My logged dives #1382-85
Dan Miles got in touch recently to ask if we would accompany him and Molly Carter on Dan's 100th ever dive. The timing was over the weekend before eid break, not ideal for us, but we're never sure of our eid holidays until the last minute. In the event, it turned out my school was indeed out for the whole week (so this trip comprised the most fun part of our eid vacation) but for Dan and Molly, it turned out their anticipated Tue, Wed, Thu holiday was shortened to just two days, Wed and Thu, for most schools in the UAE. Good thing we went diving when we did.
We made arrangements to spend the weekend at Nomad Ocean Adventures, and Dan's 100th dive was our second on the Friday, which happened to be at Lima Rock. Molly and Dan had prepared a banner for the occasion which they unfurled as we descended on the dive. Fortunately I had a camera handy, or perhaps that's why they asked me along :-)
Dives on Lima Rock can be challenging. This one was not bad for current but there was enough of one to make us be careful as we explored the point, but not enough to lure the fishes in great numbers. We saw a few jacks and batfish, but no barracudas or devil rays, no eagle rays darting out suddenly as sometimes happens. Molly did quite well with current and buoyancy (I certified her recently and blogged it here: http://vancesdiveblogs.blogspot.ae/2014/11/certified-molly-carter-padi-open-water.html).
Our first dive of the day was actually our best. It was off Ras Morovi, north side. Brad proposed to drop in to the east of the bay and lead the divers west into the bay and then north at the far side. Bobbi and I did the same except that we started our dive heading east to deeper water as far as what I call the quarry, an alcove that looks like it was quarried from the surrounding rock. It's on the video. We found a honeycomb moray on that side and a marble ray under a rock. Back into the bay we passed over table coral and found a feather-tail ray in the sand. On the way to the surface we found many crayfish in the rocks, including one wandering about outside his lair. Nice dive.
The next day our first dive was at Lulu Island, which is sometimes home to eagle rays, but on this day there was not much home apart from a scorpion fish and some morays. The current was strong as we rounded the ridge and the dive was not all that pleasant although the last of it where we escaped the current in the coral gardens to the south of the island was pretty for diving. I'm not sure if I'll put the video up at YouTube; thinking about it, but not right now.
Our last dive was at Ras Hamra. It was a lovely dive as you can see from the video below and included an encounter with a circling turtle.
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