The Emperor Fleets boat Asmaa is not one of the Red Sea’s biggest liveaboards accommodating only 16 divers when full. I joined this boat at Marsa Alaam on the 12th of May in 2006 for my first ever visit to the Red Sea. It did the trick and I have been back most years since!
The Asmaa currently does two different itineraries, St Johns and the Deep South was the one I was on out of Marsa. The other is the Classic Cruise out of Hurghada. This one takes in some of the northern Red Seas best sites including the four wrecks at Abu Huhas and the famous Thistlegorm.
My group of divers was from the club attached to York’s only diving shop Overland Underwater. Without my usual buddy I was diving with a chap called Ken. It is always a worry going away on a trip alone that you will end up with a bad diver and spend your whole holiday in ‘instructor mode’. I needn’t have worried, Ken was an excellent diver – in fact usually he could be found with twin sets and other technical gear diving to 100 metres!
With a smaller group of only 16 people who loosely knew each other the holiday went very well. The boat was excellent if not quite as luxurious as some of the bigger better models. However, there was nothing to fault and given the price is usually around £200 – 300 less than the bigger boats this trip represented very good value for money.
The boat is 28 meters long but doesn’t feel small in any way. It has nitrox on board at extra cost and has two zodiacs to assist with the diving. It also offers a free PADI nitrox course but you will have to pay for the course materials and certification which comes to around £60/£70.
All dive guides that I have encountered working on the Emperor Fleet have been great. On this trip we had Alicia Hattersley and Richard Seale. Recognizing that we were all competent divers they left us to our own devices, but were always there if we wanted help and assistance. The way it should be.
On this trip we didn’t manage to spend a long time at the deep south as one of the Asmaa’s twin engines developed a fault and the captain felt that we should slowly make our way back north to Marsa. The diving was still superb, with dives at Elphinstone, Daedelus, Rocky, St Johns and Fury – 20 dives in the six days. To polish off the holiday in style we spent the seventh night on land at the Coral Bay Hotel – fantastic.
It would be worth bearing the Asmaa in mind when choosing your next Red Sea liveaboard trip – it is a very good value for money boat and can deliver a holiday every bit as good as those offered by the bigger ships.