M/V Typhoon Red Sea Liveaboard report

[Jenkins]

I have dived with Tony Backhurst on four occasions (twice on Typhoon) and am booked to go out with them again later this year.

I don't quite see what your problem is with the Nitrox charges, I know when we book the holiday roughly what the cost will be and simply factor this (together with insurance and the VISA) into the cost of the holiday.

We looked into hiring twins last time but they are expensive, personally we always pay extra to hire 15's which we pre book from the UK.

As you say with a full boat "someone" will land unlucky and get the cabin by the engine room.

The bathrooms on boats are (in my experience) always a little smelly, but nothing that keeping the bathroom door shut and opening the batroom porthole won't sort - sounds like you had an actual problem, so yes I would complain.

The guys on Typhoon have always been excellent and I have felt very safe in their care, that said the lack of VHS radio on the zodiacs is a concern.

I have been refused dives at Abu Nuhas because of the conditions, when other operators have still been diving. Unfortunatly it's a fine line between keeping guests happy and keeping them safe so whichever they do they will get moaned at - loosing you in a current is another matter entirely and not acceptible.

Regarding Tony Backhursts complaints procedure, one year we had serious concerns regarding a couple of (non safety) matters and expressed these in no uncertain terms both during the holiday (phonecall to Tony himself) and on our return - compensation was offered.

[sussexsubmarine]

Hi Jenkins, thanks for your comments.

The Nitrox charge I didn't have a problem with, but some of the other divers on the boat mentioned that some other liveaboards provided complementary Nitrox. I thought it worth mentioning it as some divers may, like them, have had experience of having it thrown in.

Originally Posted by Jenkins

As you say with a full boat "someone" will land unlucky and get the cabin by the engine room.

I agree, Cabin 9 has been allocated to staff now as it is also adjacent the engine room. I just wanted to mention its location so if there are any light sleepers and only cabin 10 is left they should consider this factor. You may notice that I didn't mention it as a negative just as a FYI. My issues were with the air conditioning smell and the diving incident.

Originally Posted by Jenkins

The bathrooms on boats are (in my experience) always a little smelly, but nothing that keeping the bathroom door shut and opening the batroom porthole won't sort - sounds like you had an actual problem, so yes I would complain.

This wasn't a problem with our bathroom smelling - it didn't. This was the smell being pumping in via the air conditioning, much worse. The air conditioning pipes feed in from the engine room and it appears the pipe was letting in smells from the sewage system.

Originally Posted by Jenkins

I have been refused dives at Abu Nuhas because of the conditions, when other operators have still been diving. Unfortunatly it's a fine line between keeping guests happy and keeping them safe so whichever they do they will get moaned at - loosing you in a current is another matter entirely and not acceptible.

Another RIB with much less experienced divers managed to get in-and-out with no problems, but they had a guide on board that no doubt directed the boatman to the correct place to drop us.

One of the issues seems to be the boatman we had dropped us in an entirely different place further around the reef so following the instructions in the briefing left us in a different and more dangerous place.

The conditions were a go, no questions asked, at the beginning of the dive. They were worse at the end and then much much worse as we were being dragged away from the shelter of the reef into the main shipping lane at over two hours laster.

I would not dive in unsafe conditions regardless of the recommendation of the diveguides, the captain or Neptune himself - a couple of dives were called off on this trip and no-one moaned.

Originally Posted by Jenkins

Regarding Tony Backhursts complaints procedure, one year we had serious concerns regarding a couple of (non safety) matters and expressed these in no uncertain terms both during the holiday (phonecall to Tony himself) and on our return - compensation was offered.

I will no doubt update this thread to let everyone know what happens, but let us hope something good comes out of it. At the start of this whole thing I was willing to put it behind me, but some many people have told me in person or via PMs to take this further as it just shouldn't have happened. I know I am stewing a lot less about this than a couple of the other guys who were in my group.

Once again, thanks for the feedback. It is all helpful and helps clarify things for others reading the thread.

James

[purple vonny]

I've been on Blue Fin, It is a fantastic boat, one of the best I have ever been on. Shame!!!!! I got the trip at knock down price too!!!! Never mind, you pay your money and you take your chance. Sorry to hear you had such hassle though.

[lottie]

Interesting, what you said about TB taking steps to ensure something similar never happened again. The very same thing happened to us last September whilst on Bella...

We are still waiting for big Tony himself to get back to us with regard to an apology and some form of compensation - have written numerous emails, letters and even spoke to him on the phone, so don't hold your breath. Honestly some of the worst customer service I have ever experienced. The error in our case was also because of the dive crew's mistake.

Hope you have more luck than we did getting him to admit some responsibility.

[sussexsubmarine]

Originally Posted by lottie

Interesting, what you said about TB taking steps to ensure something similar never happened again. The very same thing happened to us last September whilst on Bella...

We are still waiting for big Tony himself to get back to us with regard to an apology and some form of compensation - have written numerous emails, letters and even spoke to him on the phone, so don't hold your breath. Honestly some of the worst customer service I have ever experienced. The error in our case was also because of the dive crew's mistake.

Hope you have more luck than we did getting him to admit some responsibility.

Tony rang me up today and spent quite a bit of time going through things. Promised he would get back to me once he had managed to corner someone from Tornado.

James

[sussexsubmarine]

Tony Backhurst rang me up today and had suitably shaken up Tornado.

The result:

They dry-docked Typhoon for a couple of days and discovered the fault with sewage system that was causing a blockage to overflow into cabin 10's air conditioning. This has now been rectified - if I was going on the Typhoon would still turn the aircon on and check for smells before you leave Sharm. We were offered a voucher for just under a third of the cost of the trip, which I have to say goes a long way. Now I can book a land-based (the experience has put my partner off liveaboards for life) trip later in the year for a reduced cost and try and provide a cohesive atmosphere kindle my partner's interest in diving. The vouchers are perhaps a better solution than a refund, as this gives Tony Backhurst Travel an opportunity to show us smell and incident free holiday!

With regards the diving incident, it was acknowledges some procedures weren't followed and several Tornado crew members have been 'retrained'. To be honest, as I said, there was a number of contributing factors and I am happy that this should at least stop them being complacent about safety.

James

[Tunicates]

I'm glad you got some comeback from TB, a voucher for the future is fair enough imb.

Good luck with coaxing the GLW back into the water.

TaM