UAE East Coast Temperatures

[Searcaigh]

Dibba Rock had 25C thermoclines today, had to use a hood on the second dive …. brrrr

Visibility was pretty bad on the second dive 2-3M but nonetheless plenty of life around when we eventually made it to the mooring as the Palm Dive Center's boat broke down!

Highlight was observing two (peacock?) flounders mating. The male moved under the smaller female then they ascended into the water column similar to what mandarin fish do. I must say it caught me by surprise and did not manage to photograph the act, but here is a photo of the male

 

[Simon-]

Scuba Voyeurism !!!!

 

[BoltSnap]

Peeping Tom you!!!

 

[Searcaigh]

Scuba Voyeurism !!!!

Well isn't that what observing critters is all about

 

[Searcaigh]

Another attempt at diving the Ines yesterday proved to be unsuccessful

We were second on the wreck and they had already put the shot line over, which we followed to near enough the bottom when;

1. The Ines was nowhere in sight despite a good 25-30M visibility
2. The shot line decided to break, it appeared to be composed of three separate lines tied together.

We decided to ascend as we were at 55M in a fairly strong current and basically in the blue.

One of my buddies was on a rebreather and both myself and my other buddy were using twin AL80s with a 20/35 mix



Mark, on the rebreather also had some issue with his O2 PO2 rising and had to sort that out too.

Back on the surface 63 minutes later due to a 20M stop at 6M, we discovered that the other boat had drifted off, Glen from CTD informed us that they had engine problems … not a good scenario when you are diving a major parking lot for huge tankers and cargo ships with service boats running in and out from Fujairah.

Long story short (weather was also picking up) my other buddy Pikey, had to jump overboard with a knife and cut the rope from the props that had not only jammed the engine props but also prevented the engines from being raised. Allowing a 20M bow line to stay in the water appeared to have been the reason. :shocked2:

We hung around until the first diver from the other boat was back aboard, then headed to Inchape 10 where the visibility was dreadful and not conducive to wide angle photography.

 

[MasterChief D]

Must have been my evil eye, as we were supposed to dive the Ines together

 

[Searcaigh]

Ha ha …. in the meantime Gemma was diving with a whaleshark in Oman ….. bloody Murphy, she sent me the pics last night

 

[ScubaRose]

Where was this whaleshark?! We still haven't seen any this season! :'(

Had to cancel the dives last Saturday due to waves. 17 knot gusts - no fun.

 

[Searcaigh]

Where was this whaleshark?! We still haven't seen any this season! :'(

Had to cancel the dives last Saturday due to waves. 17 knot gusts - no fun.

The "Aquarium" at the Damaniyats

 

[Simon-]

In keeping with the general unsuccessful theme of the last couple of posts, my camera flooded at Octopus Rock :depressed:

Managed a few nice shots the day before though