Abu Faramish is a reef some 40km off the coast of Jeddah. It is home to the wreck of the 85 000 tonne cargo ship called the Ann Ann. The ship, which sunk in 1977, stands almost completely upright, making the bow visible from only 5 meters down. The stern can be viewed from a depth of 32 meters.
We dove here in December 2019 during a flat spell in a particularly windy month in the Kingdom. We were dropped just 10m off the bow of the ship and soon found ourselves swimming for our lives against a very stiff current pushing us away from the wreck. Swimming along the surface was getting us nowhere so after descending a few meters we managed to find some calmer waters in which to approach the wreck.
We spent a good 45mins exploring the wreck which is extremely well preserved. We spotted a number of over-inquisitive (read ‘angry’) eels and towards the end of the dive had a curious silky shark come say hi.
