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Dive Site

Gordon Reef

  • Current: S in the morning, S at midday, N in the afternoon
  • Visibility: J, F, M, A: 25 m; M, J, J, A: 20 m; S, O, N, D: 35 m
  • Temperatures: J, F, M: 24°C; A, M, J: 26°C; J, A, S: 28°C; O, N, D: 26°C
  • Depth: 10 m to 50 m
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Dive Site

Overview

A long, long time ago, in September 1981, the "Loullia" ran aground on the northern slope of "Gordon Reef" and has made no attempt to sink any further until today. So we don't get to dive this cargo ship wreck, but we still find wreckage like barrels or cables. The easiest reef of the Tiran group with moorings in the southern area also has its tricky points - please never, ever underestimate the current!

Description

"Gordon Reef", the southernmost reef of the Strait of Tiran, has a length of about 900 meters and the reef top is just half a meter below the water surface. This is also the reason why we unfortunately cannot dive the cargo ship from Panama, the "Loullia", which was stranded on September 29, 1981.
In the southwest there is still an unmanned lighthouse and in the north a lighthouse ruin - unfortunately hardly recognizable, but the perfect search object for one or the other challenge! There are sandy moorings in the south, in the east as well as in the west with a depth of two to 10 meters.

Diving is mostly in the southern part, because here the drop-off edge is only between 25 and 30 meters and then later goes down to 50 meters. In the rest of the reef it's a steep descent from now on down to depths of 300 meters.

But finally we come to the colorful part of the explanations: in the "amphitheater", a sandy depression, we meet with a little luck scalloped hammerhead sharks, at the sight of which we are really speechless. The whitetip reef sharks, which are "sweet" in contrast to their counterparts, also grant us an audience here from time to time. It is not for nothing that this sandy depression is also called "Sharkpool". And the grass sticking out of the sand are usually red sea garden eels, the other highlights besides fire corals and gorgonians.

Hotspots

  • Cables and barrels: West of the amphitheater, the current has done the rest, washing up wreckage such as barrels and cables, which the ocean and its inhabitants have now made their own. The metal struts to be discovered here are fragments of the old lighthouse.
  • Barrels: East of the amphitheater, we find huge sunken buoys that are readily used by smaller fish to play hide-and-seek.
  • Sandpit: Sounds unspectacular, but it is by no means: the sandy plateau of "Gordon Reef". Here you can find garden eels. But especially here, where you feel so safe, you have to watch out for the current.

map Dive Plans

Drift dive

Depending on the current, we start at the wreck and then work our way along the left or right reef shoulder towards the southern plateau. We float past countless colorful corals, find garden eels on the sandy sea beds and maybe even tuna, whitetip reef sharks, masked puffer fish and.... dolphins! Ascending takes place over the plateau.

From boat to boat

We leave the boat and stay on the outer edge of the plateau, at a depth of about 30 meters, until the plateau narrows. Here a drift dive to the north is also possible, but the Zodiac crew should be notified beforehand. Otherwise we go back over the barrels in the shallow sandy area. In the blue water we can encounter big fish.

South plateau

Again, we do a round dive from boat to boat and dive south to the sand pit. Take the turn towards the "Amphitheater" or "Sharkpool", take a selfie with a scalloped hammerhead shark or eagle ray, dive west at the drop-off, say hello to the garden eels and turn back towards the boat at the fire corals.