The Barge

The Barge is an old Egyptian barge at Bluff Point, on Small Gubal island, where liveaboard boats often spend the night. The barge is used to tie up the boats that moor in the bay for the night, and little more than a small open hull remains of it. It is one of three very different wrecks surrounding Small Gubal, alongside the Ulysses and the Rosalie Moller.

During the day the hull is covered in soft corals, and coral from the nearby reef has spread over most of the barge. The remains attract lionfish, giant moray eels, scorpionfish, crocodilefish, stonefish, fusiliers, cardinalfish and soldierfish, plus shrimps, crabs, nudibranchs and flatworms. A huge moray lives on the barge, and in August 2023 the hull, already well broken up, had plenty of fish and two huge, aged moray eels. In August 2018 batfish were seen on the barge, and dolphins swam around a liveaboard as it moored to the reef. The Bluff Point reef also has butterflyfish, and turtles are quite commonly seen there.

The barge is a good afternoon and night dive. On the night dive you can see nudibranchs, cuttlefish, octopus, giant groupers, schools of glassfish, crocodilefish, crustaceans and moray eels. On a night dive in August 2018, a trevally was hunting through the coral.