So, best made plans etc.
Our Friday dives were arranged back at Al Jazeera Diving with plans to dive a wreck called the Ajman Glory (29m) followed by a second dive on Artificial Reef (10m) set up by Al Jazeera.
The nice thing about diving from there is of course it’s closer to Dubai, and on a Friday morning around 60 mins dive compared to 90-120 minutes to the east coast.
Also, we know the dive crew and who is diving, with the occasional new person, but usually they are competent divers so no issues there. Yes, we are a picky bunch but it matters. If you bring somebody new along then you are responsible for them.
The only downside is that the wrecks here are about 30-40 mins boat ride away minimum and it’s getting hot. We had 39C air temps but the water is around 25, so while the initial plunge is refreshing, it starts to get a lot cooler after 30 mins and we are doing 60 mins minimum.
After about 4 attempts we eventually snag the wreck and the first two divers go down and set up a loop of line using a lift bag and the boat ties on to that. Main reason is that if somebody comes off the wreck and shoots a bag to be picked up then the boat can unhitch and collect the divers with the shot line/loop still in place.
My buddy Kerstin decides that we should be last in. Ha ha, normally we are first in and last out, but hey it gives us more space to gear up. It’s also a full moon and we watch divers drop off near the bow and they are almost at the stern when they surface due to a strong surface current. A rope is set out to assist pulling any diver back to the bow if required.
As we are finalizing our gear and arranging our stages the dive boat is surrounded by dolphins. I manage to get a couple of shots with my compact Canon then they are gone. I am also shooting video on this dive using an Olympus TG5 set in movie mode with a wide-angle dome and hoping that perhaps we will see them underwater …. This didn’t happen so no video link for that
The dive was pretty uneventful to be honest, and I really didn’t get any decent video in the end either as somehow I managed to be shooting in slow motion
Anyway, some nice schools of barracuda, jack and half a dozen batfish, but visibility was about 3-5m max and lots of stuff floating by.
As soon as we surfaced and boarded, the boatman pulled up the loop of line and we drifted off the wreck.
Both Kerstin and I moved to the rear to grab a sandwich and some drinks after de-kitting and nothing much was happening. The other 5 divers were chatting away and the boatman was looking a bit frantic moving to the back and pulling off the rear seat cover to inspect the battery compartment.
Neither engine would start, both batteries were dead!
We are now drifting with no power and my first thoughts were what if we had not found the line to the surface and had come up on our DSMBs? This could have been a long with and with stages and camera gear not an easy one!
It soon became apparent that we were going nowhere under our own steam. This boat does have a radio, but it’s Ramadan and the coast guard are ….. well “resting” plus there was barely any battery power to make it work.
Strangely enough we are still within cell phone coverage, just, and we contact the dive center to send a boat to help. However they will have to contact the owner, who is also “resting” as there is nobody else to drive any of the other boats, so this could take some time.
Kerstin removes one of the engine covers and checks to see if we had a piece of narrow rope perhaps we can manually start one of the engines. She knows a fair bit about engines for a girl (lol – sorry no offence to any women reading this). The boatman says this is not possible.
There are some large boats in the vicinity (talking about 200m long tankers here) but none close enough. After some time (90 mins?) we spot a dhow heading in our direction and everyone starts yelling and waving items of clothing to attract attention.
We are noticed, and it adjusts it’s heading and very expertly pulls alongside us. Nobody speaks English and we recognize Farsi as the spoken language. Fortunately our Indian boatman can communicate with them using some words, and two of the Iranian crew board us to help figure out what to do.
What transpires is that they take a bit of rope and strip it down to make it narrower and do exactly what Kerstin had suggested, but that does not immediately work.
Next, they shout some instructions to the guys on the dhow and it starts to tow us but we are not heading towards RAK or UAE. What’s going on? Iranian waters are not far away, are we being taken to Iran? Can we trade one or all of the of the three women as a payment to set us free?
The guys then set about manually starting one of the engines again and slap me with a kipper and call me Charlie, they manage to start one of the engines, much to all of our excitement.
Next, the line is disconnected to the dhow and under our own steam they repeat the action with the second engine. Success
All of us are very grateful and we come alongside the dhow to transfer the guys back, but we need to pay them. Only Kerstin has some money in her dry bag, I mean, who brings money on a dive boat! Mine is in my car, as I suspected everyone else left theirs on dry land too.
So perhaps we need to use one of the girls?
No, Kerstin’s 100 Dirhams (USD27.23) is good enough for them and we bid them farewell with many thanks, then head towards the second dive site, which is Artificial Reef.
Farewell to our rescuers
On arrival, we meet the dive center owner in another boat and report that all is well. However, he does not pass on a spare battery and we tie on to a mooring to dive in one of the strongest currents I have ever been in for some time.
All I can say it was not a pleasant dive at all, and even back on the boat the exhaust fumes from the two-stroke motors was making me nauseous so I ended up sitting on the boat breathing from my tank with my mask on as the others boarded. Once we got moving I felt a bit better but had to take some Volterin to deal with a splitting headache that was developing.
We had one American on board, Ernie, and he has promised to Tweet Donald to inform him that we were rescued by nice friendly Iranians and that economic sanctions should be lifted forthwith ……. watch this space
Our Friday dives were arranged back at Al Jazeera Diving with plans to dive a wreck called the Ajman Glory (29m) followed by a second dive on Artificial Reef (10m) set up by Al Jazeera.
The nice thing about diving from there is of course it’s closer to Dubai, and on a Friday morning around 60 mins dive compared to 90-120 minutes to the east coast.
Also, we know the dive crew and who is diving, with the occasional new person, but usually they are competent divers so no issues there. Yes, we are a picky bunch but it matters. If you bring somebody new along then you are responsible for them.
The only downside is that the wrecks here are about 30-40 mins boat ride away minimum and it’s getting hot. We had 39C air temps but the water is around 25, so while the initial plunge is refreshing, it starts to get a lot cooler after 30 mins and we are doing 60 mins minimum.
After about 4 attempts we eventually snag the wreck and the first two divers go down and set up a loop of line using a lift bag and the boat ties on to that. Main reason is that if somebody comes off the wreck and shoots a bag to be picked up then the boat can unhitch and collect the divers with the shot line/loop still in place.
My buddy Kerstin decides that we should be last in. Ha ha, normally we are first in and last out, but hey it gives us more space to gear up. It’s also a full moon and we watch divers drop off near the bow and they are almost at the stern when they surface due to a strong surface current. A rope is set out to assist pulling any diver back to the bow if required.
As we are finalizing our gear and arranging our stages the dive boat is surrounded by dolphins. I manage to get a couple of shots with my compact Canon then they are gone. I am also shooting video on this dive using an Olympus TG5 set in movie mode with a wide-angle dome and hoping that perhaps we will see them underwater …. This didn’t happen so no video link for that
The dive was pretty uneventful to be honest, and I really didn’t get any decent video in the end either as somehow I managed to be shooting in slow motion
Anyway, some nice schools of barracuda, jack and half a dozen batfish, but visibility was about 3-5m max and lots of stuff floating by.
As soon as we surfaced and boarded, the boatman pulled up the loop of line and we drifted off the wreck.
Both Kerstin and I moved to the rear to grab a sandwich and some drinks after de-kitting and nothing much was happening. The other 5 divers were chatting away and the boatman was looking a bit frantic moving to the back and pulling off the rear seat cover to inspect the battery compartment.
Neither engine would start, both batteries were dead!
We are now drifting with no power and my first thoughts were what if we had not found the line to the surface and had come up on our DSMBs? This could have been a long with and with stages and camera gear not an easy one!
It soon became apparent that we were going nowhere under our own steam. This boat does have a radio, but it’s Ramadan and the coast guard are ….. well “resting” plus there was barely any battery power to make it work.
Strangely enough we are still within cell phone coverage, just, and we contact the dive center to send a boat to help. However they will have to contact the owner, who is also “resting” as there is nobody else to drive any of the other boats, so this could take some time.
Kerstin removes one of the engine covers and checks to see if we had a piece of narrow rope perhaps we can manually start one of the engines. She knows a fair bit about engines for a girl (lol – sorry no offence to any women reading this). The boatman says this is not possible.
There are some large boats in the vicinity (talking about 200m long tankers here) but none close enough. After some time (90 mins?) we spot a dhow heading in our direction and everyone starts yelling and waving items of clothing to attract attention.
We are noticed, and it adjusts it’s heading and very expertly pulls alongside us. Nobody speaks English and we recognize Farsi as the spoken language. Fortunately our Indian boatman can communicate with them using some words, and two of the Iranian crew board us to help figure out what to do.
What transpires is that they take a bit of rope and strip it down to make it narrower and do exactly what Kerstin had suggested, but that does not immediately work.
Next, they shout some instructions to the guys on the dhow and it starts to tow us but we are not heading towards RAK or UAE. What’s going on? Iranian waters are not far away, are we being taken to Iran? Can we trade one or all of the of the three women as a payment to set us free?
The guys then set about manually starting one of the engines again and slap me with a kipper and call me Charlie, they manage to start one of the engines, much to all of our excitement.
Next, the line is disconnected to the dhow and under our own steam they repeat the action with the second engine. Success
All of us are very grateful and we come alongside the dhow to transfer the guys back, but we need to pay them. Only Kerstin has some money in her dry bag, I mean, who brings money on a dive boat! Mine is in my car, as I suspected everyone else left theirs on dry land too.
So perhaps we need to use one of the girls?
No, Kerstin’s 100 Dirhams (USD27.23) is good enough for them and we bid them farewell with many thanks, then head towards the second dive site, which is Artificial Reef.
Farewell to our rescuers
On arrival, we meet the dive center owner in another boat and report that all is well. However, he does not pass on a spare battery and we tie on to a mooring to dive in one of the strongest currents I have ever been in for some time.
All I can say it was not a pleasant dive at all, and even back on the boat the exhaust fumes from the two-stroke motors was making me nauseous so I ended up sitting on the boat breathing from my tank with my mask on as the others boarded. Once we got moving I felt a bit better but had to take some Volterin to deal with a splitting headache that was developing.
We had one American on board, Ernie, and he has promised to Tweet Donald to inform him that we were rescued by nice friendly Iranians and that economic sanctions should be lifted forthwith ……. watch this space
