Unfortunately many of these boats don't reach the
same standards that you might expect - Egypt is
catching up, but isn't up to European or North
American standards of safety.
A
day out on the boats - a cautionary tale.
My
son and I went out one day on a locally booked snorkelling
day-trip in 2004. There were about 50 people in all on the boat,
most of them were swimming and snorkelling, about 10 or so
stayed on the boat. The first couple of stops were pleasant (we
spotted a manta ray on one of them - which was a bonus) and we
were accompanied by some crew into the water. I did notice
however that they didn't count people out or back into the boat,
though it wasn't much of an issue as we were the only boat in
the places we went to.
The
third and final stop of the day was at a place where there were
around 8 boats already moored. Ours pulled up parallel to two
others and we got into the water with the instruction that we'd
be away again in 30 mins.
Off
we went to the edge of the reef and started following it along,
it was different to the other places we'd been that day with
different life, so when I noticed the time, it was about dead-on
leaving time, so we started to swim back to where the boat was -
or should have been.
I
remembered the name of the boat, it's rough position and the
fact that there were two other boats, one on either side that
looked very similar. The one I thought was ours wasn't, the name
was wrong, so we tried the other two - swimming in snorkelling
gear, trunks, snorkel, flippers and mask - nothing else.
Not
those either, thought maybe I had the wrong place (unlikely as I
have a very good sense of direction and position), so we swam
around a while looking at the other less likely boats. Niall
(son) was getting a bit panicky by now as we were in about 10m
of water, no chance of touching the bottom and occasionally
sight of the bottom would disappear as the visibility was less
than the depth and we'd been swimming around for quite some
time.
I was
hatching plans B, C and D - go ashore, find a hotel, phone our
hotel (while wearing snorkelling gear - see above). Then I
remembered that the first boat we'd checked out was one I'd seen
alongside ours that morning, same company, similar name. So we
climbed aboard - no-one spoke English. There was one crew member
who spoke some English who we tried to communicate our plight
to. I was feeling particularly vulnerable and isolated as I
stood there getting cold and unable to see without my
prescription diving mask! - it was see properly but look a right
geek, or take the mask off and see the world as if through the
bottom of a jam jar.
It
turned out that it was the same company and he called the other
boat on his mobile phone, as he did so, our boat came into view.
It pulled up alongside, we jumped into the sea again, swam
across and finally joined our original boat. There was an
English family on board who we had spoken to earlier in the day
and they had noticed that we were nowhere to be seen and so made
the boat turn around and go back for us.
All
was well that ended well, but it was an unpleasant experience.
In a way it as well I had Niall with me as I felt I had to be
calm and strong for my 12 year old son and so was. Swimming
around in the sea with boats 100m apart in a foreign country
with the day getting towards dusk was an experience I could have
done without.
I've
been back to Egypt and the Red Sea twice since then and been out
on boats many times, things do seem to be getting better, but it
will take time and there are unscrupulous operators who will try
to cut corners and employ insufficient or untrained crew. You
need to make your own decisions and safeguards for your and your
family's safety.
Don't
worry unduly, but don't expect that the fear of litigation that
pervades so much European and North American culture to apply
here making the "Nanny State" - it doesn't. There are
dangers like anywhere else and an increasing number of reputable
companies that are here for the long term will do
most or all of the thinking for you. Don't be afraid to apply your own safety criteria and
don't assume that assurances are of consequence, they
may be just to shut you up.
