Cannon Reef

The dive

Cannon Reef is one of the outer reefs Safaga dive centres work, and its other name is Shaab Bagul. Ducks Diving Safaga lists it in its outer-reef group, between Shaab Sheer Ost and Shaab Sheer Soraya, alongside Panorama, Middle Reef, Abu Kafan and Shaab Hamdallah — the same reefs this pin has as neighbours. Blue Submarine, also based in Safaga, describes the main reef as about a kilometre long with several interesting, fish-rich coral blocks on its southern tail, and says it takes more than one dive to see the area.

That is close to the whole of what is published about it, and you should know that before you plan a day around it. Two Safaga operators give it a sentence or two each. Ducks Diving calls it excellently suited to beginner divers and divers in training, adds that it is still worthwhile for experienced divers, says small-fish enthusiasts are in the right place, and notes that turtles, eagle rays and dolphins have been sighted here. The only dolphin record OBIS holds anywhere near this pin is an Indo-Pacific bottlenose, which is at least consistent. No source we read explains the name, and none of them mentions a cannon, a wreck or any debris on the reef, so do not go looking for one on the strength of the name alone.

Depth figures for this reef do circulate — a northern route along the main reef at 10 to 15 m, reef blocks and a drop-off toward 30 m in the south, an anchorage inside a half-open lagoon — but they appear in dive-site directories in wording identical from one site to the next, with no operator behind them. We have not adopted them. What ties the name to this pin is geography: the PADI directory entry for Shaab Bagul is placed at 26.65436, 33.99616, about 440 m from where this site sits, and Ducks Diving's outer-reef grouping puts Cannon Reef among exactly these neighbours.

• Main reef around a kilometre long, worth more than one dive to cover
• Fish-rich coral blocks on the southern tail
• Run as a beginner and training site by Safaga centres
• Turtles, eagle rays and dolphins have been recorded here by the local operator

Conditions

We have no site-specific conditions data at all — no operator publishes visibility, current or temperature for Cannon Reef. Regionally, Emperor Divers' Red Sea seasonal guide gives water around 22 degrees in winter and up to about 30 in summer, with visibility often exceeding 30 m in spring. Safaga sits on the open coast north of Marsa Alam, so wind is the variable that decides whether an outer reef like this is on the programme.

On current: No operator publishes a current or a depth for this reef, so we record neither. Depth figures are in circulation — 10 to 15 m along the northern main reef, blocks and a drop-off toward 30 m in the south — but they occur word-for-word identically across dive-site directories with no primary source behind them, so we have not carried them over. Treat the briefing you get on the boat as the only reliable description of the day's profile.

Best months: Mar, Apr, May, Sep, Oct, Nov