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. |
Welcome All, As predicted, the weather precluded any diving last weekend, so we all had a lie-in, which is not such a bad option every once in a while. Going back to last Tuesday, we gave Richard and Sharon a good send-off with the now traditional gift of a Karen’s Dhow plate, suitably engraved. A couple of photos below. One or two of you may recognize the photo on the cake from the “pirates” evening a couple of years ago. Richard has asked me to print the following: Sharon and I would like to shout out a huge thanks to everyone for the wonderful send-off last Tuesday night. The picture on the cake was just perfect and the card and glassware will both take pride of place in our new digs - wherever that ends up being, hopefully to be confirmed this week! Thanks also for the treat of having some of the old videos on display and to reminisce over some of the great dives and overseas trips enjoyed over the last 8 years with the club. Muscat (2011) will always have a particularly special place in both our hearts as our first 406 Eid trip. 'Last Tango in Dibba' will also endure as an all-time favourite video and one of the most pleasurable dives courtesy of videographer and dive buddy that day, Peter Jackson. The trip down memory lane brought back many other happy recollections ...... of the days when I did actually go diving! Of course, the non-diving activities have been equally fabulous - the various themed socials, the East Coast camping trips and Geoff Patch's Wadi Adventure weekends in Al Ain (aka 'The Winning Formula') were all tremendous times with some truly legendary antics whilst imbibing with great friends.... many of those antics involving Derek Roberts, naturally. To every single person who I have dived or drunk with during the last 8 years, thank you for such treasured times. I think it's also an opportune time as the outgoing Chairman to record, on behalf of all the readership of this wonderful bulletin, our appreciation to you, Ian, for keeping the weekly updates going. The number of well wishers who got in touch with us from far and wide - some within an hour of your email going out - bears testament to its effectiveness and the extent of followers who thoroughly enjoy keeping a link with this special club. As we will too. As mentioned on more than one occasion around the dive club table, you never really leave BSAC 406, you just transfer to the Exiles sub-division and as many a former member has proved you can always come back for a visit! Personally, I hope to make as many returns as Mike Anthony. Talking of which, I managed to extend my flight to the 11th so can make the Christmas Party. We're also planning to meet up with Janette in Scotland on Friday, so I'll send you a pic or two and a couple of 'minutes' from that encounter if it goes ahead! See you in a couple of weeks. Richard.
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Welcome All,
Amidst some very busy times lately, logs are back online. With quite a few months worth of dive logs and BSAC 406 news to catch up with, please stay tuned for some amazing tales from near and far. As usual our Dive Officer Ian sends out the weekly in club email updates. My apologies for being slack on the uploads. It's good to be back. To begin then, last weeks' Dive Log is as follows; It was a frustrating weekend for diving. We had five on the boat and duly set off for the Taha and Mariam Express. We made good progress but at about three-quarter distance it became clear we were heading straight towards an ominous black cloud. This by itself would have caused a rethink but when we started to see lightning in front of us, we did a swift U-turn. Driving a boat into a thunderstorm isn’t sensible even if you weren’t thinking of putting divers in the water and getting caught in an unexpected storm is no fun at all. I’m sure Cathy, Peter and Derek would agree. Back at the club, we used the time to field test some new regulators in the pool. No problems. Otherwise it was relaxation with some refreshments. There are worse ways of spending Friday. The forecast for next weekend isn’t promising but we’ll post a dive and see what happens. The forecast for next weekend isn’t promising but we’ll post a dive and see what happens. DAN insurance website: https://www.daneurope.org/home The Dive Club meets every Tuesday night in the Dive Bar. See you there. Welcome All, Another full boat at the weekend which is good to see. We decided to head to the Jumbo and Neptune on the basis that the viz has been good to exceptional lately. In that we were to be slightly disappointed. This is not to say the viz was bad, but it wasn’t quite the clarity of recent visits. Still, the sea was more or less flat, so we made good time out there and the air temperature is pretty much perfect at the moment. The anchor hooked in near the stern of the Jumbo and we had a leisurely swim around. There was a shoal of Barracuda around the hull side as well as a family of Batfish that were our buddies for a good part of the dive. There were also the usual shoals of Snappers. The second dive was on the Neptune, where the viz was slightly better (as it appeared to me at any rate – opinions differed). The fish life was similar, if not quite as plentiful and the Neptune now has a lot of openings to explore. Angela encountered a round piece of metal which seemed worth investigating and ultimately led to her practicing an “underwater bowline with gloves”. I’m not sure the Girl Guides would have given her many marks out of ten. After that it was back to the club for what turned out to be an extended post-dive by the pool. A couple of weeks ago, Angela left her torch at the club after the diving. This time, she was determined not to make the same mistake and after packing up announced: “I think I’ve got everything this time!” She then left without her entire dive bag. Cue some choice comments on WhatsApp. Last weekend was a landmark of sorts. Since December 2007, I’ve been maintaining a spreadsheet, recording the diving done by the club and Friday was entry number 500. It’s interesting to think what the total would be if everything had been recorded since the formation of the club. For the record, entry number 1 was on 21st December 2007 when we went to the Mariam Express and the Jumbo. The divers were me, Heike Glassner, Peter and Oliver Jackson and John Raven. Of these, Peter and I are obviously still here, Oliver pops in from time to time and Heike has returned to Germany. John used to work at the American University of Sharjah (AUS) but I haven’t heard from or of him for a while. The weekly email started at around the same time but some of the early ones are missing so I can’t say what kind of day we had. The Dive Club meets every Tuesday night in the Dive Bar. See you there! Welcome All, 2019 AGM This year’s belated AGM will be Tuesday 12th November. Nominal start time is 8pm but if anyone is coming but running late, we can wait a bit. Brian Lugg seems a bit full of himself at the moment. Won the lottery?? Found a new shipwreck?? Or maybe South Africa had a good result at the weekend?? We didn’t go out last weekend on account of too many people doing other things. Instead, some news of 406 alumni overseas. ------------------------------------- First up is Volker Motzkus who was a regular diver from 2013 to 2015 before returning to Germany. He sent the following report from Gozo: Coming back from Gozo, I thought it appropriate to let the honourable members of the BSAC 406 know how the travels went and how the diving was. To make it short, it was fantastic!Before I go into more details, I posted my logs and some of my pics here:https://www.divelogs.de/pics/Motze Please let me know if the links work for you, they appeared to work after I logged out, but you never know. [NB – the link works]But I am posting a pic I took while snorkeling in X'lendi Bay, as an appetizer: Gozo is a nice place to dive, and packed with dive sites. Word of advice: if you ever go to Malta / Gozo, bring open-heel fins and booties. 90% of the diving is shore diving, and in many places, you need to walk over rocks. While not impossible barefoot, not as much fun. There are tons of marine life abounding, waiting to be found, they just aren't as obvious and / or big as they might be someplace else, but lots of octopi, nudibranch, squids, sea horses, and other assorted fish. Post-diving, Gozo offers enough to keep you well fed and having a pint or three. If you are looking for entertainment beyond the glass of beer or wine after diving, look elsewhere, though, in that case, stay on Malta.
I stayed at the three-star San Andrea hotel, which had the advantage of being exactly opposite the dive shop I used. The room was comfortable enough, and they had a full English breakfast buffet every day. I, however, had a double to myself. If it had been occupied by two people, it might have gotten a bit crowded, especially with the luggage. The rooms at the St. Patrick’s Hotel were a lot roomier, I heard from other divers, and only about 30 meters around the corner, too.I used St. Andrew's Divers Cove, and I would readily recommend them to anyone who wants to dive Gozo, all languages spoken, Nitrox available, friendly and pleasant dive guides, but you can do it yourself and just rent tanks if you like. www.gozodive.com I know I'll be back in the not-so-far-future, and if you like, they can make arrangements for hotel/accommodation and airport transfer for you. And now I'll finish off with a picture of the sight I got to enjoy each breakfast. I hope everybody is doing well, and I hope to drop by soon someday and visit. Take care, Volker |
Authors-Ian Hussey and Dive Member Contributions. Archives
March 2023
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