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Elphinstone
 Marsa Alam, Southern Egypt, Egypt
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Max Depth: Over 150ft/46m
Average Viz: 61-70ft/19-21m
Entry Type: Boat
Bottom Composition: No Bottom
Aquatic Life: Plenty To See
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Spring: 66-70°F/19-21°C
Summer: 71-75°F/22-24°C
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Outrageous divespot offshore the city of Marsa Alam, Southern Egypt, Red Sea. Known for its unpredictable weather/wind/current conditions. A 45 min (from the coast) zodiac boatride brings you to a unique reef. Boys mark it, so safari boats can find it and anchor. Its like in the middle of the ocean, you can hardly see the coast. Respect and caution is what is highly adviced at this difficult divespot. A minimum of 50 dives is necessary to be allowed to dive at this site. Most southern cruises do one or two dives at this wonderful spot. Unfortunately every year some divers lose their lives down there too.
Entrance: quick decent to a plateau at 30m because of strong current, means minimum 12l or even a 15l tank is advisable, Nitrox?.....not for me in this case. I usually follow the current along the reef in about 40-45m. Big chance of hunting tunas and schools of hammerheads, once saw a hunting sword fish. This is a planned deco dive which needs good buddy work and experienced divers. Usually has nice grey reef sharks and many white/black tips there, sometimes in the blue a chance of oceanic whitetip reefsharks.
This oval reef around 80 meters long and 10-25 meters deep has a steep wall and strong currents that offer a beautiful drift dive with myriad fusiliers, anthias and fan corals. The most exciting factor by far is that hammerhead and oceanic white tip reef sharks swim together in this spot. Dolphins, and sometimes tiger sharks, can also be found here. A magical encounter that you’ll remember for life.
Because of its steep face mountainlike reef structure with lots of soft corals its really one of my favourite dive spots.
YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0cAHmEdd6A