Hi all
I had time off for good behaviour last weekend so I leave this week’s report to Polly with a contribution from Mike:

This week 406 was quiet in terms of divers with members overseas and or on dive missions over the East Coast for either training purposes or recreational dives.
Our Diving Officer took a weekend of approved leave and tended to domestic duties. Our Boat Engineer is free diving off Zanzibar and reporting back with pictures of blue seas and catches of the day. Other members were off trekking in the Musandam and some of the unlucky had weekend work duties to complete.

Myself and Mike, (Boat Officer / Engineer) volunteered for the Dive Log this week and probably a welcome break for our D.O. who reports each week without fail and always a welcome read.

As for my spin on the day, I awoke to a beautiful full moon over the ocean at 5.00am. Having a cuppa, listening to crashing waves and waiting for the day to break is a great soul tonic and cleanser. It was soon that time though to hit the road and of course the obligatory coffee and croissant stop for the drive to the dive club.

Once the boat checks were done, air fill checks, and kit loaded, we set off with boat in tow to our usual fishing port to launch.
Our Boat Officer must have had too many lemonades when I was asked to motor the boat for some supervised maneuvers. Brave I guess but thrilled anyway to start some introductory tasks for my pending Boat Handling and Dive Leader Training. I must say, it is not as easy as it looks. These gentlemen have been doing this for years i.e. towing the boat, launching and retrieving from the boat trailer and made to look so easy. First maneuver was to reverse off the trailer and “park” at the pick-up wall. Mike’s words were “DON’T DAMAGE MY BOAT”. I quietly muttered “I got this”.Reversing off the trailer went smoothly; parking however, as with on land, took some back and forths but at least the local fishermen had a giggle. From there it was a short distance to motor to the Coastguard check point of which I didn’t crash into thankfully.
Coastguard check point is the usual checks with ID and ordinarily a residence card is needed to proceed out of the harbour. There have been some differences with rules in other ports and a passport is accepted at some. To save the aggravation of a diver being asked to leave the boat, 406 divers and guests still need a residence card until we have official notice stating otherwise.

The boat trip out was calm for most of the journey. Always been a geek for taking pictures of boats and the usual tankers, barges, LPG ships, tugs and various other vessels were anchored along the horizon. Our destination was the Taha. 
 
Mike Anthony reports below with a brief about the Taha;
The Taha wreck first appears in our dive logs on 25 March 2011 and we dived it very frequently after that as it was a “new wreck”
She is a small coastal trading vessel with an open hold and a cargo of oil in 40-gallon drums and 5-litre plastic containers.  Of Iranian registration, her Length is: 54.0m and Beam: 9.0m. At the bow end there was a lot of scaffolding material.  And there were many tyres I recall. The details of her sinking are surmised to be that she was at anchor and got swamped by a large wave and due to the open hold, she took on a great deal of water. She would have been listing and then would have rapidly succumbed to the effects of more water flooding the hold and sank. She was initially lying on her starboard side on the sand sea bed at 21m depth. 

In a storm some months later after the initial sinking she broke through the crust of the seabed and sank into the bed. These days she still lies on her starboard side but with only about 4m of the hull projecting from the bed. Only part of the bow and the stern sections can now be seen. Before it sank the second time into the bed someone salvaged a great many of the 5litre plastic oil containers which would have had a decent second-hand value. The larger drums were left although we designed a plan to remove these in conjunction with a commercial company, but this never happened. The radar scanner on top of the Dive Club at Wanderers came from the Taha. At one time we had this rotating under battery power. Brian Lugg removed a door at the rear of the main hold and that gave safer access directly into the engine room. The fish life was always quite prolific and we saw that visibility was severely hampered by the many thousands of yellow snappers. Large barracuda (about 120cm long) were cruising about giving us the baleful eye.
Thank you Mike for your account.

Still on the Taha, we descended down the shot into strong currents and quite murky viz. This cleared thankfully as we got nearer the bottom and was greeted with a clear view of the wreck. Shoals of snappers were taking homage in the wreck and quite an orchestrated dance in the current. Must admit, I do like hovering around a wreck  in calm “strong” currents and good viz. Freedom of flying comes to mind with just the sound of bubbles and the immense body of the ocean that your lungs are working in unison with. Quite spectacular. Wake up calls everywhere though so not an environment to be complacent. For example, fishing rope connected to the pots always pose a hazard. The usual litter of plastic is never far away. Definitely a re-visit needed to do a clean-up dive.  Some unusual soft corals, one resembling a red cabbage although yet to be confirmed. Sea Slugs in abundance and Sponges on various bits of rope of differing colour ranges. Barracuda were roaming the wreck like watchmen with fangs looking quite angry ready for attack. One was at least over a meter long and a bit to close for comfort and one only hopes he had his shredded wheat for breakfast instead fancying a chunk of flesh. Heading back to surface the current had subsided and a welcome sandwich surface interval. Further buddy pairs reported much the same on their return after releasing the anchor. We then set course for the Victoria Star which is in the general direction of home to port.
 
 
We managed to hit the wreck the first time with the anchor, or so we thought. Descending to the seabed we found the anchor had lodged itself into the sea bed. Viz wasn’t that good but we managed by default to fin in the right direction to where the wreck is situated. We dragged the anchor to the wreck and secured it; mental note for next time though is to make sure the anchor is secured further up the wreck so the rope isn’t chaffing on raw metal which could sever the line from the anchor to the boat.  I found an anchor on the seabed and debates later about whether we can retrieve it and restore in the club. Dive Jury still out on that one though.
Viz was poor as has become the norm in that last few weeks on the Victoria Star. We found a fresh set of nets snagged on the wreck and did what we could to cut and clear those that we found. We found a few corpses caught in the nets also. After a few pics we headed for the anchor line and surfaced. Other buddy pairs took time to cut and clear the wreck of nets so should be relatively safe next time. 

Heading back to port we headed for the Coastguard check point. At this point, I was left with the task of driving the boat onto the trailer. With a watchful Coastguard adding to the pressure, and with some back and forths, I managed to nail it without too much chaos. Definitely an art to keep practicing though.  
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Back at the Dive Brief Table, we had rice and ginger with the catch of the day; a welcome dinner with some lemonades and banter to finish off a good day at sea. Bravery Award goes to Mike Anthony for leaving the controls of the boat with me. I’ll edit some video footage for the Log later in the week but for now, we hope you enjoy our entry this week. Safe Diving as always.
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Saad will be running one more nitrox blending course at some point over the next couple of months so if anyone is interested, please let me know. This will be the last chance for a while.
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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!

​And now for something completely different. When he departed for Cyprus, Geoff Taylor left us some books of dive logs from the 80’s. Allen has started the process of digitizing these and I intend to publish some from time to time as a taste of what the club was doing 30+ years ago. This one, picked entirely at random, is from June 1982. ET and Blade Runner were in cinemas, Ebony and Ivory was in the charts, Cheers made its first appearance on TV and the Falkland Islands were in the news. BSAC 406 meanwhile were heading up the Musandam. 

If any members have any old pictures and video of days gone by, or recent interesting memo's, please send to us and we will include you in the log. 

Greetings All; 

Thanks to Mike’s efforts, we got the Discovery back on the road in time for Friday’s dive. He was only supposed to be running it up to Tasjeel for its test but he just kept going and by 9.30am Thursday, it had an insurance paper and a registration card. This might have been crucial to avoid disappointment as we initially had nine people signed up for the dive which is one more than the capacity of either boat. In the event we had a drop-out leaving us with eight and only one boat was needed. I was still pleased not to be dipping my own car into salt water.

The first target was the Mariam Express, a wreck that’s now over 12 years old. It was the wreck of choice following its sinking and for a good while afterwards but it descended 10m into the seabed following a big storm, greatly limiting the available exploration inside the ship. It’s still a good dive and the cargo hold is still accessible. Allen, Cara, Denis and myself were first down the line more or less at the same time. Job number one was to secure the anchor which had landed just off the wreck. There was a large number of barracuda lurking just off the ship which we saw on the way down (and up) but were less conspicuous on the wreck itself. We did see a lot of snappers, some batfish, some rabbitfish (is that correct Peter?) and various others. The viz was not as good as last time we were here but it was still reasonable and the current was non-existent. It’s still possible to get away without wet suits but the water temperature is dropping and those days might be numbered. After Peter and Nick, Mike and Polly were last down the line. Mike was eager to do a buddy-check so he could demonstrate his unusual octopus configuration.

After some discussion, we went to the Jumbo for the second dive. This is a cargo ship about which not much is known. Even the name “Jumbo” seems a bit unlikely for a ship but perhaps this is a corruption of a non-English name. Anyway, it’s there with a very handsome prop and is usually teeming with fish. No problem securing the anchor this time – we scored a hole-in-one into one of the cargo holds. Again, the viz wasn’t as good as our previous visit but also again it wasn’t that bad – maybe five or six metres. The vast numbers of snappers were very much in evidence along with angelfish, sweetlips and a few batfish. This time the barracuda were very conspicuous near the stern.

Which brings us to the journey home at which point things took a turn for the more interesting. No problems retrieving the anchor and the ride back was a model of high-speed boat driving on a sea that had actually flattened during the day. The problem came when we were approaching the quay into a tight space between two other boats. Normally, this is done at a snail’s pace so as to squeeze in without damage to anything but our driver had other ideas. Unfortunately, his aim wasn’t quite true and the resulting crunch caused a steel post of the shade structure to disengage from the hull and become severely bent. I wouldn’t, of course, embarrass the boat driver by naming him – would I, Peter?
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On normal days, this would be the end of the entertainment, besides sinking a few beverages while the sun went down. Back in the yard however, Mike discovered that he had left his electronic key in his car and the car, acting on some default instruction wired into its computer, had locked itself. Fortunately, Denis conceived a plan based on a partially opened window, a radio aerial and a coat hanger to hook the key out of the car. This worked like a charm, enabling Mike to enjoy his post-dive refreshments more than he might have done otherwise. 

True to promises made, Janette and Ken and Jim Darbyshire were all at the club last Tuesday. It was good to catch up with them. Ken and Janette have now returned to the Philippines but Jim is still around and may be at the club this week.
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Also as promised, we went back to the Victoria Star on Friday to clear some of the nets that fishermen have left behind. The sea was more or less flat and the current was weak despite the spring tide although it did pick up as the day wore on. The viz was as we’ve come to expect on the Vic Star recently, which is to say not very good at all but even the best viz can reduce to nothing when you start hacking away at nets.

Polly had forgotten her wet-suit so Mike gave her his spare which was inevitably a size or three too large. It also gave rise to one of the quotes of the day. When she returned the suit after a stint of net-cutting it was covered in small sea creatures. “I’m giving you crabs, Mike” she said, thus causing a slight pause in the conversation.
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Mike and Polly – don’t mention the crabs





Mike did his own bit for the day’s entertainment when, after descending down the line, he decided to swim over the wreck from starboard (where the anchor was) to port (where the nets were). Unfortunately, in the poor viz he lost contact with the ship and surfaced under his DSMB after only ten minutes underwater.

Despite all this we achieved the result we went there for. All the new nets are now cut from the wreck and no longer causing a hazard to divers or fishes. Some of the older nets we left there. These are no threat to anything and have become small eco-systems of their own.

Those wielding the knives and scissors were Allen, Cara, Polly, Ian and Mike who gets the last word:
“Where are the Jacksons today”
“Don’t know but they weren’t diving this week”
“They weren’t there on Tuesday either”
“Neither were you!”
[In the interest of historical accuracy, I should point out that Peter and Connie were indeed at the club last Tuesday.]

It’s great to have Mike back diving with us, particularly if he goes on providing so much material for the weekly email.
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Next weekend will be a long one on the occasion on the birthday of the Prophet (PBUH). We have no special plans at the moment but we can talk more about this at the Club over a few lemonades. 
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Yesterday as I write, we held the second installment of the nitrox blending course run by Saad. It was quite a long day including both classroom sessions and practical work but interesting and fun. Myself, Nick and Ben are now qualified. Thanks very much Saad for your time and effort.
Saad will be running another course at some point over the next couple of months so anyone interested, please let me know. This will be the last one for a while.
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Tim Chesher has contacted me:
This email also to advertise a dhow weekend trip arranged by a friend of friend, that I'm going on, and they have 4 spaces to fill.
Details are:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
15-17 November
Diving is with Al Marsa https://almarsamusandam.com/
Basically 2 days on the dhow leaving Dibba and travelling up into the Musendam.  Total of 6 dives (one a night dive) we have non-divers as well on the dhow, all cabins are a/c (but sharing cabins) though most people sleep up on deck (oh and it’s really relaxing as there is no mobile phone coverage)
Only proviso is you need to leave Dubai early on the Thursday to get to Dibba (traffic and border crossing) well at least by 4pm. 
Cost for non-divers (as long as we have the full quota of 12) is 1,540aed (this includes 3 meals a day and soft drinks).  Diving 260aed (or 440aed if hiring full kit).
 
If you are interested please contact Abigail Craske Abigail.
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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!

Hello All, 

Mike Anthony is returning for his fourth or fifth unretirement. He won’t be in time for club night but should be diving at the weekend. We have no plans yet but I suggest a return to the Vic Star armed with scissors and knives to clear the fishing nets.
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There was no diving at the weekend, mainly because both me and Brian were otherwise engaged. Going forward we need a couple more people capable of towing a boat (when the Discovery comes back from the menders) and with a license to drive one. That’s for the future.

Our Dive Officer Geoff Patch reports below with the latest installment of Geoff’s diving adventures, this time in Egypt:

Geoff reports;
After completing all the theory work and pool sessions for my TDI CCR normoxic trimix course (‘Mod 3’), I headed out to Sharm el Sheik with a group of rebreather divers (including my instructor, Tony Higgs) from Nutty’s Dive Centre in Essex to conduct the required 5 open water dives and associated skills to qualify for certification. With the British Government warning against travel to Egypt still in place and no direct flights to Sharm available from London, I flew with Egypt Air via Cairo.
The flights were uneventful, but being a late afternoon departure from Heathrow it was after 01.00 in the morning when our tired group checked into the Sharm Dreams Resort.
We would be diving with the team at Infinite-CCR (http://www.infinite-ccr.com/ ), who operate in conjunction with Red Sea Diving College (http://redseacollege.com/ ) out of Naama Bay, Sharm el Sheik. Based each day on the dive boat ‘Abou Ghaleem’, our dive itinerary was as follows:
Day 1 (Ras Mohammed):
Marsa Bareka (31m) and Ras Ghozlani (30m) – check out and recreational
Day 2 (Ras Mohammed):
Jackfish Alley (43m), Shark Reef & The Yolanda wreck (42m) – course dives (various drills including cylinder exchanges, high PO2 / low PO2 drills)
Day 3 (Ras Mohammed):
Eel Garden Canyon (51m) and Ras Za’atar (33m) – course (more emergency drills) and recreational dives
Day 4 (Tiran Island):
Thomas Canyon (56m) – course dive (with simulated electronics failure at 55m and ascent per deco table drill)
Day 5 (Tiran Island):
Woodhouse Reef (60m) – course dive (with bail out to open circuit and ascent from 60m drill)

Diving is obviously big business in Sharm but I did not realise how big until I saw the number of dive boats scattered around the various sites each day (over 30 on most occasions), although we rarely bumped into other groups underwater. Given the emphasis on the course my focus during almost every dive was on controlling my position, buoyancy and trim in the water column, performing emergency drills and monitoring the dive status via the CCR Vision 2020 handset (“always know your PPO2”!). So, not much attention on the marine life! However, I can say that the Red Sea lives up to expectations in terms of healthy reefs, ‘aquarium’ fish and larger beasties. Manta rays, turtles and a whale shark were seen by others in the group and dolphins were often sighted during surface intervals. One thing that really stood out for me was the spectacular underwater topography that included magnificent walls, steep ‘n’ deep canyons, winding caves and vertical chimneys. Plus, with no rivers feeding the Red Sea, visibility can be up to 50m (and beyond!).
If considering a trip to Sharm el Sheik I can certainly recommend Red Sea Diving College / Infinite-CCR, who are very experienced, have a focus on safety and cater for all levels of divers from recreational to full-on techy. The Sharm Dreams Resort was in the ‘adequate for divers’ bracket and ideally located, being just 15 minutes from the airport, 5 minutes walk to the beach and 15 minutes walk to town.
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For an account of the Dive Club’s own trip to Sharm eight (!)years ago, visit the website (link below) and check out the Dive Log for November 2010.
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Tim Chesher has contacted me:
​Members may interested in a dhow weekend trip arranged by a friend of friend, that I'm going on, and they have 4 spaces to fill.
Details are:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
15-17 November
Diving is with Al Marsa https://almarsamusandam.com/
Basically 2 days on the dhow leaving Dibba and travelling up into the Musendam.  Total of  6 dives (one a night dive) we have non divers as well on the dhow, all cabins are a/c (but sharing cabins) though most people sleep up on deck (oh and it’s really relaxing as there is no mobile phone coverage) 
Only proviso is you need to leave Dubai early on the Thursday to get to Dibba (traffic and border crossing) well at least by 4pm. 
Cost for non-divers (as long as we have the full quota of 12) is 1,540aed (this includes 3 meals a day and soft drinks).  Diving 260aed (or 440aed if hiring full kit).
 
If you are interested please contact Abigail Craske [email protected]
--------------------------
DAN insurance website: https://www.daneurope.org/home
-----------------------
The Dive Club meets every Tuesday night in the Dive Bar.
See you there!