Nonetheless, even though the crew entered the water before the guests and made adjustments prior to the guests entering, nobody was able to predict the rapidly changing visibility and currents on the northern dive sites during the dives. During some dives, we faced up and down currents within minutes of each other. The visibility would also change from 50 feet to 3 or 4 feet in the same amount of time. On some dives in the north the visibility never got over 10 feet.
I'd be really interested to know what sites you visited I the Musandam
I've been diving the northern sites in the Musandam at least once a month year round for the past 5 years. We (a group of friends who are all experienced divers) charter and run our own non profit trips. We go all the way to the top including Quion islands which are on the edge of Omani waters (technically next to international waters - but tell that to Iran
I will disagree about the currents being unpredictable, actually they are easy to predict. While the tides often don't always meet the predictions there are numerous indicators that experienced divers who know the sites can use to determine whether a site is divable.
We will probably drop in to conditions that most people will steer clear of. Down currents are around, but again the likelihood of them on a particular site is predictable. That said we still encounter 10 or so per year, the majority being "inconvenient" a few being "exciting" but we know when to expect them.
Yes the thermoclines can catch people out, I wear a hooded vest so I can pull up the hood or take it down to match the conditions - we had 30C at the top and 22 at 30m (86F-71F) on most sites. The colder waters have the best vis but (especially in the summer) what ever wetsuit you choose is only good for 30% of the dive temp wise.
Stinging plankton and small jelly fish are the norm from March/April - June - normally they're near the surface in the top 10 or so metres lower is the vis is poorer - I'm surprised your guides didn't' know this
Vis can be an issue in the Musandam depending on the time of year, but careful choice of sites and time of dive can mitigate this. Avoiding the bays and diving the more exposed sites also improves conditions. The best time to visit (vis wise) is Sept through Nov
Your comments however about your experience is no surprise. There are very few people with extensive experience of the Musandam - and most are Expats in Dubai. None work for the Aggressor. The Northern Musandam also is no place for novice divers, people need to be confident in their diving ability and okay with challenging currents, some sites are really exposed and it's easy to get blown off, this is where you need to be capable with shooting a dsmb quickly. and just as importantly having a pick up boat whose crew can "read the conditions and predict where divers will pop up.
But it can be rewarding, this weekend alone we had 3 whale shark sightings, I was sat in the blue surrounded by 100's of Barracuda, with Mobula Rays passing by, bat fish, king fish etc all around me. And that was only one site. Over the past 6 months we've also had 4 Mola Mola encounters
Unfortunately some of the best action is either deep 30m ish, or hooked on to a point in screaming current Diving this area with a single Al 80 will neither give you the best diving experience (unless you're shallow and out of current) nor frankly is sensible if the current is blowing.
Personally I wouldn't' advise anyone to use the Aggressor for the Musandam, they don't know the area (as proved by your post) and even more, don't know what they don't know about the area and conditions
