Rocky Island

Rocky's three walls make three different dives, and the day's current decides which one you get. The guide reads the flow and picks the entry, and most dives begin with a negative descent. The southern side is the calmest, with less water movement, softer corals, smaller reef fish and a coral-rich plateau to work, which is why it suits the less experienced divers in a group. The northern side takes the most wind, swell and current: a quick drift along the wall that can leave a choppy surface waiting for the pickup. The eastern corner faces open sea and deepens fast. The brief there is to drop down, hang off the wall and watch the blue while the surface current runs above you, because that is where large and pelagic animals are most likely to visit.

A shallow plateau reaches roughly 35 m out from the island before the wall falls away, and the guide recommends it for the safety stop. Oceanic whitetips are the shark Rocky delivers most dependably. On the eastern wall they are often inquisitive, sweeping in for a slow, close pass before peeling back into open water; the odds improve from autumn into early winter, and an encounter is never guaranteed. When the sharks stay away, the dive is a drift past gorgonians and soft coral, with grey reef sharks over the plateau and giant barracuda working the current.

A triangle of rock about 500-540 metres long sits in open ocean, some 5-6 km from Zabargad and at least 60 km from the mainland, and nearly all of it is wall. With so little shelter, the same currents that make the dive demanding feed the coral. Gorgonians and soft corals cover the walls, which guides describe as healthy offshore reef, even as bleaching in 2024 and 2025 has marked other reefs in the southern Red Sea.

Oceanic whitetip, grey reef and silvertip share the walls, and in some seasons tigers join them. Tigers made Rocky's name in 2015, when a group reportedly stayed for more than six months, though the oceanic whitetip remains the shark you can plan around. Distance keeps the schedule thin, and the boats that make the crossing often have the island to themselves.

Boats usually moor overnight at Zabargad or St John's and leave the exposed island to the day's dives. Night diving is not possible here. The Maidan, a British steamer that struck the reef in 1923, lies at 80 to 120 m on the south side1; it is a technical dive only and no part of a recreational day at Rocky.

Carry a surface marker and a dive computer, and be ready to drop the moment you enter the water. On the eastern tip, take care not to be swept by the current into the open sea: keep the wall within reach and follow the guide's brief on where to ascend.