Blog

Where to start? First of all, Barry Thomas arrived at the club last week as promised and we had a few drinks together. The country has changed a bit since he was last here with the Union Defence Force in the 70’s but we were able to let him know something about what we’ve been up to since. It was good to see him and have a chat. Barry was on his way to Australia and should be passing through again on the way back (in April if I remember correctly).

And last weekend… This was one our regular camp-outs, this time in the mountains above Wadi Sena. We convened at the club about midday, firstly to cut some timber, then to re-attach the canopy to the boat (SP312) and finally to have a bite to eat and before setting off. Robin was towing the boat for the first time and made it to parking place without difficulty. All the same the journey to the camp site wasn’t entirely without incident. Polly’s car was fine on the tarmac but proved inadequate for the mountain road so she had to retreat to the village with the assistance of some friendly locals after which Mike brought her up the hill to join us. Derek made it up all right but didn’t notice the site and continued on for several kilometres before realising his mistake and turning back.

Despite these minor problems (without which no camp-out is complete), we soon got the fire going and even sooner cracked a few cans and had a stab at putting the world to rights. As well as the 406 faces, it was good to see Jim and Marion from DSDC and Brian Lugg (plus dog), their Diving Officer. Brian brought with him a birthday cake, duly presented to Mike Anthony on the occasion of his ?>60th birthday which was a few days ago. He also had some out-of-date flares which made for a good firework display. We eventually settled down in our respective tents (and cars) pleasantly happy.

In the morning we cooked some breakfast before striking camp. Some of the utensils didn’t survive the experience and there was some debate about the most appropriate exhibition for the frying pan that Polly had used for her eggs. (I think Damien Hirst got the verdict). It was very windy up the mountain and we did wonder whether it would be similar at sea level. First of course we had to get there and after reassuring Robin that yes, his car was safely back at the club and not sitting at the bottom of the hill, Derek discovered he had a puncture which needed sorting out. His jack turned out to be broken (and small) so I leant him one of mine. This was too big but I had a smaller one which was just right as Goldilocks would have said.

And after all this we did manage to go diving. We launched the boat from Dhadnah and convened at the beach next to the Sandy Beach Motel. The sea was calm but this disguised some serious breakers rolling on to the beach. It is just as well the boat is self draining or we might have lost it as a big wave broke over it and left about 200mm of water in the back. As it was the ladder went missing but we recovered it after a short search. The diving location was the Pinnacles, on which someone has now planted a UAE flag. The visibility was disappointing but nevertheless we managed to see some pufferfish, pipefish, boxfish and a solitary turtle. There was similar hassle with the waves getting back on shore so we ended up anchoring a bit further away than ideal and swimming for it. After a relaxing half hour or so we headed back to Sharjah for a glass or two and a bite to eat by the pool.

Overall a very good weekend and we’d like to get another one away before the weather becomes too hot.

With few around last Tuesday night, and fewer interested in diving, PJ suggested a trip back to Freestyle in Dibba. Two wanted to go Friday, two Saturday. Finally Friday was agreed, partly to accommodate a refresher for Dave, a veteran UAE expat and diver, friend of Robin. When you are a team of four, the SMS received driving into Dibba, that Dave & Robin had over-imbibed, was not appreciated – and I’m not being saki! But Freestyle are a welcoming bunch, and were still prepared to take Polly and PJ on a 2-tank dive across to Inchcape 1 followed by the Pinnacles. Karin K joined us in the water, probably regretting it, as we swam the length of four other tethered boats, against the current. Trevor was the sensible one – he stayed in the boat, as the three of us descended through clouds of bubbles. Piccadilly Circus?! Viz was however reasonable, in between the other divers, with highlights of a shoal of lined eel catfish, and two scorpion fish.

Polly preferred to do her second dive back at Dibba Rock, so Karin and Peter did a leisurely dive around Sharm Rocks (Pinnacles). with a max depth of 12m the viz was not as good as Inchcape, but we managed to see a large shoal of good-sized yellow tail barracuda, and close by a pair of “double-ended” pipe fish. An illegal and very full pot on a line caught our attention, and a rescue operation was successfully undertaken. 

Later at Freestyle it was time for the last dive of the day, the first for Derek that Friday. Unfortunately after his two dips, our Treasurer had failed to get warm again decided to be sensible and not dive. This left Polly and Derek R to brave the depths of Dibba Rock with Max( of Freestyle) on boat duty. The sea was a 23 C and the viz was about 10 m, not the best conditions but certainly by no means the worst compared with the West coast recent dives. Polly and Derek rolled off the boat – South of Dibba Rock and headed on a bearing North. The current was gentle and the conditions were very benign. We saw the usual suspects of yellow snappers, monacle bream, lion fish and a big old puffer fish with their large doll eyes on show. Then on a reef we saw a pipe fish with the head of a sea horse and a long body, lying there taking in the vista. Heading away from this Poly got distracted by another pipe fish and stopped to fulfil a desire to get more on film. Unfortunately, Derek did not spot this and by the time he realized it was time to switch to the lost buddy drill. A quick search around and neither Poly nor Derek could find each other sur la mere so it was time to surface for a reunion and this brought a premature but controlled conclusion to a very pleasant dive. 

Next day – 16th Feb- Dibba and Freestyle on Saturday morning, two more BSAC 406 members-Geoff Patch and Derek R went out with Trevor and Max of Freestyle Divers to go down to Inchcape 1 at 29metres. Weather above sea level was fine and we soon found our way to the bottom. There was a very respectable size flounder that would have looked good on anyone’s plate, sat looking up at us and it decided that it preferred the sea bed to a bed of lightly tossed salad and seasoning. We were then were taken by a mildly excited Max doing an impression of a rodeo rider(underwater?) to see a beautiful sea horse of about 10″ length holding on to the flora with its tail. Derek had his new pony with him but the sea horse was just not interested in a cylindrical bit of metal, even if it did have 38% EAN in it. There were shoals a plenty and one of the most memorable was a shoal of balling lined eel catfish, Captain Patch decide he wanted to get in amongst it but the catfish decided that they would ball no more, at least not with the captain. It could be said that the catfish did have good taste, without being cooked. We had a great view of a decent sized yellow honey combed moray wrapped round the railings on the top deck. There was a very respectful swim through the lower deck of Inchcape with the surreal lights from outside. On exiting the lower deck we were met by two Lion fish hovering like they do, almost like they were waiting their turn to enter. On the way up the deco stops were 15m, 12m , 9m and 6m and then it was back to base for a modest barbecue and a bit of decompression fluid. I missed out the bit about Derek driving everyone mad on how to set his Suunto computer for different gases, because that would be boring, even if he did get nearly everyone involved/mad and it did work in the end.

After our recent dives in poor viz, and fruitless searches for wrecks in the Gulf, and only two signing up for another local wreck dive last Friday, a Saturday dive on the East coast was suggested. With Ian and Cathy in the UK, and Mike off to Oman for the weekend, it was either the prospect of Jackson towing the boat, or just a need for something completely different, that suddenly we had eight names on the board! As it was, we settled for six on the first dive with Freestyle on the Inchcape 1, and eight for a lunchtime dip over the reefs of Dibba Rock.

A lovely misty morning-light drive across to Dibba, saw returnee Brian Kerman joining Polly, Chris, Richard, PJ and son Oliver meeting at Freestyle at high tide. Kapitan Karin of Freestyle had us quickly on board, with 5cm high waves crashing mirror-like about us. Even without a GPS, Karin easily found Inchcape 1, professionally homing onto Al Boom’s boat tied up to its buoy! With nice timing for our dive, Al Boom divers were making their way back up the line as we descended.

A seriously pleasant 30M dive ensued, with great viz in zero current, starring an electric torpedo ray (sadly missed by most of us), a large friendly thorny seahorse on the stern, a large honeycomb moray starboard on the sand, and a shy sand perch, and a couple of devil fire-fish on the deck, under large shoals of snappers and fusiliers. A busy reticulated file-fish scavenged on the deck, and at the submerged barrel on the safety stop we were entertained by a shoal of tiny immature file-fish. The water temperature was 23 degrees – a little warmer than the Gulf, and with Karin serving tea and coffee before our heading back. Not bad for a Scandihooligan!

For the second dive around Dibba Rock, Derek joined us after a night out with Geoff at the Fujairah Hilton, following a Friday Wadi Bih relay marathon (his story) and with Sharon for some snorkelling – though I suspect to keep an eye on Richard! She needed not worry, a turtle and black-tip kept him out of mischief. For the rest of us we had to be satisfied with the antics of clownfish, a military turkeyfish (check-out the video), prolific and large colourful wrasse (including an unusual small shoal of sunset wrasse) and many large parrotfish chomping the coral. A charming Moses sole unsuccessfully tried to hide from Polly and I, by which time I had a flat battery. But it  was the cold that finally got us, and a strong current, threatening to take Oliver and Freestyle’s instructor Max off to Fujairah!

 A fine day out, seriously relaxing, with everyone having plenty of something different to see. Thank you Karin & Max!

Peter Jackson

This is written from the not so sunny UK where I’m spending a couple of weeks chilling out. I would have preferred that phrase to be metaphorical rather than literal but I suppose that less than tropical conditions are to be expected when you go to northern Europe in February.

Still the diving goes on even without my name on the board and Mike took a boat out at the weekend. The intention was to have another look for the Beatrix Maria which we thought we’d spotted the previous weekend but couldn’t locate despite a promising signal on the echo sounder. The story was not one of unqualified success however as Mike describes it:

“Ok Friday. Well the crew were Derek and Geoff and Polly and me. Peter sounded like someone had sandpapered his throat when he rang to cry off. So with the trees rustling just a bit but blowing off the land we launched at Hamriyah. Slightly worrying was the return of 3 fishing boats as we set out. As we cleared the harbour and set out to sea due north for the Beatrix coordinates the sea was following us. I could see that things were getting lively but we were not shipping too much water and Geoff was doing a good job driving. We arrived at the spot and turned on the echo sounder. We circled the zero point several times but all we got were spikes due to the rough seas and the transducer leaving the water and otherwise a steady 23.3, 23.4m so a flat bottom and nothing there. So I do not know what it was that you saw but there is nothing there.

We set course for the Dara but after 30 seconds abandoned that idea as we were directly into the waves and instead turned at right angles to them and ran for the shoreline landing off Umm Al Quwain. Tight inshore the waves were a lot less and so we turned south and battered our way south to Hamriyah. On the trip back the canopy completely collapsed but was fortunately still attached to the boat. So back at the yard we removed the canopy completely and it now lies in the yard. We removed the fixings from the gunwales as well as the broken ends of the canopy uprights were still stuck inside. They are at my workshop now getting pressed out. A new disc in the angle grinder will trim the uprights and then maybe on Tuesday the canopy can be reinstalled.

Thus sadly not a tale of a new wreck but one of no dives and a broken boat although it will be put back to full health shortly.”

No doubt the disappointment was alleviated with some refreshments by the pool afterwards!

Last Friday the sea was again very smooth. We decided to go to the Ajman Glory on the grounds that it’s easy to navigate around if the viz was as atrocious as last week. Well you couldn’t call it crystal but the viz had nevertheless improved – perhaps around 3m. The wreck doesn’t seem to have come to any harm in the recent bad weather and is still the same as the last time we dived it. After the Taha last week this was a relief. There were a family of batfish around the mast and rigging who were friendly as usual.

For the second dive we went wreck hunting. We have a few sets of co-ordinates in Sharjah waters to be investigated as and when we can. One of these was called the Beatrix Maria and since the given position was on the way home it seemed like a good opportunity. The search proved to be a bit of a puzzle. We were very excited when a large bulge appeared on the echo sounder near the zero point but successive dives revealed nothing but sandy bottom. I’m not ready to give up on this one just yet and we’ll have another look next time we’re over that way but on this occasion we came up empty.

After a period sailing around the Greek islands the Kirman’s are back in town for a couple of months. We hope to see Brian on the dive boat once or twice!

It was day of mixed feelings on Friday. It least we got a dive away – in fact the sea was so calm we didn’t stop at the Taha but carried on to Wreck X which is another 18km out in the same direction. Like a couple of weeks ago, the surface viz was very clear – the Burj Khalifa was visible from 45km offshore and the shorter buildings on the Dubai and Sharjah skylines could be seen from not much less.

Mike and Geoff were first in the water and Geoff performed a backward roll entry that will surely pass down into 406 legend. His reel was clipped on to his BCD and became caught on the side of the boat as he went over the side. He found himself hanging from the boat, vertical but upside down, fins waving in the air and unable to move in any direction. It took two of us to haul him back on board for a second attempt (once we’d stopped laughing).

After this though, the fun stopped. The surface viz might have been 45km but the viz under water was that many centimetres. Not only that, but the anchor had missed the wreck which couldn’t be found despite a circular search. It can’t have been far away but in the dark and dingy murk you didn’t have to miss it by much and at 35m there was not much time to hang around finding it. We decided that Wreck X would wait for better conditions and headed back to the Taha which unfortunately was even more disappointing.

A short geology lesson may be needed here: the floor of the Gulf consists of sand on top of a thin (70 – 80cm) layer of cap rock. Below this is a variable layer of white nasty goo which is mostly silt but is usually known by a similar four letter word familiar to most of us. Below this is a hard layer of sandstone. What can happen to a wreck in stormy conditions is that it starts moving, punches through the cap rock, sinks through the silt (which has a bearing capacity of nil) and ends up sitting on the sandstone, a lot deeper than it used to be.

This happened to the Mariam Express four years ago, and now to the Taha. Much of what was visible has now been swallowed by the seabed. Exactly what it now looks like is difficult to say as the viz was even worse than Wreck X. We groped our way from stern to bow and back but there wasn’t much incentive to stick around too long down there. The sea was now mirror flat so we made good time back to Al Khan and thence back to the club and the dive table.

Former club members continue to emerge from the shadows. This whole thing was started by Barry Thomas who was a member in the Ajman days and plans to visit us on 19 February when passing though on the way to Australia. Since then John Lewis, Gavin Halling, Mark Hampson and Stuart Shaw have all been in contact with us (and with each other). Who needs Friends Reunited anyway? Stuart wrote the following:

We didn’t make it out last weekend and we weren’t alone in that. Despite the uncertainty over which weather bulletin to trust, the forecast for Friday was unpromising to say the least and threatening to become worse condition as the day went on. No-one seriously argued when Mike called it off and his decision was entirely vindicated by the gales on Friday causing huge waves on Ajman Corniche. What it was like further off-shore one can only imagine.

So no diving to write about but Barry Thomas’s email that I included last week has caused some comment.

Gavin Halling sent the following from Australia:

Gavin came diving with us (the Dara of course) in May 2009 on his way through the area and a photo taken on Hamriyah beach is attached. Gavin I think has a Dara porthole on his porch in Australia.

It was John Lewis who returned the “Trucial States Sub-Aqua Club” plaque to us from Alaska. John sent a couple of then and now photos (attached). He met his wife, Vicki at the club bar in 1978 and they look to be enjoying themselves in Alaska. I don’t suppose a 3mm is enough though!

Welcome to 2013!

If you’re doing a dive on the first weekend of the year, what better place to go than the Dara? As it turned out there may have been several better places to go than the Dara but the first decision that had to be made on Thursday evening was whether to go diving at all. The previously reliable weather bulletin that was issued by the meteorological office at Dubai Airport has been shut down for some reason (perhaps Sheikh Ahmed is saving up for another A380 or two). Alternative sources of information on the web were inconsistent to say the least ranging from flat calm (good news) to 5-7 foot off-shore waves (not such good news). We decided to take the optimistic view but going to the Dara seemed prudent as this is closest to shore if we had heavy seas to cope with.

After leaving port we found a slight swell but the sea was otherwise very calm and got progressively flatter as the day wore on to the point of being almost mirror smooth on the way back. 5-7 foot waves?? Some weatherman was still suffering his New Year hangover I think!

Arriving at the wreck, the anchor went over the side attached to a buoy with the painter looped through and “secured” to the boat. After a few minutes, the boat had not stopped moving and we concluded that the anchor was dragging. Looking up we noticed that it wasn’t the anchor that was the problem but the painter which had come free and the buoy was now 30m ahead and steadily receding. It would be unfair to reveal the name of the careless individual who had fixed the painter as I’m sure Geoff would agree.

The diving was not to be all fun and games however. Although there wasn’t too much current, the viz was atrocious and the Dara itself was covered in nets to a degree that I’ve never seen before. A major clearing operation is urgently needed – until then the wreck is hazardous and great care must be taken to avoid becoming entangled. We did a short tour through the cathedral section and along the deck towards the stern before doing an ascent on a DSMB. Mike freed one large jack that had caught itself but generally we were more concerned about each other and keeping ourselves out of the nets.

For the second dive we went to the Tek, a small tug boat a few km to the north. The viz was no better but the wreck is small and getting lost is difficult. There were a few nets here as well but mainly they were a danger to fish rather than divers. We did a small favour to the environment by cutting them off.

A few club members from days gone by have tracked us down via the web site and I received the following email last week accompanied by the attached photos, Barry and his wife are stopping over in the UAE on the way to Australia and should be at the club in February. We look forward to seeing them.

We tried to get a dive away yesterday (Friday) but the weather wasn’t co-operating. Strong winds and heavy seas were the order of the day so we got to have a lie-in instead. In truth the demand wasn’t great in any case – this sometimes happens over the holiday period. 

With the New Year approaching, it’s perhaps worth reflecting on the year just gone. The club remains active, diving on 43 of the available weekends since 1st January. After a slow start due to bad weather during January and February this is a very respectable record for a club of our size. There was a dhow trip up the Musandam organised by Janette, a mountain camp-out followed by a dive on Dibba Rock and a couple of trips over to the east coast to dive the Inchcape wrecks.

All of these trips were very enjoyable but the core of our diving remains the wrecks of the Arabian Gulf and which accounts for most of the Friday expeditions. The most popular dive site over the year was the Ajman Glory – of which more below – but the Taha (another relatively recent discovery), the Dara (old favourite) and Karen’s Dhow also had regular visits. As well as exploring the wrecks themselves, the fish life can be varied, numerous and fascinating on a good day and you might come back with a nice piece of brass or a copper nail. And not just below water – one of the year’s more memorable moments was on the Taha in May when a lonely cormorant, for reasons only it could explain, took a fancy to Mike Anthony who was just emerging from the water. The resulting video is much in demand on Tuesday nights.

Over the year, we’ve lost some members (Simon, Sarah, Forrester) and gained some (Chris, Polly, Derek Brown) – overall the membership numbers are steady (ish) but we’d like to grow a bit over the next year if we can. This is certainly the view of our new Chairman, Mike Dalton who took over from Brendan at the AGM in July. Mike came to Sharjah via the Kuwait Mantas club and we’re very happy to have him on board.

This year we also said goodbye to Harry and Karen Adamson who finally left the UAE after a number of false starts. Harry and Geoff Taylor built the current dive club at the Wanderers after the demise of the old one in Mahattah and although Harry  didn’t dive much over the last few years (he preferred jumping out of aeroplanes), he and Karen were very much part of the club and will be missed.

Highlights of the year? Two spring to mind. Firstly there was the Beirut trip. An Eid al Adha trip has become a regular event since the trip to Sur in 2008 and this one was memorable – not least because if you believe the newspapers a civil war was about to break out five days before we were due to arrive. Happily this proved to be exaggerated but a genuine civil war going on 100km down the road does give pause for thought and Beirut itself bears the scars of its less than harmonious recent history. The point of the trip was to dive the Vichy French wartime submarine, the Souffleur. Richard, a former submariner himself, wrote a very moving account of this dive which went out with the weekly email and is now on the web site (Dive Log – October 2012). Meanwhile some of us were enjoying the generous hospitality of former member Sami who appears at the club from time to time but now is semi-retired to the Lebanon. A very good trip and I would certainly like to go back.

The second highlight to me was the saga of the Ajman Glory. We weren’t expecting that much when we were given the co-ordinates by a dive boat anchored on the Dara but it turned into a story that just ran and ran. We found a 50m long vessel on the site which could have been anything. Brian Lugg contacted the UK Hydrographic Office who suggested a possible identification, Marc De Ruyter and David De Marneffe independently found some photos of the ship on the internet and the whole club who scoured the wreck taking measurements, photos and videos leading eventually to a positive ID.

There were two interesting sequels to this story. Firstly there were a couple of press articles in The National and Outdoor UAE which was all good publicity for the club and for divers generally. (The Outdoor UAE was much the best although since it was written by me and Brian the possibility of bias can’t be completely discounted). Secondly, Marc managed to get in contact with a former crewman (though not at the time of the sinking), Mr Cor Dijk, who was obviously moved to see photos and videos of his old ship.

Sadly, the year also saw the passing of Jutta Jackson and Tony Nicklinson. Jutta was not a diver but nevertheless put in a lot of work on the web site and was a regular at dive club nights and dhow trips. More often than not she’d meet Peter and the rest of us at the dive table on Friday afternoons and listen patiently to our tall stories. Originally given 3-6 months, she rang the bell and bought a round on the first anniversary of her diagnosis. Sipping our drinks we all wondered if it were possible . . . but sadly it wasn’t.

Tony was also a non-diver but was very supportive of the Dive Club during his tenure as SWSC Chairman. It was Tony who devised the “Associate Member” formula which helped enormously at a time when the Wanderers (as opposed to Dive Club) fee was seen by some as an unnecessary cost. He also engineered a sponsorship for us in return for us putting the Wanderers name on the sides of the boats which was a very welcome boost to our bank balance. The struggles of his recent years have been well documented but that is now over and one can imagine him now energetically organising and improving whatever cosmic realms he now inhabits – inspiring and annoying in equal measure but getting the job done nonetheless.

A few thanks are in order:
·         Mike Anthony for permanent loan of his old Discovery which can be used as the boat towing vehicle as long as it keeps running and is drivable by any club member. Also for efforts above and beyond on the small boat engines.
·         Steve Higson and the Wanderers for building us our nice new tank for washing the kit post-dive.
·         Mike Dalton for agreeing to take over as club Chairman despite the fact that he’d met us.
·         Peter Jackson for performing his treasurer’s duties with energy and thoroughness and as well as that, keeping the memberships up to date while Cathy has been ill and maintaining the web site. This despite extremely difficult circumstances for him this year.
·         Janette Elphinstone for her training efforts and for the RAK barbecue which could hopefully become a regular fixture on the calendar.
·         Derek Roberts for keeping the equipment in good order.
·         Sami for his kind and generous hospitality in Beirut.
·         Everyone who has organised dives or any other event over the year and without whom…

Next year we aim to carry on diving as much as possible with maybe a few more east coast trips. We’d also like to grow the membership numbers if we can. The club is in good shape financially which is down to a number of factors but mostly because we continue to put people into the water at weekends. This we intend to carry on doing!

Ian Hussey
A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL AND SEE YOU ON THE DIVE BOAT IN 2013!

After last week’s brunch in Dubai, the previous week’s trip to RAK and the bad weather the week before, this was the first time in a month we’d taken the boat out in home waters. Numbers were a bit light but this sometimes happens around the holiday season. We launched from Al Khan and headed out to the Jumbo or at least we did eventually…

The Greek philosopher, Zeno of Elea, had a theory that motion was impossible since before moving a distance one had to move half that distance and before moving half that distance one had to move a quarter that distance and so on infinitely meaning that one could never start moving. Derek seemed determined to prove that theory on Friday. Having moved away from the quay he announced: “forgot my weight-belt”. The second time we got a bit further before he said: “forgot my ID card”. At this point it looked like taking until lunchtime just to leave the harbour but fortunately for our diving (and possibly Derek’s life expectancy) there were no further interruptions and we made out to the wreck.

We hooked the anchor on the bow of the ship at the second attempt and looking around, a most impressive sight was the surface visibility. We could see Ajman to the north, Palm Jumeirah to the south and in between the Dubai and Sharjah skylines were clear and sharp on the horizon. This was from 33km off-shore. Regrettably, the underwater viz was not as good being what you could charitably (well it’s Christmas) describe as extremely average. It was a good dive all the same. The water temperature was around 24 degrees – not too bad in other words although wet suits are now very much the order of the day.

There were barracuda on the bow and the usual snappers in the holds as we swam along the vessel. At the stern there was a small group of nine or ten batfish. Hiding by the prop was a large hammour. When it turned sideways it turned out to be maybe 80cm long which is unusual since most end up on restaurant menus long before they reach that size (and which is why they are now endangered in the Gulf).

The second dive was on Karen’s Dhow. We hooked on to the rudder from whence came the copper nails that adorn the Dive Bar. Not a large wreck, it usually has some interesting fish life. This time Mike and Derek had a close encounter with a sea snake (which we also saw on the surface) and a turtle which seems to live there as we’ve seen it before. It was then back to the club for refreshments. As is usual with this wreck, a few glass plates came back with us.