Category: Dive Reports

Welcome One and All, 

​I’m happy to report that we managed to go diving at the weekend as at last, both weather and circumstance conspired in our favour. We headed out to the Neptune on the basis that if we could get there, the visibility would be better further offshore.

The sea was a bit lumpy causing a journey time of an hour or so, but we anchored the wreck at the first time of asking and we were pleased to see that the current was virtually nil.

The viz was also very good, certainly compared to the horror stories from last weekend. The wreck was visible from about 4m depth downwards which translates into about 14m. This is pretty good for round here. There were some barracuda circling the line and plenty of snappers, angelfish and others on the way round. The wreck continues to break up giving plenty of scope for exploration although Denis and I didn’t do too much inside except for an easy swim through half way along.

The sea state was coming down so we decided to stay in the area and do a second dive on the Jumbo. The viz wasn’t as good this time but still more than adequate and along with the usual marine suspects, there was a large Leopard Ray which both Allen and I spotted as we were leading our dives but it didn’t hang around long enough to let the others take a look.

All in all, a good day. The sea is becoming warmer (around 24°C) although a wet suit is still a requirement and will be for a few weeks yet.

After that it was back to the club for a couple of beverages.

Pointless exercise of the day award goes to Polly who on borrowing a weight belt, took two 1kg weights off it and put two different 1kg weights back on. Ask her, not me.

Smarty pants comment of the day goes to Allen who when asked the anchor location replied: “on the end of the anchor line”. Ask a silly question I suppose…
 
DAN insurance website: https://www.daneurope.org/home
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The Dive Club meets every Tuesday night in the Dive Bar.
See you there!

Zanzibar Dive Trip information is below. Please go to early posts for information.  

The Plan is to dive Mafia island which is just south of Zanzibar.

Eid Al Adha this year is predicted as follows:
Saturday 10th August – Arafat Day
Sunday 11th August – Eid
Monday 12th August – Eid
Tuesday 13th August – Eid

Therefore logically, we are looking at flying out on Friday 9th August, 3 core days of diving on 10th, 11th and 12th with a return on Tuesday 13th August for those who want to keep the trip within the Eid holiday. Of course, the option exists to extend the trip either forwards or backwards. Taking Wednesday 14th and Thursday 15th as leave would give the full week which is worth considering for those who can spare the time (and money). Those coming from outside the UAE will have their own calculations to make. Please see a member of the team if you are interested in joining us.

​And so to recent diving. Not too much around here lately but Peter, Connie, Brigitte and I have just returned from the Seychelles which was a very nice trip indeed.
Initially at least, we stayed on Praslin island which involves an hour-long catamaran journey from the main island, Mahé. Perhaps even more than Zanzibar, the lush green forests are a massive contrast to the Emirates. This also meant the humidity was pretty high but we coped with it.

In the morning, we had a 10-minute walk down the beach to Octopus Diving Centre where we were booked in. After establishing our credentials, we got on the boat for a half-hour trip to the first dive site, Whale Rock. We didn’t see any whales but perhaps it wasn’t the season. What we did see were dolphins, above and below the water, hundreds of small eagle rays, turtles and a couple of white-tipped reef sharks. The viz was 15 – 20m and the water was 30°. I can live with this. There isn’t much in the way of coral. The Seychelles are essentially granite outcrops in the Indian Ocean but the fish life was excellent.

The second dive was on a rocky protuberance known as Booby, and yes – this means exactly what you think it does. Maybe it was because the first dive was so good, but I got the impression that this particular booby was sagging a bit. There was a big shoal of Bannerfish half way through but otherwise there was a lot less to look at than at Whale Rock. There was a large moray and a solitary Lionfish which got the dive guide quite excited, but anyone who has dived the Musandam or the Damaniyats would not have that impressed. The Booby perked up, right at the end. On the seabed were a couple of Oriental Flying Gurnards which are as peculiar as the Indian Ocean Walkmen we saw in Zanzibar. These have the same habit of walking across the sand rather than swimming. This also got the dive guide excited, this time I think with good reason.

Day 2 dawned damp and overcast but still warm. This time we headed east to two dives sites known as White Rock and Ave Maria. The first of these was notable for some remora, two of which were attached to a turtle and a third that preferred divers. It followed the group around for half the dive. The second dive was another good one. More turtles, eagle rays and a couple of Cowtail Rays. There were also some more morays and right at the end some junior morays who looked as though they were yet to leave the nest. I don’t know enough about the life-cycle of morays to know whether this was the case.

Day 3 was still damp but no problem. The last two dives were on Channel Rock and Low Channel Rock, situated about half way between Praslin and the neighboring island of La Digue. These were nice because they filled in the missing ingredients – creatures we’d been told to expect but had yet to see. These included several large Napoleon wrasse, some lobsters and four or five octopuses.
Above are a couple of photos but you may detect the hand of the non-expert photographer (me).

That was about it for the diving but there was still time for a couple of days each on La Digue and Mahé. Beautiful islands both, though very different. The most notable thing was the giant tortoises (pronounced tor-TOY-zez), the largest of which may be 100 – 150 years old. Interesting to think that the oldest of them were born when Victoria was Queen of Britain, Napoleon was Emperor of France, Bismarck was Chancellor of Germany and the Romanovs still ruled Russia.

And finally: 406 exiles, Wimbledon branch, also known as Mike, Zulfa and Robin. Nice to see them looking well in pictures sent to our private mail blog;  but is that tea they’re drinking?
Sharjah Branch wishes them well and hope to see them again in the future. 

 

The Plan is to dive Mafia island which is just south of Zanzibar.

Eid Al Adha this year is predicted as follows:
Saturday 10th August – Arafat Day
Sunday 11th August – Eid
Monday 12th August – Eid
Tuesday 13th August – Eid

Therefore logically, we are looking at flying out on Friday 9th August, 3 core days of diving on 10th, 11th and 12th with a return on Tuesday 13th August for those who want to keep the trip within the Eid holiday. Of course, the option exists to extend the trip either forwards or backwards. Taking Wednesday 14th and Thursday 15th as leave would give the full week which is worth considering for those who can spare the time (and money). Those coming from outside the UAE will have their own calculations to make.

Accomodation / Dives 
Mafia Island Lodge, which is located directly behind the dive centre.
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g317083-d654347-Reviews-Mafia_Island_Lodge-Mafia_Island_Pwani_Region.html
 
DIVERS
AED 645 per night including dives and food.
– Shared superior room 
– 2 dives per day
– Water in your room and during meals
– Full Board meal plan
– Complimentary tea & coffee service throughout the day
– Airport transfers 
– Complimentary sunset cruise
 
NON DIVERS
AED 423 per night no dives but food.
– Shared superior room
– Water in your room and during meals
– Full Board meal plan
– Complimentary tea & coffee service throughout the day
– Airport transfers 
– Complimentary sunset cruise
 
Note: Half board or B&B may be available but we have no information about the eating options in the locality.
 
– Equipment rental (USD 25 per person per day – no additional charge for tanks and weights)
– Marine Park fees (USD 23.6 per person per adult) regardless of whether you enter the water or not 

Flights:
Emirates return Dubai to Dar Es Salaam AED 1805
Outward Dep DXB 10.15 arrival DAR 14.40
Inward Dep DAR 16.45 arrival DXB 23.20

Above prices is from the Emirates website. Other sites such as Skyscanner may be cheaper.
Dar Al Salaam to Mafia and back by light aircraft is slightly more complicated in that there is no single carrier ideal in both directions.

For the outward trip, the best is Auric Air Services: https://www.auricair.com/
Dep DAR 16.45, Arr MFA 17.15, Price USD 122 one-way.
For the return, the best is Coastal Aviation: www.coastal.co.tz/
Dep MFA 13.00, Arr DAR 13.30, Price USD 145 one-way.

Note there is a 20kg baggage limit on the light aircraft plus 7kg hand luggage.
 
You are responsible for booking your own flights and accommodation but please let us know what you have booked so we can liaise with the dive centre and hotel.
 
Mafia – an offer you can’t refuse.

Thanks to Brigitte for doing most of the research.

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Welcome All, 
Slight delays over the last month or so with Dive Log updates. 
Members have been overseas on holiday or on business. 

It was nice however to visit the Musandam again. It rained quite a lot which was more than welcome in these dry hot climes. 

There were 17 divers in total from various parts of the world. Water temperatures are still quite cool so a good wet suit is still needed or even a dry bag if you feel the cold. The corals and fish life was very colourful. 

In the absence of a full report, please view the video below. We hope you enjoy as much as we did diving in these parts. 

Dive Club meet every Tuesday in the Dive Bar. 

​Paty Oldenburg’s funeral was held on Monday in Hamburg. Mike attended on behalf of the Dive Club and Peter organised some flowers.
Mike sent the following:
Really nice ceremony in Hamburg for Pati Oldenburg. I did not understand the 12 minute speech in German by the Pastor but afterwards there was a slide show put together by Jenni with beautiful photographs illustrating her life. All this in a chapel in a huge cemetery. This was more like a park with roads winding through the trees and in between lawns where the graves are secreted. There is an Oldenburg family plot where members have been interred since 1936 and the urn was buried there. Afterwards 18 of us adjourned to a French café and had cakes and family members got re-acquainted. Finally back to Lubeck where we were 7 for dinner at Uwe’s house. Mike.

Our thoughts remain with Uwe, Jan and Jenni.

​Welcome All,

There was a slight technical hitch with this email last week. Anything addressed via a btinternet server bounced back at me as “potential spam”. Leaving aside the wicked libel, I have rejigged these addresses into a separate group (there’s only five of them) and hopefully this may solve the problem.

The weather precluded any diving on Friday. The wind in fact wasn’t quite as bad as predicted (in Sharjah at least) but the rain and sand storms arrived on schedule. It wouldn’t have been fun. Today, as I write (Saturday), it’s extremely wild out there with predicted wave heights in excess of 3m offshore. We’ll wait for next weekend I think. [It’s now Wednesday and weather looking unpromising but we’ll see].

With no diving of our own to report, below is an account of 406 exile, Geoff’s most recent jaunt around the world, this time to the Turks and Caicos Islands:

Geoff reports:

Most Brits are familiar with the new year blues and with this in mind I decided to book a last minute jolly to somewhere warm with clear blue waters. I opted for seven nights at the Beaches Resort on Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands in the West Indies. ‘Beaches’ is part of the Sandals Group and is an all inclusive resort, i.e. everything is included; airport transfers, food, beverages and water activities. Yes, even the diving (2 tank dives per day), typically a saving of ~$120 usd/day!
Beaches has its’ own dedicated water sports centre and personnel (‘Aqua Center’), who provided me with a verbal induction and presented the obligatory PADI disclaimer for signature. All basic dive gear is provided free of charge with the exception of wet suits, which can be hired, but I had brought my own gear and readied this for my first day of diving. I encountered a slight problem in that the Aqua Center had no DIN compatible cylinders but fortunately I had had the foresight to bring my adaptor. Problem solved!
Having registered my interest in diving each day I headed along to the dive centre for the 07.45 check-in and proceeded to load my gear onto our dive vessel for the day. Beaches has a fleet of dedicated dive vessels that can accommodate up to about 20 divers each and our boat for the first day was full. The free of charge diving was obviously a big draw!
I managed 4 days of great diving covering sites in Grace Bay (just off the resort beach), NW Providenciales (~45 min boat ride) and West Caicos Island (again, ~45 min boat ride). These sites included:
Pinnacles (Grace Bay)
Pickering Point (West Caicos)
Yankee Town (West Caicos)
Blue Cove (West Caicos)
Rock Garden (West Caicos)
The Chimney (NW Providenciales)
The Crack (NW Providenciales)
-all between 20-25m depth range. With only a 12l ally of air and a nominal limit of 25m due to resort rules I was a little frustrated that I could not explore some of the enticing caves and features slightly deeper. Visibility on each dive was spectacular, easily in the 30-40m range, if not more. Typically we would drop in about 15m of water over a sandy bottom with scattered coral heads that led to a coral rim and drop off presenting some wonderful wall dives. I understand from one of the guides that water depths here can drop several hundreds of metres. Some of the sites had features such as chimneys, small sea caves and swim throughs.
Marine life was reasonably plentiful with everything from small Blennies, Snappers, Garden Eels and Parrot Fish building up to Spiny Lobster, Morays, Groupers, Barracuda, Stingrays, Hawks-Bill Turtles, Nurse Shark and Caribbean Reef Shark-  (which were sighted on almost every dive. Although the hard corals were not that healthy there were quite a few soft corals including fans and whips.
The diving staff were helpful and friendly. The clientele, generally from US, Canada and South America, were in what I would call ‘the resort recreational’ diver bracket, folk who dive maybe once or twice a year, which made me appreciate how lucky clubs like 406 are with regards to regular diving.
In summary, if looking for easy, no stress recreational diving, the Turks and Caicos Islands are certainly worth a visit.

Big thank you as always to Geoff for an interesting read and dive pictures. 

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DAN insurance website: https://www.daneurope.org/home
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The Dive Club meets every Tuesday night in the Dive Bar.
See you there!
 
 
Regards
Ian. 

As former Dive Officer of the Club can I ask a favour? If you feel so minded, I’d be most obliged if you could send out the below request with your next newsletter.

Commercial fish farms are using noise generators here in Scotland to scare seals from their fish pens.

We need to protect our marine environment against all forms of pollution that endangers any species of marine animal, in this case we are talking about noise pollution.

Noise is an ever-present hazard for species such as Porpoise, Dolphins, and Whales, shipping, marine works, and Naval sonar are having a huge detrimental effect on Cetacea.
These fixed location noise generation seal deterrent devices installed in areas where Porpoise, Dolphins, and Whales frequent and feed, should be removed, particularly as there are more suitable and environmentally friendly ways of deterring

WE REALLY NEED YOUR HELP

https://www.change.org/p/roseanna-cunninham-scottish-government-cabinet-secretary-for-the-environment-save-dolphins-porpoises-and-seals-from-scottish-salmon-farms?signed=true

​Many Thanks & Safe Diving.
​
Doug Fontaine.