Hurricane Update

I read with some alarm Sid's report last week, as I was about to go one
trip
on MV Hurricane.

Having returned yesterday (15/7) I though I should put my view.
Hurricane
is great and if you are about to travel on it please don't worry -
you'll
have a great time.

I have been on Excel, Susanna 1, VIP One and Royal Emperor in the last
couple of year so consider that I have some experience in quality
live-boards.

So what is great.

Well the food is fantastic and the staff are great.  The cabins are
equipped
with fridges that work, DVD and TVs that work and the air con is great
in
the cabins.  Cabin size is plenty big enough, with adequate storage
which
can cope with your empty dive bags.  Extra draws have been built into
the
bed bases now.  The dinning area is spacious and well laid out, the
upper
saloon is also well laid out with a huge plasma screen, DVD and music
centre, with a well equipped bar with plenty of ice.  The upper sun deck
has
plenty of room and even a Jacuzzi -  honest!  The lower shaded deck is
very
spacious and comes with plenty of seating and tables.   The kitting up
area
is big enough for all the divers to kit up simultaneously and includes
some
nice touches, like a camera table.  The large dive platform comes with
covered
camera tank and two fresh water showers.  This is a luxury
live-aboard!

Be assured the boat is new and I saw no real sign of rusting, a point
to
note is that all boats rust - from the moment the keel is laid down and
as a
result repainting is a constant task to keep a steel boat is shape.
Neither
was there any sign, to me, that the boat had been at sea for any length
of
time.

The decking all looked new to me and although I did notice that is a
couple
of small places the paintwork had been touched up or not expertly
applied
when originally painted, although I had to look for this and would not
have
noticed unless I had seen Sid's post.

So what is not perfect.

Well the air con in the dinning rooms and the main saloon works, but
is
either inadequate or was not working to its full capacity, I think it
was
the latter.  It does cool these areas, but not as well as I might have
expected.  The bathrooms; this was the cause of some discussion, I am
told
that they are the same size as Suzanne 1 and Royal Emperor, but not as
big
as Excel and I think that is about right.  What is different is the
shape,
they have tried to separate the WC, washbasin and shower into
different
areas and the net result is you have a longer narrow bathroom.  On a lot
of boats
the shower tends to soak the whole bathroom, on Hurricane it doesn't.
However this narrow space is then exacerbated by a door that opens into
the
bathroom and hits the WC before opening fully.   I expect that the
doors
will changed to open into the cabin and this will help.  What you must
know
is that the bathrooms do work and were quite adequate.

Some of Sid's other points

Nitrox mixes, I used it all week and it did vary, by up to 1% and on a
couple of occasions nearly 2%, but it was made very clear to me that if
it
was out that they would adjust the mix before I dived, frankly I
didn't
bother, but reset my computer accordingly.  Overall I have no
complaints
about the Nitrox.  What I would say is that on previous live-aboards we
have
had bad tasting fills, on Hurricane the fills both air and Nitrox were
dry
and odour free.

I think Sid's comments about jet drive and PC and email facilities are
based
on last year's information, which we saw as we were originally going to
use
it last year, but couldn't and as it wasn't finished.  The latest
information does not make any mention of jet drives or PC availability.

The Ribs are new and very well equipped - the best I have seen on any
boat.
As for email the GSM signal only works when you are close to the port
but
after that the comms is limited to SAT phone.

The Southern Red Sea -Elphinstone, Deadulus, Zabagad, Rocky Island,
Fury
Shoal and St Johns.  I have dived this area four times in the last two
years, it is getting busier and much as I would like to be the only boat
on
any site this is not going to happen in the future. Frequently one or
two
other  boats accompanied us, but on occasions we were alone.   My advice
is
go now as it'll only get busier, if you want deserted sites try Sudan.
However the sites are still great for seeing sharks, we saw white
tipped,
greys and hammerheads.  The reefs and coral gardens are stunning and
not
over dived - yet.  This is still the place to go as far as I am
concerned
and I will do Sudan once I am confident that the country is safe.

What you must understand is that the boat is new and frankly in some
areas
the boat is still being 'shaken down'.  What is impressive is the way
that
staff dealt with any minor problems that we had.  The staff were
insistence
that we reported anything that was not working perfectly, I can only
assume
that as time goes on that any last remaining imperfections will be
rapidly
resolved.

So would I go on Hurricane again? - YES!

--
Dorset Mark