Giannis D

Good to know

Best season

Year-round. Water 22-29 C; calmest seas and best visibility March-November, with the coolest water and strongest northerlies December-February.

Protected status

Egyptian Red Sea marine protected area; HEPCA-maintained mooring buoys, anchoring prohibited

Fees

No separate site fee published; environmental tax historically 3.5 LE/diver/day (Red Sea Governorate, 2001), collection suspended after January 2011 per HEPCA.

Wreck

ship_type: General cargo motor vessel (built as Shoyo Maru, renamed Markos, then Giannis D); builder: Kuryshima Dock Company, Imabari, Japan; year_built: 1969 (completed September 1969); length_m: 99.5; tonnage: 2,932-2,992 GRT; date_sunk: 19 April 1983; cause: Ran onto Sha'ab Abu Nuhas at speed while transiting the Straits of Gubal off course, bound from Rijeka for Jeddah and Hodeidah. Abandoned; broke in half in a later storm and slid to the base of the reef.; cargo: Sawn softwood / timber; orientation: In roughly three parts lying parallel to the reef. Bow section at about 10 m on its port side; the midships is collapsed rubble; the stern, engine room and accommodation block sit at 18-27 m listing about 45 degrees to port. Shallowest wreckage on the reef top from about 4 m.; wreck_depth_m: 4-28; penetration: Yes. Standard route enters at the pilothouse and runs aft into the engine room via the companionway, exiting up through an engine-room skylight. The 45-degree list makes orientation confusing - a torch is essential.