wreck

Log This Dive

BLUE BELT

The Blue Belt, for us, is one of those genuinely surprising wrecks. Not because it’s a “carrier vessel” in the modern sense, but because it’s an old freighter, built in 1905, that went down in ’77 with a load of trucks and spares. Imagine an old ship, 103 metres long, sitting upright at 40 metres. You descend, and suddenly the sheer size of it just looms out of the blue. What makes it special? It’s the cargo. We’ve finned through the hold, past the skeletal remains of old lorries, their chassis now part of the reef, covered in soft corals. The light filters down, catching the dust motes and illuminating the ghostly shapes of these vehicles. It’s a strange, almost eerie feeling. Outside, the superstructure is draped in gorgonian fans and the usual Red Sea suspects – parrotfish grazing, snapper schooling. We love the bridge area; it’s largely intact and you can still poke around the wheelhouse. Our favourite part has to be the stern, where the prop is still there, huge and green with growth. It’s a deeper dive, hitting 40m, so it’s definitely one for experienced divers comfortable with depth and perhaps a bit of current, though it’s usually mild here.