Dennis Bakhuis

Dive site · wreck · The Strait of Gubal

🇪🇬 The Barge and the Ulysses, Bluff Point

Red Sea, Egypt

Two wrecks off the north-east corner of Gubal Seghir — an 1887 steamer embedded in coral, and a small British barge that has become the best night dive in the northern Red Sea.

Dives here
1
Deepest
26.5 m
Water
salt
First · last
2017
Also known as
Ulysses

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

Ulysses (1887)The BargeLagoonGubal SeghirReef edgeDrift along the reef · 887 mUlysses bow↓5 mHolds, open beams↓12 mEngine amidships↓18 mPropeller and rudder↓28 mZodiac dropThe Barge↓14 mNight mooringBluff Point light↓0 mBluff PointCurrent round the pointN100 m
  • Entry / exit
  • Hazard
  • Point of interest
  • Wreck
  • Lighthouse / tower
  • Machinery
  • Other object
  • Shoreline
  • Dive path
  • Wall / drop-off
  • Shallows
  • Wreck footprint
  • Depth
Site map · 7 objects · 1 path · max 28 m

The Ulysses (95 m, 1887) on the north face of Gubal Seghir and the Barge (about 35 x 6 m) in the sheltered bay south-west of the Bluff Point light. Island shore, reef edge, light and both wreck positions come from OpenStreetMap; dimensions and depths from the Red Sea Wreck Project (Ulysses bow 4-5 m, propeller 28 m; Barge 14 m). No published heading exists for either wreck: the Ulysses is drawn bow into the reef running straight down the slope, the Barge along the reef edge, and the engine and hold depths are interpolated. The drift runs from the wreck with the current along the reef; positions are approximate.

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

Bluff Point is the eastern tip of Gubal Seghir, named for the turbulence the current makes as it wraps round the island's wall. It is a standard overnight mooring on the northern wreck route, and it has two wrecks close inshore.

The Ulysses

A 91 m British steamer that left Suez on 16 August 1887 and in the early hours put herself onto the reef just north of Bluff Point. Help did not reach her until the 20th, by which time the reef had opened her up and she was abandoned. She lies with her bow in the shallows and her stern at about 27 m, and after nearly 140 years she is more coral than steel — the hull and what remains of the deck structures are a hard-coral garden with a ship-shaped skeleton inside it.

The Barge

A small British barge or lighter lying on the slope in the sheltered bay, about 300 m south-west of the Bluff Point light, from about 5 m down to 25 m. It is unremarkable by daylight and extraordinary after dark: the broken-open hull is a permanent hunting ground, and the site is reliably good for Spanish dancers, moray eels out of their holes, lionfish working the torch beams, crocodilefish and stonefish. Most boats dive it as the night dive of the trip.

Dived here with

Erik

Nearby sites

1 dive at The Barge and the Ulysses, Bluff Point

  1. 13 Oct 2017 with Erik wreckboat date13 Oct 2017 depth26.5 m time48 min water—

Sources