A 40 metre boat, Emperor Serenity easily accommodates 26 guests in 13 well-appointed ensuite cabins all with air-conditioning. Operating from March 2016, Emperor Serenity has three levels of cabin available on the Upper, Main and Lower decks.

This boat’s itinerary is the "Best of the Maldives" - and it delivers exactly that. It offers divers the best and most famous dive sites of the Maldives in a week of wonderful liveaboard diving across Male and Ari atolls. Divers can take in the iconic sites of North Male, South Male and Ari Atoll. Channels, drifts and pinnacles await where divers have every chance of meeting mantas, whale sharks and mesmerising marine life of so many varieties.

This itinerary provides a marine mix of big fish such as shark and manta dives, as well as reef dives, reef fish, morays and the abundant macro life. Divers can get up close at the cleaning stations without disturbing the locals! One of the best known dive sites is Maaya Thila; this pinnacle is approximately 30m in diameter and falls away to reveal sharks and fish a plenty. The boat will also aim to find whale sharks, so you can get in the water and snorkel with them... as long as they stay around long enough!

All diving is done from Emperor Serenity's large dhoni tender, giving more living space on board and getting guests to the perfect dive spot every time. Four dive guides provide a premium service and she is rebreather-friendly and offers free Nitrox, all diving and safety equipment, as well as a photography charging station.

Non-divers are very welcome and get free snorkelling equipment and a voucher to spend on board.

Emperor Serenity adds to the existing Emperor fleet of Maldives liveaboards - Emperor Voyager and Emperor Atoll. Guests on these liveaboards have enjoyed fabulous sightings throughout the season and Emperor Serenity will be covering similar popular routes going forward.

For more details, contact our specialist team on 01353 659 999, or by email, or visit Emperor Serenity.

NB: Images are artist impressions of Emperor Serenity. Final designs may vary.

Regaldive currently have some great new dive pack deals for the Red Sea. Divers venturing to Sharm El Sheikh and El Gouna this summer can benefit from dive deals starting from just £27 per day, while those going to Marsa Alam and Hamata can take advantage of dive deals from just £36 per day.

Our new special offers on daily diving with Emperor Divers allow divers travelling to these Red Sea resorts to benefit from these special offers for departures until 1 September 2015.

To receive these special offers, bookings must be received and paid in full by 31 July 2015. This promotion is valid for new bookings only.

For further information, or to book, call our friendly team on 01353 659999!

For most divers, the Galapagos Islands are the ultimate dive trip. With places often booked up years in advance, Regaldive guests can choose from a range of superb boats including the exciting new Galapagos Master. Read on for an account of the vessel's maiden trip, written by Mark Shandur, co-owner and GM of Master Liveaboards sister company Worldwide Dive and Sail.

"Located at the junction of three ocean currents, the Galapagos are a spectacular melting pot of marine species. Our excitement could not be contained as we made our way to the Galapagos Master. She has just spent eight months in the shipyard where the refit and refurbishment was overseen by my business partner and Worldwide Dive and Sail founder, Frank Van Der Linde.

The trip was a special one as my wife, Hanako, and I were joined by old school friends Ben Shrimpton, Mark Upson and Alec & Lucy Birkbeck. The maiden voyage also hosted world-renowned photographer, Aaron Wong, and his wife Lynette Ang and Marcel Wilpernig from WiroDive. Daniel Brinckmann came on assignment from Underwasser. We were also joined by Renee Wong, and four guests who have now become friends, who were on the Fiji Siren with us last year including Mauro Resnitzky, Ramone Gonzalez and Raj & Vijay Vaswani.

The diving in the Galapagos is some of the most unique in the world, and we were anxious to jump into the water and experience Darwin’s playground. Our first dive of the trip was at Punta Carrion, a boulder strewn reef, where we saw many hammerheads, white tip reef sharks, and schooling fish. During the second dive at Punta Carrion, I noticed a skeleton underwater at approximately thirty metres. Bewildered, I thought to myself, “Who’s thrown their dog overboard?” Upon surfacing, and speaking to one of the dive masters, I realized that we’d seen the skeleton of a sea lion. Doh! Towards the end of the second dive, we experienced a really strange vertical thermocline current coming in. The water temperature dropped by at least 3-5 degrees and the visibility went down to less than 5m. However, this cold, nutrient rich water seemed to bring in many fish and we experienced sightings of huge groupers, who seemed to enjoying appearing from the depths and scaring us!

North Seymour Island was our next stop. We went ashore and experienced some of the amazing wildlife that the Galapagos offers. We saw blue-footed boobies, frigate birds and scores of land iguanas.

Darwin Island was next on our itinerary, and it was absolutely unbelievable. Although no land permits are allowed here, the extinct volcano that reaches 165 metres above sea level is a sight to behold. Darwin’s Arch provided an amazing drift dive with a medium to strong current and loads of schooling fish.

Wolf Island, without a doubt, offered the best dive of the entire Galapagos Master trip. Another massive, extinct volcano that pushes 253 metres above sea level, here our group had the pleasure of hundreds of Galapagos sharks and a frenzy of 40-50 hammerheads. At Wolf Island, we also had the opportunity to meet some local fishermen. Regulated by the park, the fisherman hand catch yellow fin tuna that has already been bitten by sharks. These fishermen had some stories to tell, and we bartered with them. We swapped their yellow fin tuna for water and other supplies, and had a great dinner that evening.

Living up to its nickname “The Ice Box,” Punta Vicente Roca was extremely cold. However, this dive gave us a good chance to see some big marble rays. We looked for penguins, but only encountered sea lions. Diving with sea lions is fun as they are naturally curious and provide some underwater laughs.

The last stop of our Galapagos Master trip was at Cousin’s Rock, the beautiful, photogenic coral covered rock and lava flow. Here, we saw lots of enormous turtles, more playful sea lions and spotted eagle rays. Cousin’s Rock was a great way to wrap up our trip.

As we headed back to Guayaquil, we all prepared for our long, sad goodbyes. It was amazing to be able to experience a destination such as this with such close friends and colleagues; it definitely was a trip of a lifetime."

Thanks to Mark Shandur and the Worldwide Dive and Sail team for sharing this blog article and Marcel Wilpernig for the image of Galapagos Master above.


 

Did you see SHARK? The BBC’s recent sharktastic documentary series on these majestic creatures has got the office thinking about where our favourite shark diving destination would be. Read on for the Regaldive Team's top six spots to encounter sharks around the world.

Philippines

John Butland would choose Malapascua Island in the Philippines, saying “I would love to dive here because it is one of the few places in the world where I can see the very rare Thresher shark. Shark lovers can also twin Malapascua with Cabilao, which offers some fabulous sites for seeing schools of Hammerheads too.”

Bahamas

Having recently returned from the Bahamas, Simon Slater highly rates it for sharktastic sightings: “In the Bahamas, shark encounters are typically up close and personal. On my dives I saw Caribbean reef sharks, lemon sharks, nurse sharks, bull sharks, great hammerheads and tiger sharks. Diving the Bahamas would satisfy even the most ardent shark lover!”

South Africa

Andreas Elia would love to be in a cage… surrounded by Great Whites! “Two hours east of Cape Town, Dyer Island is one of the best places in the world to encounter great white sharks, and cage diving with the world’s greatest predator would be the thrill of a lifetime...”

Azores

Jane Herbert would like to explore the Azores - one of the best destinations in the world to dive up close and personal with Blue and Mako sharks. Jane said “I would love the adrenaline rush of blue water diving with Blue and Mako sharks: as the sharks are typically found some 20 miles offshore it would be the ultimate shark adventure!”

Egypt

Having spent some time living in Egypt, Helena Nawaar is perfectly placed to rave about shark encounters in the Red Sea, saying: “The Egyptian Red Sea offers a huge variety of potential shark diving locations ideally visited by liveaboard, including The Brothers, Daedalus, Rocky and Elphinstone, where divers frequently encounter Oceanic Whitetip, Thresher, Hammerhead and Grey Reef sharks. I would advise all divers to visit the stunning Red Sea before all other destinations.”

Galapagos

Nigel Cass has always dreamed of diving with a school of Hammerhead sharks, so naturally the Galapagos Islands were at the top of his selection: “The great thing about the Galapagos is that Hammerheads can be seen all year round, and it is possible to dive with hundreds of Hammerhead sharks on a single dive. That would be my ultimate dive!”

Do you agree with our selection or is there a destination you would prefer to dive with sharks? You could also consider Palau, Sudan, Fiji, Malaysia or the Maldives. Why not email us your suggestions?

Travelling with young children? Read Regaldive team member Helena's top tips for a child-friendly holiday in the sun!

I’ve worked in travel for 21 years which should qualify me for booking my own holiday. . . .  Shouldn’t it?! However, throw a child of school age into the mix and it’s a whole new ball game.

Last summer was my first experience of ‘booking’ a family holiday during the school holidays. I say ‘booking’ as we ended up with three miserable days in the rain in a caravan on the East coast of England at August bank holiday. My boys’ requirements were:

Abroad – failed
Hot weather – failed
Nice food – does fish and chips count?
Swimming pool – the kind you swim in and not the puddle outside our door from torrential rain that required wellies I hadn’t packed.

Don’t fall into the trap like I did of believing it's possible to find a last minute ‘deal’ in the summer holidays. The flights and hotels are either full or so expensive that it simply wasn’t affordable.  After last years’ fiasco, I vowed to plan this year and right last years’ very big WRONG. So I booked early. Very early!

With children aged two and six, we wanted a family friendly holiday that was good value for money and had a kids club plus a hotel that could fit us all in one room.  The Continental Hotel Hurghada ticks all these boxes and so that's where we are off this year.  They offer family rooms so we are all in the same room – tick! They had a kids club for the six year old – tick! Nice food- we’ve booked all-inclusive as it’s hot in the summer so the children will need unlimited drinks and ice-cream is always on the list (mine, that is, not just the boys!), hot weather and swimming pool – tick! And for those of you that have time to get some diving or snorkelling in, Divers’ Lodge dive centre is on-site too.

I even managed not to take the children out of school by using EgyptAir via Cairo.  I know it means a connecting flights with two little ones but it worked out cheaper, flights are daily so you can tailor-make your stay and their luggage allowance is more than generous – 46kg each.  Perfect for divers or mums with 10 tins of lactose intolerant baby formula and more than one pair of hands to carry it all!

We’re counting down the days...

Helena's top three family holiday reccommendations in the Red Sea:

1.    Steigenberger Al Dau
2.    Movenpick El Gouna
3.    Continental Hotel Hurghada

There was a certain commotion at the London dive show earlier this year. Amidst the anticipated and popular stands was an extremely different and entirely unexpected form of underwater promotion. As the throngs of people devoured all the show had to offer, it was almost comical to observe an array of individuals stop, laugh and descend into shock at the bright blue stand in front of them.

This was clearly no ordinary stand. Whatever they were promoting was free to join, and just a little bit exciting! Wow. We needed to find out more... Rosie Magee was happy to fill us in on the finer points of the international sport of Underwater Rugby!

Hello. I think the first question that needs to be asked is …. What exactly IS Underwater Rugby, and is this actually a real sport?!
YES… I promise you it is! That is actually the first question that many of the perplexed and confused visitors at LIDS asked us this year! Underwater Rugby first originated in Germany in the 1960’s, after being set up by Ludwig von Bursa to help diver’s develop their fitness. It is actually taken very seriously by many countries across the world, with our club making its international debut at a competition in Italy last year.

But is it popular and well-known in Great Britain?
Oliver Kraus, the founder of our club, came to England from Slovakia, where he played and coached Underwater Rugby on a regular basis. On arrival in England, he realised that despite diving and sports such as underwater hockey existing, there was an absence of a GB Underwater Rugby club! He decided then to enlist the help of a strong, bubbly Scot Robert Bonner, an amusing, experienced dive instructor Roy Sherwin and Gemma Witts to set up the UK’s only team, under the assistance of BSAC. Hence, PURE Underwater Rugby, GB’s only Underwater Rugby team was delicately born!

Hold on... But how do you actually play Underwater Rugby?
Underwater Rugby is a fun, challenging and competitive sport, played by two teams below the surface of a swimming pool.  Different to rugby as we know it, It is always played in water, with a usual depth of 3.5-5m. Two teams, of no more than six people wear basic equipment such as fins, a mask, a snorkel and a hat ( extremely flattering…) It is played with a negatively buoyant ball filled with salt water. The basic idea is to get your ball into the opposing team’s bucket by passing to your team and tackling them underwater! You cannot tackle around the neck, or grab someone’s fins, but apart from that it’s a full contact sport.

Buckets?!
Yes, each team’s “goal” are heavy, solid metal buckets which sit on either end of the pool! The two teams battle underwater to get their ball into the opposing team’s bucket. The ball can be passed in any direction, as long it does not break the surface of the water, therefore it is truly three dimensional!

Er... what do you do about breathing?!
You hold your breath, which believe me, actually gets easier the longer you play the sport! The main thing is timing – you have to time when it is right to tackle someone or defend your goal. You defend the goal by almost “sitting” in the bucket, placing your back against it and kicking your legs vertically in the water!

Where do you play?!
PURE Underwater Rugby trains in Putney on Thursday nights from 9.00-10.30pm! There are also a range of international tournaments that the team will be attending this year, such as the first ever international tournament in Bordeaux, France, alongside an established international tournament in Florence.

What skills do you need to play?
Technically just strength, stamina and fitness. However, in reality, all PURE really wants is people with an open-mind, who are willing and prepared to challenge themselves out of their comfort zone and try something completely different. It is an extremely friendly team, who enjoy discussing tactics and socialising, as much as channelling aggression underwater. And if that isn’t incentive enough, there is no opening line/story quite as good as “I play Underwater Rugby for Great Britain”.

Indeed! PURE Underwater Rugby trains every Thursday from 9-10.30pm in Putney Leisure Centre London.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/PUREUnderwaterRugby
Twitter: https://twitter.com/pureuwr
Email: underwater-rugby@hotmail.co.uk

With massive thanks to Rosie Magee for the article and info!