Welcome All, 
​There was no diving the previous weekend as too many people were away, hence no email as I couldn’t think of anything intelligent to write (yes, very funny over there). 
No such problem this week; first a short message from Angela:








​That I can believe.
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Those of us who prefer the easy life took a boat out to the Dara on Friday. We had the full complement of eight divers on board including a couple of new faces and a pair of old hands.

The new faces belonged to Allan and Eiger, colleagues of Michelle, who were out with us for the first time. Please see the link below for Allan's video. They were great company and we hope they enjoyed themselves and hope to see them back diving with us in the future. The old hands belonged to Mike Anthony, back with us on his latest unretirement, this time for only three weeks unfortunately. He flew in on Thursday and was diving on Friday. No point in wasting time.

The sea was a bit choppy but nothing to get too worried about and we made good time out to the wreck. The viz was nothing special but we’ve seen a lot worse and the wreck remains reasonably clear of nets. The fish life was plentiful as normal.

Peter provides the following description:
After descent down starb’d side we turned left and slowly circuited the rear part of the hull. Entered The Cathedral which we explored extensively - finding the live dark brown cowrie I had found a month back. We lost each other as Denis swam out through the forward windows, and I exited through the side gash. Went back and found each other some minutes later. Viz was poorer than first dive - a lot more sand particles in water. Plenty of fish life - shoals of Snappers, particularly near the stern where we swam up around and through them. Above the Snappers invariably shoals of Fusiliers, smaller, but very colourful. Also, a shoal of small Trevally, and a small shoal of Persian Parrotfish. Nothing especially spectacular - but all in plenty, with Butterfly fish, Arabian Banner fish and plenty of Hermit crabs. Towards the end located a high-level entry (quite tight but doable) from the new swim-through below the keel-line. So we now have a new descent into The Cathedral.
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Meanwhile Mike and Brian were exploring the engine room, which is now more accessible than it’s been in the past.

We stayed where we were to do a second dive on the Dara. This followed a short discussion during which Brian told us his view and then told us our view. In truth, no-one minded and we had another good dive before heading back to base.
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On Saturday, a few of us did some exploring of another ship, this one above water in Mina Rashid. The tour was interesting but would have been better if some of the back-of-house locations like the bridge or the engine room had been accessible. This may be possible in the future we were told.

The QE2 would make an epic dive if the authorities would be good enough to sink it for us but somehow this doesn’t seem very likely.
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DAN insurance website: https://www.daneurope.org/home
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The Dive Club meets every Tuesday night in the Dive Bar.
See you there.
 

Welcome All,

​Please see below link for this weeks' video footage from The Dara. Go-Pro footage was filmed by Alan as you will see waving on camera. Thank you Alan.
 
Ian's ( Dive Officer ) weekly Dive Log will follow. 

Enjoy and please do join us at the club if you are interested in joining us on our weekly dive excursions. 

If you have any saved images or video's of dive sites around the UAE or indeed further afield that you would like to share, please get in touch. 
​

Welcome All, 

​Following on from the below feature of the MV Dara I've included some video footage filmed by Geoff in 2017. 

​BSAC 406 You Tube links can be found by following the below linked button.

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Welcome All,

We took a boat out at the weekend on an almost flat calm sea which doesn’t happen that often. The first target was the Sea King 5, a small cargo vessel sitting in about 30m of water off Sharjah, which went down in 2013 in mysterious circumstances. The general consensus is the sinking wasn’t entirely accidental, but no-one knows for sure.

It was spotted by Richard on a Notice to Mariners, this in the day when he was at Mina Khalid rather than Saudi Arabia. Always keen to look for new wrecks we went searching and eventually found it about 200m from the stated position, information that was duly conveyed to the Sharjah Harbour Master.

Back then, it was just a lump of metal. Please follow the link above for footage taken by our master of underwater filming Mr Peter. Stay tuned for some updated footage of the Sea King. 

Six years on, life has taken hold and it’s an attractive dive. Swimming through the cabin is possible but most of what can be seen is visible from the outside. The viz varied from excellent (top 10m) to very murky (below 10m) but we had a good dive for all that. The water was warm and the current was minimal.
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DAN insurance website: https://www.daneurope.org/home
--------------------------------
The Dive Club meets every Tuesday night in the Dive Bar.
See you there.

Welcome All, 

​I've split the Dive Logs into two separate features this week. The second dive this week was on the MV Dara. 

Ian reports;
​There’s been a lot of WhatsApp discussion on the Dara over the last week or so. The link below is an article published in the National in April 2011, around the time of the 50th anniversary of the sinking. We nearly always enjoy diving the Dara and if the club has a “house wreck”, this is it but it’s worth reminding ourselves of the tragic circumstances of the sinking.​

Welcome All, 

Special feature this week is of the Victoria Star. The pictures and video capture the wreck in the early days and shows the fixtures in situ.

​Update from the wreck this week is that the Victoria Star continues to disintegrate. You can now swim right through the Captain’s cabin and the starboard side of the bridge resembles a tea bag. Swimming around the stern section, you come across various bits of metal that have fallen off the ship.

​The Dive Club meets every Tuesday night in the Dive Bar.
See you there.

DAN insurance website: https://www.daneurope.org/home

​

Welcome All,

Actually, this should have gone in last week’s email but I forgot. Congratulations to Nick on his DM!

No words needed on the training that goes into becoming a Dive Master. Well done Nick. 

See below for a day in the life of a DM from the Wanderers. 
​

Welcome All, 

We almost had a full boat at the weekend but that had reduced to seven come Friday morning. That’s still not bad. The target was the Dara, mainly because I wanted to go there having not seen it for a long while and having read some of the recent reports.

The sea was flat calm to start with although we took longer than we should have done to reach the wreck due to the GPS giving me some strange messages. We got there in the end and anchored at the first time of asking (or so we thought). Angela, Polly and Peter were first down the line and found the line had somehow detached itself from the anchor. Fortunately, there was very little current, so after securing the line to the wreck, they found the anchor not far away and carried out some underwater repairs.

The wreck itself has changed a bit over the winter, as reported by Brian a couple of weeks ago, but not as much as I was half expecting. Still, some further exploration as clearly called for. The viz was not as good as the last visit but not all that bad and we had a nice couple of dives. The fish life is as plentiful as ever, particularly near the cathedral entrance although there were no really memorable sightings (sharks, turtles, rays) this time around. There is an anemone and clownfish at the forward end of the promenade deck, which is a common enough sight on the east coast but not so much over this side.

(Polly reports;
The video footage captures a Tube Worm showcasing it's beauty. Peter and I took some time to observe and I think I managed some 'underwater commentary'. Quite fascinating to watch hence the star feature this week. 33 degrees was  recorded on my dive computer so the seas are warming up for the summer months.) 

One thing I did notice was that the wreck is remarkably clear of nets compared to previous visits. We’ve had a go a net clearing in the past and have made a small difference but have generally been defeated by the scale of the project (and the tendency of fishermen to dump more nets as soon as you start to get somewhere). Well some people have clearly had a good go at it and the result is a wreck in as clean a condition as I’ve seen it for a while. Respect to those responsible.

Presumably due to regional tensions, the coastguards are very conspicuous at the moment. They came down to inspect the boat and count numbers on the way out and we had a visit from a CG vessel while we were anchored on the wreck. On the way in there was another head count and boat inspection. This is understandable in the circumstances and they were all very nice about it although they did seem a bit baffled as to why we’d want to go out in a boat and not come back with supper.

I can also report that the water temperature is a very pleasant 33° and my wetsuit has gone back into the cupboard for the summer.
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Volker Motzkus writes:
And now for something completely different; I've actually managed to book a diving holiday in Gozo/Malta. From 29th September until 5th October this year. And only now do I realize that that is their high season... oh well.
I'll be staying in Xlendi on Gozo, and be diving with the fine folks of St. Andrews Dive Cove. Check them out here.... https://www.facebook.com/standrewsgozo
It would be great if anybody from the club happened to be in the area at the time... so I thought I'd put the word out. Anybody up for spontaneous Gozo/Malta?
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The DSDC Musandam dhow trip of 5th – 7th September still has a couple of places left I understand. Let me know if interested.
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DAN insurance website: https://www.daneurope.org/home
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The Dive Club meets every Tuesday night in the Dive Bar.
See you there!