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Welcome All, 

BSAC 406 exiles (London Branch) reunion. Geoff tells the story:

I hope all is well. A few 406 Exiles met up last week for some drinks and tales of past adventures with SWDC.

A pleasant Saturday afternoon in early August provided an opportunity for a few past members of BSAC 406 (and a present member) to get together in Wapping, East London.
Wapping is an area on the north side of the Thames between ‘The City’ and Canary Wharf on the ‘Isle of Dogs’. The history of Wapping can be traced back to Anglo-Saxon times and it was a centre for marine trade from the middle ages with many docks, wharves and warehouses. This infrastructure was supplemented by public houses lining the river to nourish the seafarers, workers and cutthroats that made Wapping home. They were also frequented by the likes of the “Hanging” Judge Jeffreys and Samuel Pepys in the 17th Century, Charles Dickens in the 19th Century, royalty and stars of the silver screen in the 20th century.

The Captain Kidd pub (named after the famed pirate who was executed at nearby Execution Dock in 1701) and next to the Marine Police Force (the oldest marine police force in the world) was the meeting point for Mike and Zulfa Dalton, Robin Hughes, Derek Roberts and myself. We were also fortunate to have Cara join us during her summer break from the UAE.

A lot of reminiscing was done over several local libations and a hearty lunch before we headed off to ‘The Prospect of Whitby’, a pub steeped in tradition and dating back to around 1520. Formerly known as ‘The Pelican’ and ‘The Devils Tavern’ to reflect its nefarious connections, it retains its original stone floors and has many nautical related features, including a replica gallows over the river.

After farewells to Robin, Mike and Zulfa and a promise to arrange another reunion, Cara, Derek and I headed to ‘The Town of Ramsgate’, another pub able to trace its heritage back to the 16th Century to enjoy “one for the ‘frog and toad’ before going our separate ways.
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I think I speak for all when I say this was a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon, meeting up in a unique area of London with old friends who would never had met if it had not been for the wonderful bond of SWDC BSAC406 that introduced us all.
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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.
 

Welcome All, 
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There a few people away at the moment but we managed to get a team of six out to the Jumbo and Neptune on Friday. The sea state was a bit lumpy but not too bad and we made it out to the Jumbo in reasonable, if not quite record-breaking time. Mike and Allen were first down the line followed by Polly and Angela. Polly had inadvertently put her wet-suit on back to front but this didn’t bother her and she dived as she was.

The Jumbo is a medium size cargo vessel that went down in unknown circumstances some time ago. It was lost for a long time before turning up on the seabed survey that was carried out before dredging the Palms. It is fairly well broken up but the stern and bow are still the right shape. The wreck is home to a lot of fish life and is a very scenic dive in good viz. On Friday we had about 5-8m which is pretty good.

The second dive was on the Neptune, an upturned barge which is much better known than the Jumbo despite being only a short distance away. It isn’t an easy wreck to hook but we got lucky on this occasion, snagging a fishing pot from which Mike laid a line to the wreck. Compared to previous visits, the wreck is becoming far more broken up and there are now several places where you can swim from one side to the other. By this time the current had picked up and in one corner particularly, progress against it was quite tough. A good dive nevertheless.
 
After that it was back to the club for a few lemonade refreshments:
 
 
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DAN insurance website: https://www.daneurope.org/home
———————————-
The Dive Club meets every Tuesday night in the Dive Bar.
See you there.​

Welcome All, 
​There was no diving the previous weekend as too many people were away, hence no email as I couldn’t think of anything intelligent to write (yes, very funny over there). 
No such problem this week; first a short message from Angela:

​That I can believe.
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Those of us who prefer the easy life took a boat out to the Dara on Friday. We had the full complement of eight divers on board including a couple of new faces and a pair of old hands.

The new faces belonged to Allan and Eiger, colleagues of Michelle, who were out with us for the first time. Please see the link below for Allan’s video. They were great company and we hope they enjoyed themselves and hope to see them back diving with us in the future. The old hands belonged to Mike Anthony, back with us on his latest unretirement, this time for only three weeks unfortunately. He flew in on Thursday and was diving on Friday. No point in wasting time.

The sea was a bit choppy but nothing to get too worried about and we made good time out to the wreck. The viz was nothing special but we’ve seen a lot worse and the wreck remains reasonably clear of nets. The fish life was plentiful as normal.

Peter provides the following description:
After descent down starb’d side we turned left and slowly circuited the rear part of the hull. Entered The Cathedral which we explored extensively – finding the live dark brown cowrie I had found a month back. We lost each other as Denis swam out through the forward windows, and I exited through the side gash. Went back and found each other some minutes later. Viz was poorer than first dive – a lot more sand particles in water. Plenty of fish life – shoals of Snappers, particularly near the stern where we swam up around and through them. Above the Snappers invariably shoals of Fusiliers, smaller, but very colourful. Also, a shoal of small Trevally, and a small shoal of Persian Parrotfish. Nothing especially spectacular – but all in plenty, with Butterfly fish, Arabian Banner fish and plenty of Hermit crabs. Towards the end located a high-level entry (quite tight but doable) from the new swim-through below the keel-line. So we now have a new descent into The Cathedral.
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Meanwhile Mike and Brian were exploring the engine room, which is now more accessible than it’s been in the past.

We stayed where we were to do a second dive on the Dara. This followed a short discussion during which Brian told us his view and then told us our view. In truth, no-one minded and we had another good dive before heading back to base.
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On Saturday, a few of us did some exploring of another ship, this one above water in Mina Rashid. The tour was interesting but would have been better if some of the back-of-house locations like the bridge or the engine room had been accessible. This may be possible in the future we were told.

The QE2 would make an epic dive if the authorities would be good enough to sink it for us but somehow this doesn’t seem very likely.
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DAN insurance website: https://www.daneurope.org/home
———————————-
The Dive Club meets every Tuesday night in the Dive Bar.
See you there.
 

Welcome All,

​Please see below link for this weeks’ video footage from The Dara. Go-Pro footage was filmed by Alan as you will see waving on camera. Thank you Alan.
 
Ian’s ( Dive Officer ) weekly Dive Log will follow. 

Enjoy and please do join us at the club if you are interested in joining us on our weekly dive excursions. 

If you have any saved images or video’s of dive sites around the UAE or indeed further afield that you would like to share, please get in touch. 
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Welcome All, 

​Following on from the below feature of the MV Dara I’ve included some video footage filmed by Geoff in 2017. 

​BSAC 406 You Tube links can be found by following the below linked button.

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Welcome All,

We took a boat out at the weekend on an almost flat calm sea which doesn’t happen that often. The first target was the Sea King 5, a small cargo vessel sitting in about 30m of water off Sharjah, which went down in 2013 in mysterious circumstances. The general consensus is the sinking wasn’t entirely accidental, but no-one knows for sure.

It was spotted by Richard on a Notice to Mariners, this in the day when he was at Mina Khalid rather than Saudi Arabia. Always keen to look for new wrecks we went searching and eventually found it about 200m from the stated position, information that was duly conveyed to the Sharjah Harbour Master.

Back then, it was just a lump of metal. Please follow the link above for footage taken by our master of underwater filming Mr Peter. Stay tuned for some updated footage of the Sea King. 

Six years on, life has taken hold and it’s an attractive dive. Swimming through the cabin is possible but most of what can be seen is visible from the outside. The viz varied from excellent (top 10m) to very murky (below 10m) but we had a good dive for all that. The water was warm and the current was minimal.
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DAN insurance website: https://www.daneurope.org/home
——————————–
The Dive Club meets every Tuesday night in the Dive Bar.
See you there.

Welcome All, 

​I’ve split the Dive Logs into two separate features this week. The second dive this week was on the MV Dara. 

Ian reports;
​There’s been a lot of WhatsApp discussion on the Dara over the last week or so. The link below is an article published in the National in April 2011, around the time of the 50th anniversary of the sinking. We nearly always enjoy diving the Dara and if the club has a “house wreck”, this is it but it’s worth reminding ourselves of the tragic circumstances of the sinking.​

Welcome All,

Actually, this should have gone in last week’s email but I forgot. Congratulations to Nick on his DM!

No words needed on the training that goes into becoming a Dive Master. Well done Nick. 

See below for a day in the life of a DM from the Wanderers. 
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