May 26-27, 2017
Bobbi and I have been diving almost every weekend lately with Nomad Ocean Adventures. It's an hour glass with sand running out at this point. This was supposed to be the last weekend of operation, but owner Chris Chellapermal is having trouble breaking his diving habit and has declared one final outing the first week of June, just for his friends and past clients of the dive center, with Friday scheduled as a 3-dive trip to the far north Musandam, and Saturday, no telling.
Most of Chris's staff have left so Chris has been inviting me and other instructors down to guide boats and teach students in return for free diving and room and board, so Bobbi and I have been making hay while the sun shines, going every weekend, and can't get enough of it frankly. We're all going to be in serious withdrawl in June as we hunker down and prepare our escapes for summer break in July, something we need to start planning sooner than later.
We've dived 6 of the past 7 weekends, pausing only for a weekend off to run up to Doha and see our new grandson. We're planning to dive next weekend as well but that will likely be it for a while. Enjoy the videos.
Lima Rock
The above set of video clips were taken while diving on Lima Rock, mostly the south side, in Musandam, Oman, accompanied by former dive student Anand Mantri, and my favorite dive buddy Bobbi Stevens
The first clip is from the boat on Friday, actually on the north side. Next clip is our descent on the south side on Saturday with batfish, bannerfish, and devil rays passing by at 25 meters. Then more batfsh, jacks, pretty corals, nice visibility. There is a clip from the north in there as well, and a moray that lives on that side.
Ras Morovi
Devil rays were cruising the peaceful bay where we usually put in at Ras Morovi. Three of them appeared at various points on our southern leg heading around the point. The feather tail was on the other side, near the grotto, but the terrain there is very similar to the bay, and we often see these rays there, so I edited accordingly.
The puffer was sitting in front of the crayfish cave. He headed over the shoulder where the beautiful corals are that lead into a world of blue trigger fish, angel fish, sergeant majors, and fusiliers popping in and out of the black and green whip coral, with moray eels down in the sand where the ghost fish traps are turning to rust. As we head back over the reef a third devil ray passes and takes flight.
Farewell to Nomad
These videos were made while diving this weekend on Nomad Ocean Adventures' last publicly announced commercial weekend in business, May 26-27, 2017. We will miss the special ambiance that Chris Chellapermal has bestowed on operations at NoA, and we wish him the best in his future endeavors.
The picture below was taken by Anand Mantri in the Nomad majlis while I was trying to crank out some writing before Saturday diving. Click on the pic for a peek into my computer screen.
Chris kept telling me he was seeing Mobula rays this week and last when I thought they were devil rays, and it turns out we were both right.
According to Nine facts about devil rays from the PADI website
http://www2.padi.com/blog/2015/10/31/9-facts-about-devil-rays/
"There are actually nine different species of devil ray, all part of the genus Mobula"
and from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobula and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil_fish
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