Bluff Point / The Barge Wreck Diving in Gubal Strait

Wreck

Bluff Point is one of the most popular night dive spots for almost all safari boats coming from the South to stop at before crossing the Straits of Gubal and heading further north to Sha’ab Ali and the S.S. Thistlegorm. Located on the east of Gubal Island, Bluff Point is secluded from the surface conditions and allows boats to moor in preparation for an early start across the Straights, or a quick attempt at the crossing when the weather breaks.
One disadvantage of Bluff Point is that being an ideal place to wait to cross the Straights is gets busy - very busy! Once the safari boats are moored they tend not to want to move until they leave for the crossing and this does limit you to diving the Gubal Barge (as if diving anywhere in the Red Sea is limiting).
It gets really busy and the way around this is to ask your dive guide if you can do a daylight dive or even a dusk dive as soon as you arrive and then a late night dive (say 8-9pm). You don't need to go deeper than 14m here, so take the opportunity of getting an extra dive in.
Boats often tie themselves directly onto it and then the guides claim this as pole position, as their divers can descend the ropes without having to worry about navigating to the barge. What this actually means is that the guide doesn't have to do the dive and finishes early for the day. Worse still is that the barge has literally been pulled to bits over the last 10 years. A common mistake here is to actually limit yourself just to the barge; there is a lot to see on the coral bottom too (although there is also a lot of rubbish). Drop in away from the barge and spend at least 10 - 15 minutes getting there. Once your dive guide has briefed you as to which direction the barge is in (it will be either East or West) head down the shallow slope to 14m and then head in the appropriate direction. If you are deeper than 15m you might miss the barge. If you are getting shallower you are heading North towards the island and if you are getting deeper than you are heading away from the island and the boats - it's that simple. Watch the currents, even in and around the barge.