UAE East Coast Temperatures

[Searcaigh]

Still cold on the bottom (23C at 30m) - I know this is relative, but my buddy and I don't swim around to keep warm as others do as we are moving slowly looking for critters the size of a grain of rice.

Surface temps were low 40C and surface temperature of the water was 29C with a distinct thermocline at 10-11m.

On the way down I was mobbed again by Reticulated Filefish, which became a real pain as they were biting at the camera housing, strobes etc and blocking my view of some subjects.

When I was taking a series of shots of these shrimp (Thor amboinensis) I could also feel them biting my hood, gloves and dive computer straps.

Our second dive changed from Car Cemetery 2 to a new reef (Kalba Deep), which although nice to dive a new site I was not well prepared for, mainly as my camera set up was for macro (105mm lens with +10 Diopter) and a back gas of 40% for a 27m dive.

The reef was similar to Deep Reef and other reefs of that depth but nothing of note found on the 44 minute dive, except for this small crocodile fish. Other divers on the boat did find a seahorse though.

 

[hedonist222]

searcaigh, thank you for this lovely recap

 

[Searcaigh]

searcaigh, thank you for this lovely recap

You guys are locked up this weekend since AUH has closed its borders with the other Emirates.

 

[hedonist222]

Salt on the wound, Searcaigh. And not in pleasurable way like while diving lol.

I KNOW!!! I was planning on diving my first time this weekend.

 

[Searcaigh]

You can still dive off Abu Dhabi I believe.

 

[hedonist222]

true true and I may have to resort to doing such a thing if I cannot wait ...

 

[ScubaWithTurk]

You guys are locked up this weekend since AUH has closed its borders with the other Emirates.

Way to rub it in!!

 

[Searcaigh]

Back to Kalba yesterday for the first dive.

There is a constant jelly zone around 16-20m for the past couple of weeks, hundreds and no doubt thousands of them.

They are quite solid around the bell area and they sort of bounce off you should they hit you as you transit the zone.

Dive 2 was back to Car Cemetery 2, less than a metre of vis, we didn't venture far and found a few nudis laying eggs.

Trapania sp

Caloria militaris

Water still 23C on the bottom, 29C on deco / safety stops.

 

[Searcaigh]

well after a 62 day SI I was back in the water again riding on Barracuda's new boat BDC3, which is awesome and their biggest fast boat in Mohammed's fleet.

We reached Gunther's Wrecks from Fujairah fairly quickly, although I forgot to time it but from my GPS we were doing around 52.3 KPH and I was in the water by 09:30.

Bottom temperature was 26C with a distinct thermocline at 10m.

On the descent we were greeted by half a dozen large batfish all the way to the "wreckage" then my focus was more on finding a seahorse.

Unfortunately I was using my 105mm lens which is not a particularly good choice for the large seahorses that we have around here so this is not really the best shot I have taken of one.

Vis was good with 5m+

On the second dive the plan was to do the original Car Cemetery but there were two boats already on it when we arrived so the next choice was Inchcape 2, however some of the divers wanted a shallower dive as they were on air, so Hole in the Wall was selected.

When we arrived there were four boats at that site so we quickly decided to do Coral Garden about a km away and that's what turned out a great dive from my perspective.

Vis was around 10m which is as good a it gets here ever! and I found the perfect subject for my camera set up

Lots of citron gobies in the acropora coral around 8-10m depth and the shot above is probably the best out of 50

 

[hedonist222]

Lovely write up, Gordon.

I didn't dive as much this summer because of re-entry requirements into Abu Dhabi. I think I did about 4 weekends / 20 dives. Compared to about 80 dives last summer.

And I think last weekend will be my last dive till April. The water was just too cold for comfort. It distinctly dropped to 24/25 celcius at around 8 meters. Add do that a few sharp thermoclines.

I think I prefer a constant 24 degrees to a dive where we're in and out of 24 and 28 degrees haha.
Visibility was generally very poor this weekend.
We dived the New Reef (off of the Alaqqah beachline), took a trip to Anemone Gardens, and we managed to get Michaela to let us dive New Reef at night.
I wonder where all the slipper lobsters went? Last summer you could not swim further than 10 meters before seeing one. This summer I chanced upon a handful only.

A gentleman I frequently dive with brought a new toy! His UV light. What a magnificent experience.
There were three of us on the night dive, two on rebreathers and myself on the common nitrox. When we noticed his UV light and the fluorescence, we instinctively all turned off our lights and just dived in total darkness - other than the soft glow of corals from Yuri's UV light. I think this night dive of silent rebreathers and fluorescence was one of my best dives. We were swimming over an orchard of hammer coral. Breathtaking experience.