Contents this month:

• Christmas & New Year - Bahamas live-aboard.
• Gift Vouchers - for any occassion.
• Pete's Page - Wrecks don't have to be deep!
• Special Live-aboard offer - Red Sea.

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Hello there!
Going anywhere nice for the Christmas holidays? I've heard of a great cleaning station further up the reef - that's where I'm headed. Hope to be seeing you there too!
Happy Diving,
Arnie (& the team at Aquatours)

Christmas & New Year Availability

If you want sunshine for Christmas be quick
- hotels and flights filling fast so don't miss out.

Bahamas for Christmas week - go shark spotting this Christmas!

A VERY RARE Christmas Special Offer on AquaCat sailing from Nassau - for some of the very best Caribbean diving with excellent reefs, magnificent marine life and top class on-board service.

Depart Heathrow 20 December for 7 nights on board. Includes full board, snacks, soft drinks, 5½ days diving (3-4 dives a day), flights & airport transfers. Beer & Rum Punch also included! Return flight gets back into Heathrow morning of 28th December. £2499.

Non divers welcome - excellent snorkeling and shore trip opportunities!

STUCK FOR GIFT IDEAS? : Give an Aquatours Gift Voucher

For Christmas, a birthday or any other occasion. Why not give a special gift to a special person for a special holiday.

Aquatours gift vouchers available from £50 - £500! Valid for travel on any available holiday in 2009.

They can be used towards the holiday or towards a pre-booked dive pack or diving course in resort.

• Contact us for more info or to purchase.

PETE's PAGE: Wrecks - they don't have to be deep!

In the last 10 years we have seen the frontiers of wreck diving pushed to new limits, with such wrecks as the Britannic, Egypt and Lucitania, located and explored. The training, equipment and support required for such epic ventures is far beyond the remit of the sports diver, but that does not mean sports divers are excluded from exciting discoveries.

Indeed most of our new finds in the last few years in Egytian waters have averaged out at 15 metres depth. That means long, safe dives in strong natural light.

Having just put together an itinerary for a group wanting to visit southern Egypt next year, I realised that their dive time averaged 1 hour per dive, and by using nitrox, kept them well within no stop limits. Here is a selection from that itinerary:

El QAHER - an ex-British destroyer (previously HMS MYNGS), balanced on a rocky pinnacle and all 320 ft of her in less than 27 metres of water allowing the explorer to swim under her keel, twin riudders and props before a long amble along her fighting decks to witness torpedo tubes and even shells in the breech!

MOMA CLASS aka The RUSSIAN WRECK - Russian Spy ship lying in only 4 to 24 metres of water. The wreck detective will note the huge amount of electronics spread throughout the vessel, the Russian legends and signs, all giving clues to her purpose - and dismissing any absurd theories that she was just a fishing boat!

M.V. HAMADA - This is the Giannis D of the south - in only 14 metres. Broken in two and festooned in soft corals and although it might sound a tad tame, there are some great swim throughs and interior sections for those with the right skills.

S.S. TURBO - Sadly only the stern section of this WW2 tanker, but big enough for two dives and a huge engine room to explore. Lying between 12 and 25 metres, had she had her bow section in place she would surely have rated as one of the finest wrecks in the Red Sea.

As we travel north the story is the same - The El ARISH near Safaga, comes to within 12 metres of the surface and she is 105 metres long! The ZIETIEH and the BACCHIS near Ashrafi, both lie in a maximum of 12 metres, while across the channel, in sight of the Thistlegorm, the wrecks of the ALASKA (fridge wreck) and CARINA lie scattered amongst the superb coral reefs of Sha'ab Ali.

Venturing into the Gulf of Suez we have another tanker the SCALARIA - all 500ft of her - IN ONLY 12 METRES, and finally the crowning glory of our discoveries over the past few years the TURKIA, upright, intact and a haven of fish life.

The depth, or lack of it, makes these unfamiliar names less commercial for the run of the mill safari but our guests enjoy diving the wrecks with no other boats around & journeying through these living museums without the clutter of equipment required to dive deeper wrecks safely.

All of the above wrecks feature in our 2009 escorted wreck tours. Forget 'exploring' the 'barge' at Gobal - join us - discovery is only a few metres down!
     Peter Collings.

• Click to visit our Red Sea Wreck Directory.
• Contact us and how to book.

SPECIAL OFFER: 30th November Red Sea Live-aboard!

Only a few places left on this escorted Red Sea wreck trip with Peter Collings - author, photographer and leading Red Sea Wreck expert. On board the 5* MY Hyatt.

Departs 30 November for 7 nights with flights from Gatwick or East Midlands airport.

£885 per person - hurry only a few places available at this price.

• Click for more info on the Hyatt live-aboard boat.
• Contact us and how to book.