OP
Dive with Barracuda ..... let's take this convo offline
UAE East Coast Temperatures
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OP
Yesterday's dives were a mixed bag.
Ruby Reef and Three Cars.
After 20 mins I thumbed the first dive having not managed to get below 15m. My ears just wouldn't clear.
As soon as all of the other divers were back on board we headed to Three Cars. I changed my tank and splashed. Took me 5 mins but I got there albeit slowly (24m).
The site wasn't that brilliant with only a few nudis and soon the vis went to pot when the other divers came down. But as they were all on air and already with a 24m dive earlier I was left with my same ocean buddy / photographer (breathing EAN40).
I signalled to her that I was about to head up, happy with a 60 min bottom time but couldn't find the shot line!
I knew roughly where it was but there was no sign of it.
So with no other option I shot my DSMB and ascended. Looking up from 10m I noticed some divers and one of them was hanging onto the shot line .... WTF!!
Back on board after we were de-kitting, I took the diver aside and had a quiet word with him and mentioned that a shot line should not be held as it's not anchored to anything, and that his action along with the mild current, had dragged the shot away from the dive site, something that he appeared totally unaware of. Hopefully he has learned from this.
Favourite shot of the day, wire coral goby.
Ruby Reef and Three Cars.
After 20 mins I thumbed the first dive having not managed to get below 15m. My ears just wouldn't clear.
As soon as all of the other divers were back on board we headed to Three Cars. I changed my tank and splashed. Took me 5 mins but I got there albeit slowly (24m).
The site wasn't that brilliant with only a few nudis and soon the vis went to pot when the other divers came down. But as they were all on air and already with a 24m dive earlier I was left with my same ocean buddy / photographer (breathing EAN40).
I signalled to her that I was about to head up, happy with a 60 min bottom time but couldn't find the shot line!
I knew roughly where it was but there was no sign of it.
So with no other option I shot my DSMB and ascended. Looking up from 10m I noticed some divers and one of them was hanging onto the shot line .... WTF!!
Back on board after we were de-kitting, I took the diver aside and had a quiet word with him and mentioned that a shot line should not be held as it's not anchored to anything, and that his action along with the mild current, had dragged the shot away from the dive site, something that he appeared totally unaware of. Hopefully he has learned from this.
Favourite shot of the day, wire coral goby.
OP
Not as much diving going on at the moment for me since I returned from Bali, although I did spend a week in Cyprus with a few dives on the Zenobia.
Prior to that it's only been a few shore dives off non-commercial beaches looking for small stuff.
Last Friday I went out again with Barracuda along with my daughter and regular buddy Kerstin.
The biggest challenge at the moment is dealing with the temperature changes.
Air temps were 43C, surface water temps were 30C, thermocline at around 10m took us to 23C all the way to the bottom at 26m.
A 5mm was perfect in the water since we were doing >60 min total dive times, but at the beginning while struggling into the suits, sweat was just pouring off me.
Ruby Reef was great for vis (~10m), but Inchcape 10 was a disaster below 12m with only 2-3M vis and lots of these microscopic cylindrical particles appearing in my macro photos again. I still have no idea what they are.
On the way back as we crossed the Sharjah desert the temps rose to 49C. Both Kerstin and my daughter were fast asleep, and I struggled to stay awake.
Prior to that it's only been a few shore dives off non-commercial beaches looking for small stuff.
Last Friday I went out again with Barracuda along with my daughter and regular buddy Kerstin.
The biggest challenge at the moment is dealing with the temperature changes.
Air temps were 43C, surface water temps were 30C, thermocline at around 10m took us to 23C all the way to the bottom at 26m.
A 5mm was perfect in the water since we were doing >60 min total dive times, but at the beginning while struggling into the suits, sweat was just pouring off me.
Ruby Reef was great for vis (~10m), but Inchcape 10 was a disaster below 12m with only 2-3M vis and lots of these microscopic cylindrical particles appearing in my macro photos again. I still have no idea what they are.
On the way back as we crossed the Sharjah desert the temps rose to 49C. Both Kerstin and my daughter were fast asleep, and I struggled to stay awake.
Dan
Contributor
Thanks for the update.
How’s the recent commotion in the strait of Hormuz affecting the diving in Fujairah & Musandam?
How’s the recent commotion in the strait of Hormuz affecting the diving in Fujairah & Musandam?
OP
I don't know about Musandam, but it doesn't appear to have affected diving from Fujairah Marina at the moment.
I did hear that Simon from XR Hub had a boat out diving the Ines a couple of weeks ago, which I found strange due to the fact that the wreck is in the middle of a tanker parking lot!
The front end of the Ines was found recently too, about 300m from the main part of the wreck.
We were right up north over Eid on the Quions. We did hear some brief larger caliber gunfire and decided to retreat. Small arms fire is common with all the smuggler boats around, but this was different. It could of course just be practice as there is a practice area marked on the charts.
We chose to move south a bit.
In other news on Fanaku we had a Very Large shark swim by (less than 3m from me). Even reef sharks are scarce, over 12 trips per year we encounter a handful of them at the most. We see more Whale Sharks and possibly more Mola Mola's than reef sharks
Anyway back on the boat the book came out and it was positively ID's as an adult Bull shark!
It was certainly over 2m
There was some relief we didn't' realise this underwater as our scooter are of little use in outrunning one - although you could always ram it in it mouth
Fab to see one in these waters though
We chose to move south a bit.
In other news on Fanaku we had a Very Large shark swim by (less than 3m from me). Even reef sharks are scarce, over 12 trips per year we encounter a handful of them at the most. We see more Whale Sharks and possibly more Mola Mola's than reef sharks
Anyway back on the boat the book came out and it was positively ID's as an adult Bull shark!
It was certainly over 2mThere was some relief we didn't' realise this underwater as our scooter are of little use in outrunning one - although you could always ram it in it mouth
Fab to see one in these waters though
OP
Seems all diving off the east coast was cancelled due to the possibility of an idiot lighting the blue touch paper.
Thankfully nothing happened but we had to make do with a shore dive off Dubai.
I understand that the US Navy don't want a repeat of the USS Cole incident off Yemen, but with their shoot first ask questions later attitude isn't worth the risk
Given that local fishing boats, and dive boats for that matter, don't carry radios here doesn't help, but the Fujairah CG could have limited the diving to Inch 10, CC2 or 3 Cars which would have kept me happy.
Thankfully nothing happened but we had to make do with a shore dive off Dubai.
I understand that the US Navy don't want a repeat of the USS Cole incident off Yemen, but with their shoot first ask questions later attitude isn't worth the risk
Given that local fishing boats, and dive boats for that matter, don't carry radios here doesn't help, but the Fujairah CG could have limited the diving to Inch 10, CC2 or 3 Cars which would have kept me happy.
Dan
Contributor
Thanks for the update. We plan to dive in Fujairah area on 2, 3, 4 of September. Please keep us posted on what's going on there.
OP
OP
Well at last temperatures are rising, although yesterday the bottom temp on Deep Reef was still 23C at 29m there was a degree of difference at 27m.
On Three Cars we had 25C, woo hoo, it might be time to change over to my 3mm at last.
Deep Reef was good but there is at the moment in the water column some opaque visibility from about 8m to 20m then it clears up again with a good 5m+ visibility.
We did find a lot of nudis on both sites and a plethora of Diaphorodoris mitsuii on Three Cars
The most entertaining nudi of the day was a Caloria militaris who was moving and munching on coral polyps.
On Three Cars we had 25C, woo hoo, it might be time to change over to my 3mm at last.
Deep Reef was good but there is at the moment in the water column some opaque visibility from about 8m to 20m then it clears up again with a good 5m+ visibility.
We did find a lot of nudis on both sites and a plethora of Diaphorodoris mitsuii on Three Cars
The most entertaining nudi of the day was a Caloria militaris who was moving and munching on coral polyps.
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