The Arabia

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diverlady

Contributor
Messages
669
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Location
GTA, Ontario Canada
# of dives
200 - 499
I got to dive the Arabia on Sunday!! I've wanted to do that wreck for a couple of years now and finally got the chance. My club had a charter for the weekend with quite a few new divers on board which made the whole situation rather amusing.

At first there were 6 of us that were going to dive it but then 2 (one of which is a divemaster) dropped out. So, down to 4 me being the only female which surprised me since there at least 1/3 of the group were women. One new diver (female) came up to me and said I was "sooo brave!" LOL!! By then, the stories of the fatalities have circulated and I'm sure, been embellished. Also, rumours about my buddy have issues with being narced or doing some weird stuff at depth during one dive earlier in the season started to fly and so that added to the whole "DANGEROUS" thing as well as the idea/fact that the colder the water the more easily divers get narced. I have no idea if that is actually the case or not. There was some discussion about who would be Rescue Diver so that totally added to the awe of the newer divers. Our gear was triple checked by the divemaster and in we went.

We decided to all stick together, more or less so we headed down the stern line. I did feel a bit dizzy or some kind of slight vertigo on the way down (starting at about 25ft) but it didn't get worse with depth and by the time I hit the mooring block and had some points of reference other than just the line, all was fine. It's a nice wreck with plenty to see on it (in my opinion) and I would love to go again. Topside, there were apparently 20 sets of eyes watching our bubbles (commenting that we were all more or less together) and worrying about us while we were pleasantly exploring.
There was a boat moored on the bow line and the plan was they were going to get off the line when their divers were up and our boat would move so we were to come up the bow line. Having never been on the wreck, I didn't know exactly where that was but my buddy did (not that I was completely confident due to the vague info of his troubles circulating) but one of the other divers also knew where it was so all was fine. My buddy was always withing 4 feet of me although we lost sight of the other divers a couple of times only to see them come to form in murky water a few moments later. It was 41F at depth so I was REALLY happy to have a drysuit on! One diver was in a wetsuit. The other buddy pair came across 3 weightbelts and tried to bring one up but dropped it as it was too heavy for him to risk it. Good call but for the fact that he slid it down the line where it nearly knocked me off!! I grabbed it thinking that one of them had lost their belt but obviously not. My buddy then grabbed it and thought the same thing!
Anyway, we all made it to the surface without incident although the boat was NOT moored there!! Apparently the other boat's tech divers surfaced just before we did so our boat didn't have the chance to move. Well, the tech divers were impressive to the newbies on our boat with their doubles and extra equipment which added to the aura of the dive and I'm sure I heard a collective sigh of relief when we all finally surfaced together. I wasn't too impressed having to surface swim back to the boat but you do what you have to! The dm threw us a lifebuoy and pulled us all the final few metres.

All in all, it was a good dive with safety and awareness being the key to keeping it an injury-free weekend.

(I think I jumped up a few notches in the eyes of the newbies as I noticed a surprising increase in the number of questions about diving, drysuits, emergencies etc. directed my way after that. Hopefully, all the new divers will take home the point of being safety-conscious instead of recalling who actually did the dive)

Diverlady

FTR - I found out today what really happened with my buddy that lead to the rumours which I won't go into details about. Suffice it to say, that it was pretty much a one-time thing that spooked the 20yr diving vet and I certainly have no issues with buddying up with him again :)
 
Yo!

Some wrecks are more suited for persons with experience but in our diving community of today many unskilled scooby duers feel they can do any wreck dive because they have OMS, Abysmal or Halcyon gear on there backs and don't have the gonads to call a dive when they know they shouldn't being diving it in front of strangers on a dive boat. Dive to your experience only.

D M I
 
Hi Diverlady.

I was on The Arabia on Sunday as well. Monday, too. Love that wreck! I think we managed to get there before any other charters which was nice.

& it is definitely a wreck where it's nice to have a buddy you trust.

Wonder if we 'bumped' into one another and didn't realize it.

Paula
 
Possibly, we were there at the same time on Sunday morning. There was a boat moored on the bow line with tech divers and we were on the stern. Did you happen to notice 4 divers doing a surface swim back to the stern line?

Diverlady
 
diver_paula once bubbled...
it is definitely a wreck where it's nice to have a buddy you trust.


hehehe, yep, it sure is! ;)

I Didn't see you there Diverlady, but then , I did have other things on my mind ;)

We were actually there twice on the weekend, sunday and monday mornings, Sunday we were the first boat on the wreck, the "deep obsession"

(which BTW, is a fantastic operation!)
 
WHAT?!?! You didn't see me?!?! You couldn't pick me out from all the other black-neoprened, bulky forms decked out in dive gear?? :confused: LOL

We were on the Spears (G&S - yuck! -see below). I didn't notice which boat was there when we got there.

(G&S "forgot" to tell the boat captain on Sat morning that he had a charter that day! So we ended up waiting around for the captain to get back from fishing that morning. )

Diverlady
 
The Arabia is one of my favourite dives.
I've been diving on the wreck for over 20 years, and have logged over 30 dives on it. It is still a pleasure to dive on, and I missed not getting up to Tobermory this year. The water is cold, and deep, and there can even be a current flowing across her. Visibiltiy can be 50 feet some days and 10 on another.
Of all the wecks in Fathom 5 park area, I'd pick the Arabia, Forrest City and Niagra II as my favourites.

Mike D
 
canuckdiver once bubbled...



hehehe, yep, it sure is! ;)

I Didn't see you there Diverlady, but then , I did have other things on my mind ;)

We were actually there twice on the weekend, sunday and monday mornings, Sunday we were the first boat on the wreck, the "deep obsession"

(which BTW, is a fantastic operation!)

Agree with you on the assessment of the Deep Obsession Adam: Great captain and a very ship-shape operation... absolutely one of the highlighted boats out of little tub... The other is the Dawn Light... food's good too... they even serve vegetarians like me!!!!
 
Nice dive on the Arabia, diverlady! Sounds like you got a charge out of it.

Not smart to drag the extra weight belt up and then drop it without ditching it properly. Could have snagged you or your buddy. Not smart.

I have friends who say it is a nice night dive. I have done it three times so far, the last time, at dawn, a few weeks ago. There was a half knot current bow to stern. It's easy to lose sight of your buddy on that ship.
 
Doppler once bubbled...


The other is the Dawn Light... food's good too... they even serve vegetarians like me!!!!

Oh no!! Doppler has brought up vegetarianism. Now someone is going to accuse him of copying the vegan meal plan and a regulator will come in split the thread and rename it "veganism versus vegetarianism on board the arabia" or "arab vegans vs the coastal vegetarians of Tobermory"!!

AAAArrgh!! Run for your lives!!!

:D

Diverlady
 

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