Monster Barracuda, Leopard Ray and a plea for support

Last Friday’s diving looked promising: good weather, neap tides, calm seas and two full boats – what more could we want? Well the SP125 registration card would have been nice. Unfortunately instead of sitting in the green folder in the boat it was lying on a certain Boat Officer’s kitchen table. The coastguard didn’t accept our plea of mitigation and two boats became one at this point. Enormous thanks to Dan and Neil who volunteered to go and drink beer instead of diving.

The dive itself was memorable. Getting hooked on was a bit of a hassle with a strong current and no echo sounder, the transducer having fallen off. We threw the anchor at the zero coordinate and Mike jumped in and tied the anchor line to the stern end. The viz was excellent and there were monster barracuda, leopard rays, a large group of batfish and lots of other smaller fish. The wreck itself has only been down a couple of months but the fish have already found it. A return visit is planned next week weather permitting.

The week following, 8th April, will be the Dara 50th anniversary barbecue on the beach. DSDC and ADSAC are participating so it should be a good day. Don’t miss it!

This photo shows the vets team taken a couple of weeks ago. Thanks to Lamjed for sending it to me. Others will be going on the web site shortly. The usual suspects are:
Back row: Suzy Cottam, Val Bates, Nick Bates, Clive Frost, Peter Blanchflower, Geoff Taylor, Stevie Macleod.
Middle row: Rob Gough, Karen Adamson, Harry Adamson, Mary Taylor, Yvonne Parker, Graham Wilson, Lamjed El Kefi
Front row kneeling: Joff Cottam, Dee Gregory, John Gregory, Laith Haboubi

One of our number, Geoff Patch is off to Everest Base Camp shortly. I don’t know how much diving he’ll get in (do the BSAC tables stretch to 5,500m?) but maybe that’s not the priority for this trip. Let Geoff tell it:

“Just a quick update regarding my EBC trek. Just two weeks to go before my nephew and I set off for Nepal and preparations are coming along nicely! We depart from Sharjah on 8th April for Kathmandu, where we will spend the night before the short flight to Lukla (2800m) and the start of the trek in earnest. Day time temperatures in Lukla are currently hitting 2 degrees Celsius, dropping to -10 degrees at night and will only get colder as we gain altitude on the trek to Base Camp! Recent weekend hikes in the Hajar Mountains are helping with fitness and the ‘Altivit’ vitamin supplements I’ve started taking will hopefully help me cope with the altitude in Nepal. Headaches, nausea, sleep deprivation, fatigue – I’ll be glad to get away from that and start the trek! In all seriousness I am looking forward to breath-taking scenery, an amazing experience and raising money for a good cause.

I am hoping to raise some money for the Bobby Moore Fund for Cancer Research UK and I'd really appreciate your support. It's easy to donate online with a credit or debit card - simply go to my JustGiving page:http://www.justgiving.com/Geoff-Patch

JustGiving sends your donation straight to the Fund and automatically reclaims Gift Aid on all eligible donations, so what you give is worth even more.  I hope you'll join me in supporting the Bobby Moore Fund for Cancer Research UK.

Through the generosity of family, friends and colleagues (many thanks to those of you who have already shown your support by donating), over £2,500 has been raised so far, which takes me closer towards my target of £5,000 (about €6,500 or Dhs 33,000). Some way to go yet, but heading in the right direction.”