Blue O Two liveaboard & Tekstream - Hurghada, Red Sea

kevini

I booked with Blue O Two on their 'Simply the Best' tour leaving Hurghada on 29th Feb with itinery of 1 weeks diving covering The Brothers, Elphinstone and Daedellus. I then had a further weeks shore diving with Tekstream (Emporer Divers) based at Hurghada.

During the booking process Blue O Two and Emporer were very good at arranging things over tel or email.

The Blue Horizon boat was excellent with lots of room and very good food. This was my first live aboard and first trip away since MOD1 certification and my own Inspo Vision unit. Problems though were:

1)They could only deliver max 100bar of O2 as the booster had failed and they were not sure how to operate/fix it! This meant refills before most dives, especially later in the week when the J tank was low.

2) Their 7L bailout was 'made of lead' (someone else also made this comment in another thread) and needed 6kg in one side pouch just to keep me level! This, in conjunction with other trim weights, made me overall very overweight which completley spoilt the diving in the strong currents.

3) There were no other CCR divers and they had only had 2-3 in the last year so general experience in how to handle you was not there.


I recommend Blue O 2 but make sure you have the above resolved first and maybe go with some other buddy CCRs or check others are going.

The diving was OK but was very choppy + current around the Brothers and Daedallus had to be cancelled due to bad weather. Vis was not great (for Red Sea anyhow) either and although we saw some big Threshers they were more smudges in the gloom than clear views.

The strong currents combined with overweight bailout 7L tank was difficult and I ended up chewing up my DIL and O2. Max dives were limited to OC divers at around 60mins and max 40m to suit my certs.

I felt the guides were very much hands off and left buddy pairs too it to do their own planning which seemed OK as most were pretty experienced.

As a first outing with CCR I don't think I would recommend this itinery as its quite a tough one with the currents.



The second week I was staying at the Marriot in Hurghada. Hotel was OK but make sure you get a top level room as the disco at ground floor carried a lot!

It was a real contrast diving with Tekstream and I had a whole boat to myself with Chris and Simon as guides. Chris was a CCR certified instructor and Simon was diving OC twinset and knew all the wrecks.
200bar O2 fills, neutrally buoyant stage tanks of any size you wanted were all no problem at all. I certified with Tekstream in Sharm and its nice to know that they are just as excellent for rebreathers in Hurghada.

Simon fitted the schedule with whatever I wanted and we pretty much did all the wrecks in the area doing 4 wrecks on one day in 2 dives to make the most of the CCR bottom time. Chris was also a wealth of expertise, hints and tips.

In summary:
Emporer do their own liveaboards so in future I may try their options as they seem much better set up for rebreathers. I believe they also do Tech diver special trips sometimes.

Blue O 2 boats were really nice but they need to polish up their ability to service rebreather divers. I would go with them again but would check up on O2 boosting and bailout!

Hope this helps you plan your own trips

Kevin

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Bubble free diving unless I eat beans.....

xpabu

Thanks for sharing your experiences.

Totally agree that with blueotwo you are on your own and that their 7l bailouts need sorting out (i'd been on blue fin previously)---having to add 6kg to counter balance a stage is daft.

No problems flying your unit out there?

Paul

Sutty

I've dived with Blue Horizon in the past on OC (before they could support RBs), and must say its a lovely boat, and when I was there the guides and crew were great too.
I had problems with a stage on Hurricane too in the past - weighed a ton! This was on the Rebreather World trip. Thankfully I borrowed a spare rigging kit to turn an 11l ali into a stage instead - hardly noticed it from there on. As all the red sea liveaboards seem to have these as their normal cylinders I'd reccomend this approach.
I also had a trip on Juliet out of Sharm. They don't have Rebreather support, but were happy for me to be there if I could sort myself out. I contacted Mix Unlimited and after arrival had a taxi trip out to them, picked up a keg of lime and 2 15l cyls full of O2. Took a decanting whip out and all sorted (I took a Jetsam baby booster too but didn't really need it). Mix unlimited even bought back my unused lime!

Neil

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Never forget that life is a finite resource.

kevini

Luggage all in all for me was 70kg !!! but business class with BA was fine and no extra charges. Just make sure you keep each bag weight down to 30kg or you may get oversize bag problems at check in.

I recommend bags with Wheel on in Egypt as there are no trolleys at either Sharm or Hurghada on your return flight after you enter the terminals.
ALL bags go through the x-ray machine but security dont seem to bother whats in them at all!

Blue OK could supply Sofnolime OK (12 Euro a KG I think it was), same with Tekstream.
I think you could probably rent a bailout cylinder from Tekstream and get them to drop off at Blue O 2 if you went with them....worth a try. Speak to Chris as he was very helpful at Tekstream.

I reckon overall going on one of Emporers 'Platinum' boats next time may be the best way to go

__________________
Bubble free diving unless I eat beans.....

PCDiver

Does tanks are a b&sterd to dive with. Like Neil said, use rigging kits and convert the ali 11 liters to stages.
On our wreck trips we use two of those as bailout, one with TX and one with EAN50. They aren't fun to handle in the zodiac, but once in the water, you forget that they are there. I recommend mounting them sidemount. When sidemounted, you don't even have to leave your tanks behind when crawling through small holes in wrecks. Works like a charm.

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yves

Hi,
the problem for the trolleys is solved sinds a few week, at least in Sharm, they have seen the problem and have now placed them after the first check in to
I have tried out a lot of dive center sinds my time to time going over to Egypt ( 6 times in 2007) and yes tekstream gives the perfect service!
greets
yves