Nice to see a busy Dive Bar last Tuesday. With Christmas approaching, I was expecting a low turnout but instead a lot of folks came out to have a drink with us – next week as well I hope!

It would also be nice to report a fabulous dive on the Dara on Friday and for the benefit of Forrester (last heard of knocking back the amber nectar to excess on Thursday night) I shall of course be reporting whale sharks, sunfish and mermaids. The reality was unfortunately a bit different. Simon and Sarah were first down the line but surfaced 12 minutes later reporting a howling current, zero viz and the wreck covered in nets. At that point Peter and I decided that there were probably better things to do on a Friday morning.

The anchor still had to be retrieved so Simon and Sarah went back down and freed it successfully, though with warnings not to take chances. It would probably have been lost otherwise since they had no idea whereabouts they were on the wreck. When conditions are a bit more favorable I think a net clearing dive is called for. One for the new year.

BSAC 406 would like to wish its members and friends – past and present – a very happy Christmas!

After a patchy record of late, it was good to get back in the water again albeit with a few problems along the way. Thursday night was Janette and Ken’s barbecue at their place in Ras Al Khaimah and very good it was too. We all had a few “beverages”, in some cases a few more than sensible but we all made it up on Friday morning ready to go diving. Not before an excellent breakfast was served, however.

We launched from Al Hamra Marina which is just round the corner from Janette and Ken’s place and the target was the Rig Supply Vessel, 10km offshore. I can’t remember ever diving it before so this was new territory. The vessel was a deliberate sinking as a reef for the fishermen so there little prospect of lots of brass portholes but you never know.

Anchored on the wreck Mike spotted a turtle on the surface apparently coming up for air. It didn’t seem to want go back down which turned out to be because the “turtle” was actually a piece of industrial footwear floating on the surface. Better luck under water maybe! Unfortunately the viz turned out to be seriously bad – of the order of 0.5m – 1m. We groped around the wreck for 40 minutes or so but apart from five or six batfish in the bridge area there was not much to see.

At this point Ken and Carolyn were preparing for their dive. Carolyn remarked that the strong current had dropped to nothing – we were obviously on slack water. It was only when they were over the side that the reason for the sudden slack water became obvious – the anchor line had disappeared and we were no longer connected to anything. “Who tied off?” Richard sheepishly raised his hand. Richard, you should understand is former Royal Navy. “Bet you never did that with your submarine!”. Richard duly received a 10 dirham fine. It might have been a bit more if he’d lost HMS Vanguard I would think.

Janette volunteered to retrieve the lost anchor and we found the wreck again and threw the spare anchor down this time attached to a buoy. Unfortunately, without anyone noticing the buoy became fouled in the boat engines causing the anchor to drag. At the second time of asking the operation was successful and we headed back to shore.

At this point I would like you to consider the “banana theory”. According to Carolyn, it’s unlucky to have bananas on a dive boat, this theory apparently having its origins in a particularly troublesome day of diving some years ago. As an engineer I have trouble believing that the chances of a problem free day out are in any way influenced by the presence of a curved and yellow fruit. However, if there is any truth in it, I am happy to blame our problems on Sami and Marc who were seen consuming the offending edible object.

While this was going on, Joff, Nick and Val, Peter Blanchflower and a couple of other former divers now returning to the fold were doing a dive of their own up in the Musandam. According to Nick they were looking for another stone anchor using a metal detector although I might have misheard this.

Sami has completed 50 dives with the club and would like to celebrate tomorrow night by sharing a small glass of the fizzy stuff. I’m sure we can help him.

After getting a dive away the previous week, we weren’t so lucky last weekend. Names on the board were a bit sparse to start with and with the forecast looking unpromising we cancelled. As it happened, the predicted shamal was later than expected to arrive so we could probably have got out somewhere but you can’t call them right every time. It would have been a bit lumpy in any case.

As I write it’s blowing a gale outside and I only hope it calms down before the weekend. Early year diving can be a bit problematic here. In 2008 the first two months were wiped out by the weather and even March wasn’t that great. In 2009 by contrast we did our first dive on January 1st and barely missed a weekend thereafter.

DSDC are doing a boat handling course on 2nd / 3rd March so if anyone is interested please let me know.

Burns Night is approaching – the night of haggis, whisky, bagpipes, men in skirts and incomprehensible poetry. Both DSDC and SWSC are doing Burns Suppers this Friday 27th January and tickets are available for both at Dhs 150 a time. Buy your Wanderers tickets at the bar (or email me and I’ll do it for you). For Dubai tickets contact Nancy Wakeham or Alissar (if you don’t have details, I can forward). All together now…

“Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o' the puddin-race!

Aboon them a' ye tak…”

After getting a dive away the previous week, we weren’t so lucky last weekend. Names on the board were a bit sparse to start with and with the forecast looking unpromising we cancelled. As it happened, the predicted shamal was later than expected to arrive so we could probably have got out somewhere but you can’t call them right every time. It would have been a bit lumpy in any case.

As I write it’s blowing a gale outside and I only hope it calms down before the weekend. Early year diving can be a bit problematic here. In 2008 the first two months were wiped out by the weather and even March wasn’t that great. In 2009 by contrast we did our first dive on January 1st and barely missed a weekend thereafter.

DSDC are doing a boat handling course on 2nd / 3rd March so if anyone is interested please let me know.

Burns Night is approaching – the night of haggis, whisky, bagpipes, men in skirts and incomprehensible poetry. Both DSDC and SWSC are doing Burns Suppers this Friday 27th January and tickets are available for both at Dhs 150 a time. Buy your Wanderers tickets at the bar (or email me and I’ll do it for you). For Dubai tickets contact Nancy Wakeham or Alissar (if you don’t have details, I can forward). All together now…

“Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o' the puddin-race!

Aboon them a' ye tak…”

pics from the Daha

We managed to get 2012 up and running last Friday – by the skin of our teeth. Of the original eight names on the board, five dropped out for reasons of varying degrees of plausibility. Robin was on his first dive with us and “missing some kit” seemed to be the easiest problem to overcome. A quick phone call and he was on his way, albeit by some circuitous route that managed to take in Ajman corniche on the way to Al Khan. Still he got there and the dive was on.

We had intended to go out to “Wreck X” aka “Brian’s Wreck” which we’ve never managed to dive on before despite several attempts. It’s about 46km offshore which means that sea conditions must be good. The forecast was promising but strong winds as we set off suggested that we might be in for a disappointment (again!). This was indeed the case but fortunately the direction of the wreck is such that there are a lot of “Plan B’s” on the way.

We decided to head for the Taha which is about 20km closer. On arrival we found good news and bad news. On the plus side, the current was virtually nil which always makes things easier but on the other hand, the viz was not very good at all. The fish life was good though. There were six or seven curious batfish swimming around the hold and at the bow there was a lot of large barracuda circling round gazing at the divers with their usual beady eyes. We did our bit for the environment by releasing some fish from some abandoned pots.

Robin used a novel method for getting back into the boat which I’m sure he’ll be happy to demonstrate on future dives. On the way back there was time for a sip or two of the amber nectar (thanks Sami!). Welcome to 2012!

As I mentioned last week, DSDC are doing a boat handling course on 2nd / 3rd March so if anyone is interested please let me know.

This is going to be a bit briefer than some of these reports because there isn’t much to report. With a lot of divers still getting over the New Year hangover and some others still out of the country, the board looked distinctly empty last Tuesday. The weather was also looking a bit unfriendly although it calmed down by Friday and we could probably have got out somewhere had we been able to fill a boat.

So…we’ll stick a dive up tonight and get 2012 up and running.

DSDC are doing a boat handling course on 2nd / 3rd March so if anyone is interested please let me know.