Royal Evolution - Christmas and New Year 2007
by Charlie Stewart

“I want you to grab a bag, a back pack, anything… and put a towel or book into it.” Having boarded the Royal Evolution, this bizarre request was made to the twenty-four bemused new guests before we were taken, by rib, to the Egyptian Customs in Port Ghaleb. Effectively we were exiting Egypt and had to comply with this charade. Each of our bags was passed through the brand spanking new X-ray machines. In my case, once I had convinced the surly customs man that my car keys were not an instrument of mass destruction, I was allowed to join my fellow travellers. We sat for nearly an hour while they dealt with our passports before letting us return to our boat, which set sail soon after. We had a lot off distance to cover!

The Royal Evolution is 39m long and powered by two 36,000cc engines, which sit on shock absorbers (to minimise engine room noise in the cabins). Our cabins were spacious and complete with stand-in showers, as opposed to the usual live aboard wet rooms. Alan, Brian and myself soon mixed with twenty-two other guests from Germany, UK, Holland and Switzerland. We sailed overnight to St Johns to do our check dives and then, that evening, sailed to Port Sudan, some 440 nautical miles south of Port Galeb. The passport formalities took several hours, after which the real diving started.

Just outside Port Sudan, the 155m wreck of The Umbria is almost exactly as she was on the day she settled onto the seabed (on her port side at Wingate Reef). The bow is the deepest part of the wreck at 38m; at the stern the rudder rests on the sand at 30m. The shallowest part is next to the bridge, where the lifeboat davits just break the surface. Neither the ship nor her contents were ever salvaged. Amongst the various stuff to view is a pizza oven, trucks and 360,000 unexploded bombs, which, if they went up, would wipe out half of Port Sudan. The wreck itself is covered in beautiful soft corals.

On Xmas eve we dived the very pretty south-west plateau of the Sanganeb Atoll. We had our Xmas dinner that evening, complete with Santa hats and tinsel. On Xmas morning we started the day with an early dive on the north plateau of Sanganeb where we were greeted with the amazing site of a school of some 500+ barracuda. They formed a huge funnel effect and gracefully swam around in a circle allowing everyone to take photos. From Sanganeb we headed further north to Sha’ab Rumi.

Sha’ab Rumi (Roman Reef) is most famous for Jacques Cousteau’s Conshelf II Project when, in 1963, five divers lived for a month at 11m, with an ambient air pressure. (Essentially this was an experiment in living under water.) We were able to ascend up into what remained of the Conshelf and remove our regulators for a second, in an air pocket. We spent the rest of our dive exploring the remains of the project and had some pictures taken with our Santa hats.
On the southern plateau of Sha’ab Rumi we got up close and personal with four Grey Reef Sharks which cruised above us as we nestled on the sand.

Further north we dived the Blue Belt wreck on Sha’ab Suedi. Also known as the Toyota Wreck it has the remains of Toyota vehicles strewn around, allowing for interesting photo and videography opportunities. Having explored the wreck, we dived up across the most amazing profusion of table corals, some with three different colours on them - simply beautiful and absorbing!

Another dive of note was at Merlo reef where we saw six hammerheads out in the blue and then made a cruisey ascent up and around the huge and mesmerising pinnacle which characterises this reef.

The next day at Angarosh (Mother of Sharks), we had numerous sightings of hammerheads, followed by what must have been one of the highlights of the trip for me: a massive manta ray, sweeping gracefully over the top of the reef plateau, at some 40m. Lots of computers bleeped as our diving companions violated there MODs just to get a closer look and take pictures. The atmosphere back on the dive deck was electric and, despite the language barrier, there was no doubt that everyone was recounting the experience. On New Year’s Eve we dived Abu Fanjira (Pfeifer) where, watching some hammerheads in the blue, I sensed something behind me… turning around, I found my first ever Silver Tip, which had cruised up close to me. Surprisingly big and curious, it made my heart jump, initially, and then, ultimately, sing! Back on the plateau I had more action with a curious hammerhead, which did two very close passes to me.

On New Year’s Day we were back in Egyptian waters, which seemed surprisingly cold, at 24 degrees! We finished our amazing trip at Umm Khararim (White Rock) Reef, on St Johns.

The Red Sea was the perfect place to spend Xmas and the New Year with good company. As GLUGies we were particularly delighted to find the DIVE magazine feature on GLUG from last year among the various mags on the coffee table… with genuine interest being shown by our new diving companions. All good!

Thanks to Oonasdivers and the crew of Royal Evolution.