Charter Dives

We no longer operate as a dive center and do not offer any scuba diving services. However, we do offer boat rides to the Sunboat wreck and the Amphibian vehicles. Those excursions are for experienced divers only who are used to diving without a guide, who have at least an Advanced Open Water certification and who do not need a refresher dive. The boat will take you to the dive site, however, you have to bring your own equipment, including scuba tanks (or equipment rented somewhere else).

At the Sunboat and Amphibian vehicles, we have created a “trail” for the Sunboat wreck and the surrounding small wrecks (Amphibian Vehicles and artificial reefs) by connecting all the different wrecks with a line. This makes it easy for you to find your way around. Once the boat is tied up on the mooring, you'll get an orientation of the dive site and a slate with a "map" of the different artificial reefs at the site.

The sunboat is a 30m long wreck which was sunk in 2010 and has grown into a rich and vibrant artificial reef with a lot of fish life. It sits upright on a sandy bottom at about 15m.
It attracts schools of fusiliers and very often also mackerels, jacks and small tuna. The ceilings of the rooms are coated with colorful sponges and bivalves, and the mast features coral, sponges, anemones and clown fish.

The surrounding small wrecks are former landing crafts and a couple of grids which are overgrown with corals. Crocodile fish and “balls” of little striped eel catfish (nasrallahs) are not uncommon.

The entire area is home to many frogfish and other odd creatures.

Frogfish at Amphibean Vehicles

Prices

Single Dive Trip to Sunboat	Price NIS
up to 4 divers	400
5-8 divers	500
9-12 divers	600
Surcharge for 2nd dive at same location	200
Prices do not include equipment rental. You may contact us for information on dive centers which rent tanks and equipment for boat excursions

Sunboat wreck today

Sunboat Stern 2024

Sunboat 2010

Sunboat bow and mast 2024

Sunboat deck and mast 2010

In the following section, you'll find general information on diving in Eilat. This information is not related to the services we provide.

‘Refresher’ Dives The Israeli Diving Authority requires divers who haven't dived in 6 months to undergo a ‘refresher’ dive consisting of a classroom lesson and underwater exercises. This usually takes several hours. Exempt are Master Scuba Divers, Divemasters and instructors. If you have been diving within the last 6 month, bring your logbook or some kind of proof, for example the log on your dive computer. There are some dive centers which still accept only the old-fashioned paper logbook. We do not provide refresher dives or any other diving services.

Eilat Dive Sites (General Information)
What You'll See Fun things that are very often seen include many species of moray eels, all kinds of scorpionfishes, stonefishes and lionfishes, octopi, shrimps and crabs, and various nudibranchs and shelled molluscs. You may occasionally encounter turtles, blue-spotted stingrays, frogfishes, eagle rays and ghost pipefishes, but they are not everyday sightings. Besides the dozens of species of colorful reef fishes, we'll occasionally see predators like jacks, both large and small barracuda species, dogtooth tunas and Spanish mackerels. In recent years also whale sharks and wild dolphins started to visit our area. Dive sites are listed below in north-to-south order. Advanced sites are marked with one of the following: AOW means the site is limited to divers who are at least Advanced Open Water certified because of maximum depth of 30m (100 ft). AOW/N means that the advanced site is best dived on Nitrox. DEEP means that we can only take divers certified to dive to 40m (130 ft), either as a Deep Diver, tech diver, or dive professional.
Northern Dive Sites The northern sites are located 'in town' or just outside of it, and offer a variety of unique underwater experiences as well as easy-access dive training opportunities.
1. Sunboat BOAT The venerable Sunboat had a long and diverse history on the water, including time spent as the first liveaboard diving boat in Sinai. Detailed description see above . 3. Underwater Restaurant The Red Sea Star underwater restaurant was a grandiose engineering project and spectacular business failure. Twice. The above-water part of the structure, which in the past featured a bar and other amenities, is a visual landmark standing empty and abandoned at the end of a long footbridge. The only way to enjoy the restaurant today is from the outside, gawking at this underwater monument to ingenuity and bad taste, and the sea life that inhabits its environs. In other words, it's a short visit to a wreck that was never a ship. The maximum depth is about 12m (40 ft).		2. Dekel Beach Dekel Beach is a great training site with a number of coral formations surrounded by colorful fishes. The beach itself is well kept, has showers and bathrooms and restaurant. 4. Song of the Sea Canyon AOW/N At the southern end of Dekel Beach, this advanced dive site has a landscape unlike any other in Eilat: a sandy channel sloping down from 18m (60 ft) to over 30m (100 ft) is flanked on both sides by coral-covered canyon walls that slope up to a healthy and diverse coral reef plateau on both sides. The coral species are different from those of the South Beach and there is a good chance to seeing nudibranchs and moray eels.
Coral Beach Area Some of the Coral Beach Area dive sites are among the most popular and populous in Eilat, because of the short distance from the large dive centers.
5. Sufa Missile Boat (Satil) One of the most popular dives in Eilat, the Saar 3-class missile boat Sufa (Storm) was removed from active service in the Israeli Navy after 25 years and sunk in 1994 as a dive attraction. “Satil” is the Hebrew acronym for missile boat and remains the popular name for this excellent dive site. Standing upright in 25m (82 ft) of water, this 48m (150 ft) long steel-hulled former warship is accessible for all levels of divers (except Scuba Divers). The deck lies at a depth of 20m (66 ft) and so the entire superstucture and soft coral-bedecked instrumentation mast rising to a depth of 12m (40 ft) can be enjoyed by everybody. The history of this ship is no less fascinating than the dive itself. The Sufa was one of the famous Boats of Cherbourg (link to wikipedia page) liberated from that French seaport in a daring 1969 Israeli operation, following an export embargo imposed by French president De Gaulle. In Israel's 1973 Yom Kippur War, the Sufa and its sister ships helped sink Soviet-supplied Egyptian missile boats in the Battle of Damietta-Baltim near Port Said and subsequently participated in the shelling of Minat al Bayda Port north of Latakia on the Syrian coast. The grassy part of the slope leading down to the wreck is also a premier location for night dives featuring nudibranchs, sea hares (in late winter), cuttlefishes and lots of other interesting invertebrates. 9. Amphi DEEP East of the Yatush (further down the slope) is a natural amphitheater of sand surrounded by an oval bowl of dense corals, giving the area its name. The sandy bottom of the amphi is at 45m (147 ft) but a good view of the area can be had by looping around at a maximum depth of no more than 40m (130 ft). The amphi is actually one of several deep ‘amphis’ in a chain but only suitable for Tec Diving.		6. Paradise AOW/N Beyond (east of) the Satil lies a seemingly endless field of dense hard corals with average depth of about 27m (90 ft). This is a nice advanced dive, and if you've got good air consumption and nitrox we can combine this site with a tour of the Satil on a single dive. 7. Infection Reef (Zihum) AOW/N This area lies South East from the "Satil" and features a dense coral cover and spectacular underwater scenery with dense coral cover. The best depth for this dive is between 25 and 30m. Since nearly the entire dive lies below 20m, we recommend Nitrox. It is also an excellent site for dives to 40m. 8. Netz Patrol Boat (Yatush) AOW Netz-class patrol boats saw service in the Israeli Navy in the 1970s, but having been built by the US for riverine warfare in Vietnam were not well suited to the rigors of the open sea. This retired Netz-class boat was purposely dropped on the reef during the 1980s at 30m (100 ft) just north of Site No. 7, Coral Beach. It's popularly called the Yatush because at some point in time it was misidentified as one of the Yatush-class patrol boats that had been stationed on the Dead Sea and the name, inexplicably, stuck. However, at a length of only 15m (50 ft) and endowed with an aluminum hull on which nothing grows. However you may find a few shrimps in the crevices of the wreck. 10. Coral Beach The Coral Beach area is where the large Eilat dive centers are concentrated, just north of the fence marking the northern border of the Coral Beach Nature Reserve. We avoid this place because the area is dominated by large sandy expanses and a lot of student divers.

Coral Beach Nature Reserve Dive Sites The 'closed' part of the Coral Beach Nature Reserve (National Park) is accessible from shore only by paying an entrance fee. Unfortunately, the Southern pier broke down during the storm of 2020 and was not rebuilt. The beach is a quiet beach and provides showers and bathroom as well a snack bar and souvenir shop.
11. Japanese Gardens North BOAT The Japanese Gardens cover nearly a kilometer (over half a mile) of the Coral Beach Nature Reserve and contain the most protected areas of dense deep coral reef in Eilat. Much of it is off-limits to divers and snorkelers, except by boat.		12. Japanese Gardens South BOAT The area around the southern Japanese Gardens boat mooring boasts a steeply sloping reef down to 40m (130 ft). The mooring is located about 80m north of the tower of the Underwater Observatory.
South Beach Dive Sites The South Beach sites are located over several kilometers just north of the Taba border crossing with Egypt. This is an area of diverse coral reefs, lively shallow coral pinnacles (bommies) and eel gardens, deep coral fields and lots of interesting fish life. Although not closed off with a fence, the South Beach is still a part of the Coral Beach Nature Reserve and the rules of the reserve still apply here – keep your hands, legs and fins off the environment!
13. Lighthouse Reef This stretch of reef can be dived to any depth. A shallow, colorful, sunlit reef gives way to a slope that drops off to more than 30m (100 ft). 15. Wonderland DEEP This deep reef features dramatic underwater scenery marked by large hard coral colonies with an impressive reefscape between 35 and 40m (130 ft). 18. Veronica Rock Veronica Rock is a typical South Beach site with a shallow sandy area dotted with small coral pinnacles, and a slope that falls off from about 6m (20 ft) to about 27m (90 ft). The Veronica Rock is a pinnacle at 10m (33 ft) that offers a lot of fish action. 20. Twin Peaks AOW/N This site is one ot the three southernmost dive site in the State of Israel and one of my favorites! Twin Peaks marks the southern end of the Ridge with two unique coral pinnacles at about 26m depth literally buzzing with fish life. On the way out to the pinnacles you'll pass several colonies of blacktip groupers. It is a long way from shore. Nitrox is strongly recommended. 21. Neptune's Tables This area, south of the Princess hotel and north of the entrance to the Taba (Egypt) border terminal, has been named for the impressive acropora tables found at depth surrounded by grassy meadows. On the patch reef slope (6-25m, 20-80 ft) are large and small coral pinnacles with colorful reef fishes swimming through holes in the coral. The sandy areas of the slope are filled with large colonies of garden eels.		14. Three Sisters The name of this site speaks to the three coral pinnacles spaced out along the shallow sandy-bottomed reef table to the south. This site has been damaged badly by the 2020 storm. 16. Coral Hill Coral Hill is an area with dense coral cover at a depth of plus-minus 30m. It is suitable for advanced divers with good air consumption and best done with Nitrox. 17. The Ridge AOW The reef lying beyond the bottom of the Veronica Rock slope is a seemingly endless, undulating expanse of diverse hard corals, at depths mostly between 25 and 27m (80-90 ft). The Ridge extends both north and ends in the south with Twin Peaks. 19. Princess Garden The area North of the two swimming piers of the (now-closed) Princess Hotel offers a fine area for deep and shallow exploration, and sunlit coral gardens no more than a few meters deep. At around 15m several coral formations are home to different shrimp species. It is also a nesting ground for red-tooth trigger fish. This is a pleasant dive site for Open Water divers, with lots to see at moderate depths.