Abu Dhabi wrecks again, Ludwig and somewhere near Jasim, Aug 5, 2011

My logged dives #1061-1063

Bobbi, Dusty, and Michelle and I accepted an invitation from Al Mahara divers to come dive with Kathleen and Peter, our old friends (but not as old as we are :-).  We were trying to dig out our old GPS coordinates and locate the wrecks for one thing, and Kathleen wants to find them so she can take divers there for her new dive center.

I was helpful in locating the Ludwig.  That's always been one of my favorite wrecks.  That dive was a nice one. We dropped anchor after inching near the wreck but we couldn't get the boatman to get on it so finally we dropped anchor 200 meters from it, and the anchor dragged showing that distance increasing to 300 but then held steady.

In any event the Ludwig is not hard to find.  It's a big wreck.  It looms large if you know which direction you need to go to find it.  So Bobbi and I and Michelle crept up on it upcurrent at 26 meters or so till we saw the shadow of its hull. When we arrived there I led us to the stern and looked in the sand there for rays, found none, and so I led around to the deck side and then went up along the fo'castle to the high point of the wreck which happens to be the starboard side of the wheel house.  There the door was removed long ago making it easy to enter the wheelhouse which, being on its side, is a descent to the port side, which now lays in the sand.  The wheelhouse is roomy and doesn't feel that confined since there are window holes there that still overlook the ghostly deck.  But the big surprise was at depth where there used to be rubble there obscuring the exit to the sand.  It's been removed.  It's now an easy thing to go in the top of the wheelhouse, descend to the opposite side, and find and exit to the sand.  Who's been cleaning up this wreck?  Nice of them!

After that we proceeded along the bottom of the deck where the ship lays on its side until the bow.  I was keeping an eye on my computer, hoping to find something interesting at the bow (used to be lots of barracuda there) and knowing that we could then follow the deck up so as to manage the fact that we were then just one minute to deco.

To make a few more minute story even shorter, we followed the deck up as it contoured to 20 meters, the time to deco kept getting bigger but then counting down as we watched the fish up top. We were by now with Kathleen and her crew who were also finding their way up.  There was a rope trailing off the deck and I got my crew on it so as to have a reference for safety stop at 5 meters, and the entire dive lasted perhaps 40 minutes.

From there we motored south towards home and towards our GPS points for the Jasim, but we had worse luck here. I was unsure of where my coordinates came from.  Kathleen had some as well but in the end we tried mine, and these turned out to be on the tall buoy some distance from the wreck, so we never did find it.  Our dive with my group was half an hour in the sand at 25+ meters, to come up when the first person went low on air.

I still had 90 bar and Kathleen wanted to try her coordinates and see if we could find the wreck on a third dive, so I accompanied her, but she had no better luck, so we emerged from that one wrecklessly.

Finley the shark, seen below, wearing my face mask, gave his version of the Ludwig dive here: http://www.projectaware.org/blog/divemahara/aug-24-11/finley-goes-wreck-diving-abu-dhabi-and-gets-ready-mighty-mussandam. Finley, apart from these here, where are your pics ???

PADI Open Water dives 1 and 2 for Paula Gerber and #2 for Hasan Khaled, Abu Dhabi Breakwater Nov 26. 2010

My logged dives #1021-1022

Friday Nov 26, 2010

It's starting to get cool for Abu Dhabi diving but the weather was still pleasant for an outing with Al Mahara Divers, Laura and Mits presiding over the diving on Alistair and Kathleen's boat.  I thought I had to work on Saturday (though the Open House was called off in an email to staff on the Thu, two days before the planned event :-{ so I had planned to take my two dive students on their PADI o/w dives Friday from Abu Dhabi.

As happens this time of year, sea conditions were not ideal, and so diving was planned for the Abu Dhabi Breakwater.  Even outside the Breakwater, a slight chop was making two of the ladies ill, so for the second dive we moved to inside the Breakwater.

The Breakwater can be a nice spot with rays in the sand, batfish around the Bateen Box, and bigger stuff like barracudas passing nearby, when visibility allows any of this to be seen.  Today the water appeared through our masks like diluted milk. It was not an ideal environment for beginning divers with their inevitable anxieties.

So we simply conducted the dives.  We entered the water at greater distance on either side of  the breakwater from where I usually anchor (the boat captain had a healthy concern for submerged rocks, though those who know the site are aware that there are none).  This meant beginning with a compass heading to the wall, all divers staying in almost physical contact with one another, then arriving suddenly at the wall, and not seeing many fish there, though the sea urchins were obvious enough to my beginners.

Hasan was actually making his second dive for his course since he'd dived the previous week at Dibba Rock, where I'd shown him some sharks.  So he was more comfortable than Paula diving for her first time.  Still both divers accomplished their objective of completing the course through the second o/w dive, and I always personally enjoy myself on these outings.

Our dive times were 40 minutes the first dive, to about 6 meters, but only 15 min for the second (similar depth), due to the conditions making my team uncomfortable, and necessitating a surface swim to the boat against a significant current, which we managed nevertheless.  Good chance to do tired diver tows :-)

June 5, 2010 - Certified Elizabeth O/W at Bateen Breakwater off Abu Dhabi

My logged dives #985-986

Cyclone Phet had been churning through Oman and its tail had brought the surf up along the coast of Musandam, but Abu Dhabi was little affected apart from wind, which by Saturday had largely passed. So I engaged Allistair and his Al Mahara boat to take us from Bateen Harbor to the breakwater where conditions allowed us to dive the Bateen Box on one dive and around the corner on another.

The breakwater was pleasant with excellent vis and warm temperatures 31 degrees. We were diving in 6 to 8 meters, 45 minutes each time. Allistair had a student Merwan and I was conducting Elizabeth's last two dives for her course, and Marika and Natalie's very first open dives. We had spent much of Friday in the pool where Natalie had breezed through the first three modules of the course. Her boyfriend Jonny was with us, doing his advanced boat and navigation dives.

The batfish entertained us as we cruised through the exercises that can so well be done in shallow relatively calm conditions. There was not much to write home about, but the day went successfully. Elizabeth qualified with honors and the others made progress in their training.

And did I mention the watermellon?!! This seems to be a steady feature on Al Mahara dive cruises, and a delicious tonic to counteract the effects of inhaling salt and dry air for 45 min underwater, and the munchies after diving, very considerate of the Russells to have on board!

Afterwards I left Allistair to tend to his boat engines and raced home for a quick shower and then to a villa nearby where Rachel and her friends were putting on a string quartet for us in the true tradition of chamber music (ca va dire, dans une chambre). Between the diving and the wine, Bobbi and I found ourselves in bed not long after sundown and now I'm writing this in the early hours of the morning.

Diving Abu Dhabi with Al Mahara Diving Center, May 15, 2010, my logged dives #971-972

Congratulations to Ala Jadooa, certified as a PADI open water diver today, and also Elizabeth Peters, who successfully completed her first two dives for the course!

Al Mahara is a diving center recently started up by my long-time friends in Abu Dhabi Kathleen and Alistair Russell.  We've dived together often before but this was my first time with them under the new dive flag, http://www.divemahara.com/.

We went to Delta Buoy which I hadn't visited in some time.  Alistair moored NE of the gully I used to visit often when I would drop in between there and the buoy itself.  I would approach from just east of the buoy (west of the gulley) and I used to know pretty spot on where it was, and I left some poles propped upright there to help me find it, so I used to go there my every visit to Delta Buoy, but this time, coming from the opposite direction, I wasn't able to find the spot I was looking for, though we did find some significant ridges with angel and banner fish, black spotted yellow grunts, and a few hamour lurkng about, with snappers spilling over them in a dense rush.

It was pleasant diving.  The ladies both did very well.  Ala started off with a well-executed CESA from 9 meters, and back at the surface, after resolving minor weighting problems, we all descended together into pleasantly cool water, vis about 10 meters, 10:44 on my watch.  Ala had to hover and removed her mask and replace it, and Elizabeth's task was just to enjoy the dive.  We meandered looking for fish (me trying to locate that certain gully, in vain), 10 or 11 meters max, until at 11:25 Ala signaled low on air and we came up some distance from the boat.  This gave us a chance to run through Ala's remaining surface skills before the boat reached us and we climbed back aboard.

For the second dive Alistair dropped us at a nearby reef I'd never visited before, called Phil's Reef I think, after someone who had found several bamboo sharks hiding under a rock there (why not bamboo reef, I wonder?).  At least that was the story.  There was a stiff surface current that complicated entry though once we headed down the anchor line at around 12:30 it wasn't too bad at the bottom.  I used the anchor to fix a point for Ala's compass out and back, her last skill to complete her course.  She started into the current and then got carried by the current past the anchor on the return leg, but she was keeping track of kicks so she managed to turn and look around before she had gone far, well done for a novice.  I had Elizabeth do her module 2 skills in the same spot and then we were ready for a look around.  I tried to keep to a square but the current combined with curiosity to exam outcrops here and there blasted that away.  I tried to head us into the current more or less on the assumption that would keep us at least in the vicinity of the boat, but it didn't work, and when Ala went low on air we surfaced where we happened to be.  This time it was Elizabeth's turn to do surface skills while we waited.

That dive was 10 meters (or 11, max) for about 35 minutes.

Lovely day out in Abu Dhabi out of the heat and traffic.  I'm ready to revisit the wrecks!