Eid Mubarak
It's HOT
Damn HOT, crikey I almost burnt myself washing my gear yesterday after the dive at Fujairah Marina.
52C / 125F
Strangely enough it was not humid as Saturday was when we did some shore diving (110 and 84 min dives), I drank about 5 litres and didn't pee.
Yesterday we were back at Barracuda after several months having been diving other sites further north, and strangely even though it is Eid only four of us on the boat, although today I believe they have 25 divers booked and both fast boats and the dhow are going out, not my ideal day out though unless I am diving a site away from the masses.
So on the boat was my usual buddy Kerstin and two Kuwaiti ladies. A quick chat revealed one was a Rescue Diver and the other AOW, so the choice of dive sites Inch 10 and Car Cemetery 2 were well within their capabilities.
The first question they asked us though was "which one of you is the instructor?"
Kerstin and I both replied none of us ... we are just photographers.
Apparently neither of them had dived on their own before and had always had an instructor (and I expect a DM / guide) on all of their dives, how bizarre, so wake up and smell the coffee ladies today you're on your own!
We did give them briefings at both sites, it's not difficult to navigate around Inch 10, you can't really get lost. They were also both on air so short bottom times for both of them too.
Both of us splashed and accompanied them down through the mass of fish around the mooring line, which has been re-located slightly and I dropped close to the sand off the starboard bow staring at a seahorse whilst adjusting my camera and trim.
Moving round the bow to the port side there were several
Hypselodoris dolfusi, probably celebrating Eid too
At the stern there were around 4/5 crocodile fish .... they kept moving around it was difficult to keep track.
plus a massive electric ray too big for me to capture using the 60mm lens but it was close to a meter in diameter, the largest I have ever seen. Something to be aware of when diving this wreck as many times they are buried up to their eyes and anyone kneeling on the bottom might get a surprise.
There were a few more
dolfusis, and as well as loads of
Caloria sp however the only other nudi I spotted was a
Hyspselodoris kanga
After our SI we moved on to CC2 and had another pleasant dive with hundreds of
Caloria indica and
Caloria militaris, they were everywhere.
But my shot of the day is this small spindle cowrie that was moving around and well out of it's shell