across the body, the Red Sea Anemonefish (Amphiprion bicinctus) are considered a species indigenous to the Red Sea. In actuality, they are a subspecies of the highly endemic orange-fin anemonefish (Amphiprion chrysopterus) which is found throughout the Indian and Pacific as far south as Queensland, Australia, to far west as the Marshall and Tuamotu Islands of Tahiti.
So far, I have only covered the first five days of my first Red Sea odyssey, with still much more to come with I will deliver in the next two rounds.
