The first Digital Underwater Photography Workshop onboard Cassiopeia with Daniel Selmeczi.

Here’s your chance to pick up photo pointers from a pro and improve your underwater photography at our Digital Underwater Photography Workshop. No previous knowledge is required!

Find out how to get the best from your digital underwater camera. The safari will be full of hints and tips regarding settings and technical features. No camera is too big or too small!

Date: 14 – 21 July 2010.
Onboard: Cassiopeia.
Route: From Hurghada to Hurghada (wrecks and Safaga)

If you are thinking of buying, upgrading or perhaps buying lenses or flash units, this will also be a great chance to check out the latest products.

Places may have to be limited depending upon the uptake, so please book early.

We hope to see you there! For any further details or with your booking requests, please e-mail us. Thank you very much.

That it is for know… join your dives!

Until next time happy bubbles és safe travels! All the best!

Every year tens of millions of sharks die a slow death because of finning. Finning is the inhumane practice of hacking off the shark’s fins and throwing its still living body back into the sea.

Please help to stop shark finning and keep sharks in the sea! Spread this message on the web!

This Yemeni fishing boat has been spotted in the southern Egyptian Red Sea, de-finning sharks! Please report any sighting of this vessel immediately!

Shark de-finning and fishing are criminal offences, prohibited and punishable by law in the Red Sea, in accordance to regulations set by the Governor of the Red Sea and the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries in 2006. This vessel has also violated international and Egyptian law by by transgressing into Egyptian waters.

The fishing vessel was observed at Zabargad and Brothers Islands by several safari boats, it was last observed near St. John’s at N 23° 24.945′ E 035° 59.282′ It is believed to still be in the area.

Do not approach the boat! Document any activity using photography or video and contact us immeddiately.

This is the time to collectively work together to end a direct threat on our ecosystem and the livelihoods of those who depend on the Red Sea.

Please report any sighting immeddiately via:

HEPCA Office: (+2) 065 344 5035, 065 344 7728
HEPCA Mobile: (+2) 010 635 5011
E-mail: info@hepca.com
VHF Channel: 16

UMBRIA, an old italian freighter that provided war material for the italian troops in Eritrea in 1940. When the British entered the vessel, the Captain decided to sink his own ship. Now it´s a terrific place for diving.

The wreck “Umbria” was built in Hamburg 1912 and started life as a freighter. Umbria has a cargo of 360.000 bombs that makes the exploring of the wreck still more exciting. The “Umbria” is one of the most famous sunken ships in the world. Lying in the shelter of Wingate Reef, just outside Port Sudan and largely unaffected by currents and tides, it is within easy reach of Port Sudan harbour.

The wreck lies at an angle on her port side with her starboard davits breaking the surface. At a maximum depth of 36m, the Umbria is shallow by most wreck divers’ standards. With plenty of light and good visibility, entering most of the ship is easy. The hull itself is completely intact, if heavily encrusted with marine life, and can be explored internally and externally along its entire length.

Brothers / Daedalus / Elphinstone diving safari

One of the most popular liveaboard diving itineraries in the Red Sea is again part of our diving program in June. Places are available right now to book onboard M/Y Cassiopeia! Amazingly beautiful wrecks, sharks, mantas, turtles and dolphins have made these diving spots deservingly popular.

Date: June 16 – 23. 2010
Route: Brothers / Daedalus / Elphinstone

Boat: Cassiopeia – Safety and luxury in one place

The spacious lounge area is air-conditioned and well equipped with an LCD TV / VCR, DVD and CD player and furnished according to European style. Arabian cafe The spacious room follows the original Oriental coffee shop design with shisha (waterpipe) smoking possibility, coffee, tea and original Arabic music.

The comfortable 100-square-metre sun deck provides plenty of space for sun seekers, as well as shaded area. Comfortable deck chairs and cushioned seats make time more pleasant. There is a smaller sun deck in front of the captain’s bridge. In front of the salon is a comfortable open but covered area for resting and chatting between dives and in the evening.

The large dive deck and dive platform area ensures more-than-adequate space for divers preparing for their next plunge into the Red Sea. 2 hand-held showers on the platform allow for a rinse after diving or snorkeling. A bathroom with shower and marine head leads directly off the dive deck. Equipment Rental of diving equipment can be arranged but should be booked well in advance. We do not keep rental gear on board. Tanks: 20x 12lt and 10x15lt aluminum tanks, K valves, DIN and INT with international adaptors. Weights are provided at no charge on the boat. Zodiacs: 2, each equipped with a 40HP engine.

Diver search and locate system is available onboard!

Now offering at an unbeatable price!

We hope to see you there! For any further details or with your booking requests, please contact us. Thank you very much.

That it is for know… join your dives!

Until next time happy bubbles és safe travels! All the best,

A week at sea, gently rocking with the boat, sailing among small islands. Skyblue sea as far as the eye can see, sunrays caress your skin, you read a book, listen to your iPod, lay back comfortably in your sunchair and relax until your next dive. Your thoughts are still around the fish from your previous dive but you already look forward to the next one. A week of worryfree holiday when your shisha is prepared for you by the crew every evening after the delicious dinner and while you take puffs from the apple flavoured tobacco, your only thought is you wish this week would never end!

Your filled-up tank always waits for you in its usual place, tasty food is prepared and ready for you. At night you contemplate whether to sleep under the starry night or spend the quiet night in your cabin. You are bound to relax here – it’s all about that in the middle of the sea. Yet there will be so many adventures and great experiences to remember about this week that you will talk about for a long time to come.

Which itineraries should you try? All of them! If you love wrecks, then choose our North safaris which you can combine with a Tiran itinerary. If you long for calmer seas and less crowded dive sites, then you should try our Safaga area safaris. At Borthers, Daedalus and Elphinstone you will enjoy a real shark adventure! And on a St. Johns safari – well, anything could happen. J But if you wish to experience something new, then your choice must be Elba.

The possibilities are endless! If you are out of ideas, call us and we will help!

Location: Egypt / South
Description: Reef / Coral garden / Wreck
Depths: 30 meters

This horseshoe-shaped reef lies in open water to the northeast of Ras Banas. The eastern side of the reef has a steeply sloping wall profile, giving way to a sandy slope scattered with coral heads and pinnacles toward the reef’s southeast corner. The southern pinnacles are especially rich, with a wide variety of coral types throughout. The varied hard coral composition of the heads and pinnacles acts as a base for some extremely nice soft coral growth, particularly dendronephthia.

Fish life here is excellent. Schooling fish of all types are seen in large numbers, while reef-dwellers, such as angelfish and butterflies, provide flashes of color. Cuttlefish and shrimps put in an appearance for the invertebrates, and bluespotted and blackspotted stingrays are common. Sharks of several types can also frequently be spotted here, and there are regular reports of dolphins along the reef or inside the lagoon.