Sadko Safari Fleet

Sadko Safari Fleet has been diving out of Hurghada since 1999, when it opened as Sadko Dive Centre with ten sets of equipment, one compressor and a rented boat. Daily diving and training came first, and the company grew into its own three-story office and two day boats, Mayflower and Sunflower. The fleet came later, and it came for a reason they are direct about: running safaris on chartered vessels meant trusting someone else's emergency equipment and someone else's galley, so they built their own boats instead.

There are three now, all wooden, all four decks, each with ten cabins for twenty guests. MV Sunshine, launched in 2013, is 31 meters and the yacht the fleet started with. MV Sunlight followed in 2017, 34 meters, and takes the southern itineraries and the expedition routes. MV Springland arrived in 2022 and is the odd one: a full-size safari yacht put to work on day trips, with twin MAN 600 hp engines that cruise at 12 knots against the 10 knots of the other two. All three carry radar, AIS, an emergency beacon, two liferafts, oxygen and a pair of 5.5 m zodiacs, and the fleet states compliance with EN 14467 and ISO 24803.

Safaris run seven nights from Hurghada and Port Ghalib, from roughly 750 to 900 euro per person. The itinerary list covers the full Red Sea ladder: the northern wrecks and the Straits of Tiran, Brothers with Daedalus and Elphinstone, Daedalus with Rocky and Zabargad, St John's, the Fury Shoals, Safaga, a coastal route, a run north to Dahab, an Elba Reef expedition, and a southern trip built around the 2027 solar eclipse.

Daily diving goes out of Hurghada on Springland, which changes what a day trip can reach: Abu Nuhas, the Thistlegorm and the Salem Express are all inside her range. Tanks are refilled on board between dives, nitrox is available, gear is set up once for the whole package instead of every morning, briefings are given in the air-conditioned salon, and the zodiacs handle pickups and drift dives. Overnight extensions can be added on request.

Training runs from a 70 euro introductory dive through Open Water, Advanced, Rescue and specialties in deep, nitrox and wreck diving, up to Divemaster and Instructor. Groups are kept deliberately small, and the company also charters any of the three yachts whole, to dive clubs, families, kitesurf and dolphin-tour operators and travel agencies.