Diving MV Taha & the Anchor barge

The original intention last weekend was to head out to WreckX, so named because no-one knows what it’s really called. It was located by Brian Lugg and at 35m it’s one of the deeper ones that we do. The other statistic is that it’s 43km offshore meaning that the weather has to co-operate which last weekend it unfortunately didn’t. There was a big swell which although not uncomfortable, brought the speed of the boat down to the point where it would have taken too long to get there.

As a fallback we went to the Taha instead. Same direction but closer. The Taha has now been down about two years and was an Iranian registered cargo ship carrying tyres, diesel engine oil and bags of concrete when it fell over for reasons unknown. The ship’s radar adorns the roof of the dive bar and even turns when connected to a battery. On the whole though, the vessel seems to have been constructed with more than half an eye on economy and early hopes of a brass festival came to nothing. The fish like it though and there’s always plenty of mostly small stuff with what seems to be a family of batfish who like to hang out around the bridge section. There’s a nice (if a bit tight) swim through from the hold into the engine room and out the other side. The bridge is easily accessible.

By the time we’d finished at the Taha, the sea had flattened out and we went the Anchor Barge for a change rather than Karen’s Dhow which would have been closer. The Anchor Barge is big measuring around 80m x 30m and not particularly interesting apart from an opening on one side allowing access into the wreck. Care must be taken as although the spaces are wide open, you can swim around one corner too many quite easily. Lines should be used if going through more than one opening. Back outside the wreck, I was looking at the barracuda over my head when an eagle ray swam past. Very nice.