Shaab Saiman

The dive

Shaab Saiman, also written Shaab Samman, is the northernmost reef Safaga boats work regularly. It lies northwest of the headland Ras Umm Hesiwa, three to four miles north of Ras Abu Soma, on the line towards Sharm el Naga. The structure is a hard coral ridge running parallel to the shoreline, separated from the main reef by a narrow sandy canyon. Swiss Wellness Dive Club puts the top of the ridge at 2 m and the canyon at 8 m at its shallowest, with both sloping into deeper water at either end and a white sand floor throughout. Beyond the ridge, on the open-sea side, Blue Submarine describes a wide plateau at 15 to 20 m. 4EVERSEA gives 8 to 25 m as the working range and says the ground carries on sloping to 60 m.

The reason this reef is not on everyone's log is weather. Every Safaga operator that lists it says the same thing: calm weather only. Swiss Wellness Dive Club puts it bluntly at nine days out of ten undivable. It sits fully exposed to the open sea with no headland to hide behind, current sets northwest to southeast, and Blue Submarine and Diving-top both rate it 3 on their five-step scale and quote 80 minutes of boat time; 4EVERSEA quotes 60 minutes and runs it by boat or zodiac with a minimum of twelve divers.

When it does go, what people come for is fish rather than reef structure. Swiss Wellness Dive Club reports large schools of red snapper, black snapper and Red Sea chub, and barracuda, jacks and batfish working the plateau; whitetip reef sharks are often found resting in the sandy canyon. 4EVERSEA adds orbicular batfish, Ehrenberg's snapper, lizardfish, gobies and crocodilefish. Eagle rays and orangespot jacks are reported. Giant moray, yellowfin hind, bicolour parrotfish and speckled sandperch are among the few taxa recorded near this pin, which is a fair reflection of how rarely anyone gets to survey here rather than of how much lives on it.

The coral itself is hard coral, a ridge and a garden rather than a soft-coral wall, so if you want colour this is not the Safaga dive that gives it. Come for the schooling fish over the plateau and the chance of a whitetip on the sand, and expect the trip to be cancelled more often than it runs.

• Whitetip reef sharks resting in the sandy canyon between the ridge and the main reef
• Large schools of red snapper, black snapper and Red Sea chub
• Barracuda, jacks and batfish working the 15 to 20 m plateau on the open-sea side
• A hard coral ridge topping out at 2 m, sloping away at both ends
• The northernmost reef regularly dived from Safaga, and one of the least visited

Conditions

On the rare day it runs: clear open-sea water over a white sand floor, current setting northwest to southeast and capable of picking up, and the swell that closes the site most of the time noticeably absent. Water sits at about 22.5 C in February and March and 29.4 C in August. Boat time is 60 to 80 minutes from Safaga depending on the operator.

On current: Current sets from the northwest to the southeast and Swiss Wellness Dive Club describes it as fairly lively at times. 4EVERSEA lists the site as exposed to current and weather. The two are linked here: the reef is a free-standing ridge with open water on both sides and nothing upstream to break the swell, which is why every Safaga operator gates it on calm weather and why Swiss Wellness Dive Club says it is undivable nine days out of ten. No one publishes a measured knot figure.

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