Hopefully by now you should have read my blog about life onboard Scuba Scene Liveaboard. If you haven’t then you can find it HERE. Now it’s time to find out about how my trip went underwater. I was lucky enough to join M/Y Scuba Scene for a ‘Shark Week’ special exploring the Southern Red Sea with a particular interest in finding sharks. While also enjoying informative presentations from biologist and Red Sea Sharks extraordinaire Elke Bojanowski. It’s been 7 years since my last trip to the Red Sea and on the same southern route as I completed this time around. I was so excited to finally get back and see how life in the Red Sea is doing after so many years.

A coral pinnacle in the Red Sea is awash with life full of colour.

The diving started with a full day at Gota Abu Ramada with the order of the day including two day dives and a night dive. I was buddied up with a fellow solo male traveller and we quickly worked out that we would take a relaxed approach to the diving week and take our time as a buddy pair without a guide. I was chomping at the bit to get in and see what I’d been missing all these years since my last Red Sea visit. After a quick weight check we were off exploring the beautiful clear waters. Wow!! I was back and in love. Visibility so clear it’s hard to believe you’re actually underwater and then there it was. A typical Red Sea pinnacle towering through the water; I made a beeline straight for it and the closer I got the more I remembered. This was the Red Sea, this is what has people flocking here in numbers to dive. Anthias dancing in unison around stunning coral formations saturated in colour while your typical venomous predators camouflage into the cracks as best they can. A scorpionfish caught my eye as it lay motionless amongst the coral.

Mountains of coral rise to the surface throughout the Red Sea.

It was so refreshing to be back amongst the stunning colours and finding all the beautiful marine life between the coral formations and sand. It wasn’t long before I found my favourite typical Red Sea critter relaxing on the sand. The beautiful bluespotted ribbontail ray is ever-present on the reefs around Egypt but I am always excited when I find one. The lionfish too, but again I’m always eager to photograph the beautiful colours they both provide amongst the reef. Two great dives were had reintroducing me to Red Sea life and a relaxed night dive full of life added to a great day. Two octopus and a cute little cuttlefish were the highlights making me wish I’d put my macro lens on for the dive. What a great start!

It was time!! Time for why we were there and why people choose a Southern Red Sea liveaboard. We headed south to the sea mounts that break up the open ocean, providing the perfect stop gap for large pelagics to make an appearance on their journey. Our first stop were the Brothers Islands, with ‘Little Brother’ being the starting point for the first two dives. There was a slight concern seeing the number of other liveaboard boats around but it’s understandable after a tough couple of years and suddenly people are able to travel easier, no doubt a rush to enjoy the underwater world again. It didn’t take away from the beauty of what the reef walls provide at Little Brother island. A sea of anthias to swim through against amazing soft coral formations and stunning vis made me a happy boy. I also spotted a grey reef shark cruising the reef below, while some guests onboard saw a distant thresher shark at the North Point cleaning station.

My first glimpse of an oceanic whitetip shark in the blue.

While all this action was great, it was the oceanic whitetip sharks I was on this trip to see. A shark that had eluded me so far but I knew in the winter it was a great time to see them on this itinerary. They were top of my bucket list for a shark to photograph that I hadn’t already, so I was itching to get my chance. Word started to spread between the first and second dive that one was patrolling between a couple of the liveaboards moored up a small distance from our position.

Our dive plan (my buddy and I) was to cruise the wall along the west point from the North to the boats moored at the South Plateau – in order to get under the boats and hope to find it. The anticipation surged through my body as I hit the first mooring line as we drifted into the blue under the boats. The minutes passed and I wondered if my air would last. Then boom!! A heart-stopping moment as I caught my first glimpse of this perfect pelagic shark. These are the moments I dive for as the adrenalin burst through my body and my excitement was uncontrollable, pointing and shouting excitedly to my buddy. It was a relaxed meeting with a couple of relatively close passes before our time was up. A great start to the big southern dive sites and a sign of things to come. We finished the day with one dive at Big Brother and the beautiful Numidia wreck full of life. A site that I loved the last time also.

A single anemone with Red Sea clownfish has attached itself to the wreck of the Numidia.

Sean Chinn travelled as a guest of Scuba Scene Liveaboard and Oyster Diving. Scuba Scene is available to book exclusively through Oyster Diving. Please contact info@oysterdiving.com or call 0808 253 3370 to find out more or reserve your space!