Big Brother South

The dive

Big Brother is a single small island in the Brothers (El Akhawein), 60 to 70 km off El Quseir in open water, and "Big Brother South" is one of the routes boats run around it rather than a reef of its own. The same island is covered by our Big Brother, Big Brother East and Big Brother - Numidia entries; a liveaboard with a day here will normally dive two or three of them in sequence.

The south route is the plateau that runs off the island's southern tip. It is a ledge that starts shallow enough to be worked on air and then falls away hard on both sides into water far deeper than anything recreational. Sources do not agree on how deep it is: one operator's table gives 15 to 30 m, a published trip report from the island describes it as starting at 20 m and sloping to 40 m, and two guides put the thresher cleaning station at 30 to 40 m. Another operator describes a small promontory with three or four low underwater hills at about 35 m near the tip, which others place on the eastern shelf instead; the two routes meet there, which is probably why. Plan for the shallow figures and let the guide take you deeper if the briefing calls for it.

This is the sheltered side of the island. Current here usually runs lighter than on the exposed walls and tips, so it is where boats put the first dive of the day while a group settles in, and where they dive at all when the current is running above three knots and the north tip is off. It is also where the east and west wall drifts finish, because the set on those walls normally goes north to south.

What brings people is the thresher shark, which is reported over this plateau on dawn dives and more often in the colder months. The rest of the day it is schooling great barracuda circling the ledge, dogtooth tuna, grey reef sharks and humphead wrasse out in the blue, with coral hind, sea goldies, giant moray and black-and-white snapper on the reef itself. The island's supply jetty is on this side, and the shallow notches under it at 2 to 5 m hold heavy schools of small fish, which makes a useful safety stop. The Numidia and Aida wrecks are at the opposite end of the island and are not part of this dive.

• One route around one small island, not a separate reef
• Thresher sharks reported over the plateau on dawn dives
• The sheltered side, and the fallback dive when the tips are blown out
• Schooling barracuda, dogtooth tuna and grey reef sharks off the ledge
• Shallow notches under the island's supply jetty at 2 to 5 m for the safety stop

Conditions

Open ocean with the island as the only shelter. Operators give visibility from 15 to 25 m at the low end and 19 to 30 m more usually; water runs roughly 21 to 24 degrees in winter and 26 to 30 in summer. Because this is the lee side it is the most reliably diveable part of the island, but swell wraps around the tip and spring brings the biggest seas.

On current: The south side is the lee. Operators grade the Brothers from 1 to 4 knots and describe the southern current as running south and usually lighter than the walls, which is why the south plateau is the fallback when it is blowing: above 3 knots the exposed north tip is cancelled and only this side is dived. That does not make it slack. One guide notes the current here often comes from the north, so finning back against it is hard work, and the standard drill above 2 knots is a negative entry, a tight group and an SMB on ascent. A first-hand trip report from this island logged one dive with no current at all and another running the opposite way, south to north.

Best months: May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov