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Hi all
As promised, Mike got a boat away last weekend to the Dara. I don’t know the full story, but I gather the viz was fair to middling and some new nets have appeared. The second dive was spent cutting some of them off. Thus ends the 2018 diving season. Hopefully 2019 starts next Friday. --------------------------------- I normally use the last weekly email of the year to recap the highs and lows of the year just gone. I’ve run out of time for that and I can’t see myself finding any this evening. The annual review will therefore wait until next week. I hope you can stand the suspense. I’m not sure how many folks will make it to the dive club on Tuesday night but hopefully a few of us will be there. ----------------------------- DAN insurance website: https://www.daneurope.org/home ---------------------------------- The Dive Club meets every Tuesday night in the Dive Bar. See you there! Regards Ian The Dive Club would like to wish its members, former members and friends a very happy and prosperous New Year! Safe diving in 2019!
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No diving again last weekend. With the holiday season approaching, there are currently too many people away to get a viable dive going but Mike will be running one next weekend if there are enough takers. Never ones to waste time, Mike and Brian got busy with the boats.
In Mike’s words: Maintenance report. 312 got the gunwale repaired. Wants sanding and drilling and next step is the welder with a new bit of SS tube. LR has the tow electrics moved up onto the rear bumper, should be mostly out of the water now. 125 got new rope rings and a new perimeter rope. Also we tightened down a canopy support. Brian & Mike. Many thanks, guys. --------------------------------- Cara is currently on a liveaboard in the Maldives. She looks to be having a good time judging by the movies she’s posting on Facebook. Dolphins, sting rays, manta rays, leopard sharks, octopuses and others all feature in abundance. I’m not jealous honestly (well maybe a bit). I’m hoping for some publishable words and photos when she returns. ----------------------------- Next Tuesday being Christmas Day, the usual Dive Club night will not take place. However, if those who are around fancy convening at the Wanderers on Christmas Eve, we’ll have a dive table out front. There will be Christmas carols from 7.00pm onwards with mulled wine, vin chaud or glühwein according to taste. Maybe a mince pie or two. The Dive Club would like to wish its members, former members and friends a very Happy Christmas. Hi all
There was no diving last weekend for various reasons, possibly sheer exhaustion caused by excessive partying. Our own Christmas dinner took place and it was excellent. The event was arranged at slightly short notice so I hope this didn’t cause anyone to miss it. It didn’t seem like it anyway – we had a very good turnout for a club of our current size. It was particularly good to see Richard make it, having flown in from Saudi. Enormous thanks to the Wanderers management and staff for putting on a very good meal backed up by efficient and (as always) friendly service. Also last week, the Wanderers held a draw for a couple of Christmas hampers, tickets having been handed out by the bar staff pro-rata to monies spent over the last week or two. The first three names out of the hat were all dive club members – Marc, me and Allen, leading to cries of stitch-up to those who don’t like getting wet. Only one of us was there to collect – let me just say that the bubbles were excellent. The nitrox blending courses are now over. Congratulations to those who passed it – Allen, Rayan, Nick, Ian, Ben, Marc and Polly. Very big thanks are due to Saad for doing the courses for us. I have the qualification cards so drop me a line if you haven’t yet picked yours up. ---------------------------------- DAN insurance website: https://www.daneurope.org/home ---------------------------------- The Dive Club meets every Tuesday night in the Dive Bar. See you there! ![]() Course updates; The Nitrox Gas Blending course was successful with our resident trainer. Great day with two additional members now Nitrox Gas Blender qualified. The Nitrox Gas Blender course is open to anyone, aged over 18. It’s a practical way to get non-divers involved in the club, especially if they have family members who dive. No diving qualification is necessary to take part. On the Nitrox Gas Blender course you will learn about the theory and practice of blending nitrox mixes, concentrating on the safe management and handling of blending equipment. On the Mixed Gas Blender course you will learn how to blend diving gas mixes containing helium. The one-day courses consist of a mix of theory sessions and practical gas-blending sessions appropriate to the gases mixes being learned about. You’ll have plenty of time to hone your gasp-blending skills and you’ll get plenty of feedback from course instructors. This is a continually assessed course during which students must reach the required performance standards to safely carry out either nitrox or mixed gas fills. Getting regular practice at gas blending will maintain your confidence. After this course you could develop specific skills to expand your interests further, whether you are a diving member or non-diving member. Imagine being qualified in diver first aid or becoming a boat handler. Check out the Skill Development Courses (SDCs) you can get involved in. In the new year, we have an EFR course running for those interested. Please let us know so we can arrange dates. Dive Up-Date: We decided to go back to the Taha to retrieve the missing anchor flute. The sea was almost flat so we had a fast trip out there and put the (3-fluted) anchor over the side. This time we didn’t hook the wreck itself but a fishing pot. This seemed like to be close to the wreck, so we decided to chance it and indeed the line let us straight to the bow. Compared to last week, the viz was disappointing although the blizzard of snappers and the barracuda were very much in evidence. The wreck isn’t large and with most of it below the seabed, there isn’t as much to see as there once was. Still it was nice to renew our acquaintance with the ship after a long time. And yes, we did find the missing flute. Allen found it on the seabed and left it on top of the hull where Mike found it a second time and brought it to the surface. It is now re-attached to the anchor. For the second dive, we went to the Mariam Express. This again was once a much better dive but punched through the seabed in a similar fashion to the Taha. The viz was no better than the Taha and the fish were sparser but the wreck is bigger and hence there’s more to explore. There’s still a swim through the cargo hold which emerges at an opening half way along the hull. Allen and Cara saw a torpedo ray but it had vanished by the time Denis and I went down. After that it was back to the club for a few beverages where we were joined by Peter and Connie, Marc, Jim and Brigitte. A pleasant little gathering as the sun went down. ---------------------------------- Ornithologist of the week award goes to Cara for her demonstration of a cormorant’s song. But do they really go “quack-quack”?! ---------------------------------- DAN insurance website: https://www.daneurope.org/home ---------------------------------- The Dive Club meets every Tuesday night in the Dive Bar. See you there! ![]() Hello to All near and Far, To those reading this in the UAE, a very happy National Day. It’s nice to be sitting outside sipping bubbly on a Sunday morning rather than being at work. You can really tell it’s December when the Christmas lights go up at the Wanderers and the temperature drops as low as 30°C sometimes. Friday turned into a bit of a comedy of errors although nothing really bad happened in the end. We decided to repeat last week’s expedition on the grounds that none of the protagonists from that trip were around this week and it would be nice to see the Taha again. It was a really good dive when it first went down but unfortunately it punched through the seabed crust after about 18 months underwater. My last memory of the wreck was groping my way along the top rail in practically nil viz trying to find the bow of a wreck that was mostly no longer there. We started off one diver light, when I got a rather sheepish phone call reporting an oversleep. The diver will remain nameless provided he places a crisp ten dirham note in the treasurer’s sweaty palm next time we see him! Even launching the boat was not without incident. Note to self: boat launching is a lot easier if you first unhook the boat from the trailer. This hurdle overcome, we set out for the wreck site. The sea was a bit choppy but not too bad and we reached in about 45 minutes. Between them Allen (driving) and Cara (anchor throwing) put the hook straight into the wreck, requiring Denis and I to move it only a metre or so to make it absolutely secure. This was after a hasty repair of a broken fin strap. There’s not as much to explore as there used to be but the current was virtually nil and the viz was excellent. There were large shoals of snapper all over the wreck, a lot of barracuda and a few angelfish. There was also a cow-tailed ray in the sand just off the ship which unfortunately swam away before Denis could bring his camera to bear. I should also say that the boiler suit season is definitely over. I wore my 3mm and was glad of it. After the first dive, Denis nearly lost a fin when he tried to throw it back on the boat and missed. When we retrieved the anchor, we found a fluke had fallen off and we were down to three. It’s possible we could find the missing one on a return visit. It nearly got worse for the anchor as a shackle was also loose and it came within a split second of going down on the Vic Star attached to nothing. Good spot Allen. The viz was noticeably worse on the Vic Star than it had been on the Taha which is further offshore. It was however a good move to go there as the wind and sea state had picked up significantly by the time we finished and a 12km ride back was vastly preferable to 28km. The dive itself was unremarkable except that I couldn’t help noticing the deteriorating condition of the wreck. I’m guessing the original construction quality wasn’t the highest. It was left to Denis to overbalance hauling the anchor and sit on my head and Cara to lose her seat on a sharp breaking maneuver and end up in a heap in the bottom of the boat. I won’t mention the boat driver but clearly true love conquers all. Mercifully, we made it back to the club without further mishap and enjoyed a couple of beverages as the sun went down. ---------------------------------- DAN insurance website: https://www.daneurope.org/home ---------------------------------- The Dive Club meets every Tuesday night in the Dive Bar. See you there! ---------------------------------- Course update from Polly; Saad is running a Nitrox Blending course - Saturday 8th December 2018 at the Dive Club. Training starts at 10.00am. Please follow the link for more information. You can also attend this course as a refresher or to update knowledge and skills. Saad is also running the Emergency First Responder course in the New Year. Please let us know if you are interested. |
Authors-Ian Hussey and Dive Member Contributions. Archives
March 2023
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