Woodhouse Reef

The dive

Woodhouse is the second of the four reefs that sit in the Straits of Tiran between the Sinai coast and Tiran Island, in line between Thomas to the south and Jackson to the north, and it is dived from Sharm el Sheikh day boats. Dive The World records that all four, Gordon, Thomas, Woodhouse and Jackson, are named after the British cartographers who first charted the strait. Woodhouse is the longest of them, close to a mile end to end, and also the narrowest: it lies along the direction the water runs through the strait, which means it gives a boat no shelter and carries no fixed moorings. That single fact sets the dive. You go in at the south end, you drift north, and the boat follows you.

The southern part is a wall with coral growing from the surface down to about 30 m, where it eases into a slope and sandy patches that sharks use to rest on. Around halfway along, at roughly 25 to 30 m, a canyon opens and runs parallel to the axis of the reef before spreading out into a coral garden cut by sandy alleys, with a coral plateau between about 14 and 24 m. This is where the current usually picks up. Emperor Divers singles out a large red anemone on one side of the canyon as the thing to look for.

North of the coral garden the reef drops away from the surface and funnels down towards Jackson across a saddle at about 14 m. Divers call it the washing machine, because the current hits both reefs at once and comes back at you from every direction, with vortices when the sea is choppy. Every source that mentions it says the same thing: unless conditions are calm and the plan was made for it beforehand, finish the dive at the coral garden and let the boat pick you up before the saddle.

What you see is a mix of reef and open water, which is what an unsheltered mid-strait reef gets. Dive The World reports jacks, turtles and sharks, a lot of anemones, hard and soft corals and colonies of black coral around 20-25 m, with fusiliers, snapper, surgeonfish and unicornfish schooling and big tuna and trevally passing. Red Sea Diving College records pelagic sightings here as frequent. The OBIS records for this pin are led by sea goldies, blue-spotted ribbontail ray, coral hind, twoband anemonefish and zebra angelfish.

• Canyon at roughly 25-30 m running parallel to the reef, opening into a coral garden with sandy alleys
• A large red anemone on the side of the canyon
• Coral wall from the surface to about 30 m, easing into a slope with sandy patches where sharks rest
• Black coral colonies around 20-25 m
• Jacks, turtles, sharks, big tuna and trevally in the open water off the reef
• The washing machine saddle towards Jackson, for divers and conditions that can take it

Conditions

A boat drop at the southern end of the reef and a one-way drift north, with the boat shadowing you, because there is nowhere to tie up. Current is present by default and builds as you reach the canyon and coral garden about halfway along. Red Sea Marine advises diving it in the morning, when the sun falls directly on the reef. Surface conditions decide whether the dive happens at all and how far north it is allowed to run.

On current: Current is the whole character of this site. The reef lies along the flow of the strait with no shelter and no moorings, so it can only be dived as a drift, normally south to north, and only when the sea allows. Current strengthens noticeably at the canyon and the coral garden about halfway along, and at the northern saddle towards Jackson it becomes the washing machine: strong flow arriving from all directions with vortices when it is choppy. The sources rate the site differently, Red Sea Diving College calling it intermediate and Red Sea Marine recommending advanced experience with attention to wind, tides and currents; the harder rating is the one recorded here. Depth is consistent across sources at a 30 m maximum, with the canyon at 25-30 m and the coral plateau between 14 and 24 m.