Dennis Bakhuis

Dive site · wreck · The Strait of Gubal

🇪🇬 Giannis D

Red Sea, Egypt

A Greek timber freighter that hit Abu Nuhas at full speed in 1983 and broke into three, leaving a stern section canted over at an angle that makes divers lose track of which way is up.

Dives here
1
Deepest
22 m
Water
salt
First · last
2017

Revision 1 · changed 10 Oct 2026

History
  1. r1 10 Oct 2026 Imported from the personal log · Dennis Bakhuis

Site data © divelog-sites contributors (ODbL), descriptions and maps CC BY-SA 4.0 · 53edcaf

1 map

Giannis D stern sectionMidships debrisBow sectionReef edgeStern to bow, reef on the right · 145 mPropeller and rudder↓26 mEngine room↓20 mFunnel with the D↓14 mBridge↓12 mA-frame mast↓4 mHolds, timber cargo↓18 mBow on its port side↓10 mRIB dropN20 m
  • Entry / exit
  • Wreck
  • Machinery
  • Other object
  • Dive path
  • Wall / drop-off
  • Wreck footprint
  • Depth
Site map · 7 objects · 1 path · max 26 m

Wreck plan of the Giannis D (99.5 x 16 m) at the western corner of Abu Nuhas: stern section canted about 45 degrees to port with the engine room, bridge and funnel, a flattened midships and the bow on its port side, lying roughly parallel to the reef with the stern to the west. Position and reef edge from OpenStreetMap; dimensions, layout and depths from the Red Sea Wreck Project and dive-guide descriptions (stern 24-26 m, mast top 4 m, bow about 10 m); the route is the usual east-bound swim with the reef on the right. The RIB drop, feature positions along the hull and intermediate depths are approximate.

Map © divelog-sites contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0 · 53edcaf

The ship

Built in 1969 by Kuryshima Dock Company at Imabari, Japan, as the Shoyo Maru: 99.5 m, 2 932 gross tons, a general cargo vessel with her engine and accommodation right aft. Sold in 1975 and renamed Markos; sold again to Greek owners in 1980 and renamed Giannis D.

The wreck

She sailed from Rijeka with sawn softwood for Jeddah and Hodeidah. In the early hours of 19 April 1983, running south through the Strait of Gubal, she went straight onto Abu Nuhas at speed. Accounts put it down to a moment's inattention on the bridge. At 04:00 the master signalled for the crew to be taken off; the hull had opened a twelve-metre tear. The Egyptian vessel Santa Fe picked everyone up. Over the following days she worked herself off the reef and broke up.

The dive

She lies in 10–28 m in three parts. The bow section sits more or less intact; the midships is a flattened field of plating; and the stern, which is the reason people come, lies canted hard over to port at around 45 degrees. Inside it the engine room, the workshop and the accommodation are all penetrable and all tilted, so the stairs go sideways, the doorways are diamonds and every horizontal surface lies. It is genuinely disorienting and it is the best-preserved machinery space on Abu Nuhas. The mast still leans out over the sand.

Dived 16 October 2017 to 22 m for 54 minutes.

Dived here with

Floris Rob

Nearby sites

1 dive at Giannis D

  1. 16 Oct 2017 with Floris, Rob wreckboat date16 Oct 2017 depth22 m time54 min water—

Sources