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Last weekend for a change the weather seemed to be promising so we decided to have a go for the Ajman Glory which we haven’t been to for a while. It’s a nice wreck but 30km away so we tend to go elsewhere in rough seas. No such problems on Friday – the sea was like glass so we were able to open up the throttles and get there in quick time. We had company when we first arrived – a guy and his small son were fishing and kept drifting in close, requiring us to fend off at one point. They left in the end.

The Ajman Glory is in some ways the Victoria Star writ small. The shape and layout are virtually the same although it’s a bit deeper making the dives a bit shorter. Having been down a lot longer the fish life is a lot more established and varied with snappers, jacks, angelfish and others. There’s also a shoal of batfish who live in the rigging next to the bridge and we spent a few minutes among them. The idea that you can virtually shake hands with batfish is mostly untrue but as long as you stay about half a metre away, most don’t seem bothered by divers.

Multiple fines may be levied on our Chairman for variously: failing to find the anchor at the end of his dive, fraudulently claiming said anchor had been moved, surfacing with less than 50 bar, congratulating himself for surfacing so close to the boat when in fact we’d travelled 150m to pick him out of the water. In fairness these weren’t the only misdemeanours on the day. Someone I know very well nearly went over the side minus a weight belt but hey…no-one’s perfect.

We might have a bit of wreck searching to do – a few ships seem to have been colliding, catching fire and generally coming to grief over the last little while. As we’ve learnt before, newspaper reports don’t necessarily translate into new dive sites but it’s interesting all the same.

The Facebook page continues to gather friends. For the benefit of the FB unbelievers I attach the Phil Ritson cartoon which he posted. But who are these people? Anyone remember?

With the weather looking none too promising on Friday, we decided to plan a Saturday dive instead. This turned out to be a good move as the sea was relatively calm despite the thunderstorms the previous evening. This is not to say it was mirror smooth but we’ve been out in worse and it got better as the day wore on. Not that we were out there that long – Mike Dalton’s friend Robin, late of Kuwait Mantas, came out with us and although he wasn’t diving, he was happy to handle the boat. This gave us the luxury of going in all at once without needing two waves.

The target was the Victoria Star – being close to shore this seemed sensible in view of the uncertain weather. The viz wasn’t too bad considering the recent wind and rain but the sea isn’t showing much sign of warming up just yet. On descending there were some barracuda cruising around just off the wreck and a group of seven or eight batfish just behind the bridge where they seem to have found a home. There were also a couple of leopard rays, one near the bow being an impressive size. Some of the internal partitioning is now collapsing giving some larger spaces inside to explore. Caution is advised of course.

After a smooth ride home, we were sipping refreshments by the pool shortly after 2.45.

After an AGM commitment to get a Facebook page running, Cathy has done the needful and we are there under “Sharjah Wanderers Dive Club”. Not being a regular user of FB I’m not sure exactly how it works but expect friend requests if you haven’t already had one. Phil Ritson has already posted one of his excellent cartoons from a few years back as well as a clip of video footage from the club’s 25th anniversary which would have been around 1996. Lots more to come we hope.

There was no club boat out this weekend owing to most people having other plans and / or commitments. This doesn’t mean there’s no diving to report however. If you read last week’s email you’ll know I was in Saudi Arabia, the idea being to witness a survey of a project that has gone banana shaped. A combination of Saudi bureaucracy and fully booked Emirates planes left me with a couple of days to kill and the prospect of getting very bored in a hotel room.

But always improve the shining hour! A quick browse of the internet found Desert Sea Divers who didn’t seem bothered that I had no gear whatsoever and were happy to send a car to the hotel to pick me up. Not free of charge of course but a big help nevertheless. Which is how I found myself sailing out of a harbour up the coast in “FALL 5”, a very nice dive boat, chatting to a couple of Americans (Matt and Robert) and looking forward to some very unexpected Red Sea diving.

The first dive was on the “Anan Wreck”, about two hours sailing out of harbour. There are apparently a lot of wrecks around here and it’s not hard to see why. Several times on the way out we saw waves breaking over reefs that were just below the surface and it wouldn’t take much of a navigational error or on-board mishap to end up on one. The “Anan” was one such – a vessel that seems to have hit a reef head on and come off very much second best. There is a permanent line attached near the stern which we descended and set off towards what’s left of the bow. The ship was once a cargo vessel but it seems to have hit the reef with some force – parts of the hull have unpeeled like a sardine tin – and it’s been down a good while although exactly how long seems uncertain. The ship has a huge propeller – I’d estimate about 5m diameter with a rudder of similarly impressive dimensions.

A wreck acting “like an artificial reef” is a phrase I’ve used before in relation to the Arabian Gulf but this wreck seems likely to become a real one with hard and soft corals growing all over it. The fish life was not exactly abundant but the viz was excellent as you’d expect from the Red Sea and is one of the reasons people dive there. The other surprise was the water temperature. The guy in the shop told me I wouldn’t need a wet-suit. I took one anyway and was glad I did but it was only a shorty and there were a couple of people on the boat who didn’t bother. The temperature was around 26 C or about five degrees warmer than the Gulf at the moment.

On the way to the second dive site, the boat came upon a large pod of dolphins that spent about twenty minutes playing with the boat while it circled around. They would have played longer and we would have stayed longer but in the end we had to leave. It was a memorable encounter.

The second dive site was called “Table Mountain” – so-called because it is a flat-topped reef, almost circular in shape that almost reaches the surface. Once in the water, we headed off anti-clockwise on twenty minutes out-twenty minutes back principle. The viz and the scenery were again excellent but again the fish-life was rather less abundant than I’d hoped for. Robert (who dives regularly around here) told me later that we were unlucky and it’s usually much better. We did see a huge moray and a small ray which in size and shape resembled the electric rays you find in the Gulf except that it had blue spots.

After a very decent biryani, we headed off for dive number three at a site called “Abu Reef”. To my eyes the site looked identical to “Table Mountain” but I wasn’t about to refuse a dive on that account and we took the plunge. This time we took the clockwise tour and this time did the full 360 degrees. There was another ray similar to the last one sitting on the seabed waiting for a meal and at mid-distance a very nice orange and white nudibranch. We also saw an anemone with a couple of clownfish repelling invaders (us). In total a fifty minute dive to finish and I was quite tired by the time we saw the boat and climbed back on board.

So a very good day all round – many thanks to Ziyad of Desert Sea Divers and the crew of “FAL 5”, not forgetting my good buddies, Matt and Robert. As I have said, the fish life was a bit sparser than expected but you can’t legislate for these things and I wonder if with the Musandam on our doorsteps, do we expect too much sometimes? You can hardly just book a flight out there but I’d recommend anyone going to Jeddah for some other reason to pack a mask and dive computer and contrive a day out if possible – it’s definitely worth it. Desert Sea Divers have a web site with all the contact details. They have local backing and are unlikely to disappear but are subject to ever-changing Saudi rules and regulations.

I was one of those in Abu Dhabi last Friday to see the Stones so I wasn’t on the boat. It would have been nice to go diving as well but you can’t always get what you want (ouch!). Derek has kindly put a few words together:

This email comes to you from Jeddah, KSA, where I’ve come for a few days to check out a sinking quay wall. Although Saudi is superficially similar to the Emirates, you do feel the conservatism of the place that Sharjah, for all its foibles, only hints at. Walking round the local shopping mall, I saw no other westerners and I estimated about 60 – 65% of the women wearing a niqab. This I suppose, still leaves 35 – 40% with uncovered faces and there was no obvious “official” presence trying to correct that. Almost all the shop assistants are male aside from a few shops with signs: “families only”. The mall sold almost nothing apart from clothes, shoes and jewellery although this at least gave me an opportunity to buy a few shirts from M&S. I’m not a fan of shopping malls but there’s no other entertainment around here anyway. And Jeddah is liberal by Saudi standards – one wonders what Riyadh must be like.

But I digress. The Dive Bar will be open as normal – I sincerely hope to see you there for a drink!
IH

After a couple of dead weekends, it was good to resume normal service on Friday. Geoff was unable to make it back from Amsterdam in time but Marc turned up instead so we had a reasonable boat load. Doubts as to whether we’d remember what to do proved not entirely without foundation. To begin with, towing the boat to Al Khan, I sailed straight past the turn off from Al Wahda Road and ended up going round three of the four clover leaves to get back on track. No big deal – just a bit of cornering practice.

The coastguard station and pontoon at the harbour has vanished and the (Lady) “Gha Gha” has re-appeared after a long absence. The system remains the same however, although they now seem much more interested in whether or not the transponder is working: “How many lights?”. “Two green” was the correct response that got us on our way.

We hooked the top of the bridge at the second time of asking and prepared to go diving. Before we even got in the water the day was enlivened by a large pod of dolphins that circled the boat for twenty minutes or so before disappearing. Over the last couple of months the sea temperature has come down to around 21 degrees which is not much in northern European terms but is a bit chilly for around here. Marc in a skin suit and overalls lasted 15 minutes under water before coming back up the line although he came with a prize: a crew list and plan of the vessel which, after six months under water, would need treating with care if they were to yield any information. He also saw a large ray which was clearly alarmed by the sight of a tall Dutchman and promptly vanished.

The fish life on the wreck does now seem to be increasing. Although not up to the standard of the Taha in its prime (that wreck is sadly almost entirely swallowed by the seabed), the concrete blocks in the hold are turning into an attractive reef and there were some monster barracuda circling the stern. There were also some batfish that seem to live near the bridge.

The second dive was a comedy of errors. Anticipating the cool water I had brought my two-piece 5mm wetsuit (which in the time-honoured manner, seems to have shrunk a few cm since last year) and dispensed with the integrated weights in favour of a traditional weight belt. The only problem with this approach is that a weight belt doesn’t automatically attach itself to one’s body. Yes… you guessed. With Derek (using a 12 litre ally tank in place of his usual 15 litre steel) also a bit light, we came up, grabbed some extra lead and went back for another go. This obviously shortened the eventual dive somewhat, but we did manage a trip to the bow before depleted tanks forced us back to the anchor line.

Back at the club, Marc spent a while trying to get the boat plan unfolded and photographed before it disintegrated. This was successful and the result was a series of photos taken in a bath of fresh water. He has stitched these together and the result is below

A good day – thanks to Derek for doing the marshalling.

Marc’s stint in Dubai has ended for now but he’ll be at the club on Tuesday night for a farewell drink – not a final one we hope. Also on Tuesday our Boats Officer, Mike Anthony, will be ringing the bell in honour of him completing another trip around the sun. I trust we’ll try not to make it too cheap for him! 

Last Tuesday night we bade farewell to Jeff, our barman for the last two years who is emigrating to Canada. The (nameless) person entrusted with buying the card somehow neglected to do so (well she only had a fortnight) resulting in a last minute dash to Sahara Centre. Mercifully, Hallmark came up with a good one and the traffic was forgiving so nothing was lost. Sharon baked a cake for the occasion, Mike Dalton said a few words and there was a good turnout – Jeff will be missed! A few photos are attached.

Thanks are due to Mike Anthony and Cathy who between them organised the boat registration for SP312. The new engines meant that a fresh inspection by the coastguard needed which didn’t go entirely to plan. Firstly Mike, with his mind presumably in work mode, starting heading for the wrong port. This corrected, the boat was eventually launched and driven round to the coastguard at Mina Khalid. The gentleman inspecting the boat took one look inside and asked: “What’s all that water doing there?”. Swiftly realising the boat was a bung short, some rapid bailing started but how to replace the missing bung? After a couple of tries leaning over the side which didn’t work, there was only one thing for it: Mike stripped to his undies and got in the water. What the coastguard made of this was anyone’s guess but Mike escaped without being arrested and I expect several coastguard families got a good story over supper that evening.

I wasn’t diving at the weekend, I was playing football in the Wanderers 7-a-side. This tournament was set up to benefit the Dive Club which was a very generous gesture and we should make six or seven thousand from the day which will be a big help – thanks go Walter and the football veterans committee and SWSC manager Daniel.

Oh yes the diving. Mike took a small crew to the Victoria Star at the weekend. I don’t have a detailed report but I gather most of the remaining nets have now been cleared.

PJ couldn’t make the dive last Friday as he was in Germany where he met up with Uwe Oldenburg for a few glasses. Uwe, for those who don’t know is a much missed former member but we do get to chat with him on Skype from time to time. 

Mike Anthony wrote Peter a few lines about the weekend which to save myself some effort I’m taking the liberty of cutting and pasting:

Yesterday we got news of a new wreck so set off with high hopes on a bearing of 284 from Hamriya on almost glassy seas but with an as yet untamed swell which held our speed down to 40kph or so. Arriving at the spot we found the echo sounder was seriously misbehaving. Eventually I traced it to the transducer which was looking horizontal. Returning it to the vertical fixed things and the we started a box search around the coordinates but to no avail.

Next was a trip to the Taha and we had a couple of goes at trying to snag that with the anchor eventually succeeding but we were 95m from the mark so decided to pull it up again. Meanwhile the wind had got up and we had 1.5m seas. The anchor was round a line and even big Marc could not raise it all the way to the surface nor could we drag it free with the engines. Geoff went in for a look and tried to cut the line but without a tank could not manage it. He returned to the boat and Marc went in with my new scissors and managed to free us. We concluded along the way that the seabed has almost totally swallowed the ship as there is very little showing above the bed.

Next was almost a 2 hour trip into the weather 31km to the Dara and Ian displayed consummate skill in getting us there without breaking the boat or any of the passengers. So in the end Derek and I were the only divers yesterday managing 40mins in soup like conditions during which we liberated 3 stuck down fish pots and several floats from nets. Along the way I managed to unanchor the boat. The anchor had managed to free itself whilst we were diving and they tied off onto a float whose down line I cut! Marc was fined for not bringing a BCD.

It was good to have a beer or two with Peter Blanchflower last Tuesday. Peter was passing through the area and dropped in on the club. He expects to be back again from time to time.

We got the year started at the weekend although there were points during the day when we wished we hadn’t. First though some thanks are due to Joff for helping out with some repairs to 312’s trailer. Being dipped into the sea regularly doesn’t do much for the moving parts and all the springs were in dire need of replacement. Not a job that’s normally beyond us except that some of the nuts and bolts had seized to a point where no spanner could shift them and some professional help was needed. We also had the front post moved forward by a few cm to compensate for the heavier engines that the boat now carries. Friday was the first outing since the work and it towed fine.

How do you tell someone’s been an expat for a while? Possibly when he turns up at the club pre-dive and explains that he couldn’t bring any sandwiches today because “the maid isn’t back until Monday”. Actually I’m not sure he was serious but I can’t let that spoil a good story and anyway I wouldn’t dream of causing any embarrassment by naming him.

The original plan was the Ajman Glory but leaving the harbour it was soon clear that the sea was not co-operating so we changed course and headed for the Dara instead. It was not exactly a smooth ride out there but we persevered and hooked the wreck at the second time of asking. The wreck is still covered in nets and the viz was mediocre but Mike and Marc did manage to spot a large stingray, about 1.5m across. Peter, Brian and Derek meanwhile did their bit for conservation by freeing a large hammour that had become caught up. Hopefully the fish will celebrate it’s rescue by having lots of baby hammour. The population urgently needs it thanks to over-fishing for too long, particularly of juveniles who haven’t spawed. Something to think about next time you see hammour on the restaurant menu. OK sermon over.

The ride back was wet, cold and miserable for all of us apart from Marc who found the only sheltered part of the boat and crouched down there, staying comparatively comfortable. For the rest of us a warm shower and a beer couldn’t come quickly enough.

A big welcome back (albeit temporarily) to Marc De Ruyter (he who has to duck to get through doorways). For the next couple of months Marc is in the area and should be diving as much as he can (not every week – the dredging business doesn’t work like that).

A few of us gathered at the club last Tuesday for some carols and mince pies and a few mulled wines to wash it down. We also managed to get a dive club table for Christmas Day dinner. Efforts to get a dive going for Friday came to nothing however – people have a habit of going on leave or doing family stuff at this time of year. Most unreasonable but there you go.

As has become my habit, I’ll use this last newsletter of the year to reflect on the ups and downs of the last twelve months. First some numbers: Since 1stJanuary, 50 different divers have visited 34 different dive sites, clocking up in the process 651 dives on 48 days of the year, averaging almost a trip a week. Taken in isolation these figures are not earth-shattering and easily beaten by any number of clubs including one that springs to mind just up the road. But for a club of our size it is very respectable – we remain active!

A few highlights:

Our Eid Al Adha trip this year was a return to Beirut. The Eid dates and the weather were both more user-friendly this year than last, permitting an extra day and avoiding the on-the-spot changes of plan that we’d had in 2012. We were fortunate to have excellent viz on the Souffleur, the Vichy French submarine that was the main focus of the trip. To dive a wreck like this is to feel a sense of historical time and place – a bit like the Dara – which you don’t really get with most of the Gulf wrecks, however much fun they are to dive. The second day at the Lady Mary Cave was, in a different way, just as memorable. Sharp changes of temperature and water salinity as you enter the cave produce some weird optical effects and once inside, the water is crystal clear. Day three, experiencing Sami’s spectacular hospitality at his house on the slopes of Mount Lebanon was the icing on the cake. Beirut remains as fascinating as ever – one can only hope that Lebanon manages avoids the turmoil over its eastern border.

Not quite so far afield was our trip to Al Sawadi resort in Oman. This means diving the Damaniyat Islands which is usually very good and this was no exception, largely because of the appearance of a juvenile whale shark which spent about 20 minutes swimming around the boat while we all frantically finned around trying to get a closer look.

One of the things that keeps the diving interesting is discovering new things, particularly when they’re so new they’ve only been underwater for a week or two. Such was the Victoria Star which went down at the end of July in unknown circumstances. The sinking was reported in the press and was discovered after some detective work by Brian Lugg. It’s not often you get the chance to dive a wreck that new (the Mariam Express in 2006 was the last one) and for a few weeks it really was the only place to go. Since then the marine growth has taken over but the fish life is increasing so provided nothing untoward happens to it (its right on the entrance channel to Mina Khalid), it should be a good dive for years to come.

We’re a lot less cash-rich than we were last year thanks to the purchase of two new 4-stroke engines which should keep the club operating for a number of years to come. The old engines were getting on in years but the impending ban on 2-stroke engines forced our hand. We now need to build up the funds again to which end we would encourage a lot of diving on Fridays and a lot of eating and drinking on Tuesdays.

This year we said goodbye to Peter and Alison Blanchflower who are retiring back to the UK. Peter hadn’t dived much for a while but in his heyday was a loyal stalwart of the club who was on the committee for a number of years, serving as chairman. Rather than catch a boring flight, they took the overland route in a Land Cruiser via Iran and Turkey much as Mike Anthony did a few years ago on two wheels. Alison wrote an account of the journey in a series of emails which were very interesting. If I have time I’ll compile the lot into a single pdf file and get it out – it’s worth reading.

With your indulgence, some sincere thanks are due to those that keep the club running by serving on the committee: Mike Anthony whose efforts on the boat, trailer and vehicle are above and beyond the call of duty and go a long way to keep us functioning, Peter Jackson who as well as looking after our money, continues to produce increasingly slick looking videos, Derek Roberts who keeps the equipment in good order, Janette Elphinstone for her training, particularly the try-dive which was excellent, Cathy Terry for making sure we stay members and last but not least, Chairman Mike Dalton for his heroic efforts at keeping us in order.

Thanks also to those who have supported the club by running dives or simply turning up – may it continue in 2014!

POSTSCRIPT
Many thanks as well to Diving Officer Ian Hussey, for arranging the majority of our diving activities, towing our boats, and not least, for his regular weekly news-mails, both informative and entertaining.
PJ 

Last weekend didn’t really happen in the end although we did try. The forecast was dodgy late on but seemed reasonable in the morning so we decided to have a shot at the Ajman Glory which we haven’t visited for a while. Before we even got to Hamriyah there was a bit of drama – the Discovery’s battery has been giving signs of distress for a couple of weeks and parked in the nearest Emarat, filling the boat with fuel it finally gave up the ghost. This necessitated a swift trip back to the club to pick up some jump leads.

Despite this we launched the boat, albeit a bit behind schedule, but it took only a few seconds out of the harbour before we realised the AG was a non-starter. We changed course for the Dara which is a lot closer but heading into increasingly large waves and mindful of the predicted worsening we decided to abort and returned to port. Back at base, after cleaning the boat and buying a new car battery, we retired to the dive table and ordered some breakfast.