Friday and Saturday October 17-18, 2013
Dibba Rock with Freestyle Divers, Musandam with Nomad Ocean Adventure My logged dives #1249-1251
Vance taking the video below, photo by Dro Madery
Glenn was visiting from Doha with his wife Gulya and their daughter Gwenny. They came for the Eid Al Adha break, all week long. Toward the end of the week Glenn and I were wondering how we could work in diving. Gwenny can't swim well enough to stay all day on a boat, and it wasn't working out how to include mommy and bibi considering the need for someone to remain on the boat with Gwenny or back on dry land, so in the end Glenn and I just went by ourselves.
Here's Glenn's video on YoutTube
We left around 11 a.m. from Al Ain, a very reasonable hour in the morning, and headed for UAE Dibba. We could have left home at nooon as we were early for our dive with Freestyle, and about 3:30 we entered the water and had a nice swim around the rock, meeting many creatures such as flounders, moray eels, pipe fish, jaw fish, bat fish, a few small barracuda ... nice to see life returning to the rock.
Then we crossed the border about dusk, an easy crossing, no hassles, and arrived in time for dinner of chicken and shrimp at Nomad Ocean Adventure. We got a good night sleep (at least I did) and next day headed up north to dive Octopus Rock in almost no current, what a treat, and then Ras Hamra and around the corner to Ras Sanut, where we met up with this guy ...
Dro Madery in the thumbnail
Dibba Rock
Dibba Rock used to be one of my favorite dive sites. When Royal Beach Motel was built there a dive site was established by Terry Moore who attracted a following among the sportif expats. Royal Beach was at first trying to establish a clientele and offered accommodation at rates that have since doubled. We early on found alternate accommodation but the diving was superb, with Terry running boats three times a day to the rock right offshore and divers happily frolicking among consistently frequent sightings of black tip reef sharks, turtles, migrating devil rays, cuttlefish, and resident barracuda, just to name a number of the many animals we took for granted there.
Now Terry's son Andy runs the business, and runs it well, despite a deterioration on the reef wrought by the unfortunate after effects of cyclone damage and prolonged red tide, which starved what was left of the reef after the cyclone. Now the remarkable raspberry coral that was home to all the creatures has gone but the creatures are coming back to the substrates that remain.
Dibba Rock makes a relaxing destination if you want to get a late start on your way to Musandam or want to get back home in the afternoon and feel like a morning dive before making the cross-country trip. The coral rocks we call the aquarium remain, and jaw fish are returning to the back side. Here is a compilation of GoPro shots that Glenn and I made on the rock on Oct 17, 2013
I will soon complile a similar video for Octopus Rock Oct 18 and post it here.
Not sure if I ever did that ...
Meanwhile Glenn posted this on FB, not a bad shot ...
October 4-5, 2013, Extra Divers, Khasab, Musandam, Oman
My logged dives #1245-1248
What did we get ourselves in for this
weekend? Someone had a birthday ending in zero so her mates booked
her a birthday on a dhow exploring the fjords out of Khasab, in one of the most beautiful parts of Oman. Many of
their friends were divers so they made it a dhow trip with option for
diving in the Straits of Hormuz organized by Extra Divers, Khasab.
There were certain understandings of
how all this was put together that were not made clear at the outset,
but once you've done the trip you can see it clearly. The booking was
made for the dhow trip for a group of people and one or two kids, only some of
whom were divers. These people were looking forward to a catered
overnight outing on a boat in placid fjords moving around amid the
beautiful mountain scenery in the vicinity of the old British telegraph station still standing ruined on an island whose surrounding coral has unfortunately been demolished by the impact of two many dhows anchoring there. The
diving was booked independently of all this with Extra
Divers who agreed to pick the divers up and return them to the dhow,
but apart from that Extra Divers knew nothing much about the dhow
except that they and the dhow would all be in the harbor at Khasab at the same time on
Friday morning. But Extra Divers was sending us credit card
authorization forms, giving Bobbi and I the mistaken impression that
they were somehow handling logistics (the forms didn't specify what we were authorizing). These were being handled by
the expat organizers of the weekend, but due to the underlying culture you acquire by actually going on one of these trips, they
were not much good at communicating to novitiates how the parts meshed in the process.
Bobbi and I were curious how it worked
and we like diving in the Straits of Hormuz. We thought it would be
fun to accompany a bunch of expats on a relaxing weekend break, but
we had real-world concerns that we couldn't get answers to prior to
the trip. These involved the hard fact that at the end and beginning
of our work weeks, Bobbi and I would be in Abu Dhabi, and Al Ain
respectively. It turned out that our friends would be getting a late
start Thursday so Bobbi would simply drive from Abu Dhabi to Al Ain where I would be
waiting with car packed and ready to move at sunset, and as it worked
out, by 7 pm we were on our way to Ras Al Khaimah and the Oman border.
We weren't familiar with the route or exactly how long it would
take. RAK is not as well developed as the roads leading into it, and
the distance to the border was considerable, considering the condition of the roads. We stopped for dinner
in RAK as well, so it was about midnight before we managed to cross
both borders and be on our way to the appointed camp site 18.6 km
into Oman.
At the appointed spot, on a great road now running alongside the sea to the north and mountains plunging almost straight up just off the road to the south, we pulled off onto the sand, a little too near the noisy
road, but we didn't want to drive onto loose sand so late at night. At
the border the inspector had opened our cool box but of course we had
stashed our contraband elsewhere so we were able to share a beer
before trying to sleep in the car. Early into October in the Middle
East it was still so hot and humid we were sweating and gasping
for air in the enclosed vehicle, so we turned the engine on and let it idly power the a/c
and slept in cool comfort the rest of the night. It was kind of like sleeping in an air conditioned hotel, except we only had to pay for petrol.
Bobbi hadn't switched off her workday morning alarm so we were up in plenty of time to complete the trip to Khasab on a beautiful roadway winding in and out of deep fjords, that you want
to do in daylight when you can enjoy the view. But when we reached Khasab we found a much better
option for camping, the beautifully maintained and uncrowded Bassa
Beach spreading from the foot of the rocky promontory which the Golden
Tulip now commands. We used to drive onto this promontory and camp
when we came to Khasab decades ago, and it was great to see that the
car tracks still led to the rocky overlooks unoccupied by campers on a
Friday morning, within a short walk to the new Golden Tulip and to
the back gate entrance to Extra Divers, easily reached by these rough tracks. Ideas for future winter dive trips, when it would be comfy
to sleep in the car, were spinning.
So at the dive center we discovered our true options. We could indeed dive just that day if we wanted, return on the Extra Divers boat to Khasab, and be home that night in Al Ain where we could sleep in on Saturday so Bobbi could get up rested at 4 a.m on Sunday morning and drive 2 hours to work in Abu Dhabi. It didn't seem our not going on the dhow was going to cause any problems, since one tripper had got stuck in Doha and another had been turned back at the border due to a discrepancy in the stamps in and out of UAE in his passport. And as that side was being organized by the Omani agent, there was no comprehensive roster for it.
But we decided as long as we were there we'd just go with the flow and join the dhow trip and dive the second day with Extra Divers. This opened another pandora's box of logistical problems for us. The dhow would be getting back to port before the dive boat and our overnight stuff would be on the dhow. No telling when the dive boat would get back (on Friday the weather was rough and currents were unpredictable causing us to abort the start of one dive because the current was stiff the wrong way, so it didn't get back until 4 pm that day). Whenever we got back on Saturday and had paid at the dive shop, we'd just then be starting the long drive back home. Sunday morning was looking to hit us hard after just 4 hours sleep, and Bobbi having to stay awake on her commute to Abu Dhabi.
Anyway we put these inconveniences aside when we booked our Saturday dives on Friday morning and decided to
throw in with the dhow. The first part of the adventure was to
report to the port and see that our dive gear made it on
the dive boat, and that our overnight gear went on the dhow. We went
with the dive gear on the dive boat to Musandam Island where we dived
Barracuda Corner and No Palm Beach. The weather was warm so there
was no chill to the spray that hammered us on the ride out (I was
sitting farthest back in the boat, where the hammer hit hardest and wettest). As we passed the islands I was
disoriented approaching the Straits from a different way from when we normally come up from Dibba in the south. We arrived at the same island we
usually do from that direction but with Extra Divers the sites have
names (Nomad hasn't got round to naming them yet, I don't
believe).
The diving wasn't particularly good.
We were guaranteed currents wherever we put in I was told. The
visibility was poor, though the coral was pretty. We saw a number of
turtles but not much else apart from reef fish until at the end of
the second dive we saw a feather ray being chased our way by one of the other divers (Hanno, nice of him :-). The second dive was aborted at
first because where we put in with plan to end up in No Palm Beach
the current turned out to be running strong the wrong way and was
carrying us off the dive site. So we all had to get back in the
boat, and our dive guide Vicki had to go chasing after those who had
submerged and were valiantly attempting the dive. In any event, all were
recovered and we motored back toward the beach to begin the dive
there and end in a sand flat which would be good for rays, which is
where we saw the feather guy. Vicki also saw an eagle ray at the
start of that dive but neither Bobbi nor I saw it.
I carry a torch on day dives for
looking into dark holes. The underwater terrain in Hormuz is riddled
with limestone alchoves and tunnels. I sometime find rays in them
but today I found something unusual. In one hole I peeked into there
was a huge turtle at least a meter long. He was facing away from the
entrance but oddly didn't move when I shined my light inside. I
think it had gone there to die and had succeeded. It must
have been recently since his flippers were tucked normally under his shell.
He must have gained his size through too many years of living, and
now he was resting motionless and imperturbable in a small alcove that could
hardly contain him.
One nice thing, considering the
currents, was that all the divers on the boat were compatible. All
the dives were 60 minutes and divers went to various depths, Bobbi
and I almost 30 meters each time. The current
helped us on the first dive but on the second it seemed to be a little
too powerful which meant we consumed air trying to slow down and
maintain direction in it. The divers seemed to all have their own
agendas, but we all met up at the safety stop, everyone with
air left in the tank, and most of us surfaced together as our watches ticked past 60 minutes.
The ride back to the dhow was wet and
uncomfortable. Again we got hammered by spray, slapping us in the
face again and again. We were drenched, and I was wondering how we'd feel on the dhow,
open deck, no chance for shower. But once we got there we found
lunch waiting, and drinks in our cool box, and pleasant temperatures for
drying off, and nothing to dress up for anyway. Some guests played in
the water, the dhow moved to its mooring location, and we enjoyed
sundown off the island with the old telegraph station. Dinner
appeared, catered by boat from one of the villages on shore (Saeed's,
our captain's village, not far from where he had anchored). The company was
pleasant, someone produced a guitar and a small amp that bespoke
professionalism in hittin' the licks.
Bobbi and I were so tired that we stretched out on cushions and even
with the amplified guitar drifted in and our of sleep. I heard the
guitarist announce an end to his set, and then some loud music came
on. I remember wondering if this would go on late but it didn't. I felt drugged
and eventually awoke to everything dark and quiet. I was quite
comfortable, no covers, no shirt, and a breeze just cool enough to
keep the heat off. All was peaceful and quiet until dawn when some
of the guests started talking to one another, a little inconsiderate
of the people still pretending to sleep I thought, but it was time to
get up anyway. I had to charge my GoPro on the USB of the netbook
computer I'd brought aboard. You know your world has changed when
you bring a laptop on a dive trip just to recharge your camera (well, while charging, I started writing up my dive logs :-).
People on the dhow were waking up and
diving from the deck into the water. There was a discussion of
etiquette in doing number 2 in the ship's head when there were
swimmers in the water below. Breakfast was brought in by boat in
plastic Lulu bags (there's a huge new Lulu Hypermarket near the
harbor). Eventually the boat pulled anchor and went into a cove where there are dolphins. The crew of the dhow were graciously pleasant
and delighted in steering the boat at a speed which would attract the
dolphins to swim alongside, much to the appreciation of those of us
with GoPros. We were winding down this activity when our dive boat
appeared.
We transferred our gear aboard and
waved goodbye to our other packs and coolbox which we would next see
in Khasab harbor. We waved goodbye to our non-diving friends as well, as we would be back in port after they had all returned there and
departed. We headed off across the archipelago on calmer seas than
the day before, but there still remained some white caps and some parts where the
spray stung our faces. We passed some Iranian smugglers heading home
in a trio of Yamaha boats pitching heedless of the oncoming waves. They waved as they headed out to sea.
Our destination was Abu Rashid Island,
a small island with strong currents bathing walls and soft coral tableaux, with a sand
bottom at about 30 meters. We did two dives here, both good. Bobbi
and I kept company with Vicki most of the time though she seemed to
be diving mostly to enjoy herself, exactly the kind of diver you want to
follow. She was responsibly keeping tabs on the others but not getting in their
way, and if Bobbi and I lagged back she would go on ahead and we'd
catch up with her. She had some nice diving strategies, like finding
a current and staying there using a reef hook. Bobbi and I both had
reef hooks so we'd do the same. At one of these spots on the first
dive, on an east wall called Abu Rashid Drift, we found a school of
barracuda which I swam into with my GoPro blazing.
We saw more barracuda on the second
dive, which we started at “Jackfish corner”, at one of the spots
where Vicki was hooked in to the reef. I took videos of common
things on this dive, a pair of nudibranchs appearing to consume one
another, a school of triggerfish that was chasing after smaller fish,
trying to corral them between the coral, but not able to catch any in
the time I was filming. All throughout the dive batfish were darting
up to us, and while we were hanging out clipped to the reef in the
strong current, we could see them preening at cleaning stations,
again subjects of my GoPro.
Vicki had a reason for clipping in, and
that reason eventually appeared to us in the hulking form of a whale shark, keeping itself mouth into
the current, sucking up the plankton. I swam up to it, but whereas
the whale shark was stationary, I had to fin quite hard to keep along
side it. Remora hanging to it like pennants also became detached in
the current and had to scramble to regain position. The whale shark
didn't seem to mind my swimming up to it, as long as I didn't touch
it, and I kept myself near it till my breath gave out, so I descended
to the reef where Bobbi and Vicki were clipped in watching the show
from the multicolored reef.
I guess there's not more to say that
will top that about the diving. Just about timing, the boat was back in
harbor at 3:00, we had retrieved our packs from the dhow and cleaned
our dive gear and paid at the dive shop by 4 pm, and we were crossing
borders by 5:00. At 6:00 we were stuck in traffic in RAK, home to
the most pathetic road snarls in the UAE, pathetic because in a land
of new traffic infrastructure, not much changes in RAK though the
number of cars increases constantly. We were soon on the 311 though
and by 6:30 we were turning off at the Um Al Quwayn exit to connect with the
611. At 7:15 we had turned off 611 into 66 for Al Ain. It's one hour
from there to our house, making a 4.5 hour trip in all. It could be an hour less with better road works in RAK and more efficiency at the
borders, but it didn't take as long as we feared.
And it was very much worth doing! These nudibranchs are for Jay :-)
