Category: Dive Reports

This comes to you from the not-so-sunny UK where I’m spending a couple of weeks. The diving goes on regardless and the dhows were visited last Friday. Mike tells the story:
“Due to a couple of unforeseen events our numbers were depleted by four from the nine whom originally signed up but nevertheless the remainder showed and we had a good day first going to Karen’s dhow. Sergey and Sa’ad dived first and reported plenty fish and a turtle. Cathy, Andrea and Mike then went down to fairly limited visibility and the usual blizzard of yellow snappers. But there was a big shoal of jacks and some friendly slow moving John Dorys. The highlight was a green turtle about 65cm along the shell and carrying several barnacles. It appeared totally unafraid and swam round us getting so close that Mike had to back off from an exploratory nibble – must have been the red overalls! Some film was taken so you will be able to see the truth of things. It manoeuvred itself under the rudder post and then appeared to be scratching its shell – perhaps in an attempt to clean it.

We moved on to the No prop dhow where initially anyway the viz was a bit better than the earlier dive. John Dorys came very close. Towards the end we were swimming in a soup of non stinging jelly fish. Such was the density that we had great difficulty finding the anchor again.

Sergey proved to be a good driver on the way out although he discovered that speed was not the right thing when trying to drive on to a wreck coordinate.

Quote of the day goes to a lady who asked for help getting her gear onto the boat citing that her heavy lift gear was away in the UK!

Returning to the Club we met Orla for the first time. This is the lady who has allegedly tamed the wild man Dan (800 years of oppression). Orla’s unexpected arrival was Dan’s excuse for not coming diving and in the circumstances he can be forgiven. Simon and Sarah and Mike from the Valleys also turned up at the social. Tee bone steaks were consumed and the Moores also polished off a plate of ribs. Simon was hungry!”

While this was going on a separate trip heading up the Musandam. These words from PJ:

“Freestyle Divers have recently begun speed-boat trips up to Musandam, I circulated members with a proposal to put a few of us together last Friday. Dragging Oliver from his work, we were joined by Derek, Geoff, and 20-litre Alex. (NB – for those who’ve never dived with Alex, his tanks would not look out of place at Cape Canaveral fixed to the back of a space shuttle). On the boat at Dibba Harbour, Oliver met an old friend from schooldays in Zimbabwe, radio DJ Sarah Kililea, among the eight other divers. Departure was set for 8.30am, but as usual there had to be one diver to hold up departure (ID difficulties at the border). Notwithstanding, it was a friendly lively bunch lining the sides of a new Omani dive boat under Freestyle dive-master Tom, and captain Ahmad as we sped northwards, into increasingly choppy conditions.

Al Hablayn is the largest of the inlets on Musandam’s east coast, and our two dive sites were at its northern and southern extremities, Ras Dillah and Ras Sarkan. The latter has seen some recent whale-shark sightings (unfortunately not for us). Below the overshadowing cliffs of Ras Dillah, Oliver and I free-descended to some 13m below rough surface conditions to a peaceful sandy bottom abutting the rocks. Unfortunately my mask filled with water, stinging eyes troubling me for the start of the dive. Oliver quickly spotted a sizeable honeycomb moray, and soon I was also shooting a starry moray. He was close to a swimming ray – but I missed it! We experienced some very beautiful underwater soft coral landscapes, through a variety of thermoclines, and a small cave swim-through. I don’t think I have ever seen so many and such large bannerfish. A profusion of red-tooth triggers and a number of parrotfish species added to the dive. After 50 minutes we were on the surface, close to cliffs, and out of sight of the dive-boat – way beyond the others, where we were bounced around uncomfortably for over 15 minutes before pick-up. Then a serious soaking as we crossed turbulent waves to the southern Ras, to find a sheltered cove, to de-gas and enjoy a magnificent lunch (for those who were up to it!).

Buddy and I descended quickly at Ras Sarkan, to get ahead of the pack, but, quickly distracted by an anenomefish and her tiny offspring, we soon found ourselves back in a queue, the inevitable product of a full boat on a wall-dive in a comfortable current. Fins, bottoms and occasional explosions of bubbles always threatening to spoil that perfect shot! Another swim through a narrow cleft in a beautiful coral landscape. Large yellow bar angelfish, and then an impressive but solitary emperor angelfish below a rock overhang – the first I have seen. I watched Oliver almost nose on nose with a devil firefish, before I found a second. A series of really cold-hot thermoclines then marked the dive, with butterflies and Sohar surgeonfish, before we found ourselves in the dark shade below a cliff. A pair of batfish flitted between the groups of divers, and as we moved away from the rocks for our safety stop, watched Derek, Geoff and Alex drifting past with the current.

Back on the boat and de-kitted, suddenly a pod of maybe a dozen bottlenose dolphins, old and young, surfaced beside us. Quickly unpacking, and donning fins and snorkels a few of us were back in the water, hoping for a contact that never came! Immediately afterwards our professional dive master Tom, managed to fall overboard, losing his rash vest in the process. He climbed in over the stern to hearty applause. I assume that Freestyle will extract an appropriate fine! Homewards, the pair of 200HP engines seemed to struggle, but at least it  was a comfortable slow ride back to Dibba, entering the port at 5.15pm.

All in all, an excellent day out, seamlessly organised by Freestyle. Mind you they could still learn a lot from BSAC406!!”

These emails are so much easier to write when someone else does the writing! (IH)

Peter and Cathy’s 100th dives 25 June

Peter and Cathy’s 100th dives on the 25th took place in the Wanderers pool because of the blowy weather condition. Not quite what we had in mind but Peter was good enough to organize a BBQ for the occasion and this was washed down with some Bollinger I had acquired at the duty-free and other beverages. If you’re going to celebrate, do it properly!

Zainab and Jassim 18 June:

After a week or two of repairs, 312 has now had its engines overhauled, its steering repaired and has new upholstery. 

With the boat in Dubai anyway (having had the steering fixed) Mike took the opportunity to go out to the Zainab and Jassim and gave the following report”

The Jassim is 75km from Umm Sequem 2 harbour so it took a while to get there. We had some problems actually finding the wreck but nevertheless had an enjoyable dive. It is a big ship with lots of swim throughs. We then headed 17km back towards Dubai for the Ludwig but although we spotted it briefly on the echo sounder at least twice we could not find it. We even input some other coordinates obtained from Peter’s Underwater Explorer book but that did not lead us to the wreck either. Seeing as enough petrol might well have been an issue if we carried on searching we decided to go to the Zainab instead and so now, with Brian Lugg driving, we arrived there and tied up to the mooring system installed by Pavillion Diving. (This is the dive centre of the Jumeira Beach hotel). The viz was not too bad and all had enjoyable dives.

And so we adjourned back to a very crowded Umm Sequem 2 in much calmer seas and I took the boat back to Yamaha where it is hopefully getting all the various accumulated damages to the gel coat sorted out and the seats re-upholstered – oh and the steering correctly assembled so that it has equal lock to both sides! We spent Friday with maybe a quarter of the normal steering on the portside which gave me a very anxious moment in the harbour when first manoeuvring it away from the quaywall. Only swift action with the throttles saved us clouting another boat’s propeller.

Divers Allisar and Brian Lugg, Peter Jackson and Brian Kirman, Derek Roberts and his son Darryl, Forrester De Sa and Mike participated. (by Mike Anthony)

Mariam Express and the Bigpro 11 June

After a couple of blank weeks the weather relented and we took a full boat (nine divers) out to the Mariam Express and the Bigpro dhow on Friday the 4th. The Mariam is not what it was a couple of years ago but it still makes for an interesting dive. A few china sets are still available in the hold although not so many now. Uwe is still plotting a way back into the engine room but this will be very tricky.

The Bigpro is a small dhow apparently unknown to the spear fisherman as there’s usually some big fish on it, particularly barracuda, jacks and rays. A nice dive to finish.

The first weekend of June, Cyclone Phet hit the east coast whilst conditions on this side were not quite so spectacularly bad but still far too rough to contemplate taking the boat out.

We held the AGM on the 1 June. 
The committee is now as follows:
Chairman – Brendan D’Souza
Diving Officer – Ian Hussey
Boats – Mike Anthony
Equipment – Uwe Oldenburg
Membership Secretary – Cathy Terry
Treasurer – Peter Jackson
Uwe has trained Derek Roberts on equipment, ready for a handover. Mike and Brendan will look after the compressors between them. Brendan will continue as Training Officer with assistance from myself. Immense debts of gratitude are owed to outgoing compressor king, Dave de Marneffe, and money man Jorg Bley. Thanks for your hard work guys.

The 21st 
Back to Friday diving after last week’s Saturday trip. First stop was Karen’s dhow, the objective being some hand-made copper nails holding the rudder together. We’ve already got some of these in the club but to get the rest meant using a lifting bag to get    
underneath. This was achieved with a bit of effort and two more nails were liberated. These have been donated to the Sharjah Maritime Museum where we hope they’ll be displayedThe second dive was the Suitcase Dhow so-called because when we found it was loaded with suitcases (like Russian dolls one inside the other inside the other). The same storm that up-ended the Mariam swept them away (though we did find one lid) but it remains a nice little wreck albeit the viz tends to be a bit murky as it’s close to the dredging areas. Uwe found some tumblers in the hold and we had a ceremonial sip of beverage from one of them back at the club (after cleaning it up).

23 April
The weather relented  so we went out to the Jumbo and came back with not just one but two anchors that might come in handy one day. The viz was pretty good too. Not so lucky with the dyslexic dhow which we couldn’t find. The area seems to have been dredged – there was no sand but a lot of silt. After groping around in almost nil viz for 15 minutes I gave up. We went instead to Karen’s dhow and brought back some of the handmade steel nails holding it together. We couldn’t find any copper ones this week.

On Saturday, 24, Ian, Cathy and PJ got another chance to dive the Sharjah Aquarium. They were able to get up close to the two new black-tipped reef sharks as well as Gordon the guitar shark who gave a head butt at one point – just making sure we understood who was boss. Not strictly a club dive that one but we like to show off sometimes.

9 April
A very nice trip to the Jumbo and Neptune on Friday the 9th even if an engine problem on 125 almost stopped the dive before leaving port (for some of the divers anyway – I’m sure 312 would still have gone!). The sea is warming up now and the wetsuits are getting thinner. It was good to fill up two boats as well. Particular thanks for this one go to Mike Rowse who, although not fit for diving, nevertheless volunteered not just to tow a boat but also drive one. This enabled us to go down in one wave, thus bringing cheer o’clock forward by an hour or two. 

2 April
Last Friday the second we were out on the east coast, diving Martini Rock and Shark Island. This meant an early start although not early enough as the dive marshal underestimated the time needed to transport divers and their gear between the port and the beach. The end result was that the final wave of dives had to be abandoned. Apologies to those affected. Once on the beach we found ourselves sharing space with a party of boy scouts who suggested we might like to move elsewhere! (We didn’t). The dives were good with plenty of marine life even if not much of it was large. It was also nice to see that someone is taking care of Martini Beach at last. The place was pristine compared to the industrial tip it resembled last time I was there.

26 March
The weekend of the 26th we all (well 5 of us) headed for the Dara for a net cleaning operation. A lost purse (since recovered) and hence lack of ID resulted in Cathy (and me) having to get on board from Hamriyah beach instead of the quay side. Wet before we started but at least we made it. Once at site we attacked the nets with various gardening tools which were very effective as long as they stayed sharp which unfortunately was not that long. Still in the course of two dives each we cleared a couple of areas although it would take a lot more divers a lot more time to make a big impact. Return was also via the beach so the coastguard didn’t wonder where two extra passengers had come from.

19 March
There was a trip back to Karen’s dhow on Friday the 19th to pick up some of the ‘objects’ that were found the previous week. This enabled Mike, Uwe and Brian to go down equipped with hammers, saws and other tools and beat hell out of the timber. You could hear them from the surface. Still we brought up some nice metal. The fish life was pretty good too including some monster barracuda circling around fixing divers with their beady eyes.

12 March

“Well after the euphoria caused by the safe receipt of the ‘object’ to the Club about a year after we originally detached it from the dhow we had to find another challenge. There is another dhow upright on the seabed still with its propulsion device attached but we have never seen it as it is buried in the silt so we set off last Friday armed with shovels to expose it. First down in fairly bad viz Mike found 2 Cobia fish that went away after some minutes. Just about to start work he noticed a large cowtail ray lurking in the dark. Leaving it quietly alone he left the scene. Next was Uwe who found the shovel and then the ray that frightened him. Some poking at its tail at long range with the shovel encouraged it to leave! Excavation work then followed but also instant blackout where not even a glimmer of a torch beam could be seen so we abandoned that idea. Meanwhile Sami and Lela were peering myopically at other parts of the wreck. It was at 28m so we did not stay too long.

Next up was another dhow where the viz was much better – all these wrecks are in the area once vacuumed of sand by the dredgers and the silt is what is left. Fortunately there is very little sand cover over the caprock at the second dhow’s location so there was no dredging there and relatively normal seabed conditions apply. Here we discovered some more booty as well as abundant fish life, groupers, jacks and barracuda in profusion. The sea was almost flat calm and not too much current. Most of us had 5mm suits on although there were hardy souls as John who dived in just a jacket. We had the service of boat girl Wendy so we could dive in a single wave and we were back at the poolside drinking ‘refreshments’ by 3.30pm.”

13 March

“4 of us go out, bit of fiasco leaving Al Khan as we caught a line and then couldn’t drop the starboard engine back, recovered the boat and after much struggling with a screwdriver dropped down the engine. Flat calm seas and first dive on the Anchor barge, some big barracudas, second dive on Nasteran and back in port by 5PM.”

29 October

Last week’s problems with the coastguard seem to have been resolved (thanks Sami) which is good news as the UHF locator they wanted us to install is a seriously expensive bit of kit.
Thanks go to Brendan for doing the nitrox course last Tuesday. Nitrox 32 which we mix at the club is ideal for the depths that we dive round here and gives you either added bottom time or greater safety or both depending on how you set your computer.
I wasn’t involved with the dhow trip last weekend but Janette sent in a report and Derek and Jutta sent a few photos:

The day started off well with everyone arriving on time apart from one member and his partner who could not get their passport from their employer.  The Dhow was a little smaller than expected and was too slow to reach Lima rock.  We headed off up the coast not really knowing where to dive since the storms a few years ago had ruined many of the sites we used to dive.

Time was not on our side so we decided to check out a couple of sites that used to be quite good. The sea was fairly calm but there was a swell that affected one or two of the none divers, the up side was that as they deposited there breakfast in the sea it attracted a variety of fish life.

The first dive was at midday. As we were kitting up, a reluctant diver announced he couldn’t dive because he had forgotten to pack his BCD! Fortunately, we were able to accommodate him and provide the necessary BCD.  At the end of the first dive we were a little anxious as Peter and Simon were enjoying themselves so much they were just over the hour mark when they surfaced. (Much to my relief!)  We pulled further into the cove for lunch where everybody could splash around for a while.

After minor repairs and tweaking, the second dive was just across the bay and although all the stag horn coral had died there was a fantastic variety of hard corals.
You have heard about the slow boat to China well it could never have been as slow as the return Dhow to Dibba, a bottle of the Irish nectar did help to pass the time and prepare the way for the Stagg ceremonies later in the evening. It was pitch black when we got back, but everybody made a very effective chain and we quickly managed to offload and disperse all the equipment to the appropriate cars.
We hope to have regular trips in the future but certainly not on the slow boat.  I will check out the other dhows and let you all know when the next one is planned.
Jannette

30 January
Brendan ran an East Coast Dive on the 30th. He says:
“The East Coast trip was a fantastic, camping on Friday’s moonlit night was excellent and it wasn’t cold at all. Saturday diving was at the Car Cemetery, which was quite disappointing for marine life, and also a strong current (as expected). After this we managed to buy fresh fish from a local boat followed by a lazy BBQ on Martini beach, needless to say only 2 out of the total 6 attempted the second dive at Hole in the Wall, which was reported to be quite good. Thanks to all those who participated and also to DSDC for use of their boat.”

28 January
There were some fierce waves on Thursday the 28th (14-16ft according to the report) and although these had gone down a bit by Friday, it was still too much to take the boats out on the West Coast. We’ll try again next week.

22January
Friday the 22nd was the first two-boat dive of the year with 11 divers in total. We went to Karen’s Dhow to pick up a bit of glassware, then on to the Anchor Barge. The sea was dead calm and there was almost no current on the surface at least. This may explain why the DM thought we’d hooked the Anchor Barge when in fact there was only sandy bottom underneath. Thus David’s first dive in three months turned out to be an inspection of underwater desert. Next time…

15 January
On the 15th, Mike took a team out to look for some new stuff. There was nothing at the first co-ordinates tried but at the second there was a small barge – not in very good shape evidently but with both ends more or less intact. Exploration over, the team headed for the Jumbo to be rewarded with 50 – 70 dolphins in various pods. Must have been awesome. Mike said the following about it:
“From the initial 7 signed up, only 4 set out to dive last Friday. Excuses of having to work and having a cold were accepted. We investigated target No 1042 thoroughly with the echo sounder before concluding that there was nothing there. The next entertainment was Derek learning how to steer the boat to the next target. It is harder than it looks, steering a boat! Further experience in boat handling was gained in just seeing how difficult it is to drive to the target and put the anchor into the wreck. We dived on an almost completely rotted away barge – scrub target 1015 as being uninteresting! Next was the Jumbo and most notable there was many pods of dolphins between 1000m and 40m from the boat swimming around for several minutes. Uwe and Derek missed them unfortunately. We found a fish pot full of fish but left it as there were ropes attached. But upon discovering that there were no floats on the surface and descending this time with the goodie bag we failed to find the fish pot. Such is life!”

8 January
Diving in 2010 got started on Friday the 8th. We went to the Zainab, the trip that got blown out last week. This week the sea state co-operated and at 9am we were sailing out of Umm Suqeim 2. At 9.20am we were also sailing out of Umm Suqeim 2, this time with the right number of wet suits.

The viz on the wreck was pretty poor so we decided against a second one and went instead to Sheikh Mohammed’s Barge (should this now be called Barge Khalifa?). The viz still wasn’t great but it was infinitely better than our last visit to the SMB and a good dive was had by all. (not least Mike and Uwe who spent the time brass mining though nothing was brought up).

Happy New year divers and friends of BSAC 406 – let’s make it a good one!

No Christmas dive this year due to partying – what about for New Years?

Friday 18th: Mike took a boat back out to Karen’s dhow to find the missing anchors. They returned with one of them – no doubt the other one will be found eventually! They did another dive on the suitcase dhow where the viz was pretty poor, although Uwe did discover what’s inside the third suitcase (nothing!).

Celebrations were held at the club underwater for Peter’s birthday during December and congrats also to Ian for passing his instructor’s cert this month. We look forward to the lessons.. just how do you hold that snorkel while drinking again Ian?

On Saturday the 12th Brendan took a boat out Saturday to Karen’s dhow but returned missing 2 (!) anchors. Looks like we’re back there to find them. No doubt Brendan will be donating 2 crisp 10 dirham notes to club funds!

The 4th: Diving cancelled because of 6-9ft offshore waves. Everyone went surfing instead!

We celebrated the Eid holiday by taking a trip to Oman. The destination was Sur which is the most easterly point of the Arab world. It’s 200km south of Muscat and quite a trek. Things were not helped by the world and his wife seemingly making the same trip resulting in horrendous queues at the Hatta / Wajaja border post. Arriving at 8.30am, we got through at 2pm. Sur Beach Hotel was finally reached at around 7.30pm at which point some liquid refreshment was deemed to be in order.

The following morning we set off to dive the Wokan, a vessel about which we know little but is about 150m long, is full of cement bags and is home to a great deal of marine life. Last year’s cuttlefish appeared to have moved on elsewhere but it has now become pufferfish city among much else. We also found in the bow the biggest propeller I have ever seen underwater – about 5m diameter. The wreck was accessed via a small boat we took with us. It was great for ferrying us 1km from the beach to the dive site but was a tad unstable as we discovered when a diver did an unexpected backward roll entry causing a certain boat driver to do a less dignified entry on the other side of the boat. Practice eventually made more or less perfect.

The next day we left the boat behind and did a couple of shore dives. The first was much the better – a drop-off 150m from the beach and home to some big morays and shoals of other fish. A couple of largish cow-tailed rays and a small turtle were also spotted. The second dive was supposed to be similar but not much was found other than sandy sea-bed. The bar beckoned at this point!

On Sunday, after the now traditional Sur Plaza breakfast we set off home. The return border crossing was mercifully brief and by 6.30pm we were back at the Wanderers. The intrepid crew were Mike, Wendy, Ian, Cathy, Sergey, Derek, Park, Jim and Marion. Thanks to Mike who did most of the organising!

Brendan and Heike were involved in a longer trip to the Musandam looking for new wrecks in immense depths. More later…

Uwe also took a party out and found that the tin-opener still needs a few design improvements for use on wrecks!

On lucky Friday the 13th we ended up doing a trip to the Mariam Express but the current was strong and the viz was appalling (again). Much better viz was to be had at the Bigprop dhow. Some rays were swimming around along with barracuda and plenty of other stuff. This a small wreck but a nice one. We also checked out the prop itself – its still there.

On Saturday, four of us (Ian, Brendan, Mike and Heike) joined DSDC to go to the Saraf to check out the floatation potential of a prop that they’ve been looking at. To say that the day was a success is technically correct but does less than justice to the full story. Talk to us personally about it. 

Friday the 6th: Dived the Dara and Nasteran which was good – although the viz was appalling. Enabled by the maiden voyage of Ian’s new tow-hook which looks a lot stouter than the old one (thanks Uwe).