Diving Days nov 30 and Dec 1 2013
Going to put these two days together as our two days were all about diving and not much else. We are quite happy with our dive crew and the first day sites weren't fantastic but was nice. Our third and fourth days sites were great, except for one which had a lot of surge as the tide was coming in. Some very good sites with some very good things to see. Ohhhh, it’s so exciting to see new things when you dive and there are always new things to see.
One day we had 9 people on the boat to dive which was quite a lot we thought but the boat is licensed to take 16 divers. Whew. I think it would be pandemonium to try and get that many divers ready and into the water. A dive guide basically leads the group around the area and tries to spot interesting things to see and point them out to the divers
. This is important because when you are in a brand new spot, you don’t know which way to go to the good stuff and what might be there. A good dive guide is on the spot maybe several times a week or at least several times a month so he/she knows what is usually hanging around the site. A dive master also makes sure nobody gets in trouble. Even very experienced divers with a lot of dives under their belts can get all excited and forget to watch their time or depth. I’ve known lobster hunters to way overextend themselves and every year there are some divers that die in the Florida Keys while hunting lobsters because they just run out of air. And finally a good dive guide keeps the group together and knows when to start ascending if someone is low on air and also can give up their weights which they usually carry if one of the divers is low on weight and having trouble staying at depth.
Because of the tides, in the morning, tanks, weights, gear must all be carried to the boat which is anchored anywhere from 20 meters to 60 meters offshore. The first two days, we waded in water to get to the boat. The last two days, we waded, walked across an exposed sand bar, and then waded some more. The dive shop is gracious enough to carry the ladies tanks to the boat and then most of the male divers carry their own tanks. Everyone carries their own weights. I am not above being very grateful on letting someone carry my tank
. I’m so fluffy that it takes a lot of weights for me to dive so I’m carrying a heavy load without the tank.
Anyway, one morning we set off and all 9 divers were on the boat and it was about ready to leave. My hubby had not found his tank yet so we were looking at all the gear to see where it was. If people don’t bring their own gear but rent the dive shops, then all the gear looks alike. And usually most of the gear is very similar anyway as people buy the standard brands like Aqualung, Scubapro, etc. But our gear has a shaker on each of our BCD’s. It helps us identify our gear and also we can hear it underwater so we use it to signal each other. We were looking for his shaker. I had put my hand on a tank with a backpack that looked amaziningly like my husband’s PLUS it was on a larger tank which my hubby was also using to get some more bottom time. A very large man on the boat with a German accent almost slapped my hand away and almost shouted "Don’t touch that!" OMG mister. You’re here on holiday – take a breather. No diver would hurt someone else’s gear and we were just looking for the shaker. But you do run into some ugly divers every once in awhile just as you can run into ugly tourists. I figured this guy was one of the nasty tourists so we moved to the other side of the boat to stay away from him
. Yep, sure enough. Later on the dive, when we were all in two groups, 4 of us with one dive master and 5 with the other dive guide, this guy came out of nowhere in the dive and joined our group. Which means he meandered away from his dive guide and got lost. He stayed with us for awhile, ran into me once, hard, and then ran into another diver, hard, and then our dive guide pointed out the other group and sent him on his way. I think that he never found them because after we were in the boat and waiting for the other group to surface, this man surfaced all by himself and was bobbing in the ocean alone. NOT a good diving practice. Of course the other dive guide shouldn’t have lost him but sometimes it happens no matter how good the dive guide is.
Anyway, the dive was good for us and we had an enjoyable day. Our last day of diving was pretty cool. We saw some wonderful stuff. We went to a site called Stork Perch or maybe Porch. Wasn’t sure which. I was trying to explain to some Germans what a Stork was and when I explained that “they sometimes bring the babies”, the Germans knew immediately which bird I meant as they have the same story in Germany or one similar to it. Our dive guide told us we might see some sharks, some rays, some barracudas, etc. usual stuff for the area. My hubby and I were following him and I went behind him through a small tunnel of rocks while my hubby went up and over. As I was coming to the end, the dive guide was hovering in the water and motioning me to hurry. As I came out he pointed out into the deep. Flying away from me was a school/group/pod of blue spotted eagle rays. There isn’t any way to describe what they were doing other than flying. They were so graceful and just diving up and down as they moved their wings and played with each other. It was so magical
.
Our group moved on as the rays “flew” out of sight into the blue. But I kept glancing out into the blue and sure enough, in a couple of minutes, the rays are back and this time flying towards us. I pointed it out to my hubby and we all stopped and watched the rays again. In all, the ray (school just isn’t majestic enough!) school/group/pod/whatever flew by us about 4 times. Each time we all stopped swimming and just hung there in awe. One ray came down close to us and started snuffling along the bottom to get some lunch but then he flew off to join the group again. How wonderful it was.
We saw quite a few things in our last few dives. Another pipe fish, an octopus, lots of coral in a spot called Alice in Wonderland which is connected to Oscar’s Reef so those two were my favorite spots but have to say the rays were one of my favorite things to see. Also saw a black and white spotted moray who was very cleverly concealed but my hubby spotted him. Another octopus who had built himself a nice home with rocks and such in front of his hole.
As we had to leave the water at Stork Perch – where we saw the rays flying – we drifted out and away from the island so it would be easier for the boat to pick us up
. As we are hanging in the water column at 5 meters for our safety stop, a school of barracuda came around us. There must have been about 150 barracuda swimming there. They circled us and continued to swim around us in a circle for our entire 3 minute safety stop. Barracuda do not frighten me. I find them quite interesting but I did wonder if anyone had anything really shiny on their tanks because barracuda are known for darting in and snatching bright and shiny things. Kind of the magpies of the sea. My hubby joked that as long as they are circling us, we are fine. When they stop circling and face inwards, then we worry! But they disappeared as soon as we started moving upwards again so were out of sight by the time we hit the surface.
Wonderful diving. I am chagrined to admit that I had messed up our hotel reservations so that we were forced to change our hotel in the middle of our stay. We decided to move to another island because of this but also because of this, we’ve pretty much ended our diving early. Such a shame. Here’s hoping that we get to come back because it was good diving and a good dive shop. We did hear from one of the other divers that Oman has some good diving. Hummmmmm. How interesting.
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