Welcome to BSAC 406 weekly Dive Report. Please contact Ian Hussey if you would like to contribute to the weekly newsletter that is distributed to BSAC 406 members worldwide. In addition, if you would like to feature in the published Dive Report please contact Polly Buckingham. |
Not so much to say this week. It’s not that the club hasn’t been diving, it’s just that I wasn’t on board.
Two weeks ago, a party of eight went out to the Nasteran and Victoria Star and all I really know is that the viz wasn’t great. Last Friday was more interesting. Another full boat went out to Ras Al Khaimah to check out some new coordinates that we’ve come by. It’s a bit of a long drive to get the boat up there but we’re always in the market for fresh shipwrecks to dive on. This is an added feature to join our club. As a club we research the new wrecks and monitor developments. This in the past has proven to be an added bonus as we can log the changes to the site and record the marine life that starts to form. For now however, as regards the wrecks, there’s good news and bad news. The wrecks were all there, exactly at the stated positions but they’re all barges and not especially interesting. Again, the viz wasn’t up to much. We hope for better in the coming weeks. From Petra of DSDC: I was going to ring fence 8 places for 406 for the DSDC dhow trip on 21st September until 10th September. Do let me know names and emails of anyone who is interested in joining us. We would love to see you on board. -------------------------------- The Land Rover is currently undergoing repairs but should soon be up and running with a new registration and a new lease of life. Thanks to Mike and Brian who’ve done the running around on this one. --------------------------------- As always, don’t forget that you need correct and current diving insurance. Please see the DAN insurance website for more information: https://www.daneurope.org/home ---------------------------------- With a bit of space to fill on a slow news week, do you recognize this diver, pictured many moons ago with his sister? He’s been here within the last ten years or so, so those whose memories stretch back to the club’s beginnings needn’t waste time taxing the brain cells! No further clues!
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Back to two boats at the weekend which was gratifying. We had nine divers which would have squeezed on one boat back in the day but now the coastguards are taking a much closer interest in the passenger limits (on the registration card). The first target was Karen’s dhow, where we haven’t been to for a while. This is the wreck for picking up cheap glassware to decorate your living room. The sea state was a bit flatter than it’s been for a couple of weeks, giving us a smoother ride. The anchor went over the side of SP312 followed shortly by the first divers who came back five minutes later saying we weren’t on the wreck. SP125 then had a go and hooked the wreck no more than 10m away. On descent, the two anchor lines were visible from one another. I wouldn’t dream of suggesting the first group could have found the wreck if they’d looked a bit harder, would I? Anyway, viz wasn’t the greatest and there was a bit of a current but there was plenty of fish to look at and a few plates to be had. The sea state was picking up by this point so we headed back inshore for the second dive on the Victoria Star. When we got there, we found DSDC’s boat already there. We had to wait for a few minutes while they got their divers out of the water but we had a bit of a chat. The conditions at the Vic Star were unfavourable. There was a strong current running and the viz was poor. We had a tour of the accommodation and a bit of a play with some super-friendly batfish at the bow before giving up and heading for the surface. A great day diving with some extra house ware bling. ------------------- The nitrox is now up and running but only to be used by those trained to do so (currently Brian and Angela). A blending course is due to happen later this month, --------------------- A few words from former DO, Geoff Patch about the latest leg of his world tour: Antigua (known locally as ‘Wadadli’) is one of two major islands that make up the nation of ‘Antigua and Barbuda’, which gained independence in 1981. One of the Caribbean ‘Leeward Islands’, Antigua is known as the ‘Land of sea and sun’. It is blessed with 365 beaches and counts amongst its attractions, ‘Nelson’s Dockyard’ in English Harbour, which dates back to the 18th century where it was the base for Admiral Horatio Nelson during his time as Captain of HMS Boreas in the 1780’s. Antigua is also home to a blossoming dive industry, which while in it’s infancy has great potential for the future. After some research, I identified ‘DiveCarib’ as my operator of choice. Based in Falmouth Harbour to the south of the island, it is run by Bryan (Natal) and Leigh (UK) who between them have significant diving experience. Leigh is a serious ‘techy’ with several dives below 200m and for a while held the Red Sea depth record with a dive of 240m. Most of the existing dive sites are reefs, barely a mile or so offshore. Our first day of diving was on two such reefs; ‘Red Rocks’ and ‘Carib House’, both in about 25m of water with visibility in the region of 25-30m. Marine life was plentiful amongst the healthy reefs, which were blessed with a multitude of soft and hard corals, and a variety of fish including nurse sharks, barracuda, turtles, jacks, trevally, crabs and lobsters. There was also an abundance of ‘Southern Stingrays’, which often bury themselves in the sand waiting for their prey. The second day of diving was on a 50m long cargo ship, the ‘Montserrat’, deliberately sunk in ~2010 and sitting on a sandy bottom in 42m of water. This was planned as a technical dive to give us 35 minutes bottom time. With twin S80s containing air as back gas and a S80 containing 50% nitrox for accelerated decompression, I descended with Leigh on to the wreck in 30m visibility. The wreck is in good condition with good penetration opportunities via the bridge, galley, hold and engine room. Noting that the propeller was still attached, I sensed I was the first 406-er to have visited this wreck. The marine life seems to have staked out their own territories with several Jacks in residence on the bridge, Lion Fish in the galley, and crabs and spiny lobster in the bilge of the engine room. There was also a now familiar Southern Stingray circling the wreck on the sandy bottom. After the planned 35-minute bottom time we started our slow ascent to the surface and after the required decompression obligations surfaced with a total run time of 95 minutes. That should have been the end of the days’ adventure but just minutes after setting off for Falmouth Harbour and a cold one, the engine cooling system had a catastrophic failure and we were adrift for 2 hours before the ABSAR (Antigua and Barbuda Search and Rescue) RIB came to our rescue to provide the ‘tow of shame’ back to the DiveCarib berth. The next day had been planned as an exploratory tech dive but with the demise of the engine cooling system and the advent of hurricane Beryl blowing through the Leeward Islands, that was the end of my diving for this trip! If visiting Antigua I am happy to recommend DiveCarib https://www.divecarib.com/ as a professional dive operator. Please view Geoff's pictures below. OTHER NEWS ZANZIBAR The Eid trip is taking shape but for those who have not yet booked, time may be running out. It’s high season out there and both flights and rooms are in short supply. Of those going, we arrive between 17th – 19th August and depart 24th – 25th August according to taste with diving in between. Most of us are staying at the Amaan Bungalows but Nungwi Inn also has some takers. Please let Peter or me know when you book The Dive Club meets every Tuesday night in the Dive Bar. See you there! It was Wendy’s last club night with us before she leaves the UAE and heads back to Australia. A few lemonades were raised, a card was presented and a good time was had by all. We will miss you Wendy - perhaps our paths will cross again some time! With the weather looking a bit calmer, we ventured a bit further afield. The first target was the Ajman Glory which we identified back in 2012, although the wreck was already discovered but known by another name. We made good time but it was still a 45-minute drive out. The ship hasn’t changed much in the time we’ve known it. It’s very similar in shape to the Victoria Star only on a smaller scale. There was a fair current running but nothing to get too excited about and the viz had taken a turn for the worse since last weekend. There were still plenty of barracuda, batfish and assorted others to be seen and the first ones down the line managed to see a stingray. There are now a number of fishing nets draped over the wreck. Later the same day, Al Jazeera Diving Centre were due to be doing a net clearing exercise in honour of World Ocean Day. Fair play to them – we’ll see how they got on eventually and if they don’t do 100% then perhaps we can finish the job. Dive two was the Sea King 5, which went down a few years ago off Sharjah. There was no need to identify this ship, the Sharjah authorities told us what it was, but we did manage to find it’s exact location (the original coordinates were inevitably inaccurate). We sent the right position to the Harbour Master along with as few photos, thus gaining a few brownie points for us we would hope. In the early days, it was nothing much more than bare metal but now the wreck is barnacle encrusted and has some nice soft corals. There is also plenty of fish life making for a pleasant dive. A return visit in the not too far distant I would think. Thank you to Cara and PJ for the pictures. ![]() As I suspected, the party this week was smaller than the previous week with people leaving and others engaged elsewhere. However, we still managed to get a boat out and we headed for the Jumbo, which we have dived regularly but not in the last couple of months. There was some doubt as to whether we’d make it as the predicted sea state was less than optimal but once we were on our it wasn’t as bad as all that and we persevered, albeit a bit more slowly than would be possible on a flat sea. The anchor scored a hole-in-one and wrapped itself around part of the bridge section, close to the stern. The sea might have been a bit rough but under water was a different story with next to no current and reasonable viz of 7m or so. The Jumbo usually has decent fish life and there was a big shoal of jacks on the way down as well as snappers, batfish and on the bow, an anemone and clownfish (yes, that’s one week after I said the Dara was the only place these were found on the west coast). Angela and I had a very nice dive, swimming in and around the wreck and later on, Peter and Marc had a similar experience. On the way up the line a particularly friendly batfish tried to eat my fins. The sea state was picking up by this time so we decided against hanging around this far offshore (30km) and we headed back to the Victoria Star for the second dive. The fish life was less than the Jumbo but the viz was similar and the current still negligible. All in all, a very worthwhile trip. A few words on recent developments: Brian has sorted out the oxygen tanks and Allen has fixed them up in the equipment room. Some more work and training is needed before we have nitrox back but the project is moving. In parallel with this, Polly has started revamping the website. This is early days and still a work in progress but it can be accessed via the link below. Any comments would be welcome. http://bsac406.com/ --------------------------------- Chris Head writes: Whilst writing I'd like to give you all advance notice of a one-day-dhow we're running on the 21st September from Dibba up to the Musandam. This is for the DSDC anniversary and should be an excellent day out and a great Musandam introduction if you haven't dived it before. I’m assuming he won’t mind us muscling in on this provided there’s space. -------------------------------- DAN insurance website: https://www.daneurope.org/home ---------------------------------- The Dive Club meets every Tuesday night in the Dive Bar. See you there! ![]() We had nine divers including Jess who was making her first non-training dive, hence two boats were needed. The coastguards these days tend to notice if you’re trying to take out more than the stipulated maximum number of people. The original intention was to go to Karen’s Dhow and pick up a bit of glassware but it soon became clear that the sea state wouldn’t allow this so we aborted to the Victoria Star which is closer inshore. When we got there, we weren’t the first to arrive. Already on station was a fishing boat skippered by Paul and Audrey, who have dived with us a couple of times in the past and were doing some rescue drills and skills. They were already hooked into the wreck so we tied up behind them. This meant a long swim from the last boat just to get to the anchor line. This caused a problem for me when my mask started flooding half way along but with some assistance from Paul and the guys on the fishing boat I got there. Cheers! With the mask re-adjusted, it was actually a lot calmer underwater than it was on the surface, although the viz wasn’t the greatest and the fish life a bit sparser than it is sometimes. Never mind, we had a decent dive. Towards the end of the day, the sea state was getting up even more. The three of us left to go in for the second dive decided to forego the pleasure and get back to the club. There was no attempt to talk us out of this and I think we were all happy to get back on land. There followed some refreshments in the Dive Bar. Congratulations to our star Jess on completing her first proper dives with us very successfully. I hope she realises the sea is normally calmer than this – when we take a boat out at least! Chris Head writes: Whilst writing I'd like to give you all advance notice of a one-day-dhow we're running on the 21st September from Dibba up to the Musandam. This is for the DSDC anniversary and should be an excellent day out and a great Musandam introduction if you haven't dived it before. DAN insurance website: https://www.daneurope.org/home The Dive Club meets every Tuesday night in the Dive Bar. See you there! |
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March 2023
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