Gordon Reef

The dive

Gordon Reef is the first and southernmost of the four reefs in the Straits of Tiran, the closest to Sharm el Sheikh and the largest of the group in diameter, roughly 900 m across with its top sitting about half a metre under the surface. You find it from a long way off by the freighter lying on it. The Loullia, a 107 m cargo ship built in Sweden in 1952, went aground on the northern edge on 29 September 1981 while running in ballast from Aqaba to Suez; the crew abandoned her on 2 October and she was written off. She is still there, bows east, broken into sections. Some dive-centre pages date the grounding to the 1990s, but the ship's own record is 1981.

The diving is on the southern side, where a mooring sits in the lee and a plateau runs out from the reef. Published figures for the plateau vary between roughly 3 and 25 m, with the drop-off edge given as 10-12 m by Dive The World and 25-30 m by Seawolf; below the edge the wall continues to 50 m and, on other faces of the reef, to several hundred. Take the plateau as the dive and treat everything below 30 m as outside the plan. In the middle of the sand is a round depression called the Amphitheatre or Shark Pool, and there is a gully with swim-throughs on the reef.

The wreck itself is not a dive. It sits too shallow, on the reef crest, and the Red Sea Wreck Project is explicit that going under it as it stands now is a bad idea. What you do see of it is debris scattered on the plateau: steel drums at around 15 m, cable, and struts from an old lighthouse. Dive guides routinely call the drums the Loullia's cargo, but the wreck record has her sailing empty, so where they came from is not settled.

Sharks are the reason the Amphitheatre has its nickname. Whitetip reef sharks rest on the sand during the day, grey reef sharks pass through year-round, and scalloped hammerheads come into the strait in summer, though Jackson Reef to the north is the more reliable hammerhead site. Nothing here is guaranteed. Away from that, the plateau holds garden eels, bluespotted ribbontail rays, cornetfish, goatfish and young Napoleon wrasse over the sand, with bannerfish, butterflyfish, parrotfish and giant moray on the coral. Stonefish are recorded at this pin, so watch what you touch.

• The Loullia, aground on the reef crest since September 1981 and visible from the boat
• The Amphitheatre, a sandy depression on the plateau also called the Shark Pool
• Whitetip reef sharks resting on the sand, grey reef sharks year-round, hammerheads in summer
• Steel drums and lighthouse struts scattered on the plateau at around 15 m
• Garden eel colony on the sand, and a gully with swim-throughs on the reef

Conditions

Seawolf gives Gordon 20-35 m visibility depending on the season and water of 24-28 C; Dive The World gives the strait 20-25 m visibility and 22 C in February to 28 C in August. The south-side mooring is sheltered enough that Gordon often runs when wind has shut the rest of Tiran. Current is present most days and changes direction between morning and afternoon.

On current: Dive The World calls Gordon the easiest of the four Tiran reefs but notes that current can occasionally sweep across the plateau, and recommends the afternoon. Seawolf reports the flow reversing through the day: southerly in the morning and around midday, northerly in the afternoon. Sharm Scuba Service simply says conditions here are good year-round, which is the least conservative of the three; take the reversing-current description as your plan. The south side carries a mooring and is sheltered, which is why Gordon is often still diveable when wind closes the other Tiran reefs. Visibility is given as 20-25 m by Dive The World and 20-35 m by Seawolf; 20 m is the conservative figure.

Best months: Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov

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