December 29 this year and most years for that matter was my son Dusty's birthday, and as he was in town from Doha I offered to take him diving as a birthday present. Bobbi and granddaughter Gwenny had planned to accompany us to Nomad Ocean Adventure in Dibba Musandam but as we were pulling away from the house to get on the freeway for Dubai, Lauren rang us and told us they were cancelling diving that weekend due to rough weather, but she said they'd be diving on the Dibba UAE side. So we pulled off the highway, drove home to get beverages we had to be careful about carrying across the border into Oman, booked ourselves into Alia Suites in Dibba on our mobile phones as we retraced our steps, and set out anew to spend the night in Dibba, UAE.
We all slept too late for the early morning dive but woke up in time to have breakfast and pack and move down the road to the Royal Beach Hotel for the second dive at 11:00, where Nomad Ocean Adventure opened a dive center in 2015. We find it a little odd there because the staff caters to people who are diving or snorkeling the rock for the first time so we get dive briefings telling us where we will be led, but they are cool with my saying I'll just guide myself, thanks, I know where I want to go on Dibba Rock. There are moorings on the west and east sides of the small island. On the west side there is the aquarium, shallow coral teeming with fish, but the current was running that way so for our two dives that day we put in at the deeper east mooring both dives.
When they go down that mooring Nomad leads the dives to the left to go around the back of the rock. When I'm at that mooring I go in the sand to the right to find the sting rays living there, and sometimes the turtle that lives under a rock nearby. Discussing the plan on the boat before our second dive, the dive leader mentioned their "resident" turtle and when I said I was going right to check on the resident rays, she said, "We don't have any resident rays." I said, "Yes, you do." You can see them in fact in the video below (https://youtu.be/WLYb3fEOk10).
This video is an 18 minute compilation from our two dives, and gives a good representation of what you can see if you know where to look at Dibba Rock. It starts with a pipe fish, which is the first thing that Dusty noticed when we descended on the first dive. We then move south over the sand flats to find the sting rays living there. We saw the shark on the second dive, amazing creatures, always more impressive when seen in real life, furtive and fleeting on video, especially when visibility is milky as it often is where the sharks are on Dibba Rock. From there we move to schools of barracuda, snappers, and jacks and other fish. I included some clown fish, cuttlefish, and batfish, before moving down over the reef into the aquarium where fish teem in the coral arches, and Dusty found a torpedo ray, perhaps the same one, on both dives. On our last trip there, Nikki Blower and Bobbi and I found the turtle under the rock and filmed him in his lair: http://vancesdiveblogs.blogspot.ae/2015/09/fun-diving-with-sharks-turtles-and-rays.html
We were very glad we went diving that day. Nomad have a pleasant operation there, and the beach is great for families, with unrestricted use of the pool (but then Gwenny speaks Russian and so blends in with the clientele there). We all had a great time and always look forward to diving with Chris's team, hopefully in Musandam next time.
Dolphins often played with the boat transporting us to dive sites in Gan Lagoon, Maldives
Day 1 Dec 12, 2015, my dives #1394-95, Hairaan Fara and Kuda Kandu Corner
Our first day diving in Gan Atoll, Maldives. One memory is while videoing some interesting fish
life, I forget what exactly, I pan to our dive guide Umar who is making the shark sign and pointing ahead. I swing
the GoPro around and follow his point onto a grey white tipped reef shark whom I am able to close quarters with as he
moves up the reef. It should have been an excellent video but my GoPro casing is wearing and not engaging always when I
press to activate video. So that one is in cranial memory, but others can be seen on YouTube.
Day 2 Dec 13, 2015, my dives #1396-
97,attempted Mudakan and dived
Bushy East
Today we started out with an odd concatenation of events. We are going to Mudhakan
which Umar the guide says is a reef with sharks, but he always goes in first and then gets back on the boat and
then re-positions it, then enters the water, and if all is good, he calls us in. We comprises Bobbi and I and
a team of 3 Germans, two guys and a lady. Today, Umar announces there is "medium" current, enters the water, and
calls us to join him. I have gone to the bow and jump when he calls but everyone else including Bobbi opts to use the
amidship entry, which means they go one after another, and they crowd Bobbi, so she enters last. Meanwhile Umar is
anxious to descend and he begins the dive. I don't see Bobbi so I call out to her, no response. I call again, but the
Germans are descending. I assume Bobbi has descended already.
When I go down Umar is a bit ahead and I don't see Bobbi. I see the three Germans and
perhaps someone at the surface. In 15 seconds it is apparent that Bobbi is with the Germans and I find later that the
lady German had trouble ascending and was still at the surface. When I see that Bobbi is with the Germans I kick to
catch up with Umar. But I, we in fact, have delayed too long. There is a furious current preventing forward movement. I
can't catch Umar in mid-water, the only chance is to drop to the coral and hope for less current there, and pull myself
forward using my reef hook.
I drop to the coral bed in 20 meters of water. Bobbi I find later employs the same
strategy and drops to coral in 12 meters. We are now both in a cabbage coral bed that crumbles as we try to claw
forward, like trying to pull yourself forward on potato chips. But I find a few solid chunks to sink my reef hook onto.
But now I am too low to see anyone else. Bobbi can see me, she says later, but
I soon drop over the edge and out of site to 27 meters. Bobbi is alone and I am too. I can see no one else.
I can however see a parade of sharks just below me in the blue. I pull forward.
The current is buffeting me but I try to get pictures with my GoPro. It's pretty difficult with the current throwing me around, I'm breathing more than usual, and 11 min into the dive I'm
down to half a tank 100 bar. I can't stay like this, alone at this depth. I decide to turn and let the current ride me
up and out of there. I careen over the plateau at 12 meters, safe now, I'm just thinking to maybe do a safety stop,
maybe ascend and find out what's going on with the others.
At the surface the boat picks me up. Bobbi is aboard. She did pretty much what I did,
didn't see anyone else, couldn't go forward in the current, decided to let go and safely ascend wherever the current
would pitch her out. At the surface she blew her whistle, and the boat came and got her.
So Bobbi and I were on the boat, our dives pretty much aborted, and no sign of the
others. Later we found that Umar had seen the German lady was having problems, he saw Bobbi and I in the coral bed but
prioritized the Germans, and returned to help the lady descend. By now for Umar and the Germans, going forward to where Bobbi and I were still trying to inch our way against the current to the corner was out of the question, but Umar knew
that to ride the current in a certain direction would take you back to Manta Point which is where he took the Germans. So we collected them
half an hour later, all chuffed that they had seen Mantas. I included my film clips taken while struggling with current in the video that follows, when we managed to dive Mudhakan successfully the following day.
Day 3 Dec 14, 2015, my dives #1398-
99,successfully dived Mudhakan
to Manta Point
and finished the day at Banana Thila
On day 3 of our diving, the Germans were no longer with us so it was just Bobbi and
I. I suggested to Umar that as long as it was just us, we should go back to Mudakan corner and try to dive it properly. Bobbi and I had worked out that our not being together at the start of
the dive had resulted in hesitation that had made it impossible for us to reach the corner, but if it was just Umar and
the two of us, we could do a straight down descent and stay close to Umar. He agreed and we descended to the reef
despite current that tried its best to sweep us off it. Bobbi landed furthest back but gamely did her best to join us,
using her reef hook to claw against the current over the coral. I had landed at 29 meters and positioned my reef hook to move up a couple meters to 27.
Umar was at that depth and indicating sharks ahead, though it took us a while to see them.
We watched them patrol until I was down to half a tank with just 10 minutes no deco
and Umar suggested we move off, which we did, letting the current buffet us up the reef. I was gasping at air trying to
stay on the plateau as the current was trying to move me down to 14 and then sweep me over the edge. Eventually Umar
stopped as we had arrived at Manta Point and half a dozen mantas were at play here.
My personal consideration was that the mantas were at 18 meters and I was by now down
to 50 bar, but of course with mantas around, you need to prioritize.
Day 4 Dec 15, 2015, my dives #1400-
01, Buda Hoholha and Manta Point with Axel and Umar Axel, the dive center manager, was taking some German divers under his wing so he and Umar let us go on our own
at Buda Hoholha, and then we all went to Manta Point together.
The only thing about doing Manta Point after a deep dive
was it was easy to slip into deco. Between us Bobbi and I have three computers, my Aladdin which is the one that went
into deco, and a Zoop, which got bricked because it goes onto a tables algorithm if you stay down below 10 meters
at the end of the second dive, and Bobbi's computer, which didn't register that she was in deco. We've ignored the Zoop before and
survived it - I think it's algorithm is too simplistic for deep diving. We dived the Aladdin and did the deco stops. The mantas were great.
Day 5 Dec 16, 2015, my dives #1402-03, Manta Point and Bushy West with Axel Umar took a day off so it was just Axel and two
Germans Heinz and Pia, plus Bobbi and I. We did our first dive this time on Manta Point. Strange things happened.
Bobbi got lost on the descent. I thought one of the divers who were with Axel was Bobbi, but it wasn't. The four of us
were hanging on in the current and Axel was telling me emphatically, thumbs up, get up there and find your buddy. It was
an order and I was preparing to comply, but thinking what could I do at the surface? The current would sweep me off the
site. There was nothing I could do for Bobbi up there, and if she had a problem she would have ascended, I'm sure of
that, and the boat.would have picked her up. If she was carried by the current, she would have been swept over the edge of the reef into blue water and the
worst would be she might go down, but I didn't think she would have done that (and if she had, my going to the surface
would not have helped her there). Axel was emphatic, I was to abort my dive, but then I saw what I thought might be
bubbles, so I hooked onto the reef to hold my position in the current. Sure enough it was Bobbi. She said later she had
seen our bubbles. She knew to stay at the edge of the reef drop off. She knew the site, she did exactly what she should
have done, she tried to join us in a calm and measured way, and I'm glad I had hesitated and waited. I was so happy to
see her. She's my favorite dive buddy.
We hung out with mantas as usual there but Axel and the German couple had moved down
from us. When we decided we needed to go up we found them hanging out above us. But apparently the couple surfaced
prematurely and so we joined Axel on his safety stop. He seemed in a funk. We completed our 3 min at 5 meters and
climbed back on the boat. Axel banned the couple from further diving that morning since they had not done a safety
stop (they had been to only 18 meters and had dived only 45 min). He was upset with Bobbi as well but got over it and took us on a second
dive to Bushy Island West. It turned out to be a great dive, lots of current, and my Aladdin kept wanting me to go
higher. I think we were back in Axel's good graces by the end of it.
Day 6 Dec 17,
2015, my dives #1404-05, Kuda Hoholha and Fihali Fara with Umar (more dolphins, sharks
and eagle rays)
and finally, our last dive of this trip, on Kuda Hoholha
This is diving in Addu Atoll, extreme south Maldives
