Dive Review of Red Sea Aggressor 2 in
Red Sea/Northern

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Red Sea Aggressor 2: "First week of two diving the Red Sea", Aug, 2018, by THOMAS SMITH, MO, US ( Sr. Reviewer 7 reports with 11 Helpful votes). Report 10461 has 3 Helpful votes.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Despite it being only their 2nd week in operation, the Red Sea Aggressor II and her crew were in fine form. Although I hadn't dove with Aggressor in a couple of years, I immediately remembered why I love them and have done over 30 weeks on their boats. First of all, the crew was outstanding. Although new to Aggressor, most were long-time Red Sea veterans. Abu the Captain got us where we needed to be with as little fuss as possible, and helped out on the dive deck (in his pink pants) as well. He also enjoyed driving a zodiac, which he did with gusto. Adel, the cruise director, kept us well informed on the day's and week's itinerary. Dive masters Zoe and Mohamed were great, and the stewards were always looking to take care of us. Walid in particular had a great, if somewhat mischievous, sense of humor. Food was standard Aggressor top-of-the-line, with cold breakfast before the first dive, hot breakfast after, buffet lunches, plated dinners and snacks between every dive when there wasn't a meal scheduled. Turkey for dinner on Thursday was the highlight. Hussien and Abdallah were fine chefs. The diving varied between off the mothership or dinghy depending on the site. RSAII had 3 zodiacs, so divers went in two or three groups when dinghy diving. Dives off the big boat were less formal, breaking up depending on if you wished to go with a guide or on your own. Dive briefings were thorough, with some of the best canned graphics I have ever seen. My buddies and I usually dove on our own, and never had any difficulty finding the highlights or following the general plan. This boat, and also RSAI which we did the following week, was big on 'valet diving'. The crew was helpful in donning and removing gear, almost to the point of ridiculousness. It seemed I couldn't attempt to put on my wetsuit or gear without one of the seaman pulling on a sleeve, grabbing the zipper or getting their hands on my buckles. This was great for some of the divers, but I found it annoying at first. I spent the first few days shooing the crew away before finally giving in and just letting them do what they have obviously been trained and coached to do. The water was very warm, it being the end of summer (Aug). Water temperatures varied between 84 and 86F, with the occasional jump to 82F or 88F. Vis was ok, but never the 50 meters we kept hearing about. 24 dives were planned for the week, including night dives most nights, but due to a schedule change we actually did 25. There were a lot of wrecks, ranging from decrepit piles of rubble to the amazing Thistlegorm, a partially intact WWII freighter filled with Bren Gun Carriers, railroad locomotives, trucks filled with motorcycles, large artillery shells and more. Dive sites also included reefs, coral gardens and some nice walls. There coral, both hard and soft, was in great shape compared to the Caribbean. There were plenty of small fishes including lots of anthias, but not as many larger fish as we expected. We did see numerous Napoleon Wrasse. Pelagics were not found except one eagle ray off a wall. I saw very few invertebrates, except there were some nudibranchs. We did have several turtle encounters during the week. Scorpion and stone fish were abundant, as were lionfish, especially on the night dives. It was odd to see lionfish and not want to cull them. We also had some crocodile fish, the occasional barracuda, some schools of spadefish, and lots of blue spotted rays. One highlight of the week was snorkeling with a good sized pod of bottlenose dolphins on the way back from a wreck dive on the Giannis D. They were very social, and hung around with us and played for around 20 minutes. While there were a couple of small tweaks which I passed on to Aggressor, for the most part the trip was very smooth. My one complaint was that schedules slipped all the time, with briefings and dives ending up 20-30 minutes behind schedule. This was humorously blamed on 'Egyptian time', although in contrast the RSAI the next week did not have this problem at all. Hopefully they will tighten up their schedules as they get more trips under their belt. Overall rating: four stars and recommended.
Websites	Red Sea Aggressor 2
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 1000 dives
Where else diving	Belize, Cayman, Dominica, Saba, Bonaire, Fiji, Cocos, Galapagos, Palua, PNG, Solomons, French Polynesia, etc etc
Closest Airport	Hurghada	Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	calm
Water Temp	84-86°F / 29-30°C	Wetsuit Thickness
Water Visibility	80-100 Ft/ 24-30 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	Computer
Liveaboard?	yes	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	1 or 2	Mantas	None
Dolphins	Schools	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter	N/A	Boat Facilities	N/A
Overall rating for UWP's	N/A	Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	[None]

Report currently has 3 Helpful votes

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Dive Review of Red Sea Aggressor 2 in Red Sea/Northern

Red Sea Aggressor 2: "First week of two diving the Red Sea", Aug, 2018,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Red Sea Aggressor 2 in
Red Sea/Northern