Well, we got back at about 1am this morning after a fantastic week diving.

We were on a Blue O2 boat, MY Blue Horizon, which is the fleets flagship. We got to Hurghada on Friday afternoon and were very well looked after by Regaldive and transferred straight to the boat once we had got through the chaos at Hurghada airport (worth a topic on its own).
I had some Egyptian rep decide I had to get a refund of my visa entry fee and Robs and while he was waiting for the cases, the rep decided to take my passport off me and attempt to disappear through a very heavy crowd. I kicked off, chased him back and grabbed my passport back and said I would follow him but he was no way having my passport..so me and this other bird followed him right back to the arrivals bit to the place where we had got our visas and were refunded the money (turns out we had already paid in with the holiday price) and then had to fight our way through all the customs checks again etc...

The Boat looked very good with all the lights gleaming in the dark and we were the first to arrive, the majority of our fellow divers were comikng from Gatwick and 4 Danes from Copenhagen. The first thing that hit me on board was the strong smell of varnish..and also the fact they were still fixing the boat..many cabins still did not have doors, we arrived at our cabin to find a bloke kneeling on the floor trying to fix a handle onto the bathroom door..and again the smell of varnish was so strong it made me heave and I had to go on deck. This boat was in no way ready to accept paying guests as there were still loads of Egyptians chopping bits of wood and running round with paintbrushes etc...

When all the guests were here, they fed us all and gave us the boat briefing..all the usual stuff about safety, rles etc..and we were told we would set sail from the harbour at 6am, doing the first dive (a check dive) on air about 7.30ish am. That night, after the usual chit chat of getting to know your fellow divers, we discovered there was nothing they could do about the smell of the varnish in our room, which made me heave every time I went in it..so I decided I was going to sleep on the deck! They were very good, they even fetched me a duvet! They then said the next morning when we sailed we could open the porthole and let some fresh sea air in..except we didn't have any portholes..they were just windows...they then put air fresheners in our room next to the air con..and the smell eventually was bearable by night 2!

As for the diving, well we went to do a check dive on a shallowish reef ( no more than 15m) before moving on...this tour was a mixture of wrecks and reefs and we certainly got some action. The seas were rough, it was well windy and we had some heavy currents. Of the dives we did, we did Thistlegorm, Giannis D, Chrissoula K, The Barge, Dunraven, some minesweeper who's name I forgot, Emporer Fraser ( another liveabord that sank a couple of months ago) and some other wreck sank on the same reef as Giannis D and Chrissoula K...
On the Thistlegorm, we encountered very rough seas for the night dive and our mooring line actually snapped while we had divers on it..Rob was at the bottom of it and had to stay down with his buddies Alan and Sean, Gergo and Dave were at the top and were cast adrift into rough seas and the rest of us on the boat were just getting thrown around. This started a big rescue mission and it took 3 ribs to hold our boat in position while they tried to get another line in. Gergo and Dave were rescued by another boat and dragged on board there while ours was made . Meanwhile Harriet (sean's wife) was having a panic attack at the top as Sean is not that experienced a diver..and we were saying to her to chill..I knew Rob would have the sense to stay down whileever they could and then come up at the front of the boat..which is exactly what he did. The Thistlegorm is an amazing dive to do..the bikes, the lorrys, the rifles..there is so much history there. The viz was poor and we couldnt even see the locomotives. It also gets very busy with divers...which can churn the viz up a little.
When we dived the Dunraven..they decided to split us into 2 groups..half to do the Dunraven wreck and reef and the other half to do the Empporer Fraser and the GlassRock reef. We were in the second group..and in hindsight the dive should have been aborted by the guide within minutes. The plan was negative entry and grab the shot line..great..but the first half in could do that..the second half being Sean, Harri, Gergo me and Rob had not a prayer..Harri and Sean were took off straight away but managed to grab the line under the boat and hauled them selves back..Gergo, Rob and Myself just got copped by the tide..so we ended up blowing loads of air trying to get the shot line..and then took the decision to go lower to see if the current was any less. We reached the boat at 31m..but I was knackered and even at that depth, the current was dragging us along. The site was exposed and there was nothing to cling onto. The three of us were holding hands for dear life and half killing ourselves..so we aborted, shot up the SMB and had no choice but to go as close as we could to the reef while we did the safety stop...eventually, the rib had to pick us up and we had been dragged well over half a mile by the currents. We all ended up with major headaches from guzzling tanks almost dry..and those of that did that dive were not happy...and the Dive Leader was not happy with the Dive Guide for even considering that dive. Still, it was a learning curve..200bar, on EANX 30%..31metres for 23mins including the safety stop...I got on the rib with just 30 bar left...I have never returned with less than 50bar before..and never blown that much air before..or experienced a current that strong. It was quite scary being dragged like that and feeling the current literally ripping your mask from your face and dragging the gear off your back! Anyway..an hour or so later, I was back in over the reef for a nice gentle dive at about 13m looking at pretty life for an hour!

There were 3 day dives and 1 night dive every day..but it was cold and by the time I had done the 3rd dive of the day, I lost the will to do the 4th! Apparantly it has been the worst winter weather for 6 years so they were telling us..for the winds, rough seas, storms and low temperature. When we made the crossing over from Sharm side back to Hurghada side..the crew tied all the chairs together, bolted down everything movable and warned us all how rough it was going to be and said it was 100% guaranteed that someone would be seasick...don't know who it was..but I was OK..stayed on deck getting covered in sea spray..but it was good fun even though the crossing was rough and certainly made everyone feel gippy! We were quite lucky sometimes with the life we saw, Turtles, a white tip shark, dolphins and 2 huge huge morays called George and Mildred..but it was quite disappointing on the reefs for life...maybe the bad weather and poor viz had summats to do with it.

We got back to Hurghada on the Thursday afternoon, but we weren't allowed to stay out to sea even though there were 2 wrecks int he harbour ( El Mina..the minesweeper and a boat that was sunk for an insurance fiddle!) as the Egyptian President Mubarak(sp?) was visiting and the security forces wanted all boats secured etc in the harbour..and we had to stay on board until he had gone.

Hurghada itself remains the same, full of unfinished buildings and plenty of Arabs trying to get you to buy this bit of tat, go into thier shop or whatever. Always trying to con you out of money and quite frankly a little irritating after a while. On Friday, we went into Old Hurghada which was a little better but still the same.

The service provided by Blue O2 was first class..the crews workd very hard and kept the boat spotless..nothing was too much trouble for them. You could tell they had pride in thier boat and want it to be the best of the fleet. The food was plain and plentiful..the chef doing a marvellous job in such a tiny kitchen..
I would recommend anyone into diving to do a liveaboard with Blue O2 and we are booking again for later this year if poss...i think my only complaint is the rip off rates for currency exchange. We were told we had to take Euro's to pay for the nitrox and Egyptian £ for tips...but actually, Blue 0 2 wanted everything in £'s..and then attempted to charge me 1.5 euro to the £ ( when it was 1.08 when i left) and 10 LE to the £..when it is about 7.7..and $1.9....so everyone kicked off about it...and i actually sold some Euro's to Sean who works in Gibralter but lives in Spain. We dealt at 1.15..otherwise Blue O2 would have creamed me for an extra £85...oh..and the fact that they rely on divers giving tips to the crew to supplement the wages. A tip should be a bonus additional to wages..not the guests paying towards wages that Blue o2 dont!

in conclusion ( and this report could be better..but I have managed to come back with a cold and vertigo!) I would totally say that this is the way for divers to go in the future..