UAE West Coast Temperatures

[Searcaigh]

Another two hour dive at the Bridge this morning and a plethora of Goniobranchus obsoletus.



Although I had three buddies it was of all "same ocean" type as we were all involved in taking photos.

At one point the four of us did meet up, then lost each other again

My buddy Oliver is 2m in height, vis was one and a half Olivers

Small juvenile toadfish hiding in a hole.

 

[Searcaigh]

Couple of dives last week including a night dive that didn't really deliver, I think we went in too early just after sunset to be honest.

When kitting up for the night dive my HP hose blew as I turned on my valve, fortunately my buddy had a spare (short) HP hose with gauge, which I fitted and had to ask him a couple of times during the dive to read it for me. It was also in PSI

Loads of small cuttlefish around, but apart from that nothing exciting really. Water temp 35C

 

[Searcaigh]

Short 60 min dive at the Bridge this morning as I had a buddy who was a bit of an air hog with her AL80. Something I expected and didn't plan on any serious photography.

Water temp 35C

I used my TG6 today with the dome port and took this shot of the sea pens under the Bridge

 

[Searcaigh]

A couple of wreck dives with Bermuda diving this morning.

A fait bit of current running on the Neptune, but 10m of clear vis which was rather spectacular, half wishing I had brought my wide angle set up.

That said both the Neptune and the Nabouda were covered in nudis

Goniobranchus annulatus



Flabellina rubrolineata



Water temperature 34C

 

[Searcaigh]

Night dive last night and water temp 35C

Loads of toadfish moving around, some of them pretty huge 20-25cm



No pretty colourful stuff though, and the water temperature was becoming rather uncomfortable after an hour. At least there was no sun beating down on us when we exited but the humidity was high.

 

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Haven't posted in this thread for a while, although I have been doing a fair bit of diving on the west coast, some of which has been involved with UW cleanups as well as photographing stuff for a company that is building structures for an artificial reef off Abu Dhabi.

My usual dive site has become rather desolate of interesting life, but nothing really exciting to photograph

Water temps are now cooling down to 28C at the end of November, time for the 3mm and hood as two hour dives start to get cold.

There's still a lot of Yellowbar Angelfish, Pomacanthus maculosus, around and I have been lucky a few times to snap one of the juveniles



Occasionally finding a cuttlefish, but they are not as common as they used to be.

 

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First dive of the year at the Bridge this morning.

Air temp was 16 at the beginning of the dive and 20C when we exited.

Water temp was 21C and despite the difference from the air temp it felt cold once the water reached my nether regions.

I was also trying out a new Fourth Element Thermocline rash guard and surprisingly under my 5mm Waterproof W7 suit I was not uncomfortably cold, normally I'd be in a drysuit.

No major finds critter wise apart from a small pipefish, but there were two illegal fishing traps at P3 with no rope to the surface, so we opened them and let the fish free.

 

[hedonist222]

Yes it was cold yesterday as well.
21° to 22° in deep reef.
I also have Waterproof W7, a Cressi hoodie with heat retention internal material, gloves, i wear dive socks under my 5mm rock boots. And I was still cold.
Plus, jelly fish stung my lips, so they were really the only organ explicitly exposed to the element. I could be coerced into sharing a selfie on what's app haha.

So I skipped the second dive to Dragan's dismay.
He was also extra peeved when i told him I'm actually going to meet Zlatan and Indiana in Wadi Showka.
They'd built a nice ravaging fire!

 

[Searcaigh]

21C this morning at the Bridge, diving with my buddy (and spare pair of eyes) Vickie.

I was pretty comfortable in my 7mm but Vickie in her 5mm called the dive at around 50 mins and we surfaced after 71 mins.

For the first 30 mins or so we were followed by two small (20cm) cuttlefish, although we encountered several others some larger during the dive.





Vickie then found a couple of what I think is a Trinchesia sp., still to be confirmed.

 

[hedonist222]

Vickie and hubby had snow jackets with fur hoodies on during last week's trip to Musandam haha.