drysuits on Cyclone liveaboard, northern Red Sea ?

Hi there,

I am about to go on the Cyclone next week. It will cruise the northern Red Sea - Gubal, ras Muhammed and around there.

I've been to Sharm and Dahab before in Feb and April respectively, but only doing shore based and day boat diving - I remember that I was quite cold (in a 7mm) after only 2 day dives.

Checking the forum and some weather websites I expect 20 to 22 deg C water temp.

So I am seriously thinking about packing my drysuit.

Will they let me dive longer than others ? (3mm and 5mm people who didn't read the notes will have to surface either earlier or cyanosed)

Or will I get herded into a group and made to go up afer 50 mins ?

I hope I will get 3 or 4 dives per day in, and cyanosis isn't for me.

Can anyone share experiences with drysuit diving on Red Sea liveaboards ?

Thanks

Fred

At this time of year 7,5 mm is highly recommended.

Drysuite is no bad idea also if you can stand the comments ;-)

Simon

Cheers,

I *can* stand the comments! I was in Croatia in June once, and got sooo much stick for being drysuit whimps: I guess they were all jealous (and very very cold!)

I was wondering if the dive crew won't mind staying longer in the water.

I was on the TYphoon last month; same itinary as the Cyclone.

18 divers on board; half in drysuits, rest mixture of semi/5-7m wets.

In the main, dives were limited to 60 minutes; I got extra on about half the dives, but not when tha boat was going onto another site.

Because the day is quite short at this time of year there was emphasise on 'pressing on'; esp. if the 1st dive didn't happen as early as was advertised - usually due to other divers wanting a bit of a lie in....

Didn't hear any 'comments' about the drysuit wearers tho!

HTH

Similar story we were on Hurricane last month - most were in 5 or 7mm wetsuits.

My new 5mm was fine but some others were complaining of finding it nippy in 5mm.

The two dive guides were in drysuits and we did take the micky a bit !!

Ended up going without a wetsuit on the last dive for a laugh and honestly it was not too bad for the first 40 mins. The dive guide that we baited into this exploit did have a cracking figure though.

So I would suggest a good 5 or 7mm or dry if you really feel the cold.

Time in water was limited to 60 mins unless you agreed an alternate schedule first - these guys are very flexible.

Great time of the year to go - we were lucky with the weather and saw no other boats for our entire week.

Paul C

I guess that being a cold water diver I cannot imagine using (let alone dragging along) a drysuit in warm water. My drysuit comes in handy when the water temp is 48 degrees F to 65 degrees F, but anything higher than that is warm to me. In the Galapagos I used a 1/4 inch wetsuit, then when I was left out at sea and blew out my shoulders, I used only the farmer johns. I was still comfortable. But that's just me. Another couple in the Galapagos did have drysuits, but the water temps were 68-75 degrees F. So if you want to be really warm, I guess a drysuit is doable as long as you can get it there.

Joe

Hi again.

I just got back from that trip and I can only say three words

DRYSUIT, DRYSUIT, DRYSUIT

The guides wore them and a couple of other guests too. My Aladin does not show the water temperature, so I can only guess the temp at around 18-21 deg C.

The divers in drysuits were the only ones that got close to the 60 mins dive time.

The others usually came up after 25-35 mins.

The extra weight showed on the airlines scales, there is nothing you can do about that, but the diving was definitely more enjoyable in a drysuit.

There are people that are susceptable to cold and others aren't as much.

So if you get cold sometimes and you're asking yourself the same question, then you will have to take the drysuit along at this time of year.

The weather was fine but never really, really hot, so warming up after the dive was not that easy.

BTW, the Tony Backhurst trip on Cyclone was brilliantly organised, the boat was great, the guides phantastic and the guest a real good laugh.

Will go again soon (but will take a 7mm wetsuit for the late summer trip).

Cheers, Fred