Abu Nuhas

The plateau rises almost to the surface, and a day here is a rotation through its wrecks, deepest first. Kimon M slid down the reef after she struck it, so she lies from 15 m to just over 30 m, and she is commonly the first wreck of the day for decompression reasons. Giannis D is the easiest of the four: she lies in two halves and her mast tops out at about 4 m (one account says 5 m), a ready-made safety stop. Chrisoula K runs from 4 m to 28 m, with several entry points into her holds and engine spaces. The Carnatic is an open skeleton, her wooden decking long gone and the iron ribs encrusted with soft coral.

Glassfish and sweepers school in the holds, lionfish and moray eels hold the shadows, batfish drift past, and Napoleon wrasse and the odd reef shark cruise the water above. A full day on a liveaboard is three to four dives, so one wreck may be dived twice and another missed.

A reef plateau that almost reaches the surface sits at the exit of the Suez Canal approach, the last obstacle before the Gulf of Suez opens out into the Red Sea, and one operator counts at least seven accidents on it in modern times. That position is why a single stop offers four recreational wrecks of four characters: an open iron skeleton, a freighter that slid down the slope, a ship with a shallow mast, and a hull with interiors open to trained divers. A fifth wreck, the Seastar, lies at about 90 m, beyond recreational limits.

The reef carries coral and fish life that one operator calls healthy and worth diving for in its own right.

• 1869: the Carnatic runs aground on a Red Sea reef and breaks apart the next morning, with 31 lives lost; operators count her among the wrecks here.
• 1978: Kimon M is wrecked carrying lentils from Turkey to India.
• 1981: Chrisoula K strikes the north-east corner of the reef at full speed after her Suez Canal transit and is declared a total constructive loss; 21 crew are picked up by the Egyptian Navy.
• 1983: Giannis D, carrying a cargo of wood, sinks and lies in two halves.

Currents flowing out of the Suez Canal meet other currents at the northern corner of the reef, so expect medium to strong flow there. Surface time is spent in a tender or RIB on an exposed reef, and rough days are more likely from December to February. A 5 mm wetsuit is the standard recommendation and enough in January. Inside Chrisoula K the engine compartments silt up and visibility turns poor, so keep trim high and fins off the floor.