
CRUISING RED SEA ABOARD "FELICIDAD II"
Nowadays, on land, along the once deserted coast, human
presence has become more and more suffocated by hotels, sunshades,
discotheques, bars, etc. However, as soon as we reach the sea, the
beauty and the richness of the seabed repeatedly amazes us
Article and photographs by Luca Sonnino Sorisio
Nautica Magazine 428, December 1997

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BACK TO HURGADA
Sixteen years have passed since for the first time I left the
mooring berth in Hurgada to explore the islands and the seabed of
the archipelago that lays in the northern part of the Egyptian
coast in the Red Sea. The most striking difference is in the
landscape that we leave behind our boat's transom. What before was
a strip of desert, interrupted by the minaret and by the low
dwellings surrounding the harbor, today is an uninterrupted
sequence of hotels, bungalows, organized beaches with sunshades
and deckchairs, flags, discotheques and bars that blind our sight.
At the time, when Egypt had just ended the long war with Israel
all this was unthinkable by the few of us who enjoyed the Red Sea.
Nowadays, with the government's financial aid, the coast became a
very capacious holiday resort. The airport was renovated and
charter and regular airline flights from all over Europe land one
after the other, carrying hordes of swimmers and divers in search
of sunny days and beautiful sea at low cost.
During this rapid and enormous hotel expansion, Egyptians did not
succeed in safeguarding the landscape that is now disfigured by
buildings of all sorts. Miles and miles of coast only have
organized beaches, crowded with sunbathers and full of equipment
of any kind, lined by towering hotels or holiday resorts.
A continuous flow of cars, vans and buses drive to and fro along
the coastline.
The center of Hurgada, where before there was the
food market, is now invaded by throngs of tourists looking for T-
shirts and souvenirs. All this suggests hell and not paradise - I
want to escape quickly! Yet, with the bow set out toward the open
sea, we again find the silence and the heaven-like sea bed of the
Red Sea. Moving away from the crowd - avoiding even the nearest
and the best-connected islands - we sail through a fantastic
archipelago, among the famous coral reefs teeming with life.
The "Felicidad II" sails north, leaving Giftun El Kebir and Giftun
El Saghir behind to port. On our way back, we will stop here to
dive in the most beautiful sites. The "Felicidad II" proudly sails
among these dangerous reefs. In 1991, this boat was born as a
fisherman's boat, in 1995 Aurora Branciamore updated her turning
the boat into a cruising boat for diving trips. She is 100-ft long
and 21-ft wide, and can comfortably carry 14 persons. Aurora, a
real cruise expert in this sea, worked for several years on the
coasts of Sudan (see Nautica 250, February 1983 issue and Nautica
261, January 1984 issue), before moving to the northern part of
the Red Sea.
In the meanwhile, she waits for some of the
logistical problems connected to the airlines that operate in
Sudan to be solved. Her son Marcantonio, who has always lived on
boats and "among sharks and coral reefs", is the young captain,
second to no one as far as experience is concerned and a real
diving expert. The captain and his crew do their best to make the
passengers happy and the cruise pleasant. Even the chef can't do
any better: not only does he prepare local dishes but is also good
in cooking Italian specialties which everyone seems to appreciate.
Spaghetti and pizza are often on the table and they are excellent.
The boat has an ample salon and a very comfortable aft deck, where
the diving equipment is prepared before going onboard of one of
the two inflatables that take us to the diving sites. The
coachroof is very spacious. It is an excellent area for sunbathing
and for dining under the starred sky at night cooled by the fresh
evening breeze.
After a two-hour sail, we arrive at Careless Reef
where we start our dive near the beautiful vertical wall to
windward - in this region the wind almost invariably comes from
the north. The impact with the Red Sea is always exciting.
Whenever we dive, we discover anew how many colors can mix and
shine, how many coral shapes struggle for some rays of light, like
the leafy branches of big rainforest trees. Many different fish
swim here and there, undisturbed by our presence. Clouds of small
and beautifully colored fish surround the corals and thousands of
small transparent "glassy fish" swim between the crevices of the
coral reef. Sometimes, we feel a quiver and a group of maigers or
small tunas passes by, grazing, trying to catch by surprise some
distracted prey. At Careless, we find various enormous morey eels,
accustomed to eating food from man's hands. As a matter of fact,
when we pass by, they fearlessly stick their head out and come
impudently close to the lens of our cameras.
We keep wandering about: Umm Gamar, Shaab El Erg, Siyul Kebir,
Shaab Umm Usk, these names all remind us of beautiful dives. At
Shaab Abu Nuhas we dive among a group of ships, wrecked on one of
the most treacherous barrier reefs of the Gobal Strait. As a
matter of fact, all ships and commercial traffic that go through
the Suez Canal also pass through this area and Shaab Abu Nuhas is
north of the island of Shadwan. When gale wind blows from the
north, the island looks like the perfect shelter and this coral
reef is dreadfully located on the route that takes to the
sheltering island. Moreover, the Arab name of the island Nuhas
means "copper" because a cargo ship containing copper wrecked here
approximately twenty years ago. Yet, it was not the first one: in
1869 "Carnatic", a 292-foot English sailing steamer with two
masts, hit the reef on his route to Bombay. Today, we can only see
her bow and stern, her deckhouse, the rudder and the enormous
propeller, the central part of the hull being completely destroyed.
Beautifully colored barnacles cover the
superstructures. In the darkness of the forward holds we can still
find bottles of wine which were part of the cargo destined to the
Indies and some of them still have the cork on. Some hundred feet
to southeast there is the shape of another ghost: a modern
merchant ship that sank in the Seventies, broken up into four
parts. "Dana", "Markos D." or "Ghiannis D.", each one of these
names identifies the same wreck on different texts. Most probably,
they are the different names of the same ship that were assigned
during her life.
On the surrounding seabed we can still see a
cargo ship full of bags of lentils and another one full of tiles.
It is a real cemetery of ships. Weren't it for the marine life
that envelops everything turning it into a beautiful scene, it
would be sad to see these submerged carcasses. Nevertheless, we
are fascinated by the history of each ship: it is extremely
interesting to explore a ship that is almost a hundred and thirty
years old. It takes our mind back to the old route to the Indies
and the times of the powerful English colonialism.
Turning point of our cruise is the island of the archipelago that
gives the name to the strait. It is located along the western side
of the strait of Gobal and only seven miles separate the tip of
the lighthouse of Gobal Saghir from the Sinai Peninsula. We drop
the anchor in the beautiful bay formed by the two islands of
Gobal, Saghir - small - and Kebir - big. "Felicidad II" floats on
a sea tinted with fascinating tones of light blue. White sandy
beaches contour the two islands that are connected by a small
isthmus. Bluff Point, the tip of the island where the lighthouse
stands, forms a heaven-like lagoon thus sheltering us from the
wind. The dive on the eastern side of Point Bluff, exposed to the
open sea, is equally breathtaking. We have seen enormous sea
turtles wandering just above the seabed, between a forest of giant
Gorgonias and branches of black coral. The large number of
existing beaches where the turtles can lay their eggs must attract
them to this area.
There are many groupers and some sharks as
well. Marcantonio tells us that sometimes dolphins can be seen - a
school lives permanently in the surroundings of the island. From
here, we start our way back to Hurgada.
We roam from one reef to
the next and we do our last dive in Giftun El Saghir and Abu
Ramada before entering the harbor.
Even if these sites are very
crowded because of the daily tours departing from Hurgada, it is
worth visiting them for the beauty of their walls and their caves,
as well as for the pelagic fish that may be found here.
Our cruise on board the "Felicidad II" has come to an end after having lived
in close contact with a sea rich in life. I feel as if we left the
harbor yesterday: time flies when cruising on the Red Sea! An
extra week would be enough to be sure not to have left anything
out. We are anxiously waiting for the first flight that will
connect Sudan in order to sail again onboard "Felicidad II" to
explore those uncontaminated seas.
USEFUL TIPS
The trip: Cruises depart weekly. Airline flights connect Hurgada and Rome
every Saturday and on the same day, at night you can jump onboard.
Dives are from Sunday through Friday. Friday night the boat
returns to the harbor and on Saturday morning you can fly back
from Hurgada to Rome. Depending on seat availability on the flight
and onboard the boat, extensions of a few days or a week or even a
stop in Cairo to visit the city are possible.
For further information and bookings, contact:
Iride Viaggi, via Oderisi da Gubbio 235, 00146 Rome,
Tel. +39-6-5580634 or +39-6-5579307, Fax +39-6-5574394 or Aurora Branciamore,
Tel. +39-6-5090585, mobile phone +39-336-868882.
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