Stretching along the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, between Africa and Asia, Oman is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the southeast, the Gulf of Oman to the northeast, and the Persian Gulf to the northwest. It has a land area of 309,000 sq km and 3,000km of coastline. Its immediate neighbours are Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Yemen. Iran lies to the north, across the Strait of Hormuz. 

That first frisson of excitement came at 20,000ft when the plane taking my wife and me to the region started to descend, flying over the Red Sea Mountains of Upper Egypt, and I could see the shores of the Red Sea beckoning. The route of the Thomas Cook Airbus to Hurghada took us directly over Ras Abu Soma, the destination of our dive resort. Hurghada Airport is big and efficient, and well used to large numbers of tourists.

With my dive buddy, Yakov Samovarov, I would dive the missile wreck, Satil. I asked Yakov to tell me about the day’s dive. “Six or seven years ago, I did my first dive on Satil,” said Yakov. “It was formally known as the Israeli Navy missile boat with the proud name of Sufa (Storm).”

 

In 1993, Sufa was decomissioned from the Navy and sunk in Eilat as an artificial reef. All military equipment was taken out before this procedure. Now, the ship rests on a level keel very close to shore.

 

When I found out I would be traveling to Egypt for three weeks in June, I immediately began making regular visits to a local sauna to prepare my body to withstand the heat for which northern Africa is famous. Coming from British Columbia, Canada, blessed with mild climate and cool temperate water, I knew this trip to Egypt would be a very different experience.

It probably dates me a bit, but I remember when Sharm el Sheikh was a small, sleepy village at the tip of the barren Sinai peninsula, which was reached by overnight coach from Cairo. Domestic flights from Cairo’s international airport, which was the common place of entry to Sharm’s airstrip, were available but came at a substantial price.

Nuweiba is a natural oasis, it spreads over about 40km of gently sloping flood plane surrounded by the majestic Sinai mountains inland and the Gulf. It isn’t primarily a tourist centre but has grown due to its ferry port with connections to Jordan. Much of its coastline has fringing coral barrier reefs with coral gardens, reef walls and pinnacles.

 

Spyrou and Verdier had been discussing diving the HMS Victoria since the summer of 2007. The impressive wreck is quite unusual in the sense that it stands up vertically rising up from 140m to 77m with her bow deeply embedded in the thick layer of sediment. Spyrou contacted ambassadors and officials from Cyprus and Lebanon to obtain all the necessary permissions. Soon he came in touch with Christian Francis, owner of Lebanon Divers who first located the wreck.