Diving and AGM

Peter and Cathy’s 100th dives 25 June

Peter and Cathy’s 100th dives on the 25th took place in the Wanderers pool because of the blowy weather condition. Not quite what we had in mind but Peter was good enough to organize a BBQ for the occasion and this was washed down with some Bollinger I had acquired at the duty-free and other beverages. If you’re going to celebrate, do it properly!

Zainab and Jassim 18 June:

After a week or two of repairs, 312 has now had its engines overhauled, its steering repaired and has new upholstery. 

With the boat in Dubai anyway (having had the steering fixed) Mike took the opportunity to go out to the Zainab and Jassim and gave the following report"

The Jassim is 75km from Umm Sequem 2 harbour so it took a while to get there. We had some problems actually finding the wreck but nevertheless had an enjoyable dive. It is a big ship with lots of swim throughs. We then headed 17km back towards Dubai for the Ludwig but although we spotted it briefly on the echo sounder at least twice we could not find it. We even input some other coordinates obtained from Peter's Underwater Explorer book but that did not lead us to the wreck either. Seeing as enough petrol might well have been an issue if we carried on searching we decided to go to the Zainab instead and so now, with Brian Lugg driving, we arrived there and tied up to the mooring system installed by Pavillion Diving. (This is the dive centre of the Jumeira Beach hotel). The viz was not too bad and all had enjoyable dives.

And so we adjourned back to a very crowded Umm Sequem 2 in much calmer seas and I took the boat back to Yamaha where it is hopefully getting all the various accumulated damages to the gel coat sorted out and the seats re-upholstered - oh and the steering correctly assembled so that it has equal lock to both sides! We spent Friday with maybe a quarter of the normal steering on the portside which gave me a very anxious moment in the harbour when first manoeuvring it away from the quaywall. Only swift action with the throttles saved us clouting another boat's propeller.

Divers Allisar and Brian Lugg, Peter Jackson and Brian Kirman, Derek Roberts and his son Darryl, Forrester De Sa and Mike participated. (by Mike Anthony)

Mariam Express and the Bigpro 11 June

After a couple of blank weeks the weather relented and we took a full boat (nine divers) out to the Mariam Express and the Bigpro dhow on Friday the 4th. The Mariam is not what it was a couple of years ago but it still makes for an interesting dive. A few china sets are still available in the hold although not so many now. Uwe is still plotting a way back into the engine room but this will be very tricky.

The Bigpro is a small dhow apparently unknown to the spear fisherman as there’s usually some big fish on it, particularly barracuda, jacks and rays. A nice dive to finish.

The first weekend of June, Cyclone Phet hit the east coast whilst conditions on this side were not quite so spectacularly bad but still far too rough to contemplate taking the boat out.

We held the AGM on the 1 June. 
The committee is now as follows:
Chairman – Brendan D’Souza
Diving Officer – Ian Hussey
Boats – Mike Anthony
Equipment – Uwe Oldenburg
Membership Secretary – Cathy Terry
Treasurer – Peter Jackson
Uwe has trained Derek Roberts on equipment, ready for a handover. Mike and Brendan will look after the compressors between them. Brendan will continue as Training Officer with assistance from myself. Immense debts of gratitude are owed to outgoing compressor king, Dave de Marneffe, and money man Jorg Bley. Thanks for your hard work guys.