Visit Date: July 2012

This is a short 30 minutes transfer from the airport, stayed at the excellent Jaz Makadi Star , only drawback was the long walk from the hotel to the base.

It's a smooth operation with best prices in the bay, I pre- booked a 5 day-10 dive on line package and got one day free and the place was busy ! What appears to be chaotic at first sight is in reality a fine tuned operation run in a most amicable way and none of this unpleasant regimental attitudes you'll find at other operators. Lots of divers staying at the Madinat Makadi hotels were diving here .

My regulator ( out of recent overhaul ) went off while I kitted up on the boat, a spare was supplied and back at base the O-ring was replaced, the chap who did the work tested it in front of me with the regulator submerged in the basin. Well done.

Diving was in the near vicinity or within the bay itself no more than 20 minutes out, Maleek Disha, Abu Hashish Lagoon, Gota Makadi just to name a few. The Aquarius 3 was the larger boat quite comfortable and certainly the most pleasant crew. Best day out was to Sharm Rasheed and Sharm el Arab, stunning corals and steep wall here.

It was very hot during the day 39 - 40C and just cooling down a little at night, sea temp. 29 - 30C diving with a 4mm shorty. The sea was very calm and hardly a breeze, we didn't encounter any dolphins or other larger fish, stayed July 10 - 17.