Sunday, May 13, 2007

What did you do on your weekend?

Unless you won a Grand Prix, were the sole jackpot winner in the Lottery or had Claudia Schiffer declare her undying love for you, your weekend was nowhere near as good as mine!

Four of us made an early start on Friday leaving the clubhouse before 6am and heading for Ras Al Khaimah where we launched Diver 1. The sea was as flat as a millpond without a ripple in sight and we made excellent progress arriving at the Energy Determination in 45 minutes. My buddy and I were the first pair in the water and descended to 39 metres where the anchor had become entangled with ropes on the wreck. As we checked the security of the anchor a large ray glided overhead probably wondering who these noisy characters were invading it’s realm.

From there we descended to 55m and spent the next 18 minutes gradually ascending whilst swimming around the remains of this vast vessel. Energy Determination was an oil tanker being towed to port following an explosion on board. The stern section split away from the main body of the vessel and has been in this location since 1979. As an indication of her size; the starboard side lies in the sand at 80m whilst the port side rises up to 30m – that’s one big ship!

Swimming around Energy is like no other wreck – it’s like flying around a skyscraper with the vast bulk rising above you and the sandy bottom so far below. During our dive we were accompanied by the largest tuna I have ever seen and the variety of sea-life is unbelievable.

Returning to the anchor I had 20 minutes of decompression accrued on my dive computer and this rose to 22 minutes as we made two minute stops at 30 and 18 metres. Once above 12m I had programmed my computer to plan for a 50% Nitrox mix which I had taken with me in a 5 litre pony tank. I should mention that my buddy was diving on an Evolution rebreather and had less of a decompression penalty than I did but still carried a deco mix in case of emergency.

The second dive was more of a lighthearted affair as we only descended to 40m then swam to the top of the wreck and “played” in the current. As the water sweeps over the bulk of the ship there is a huge washing machine effect at the railings on the upper side and the fish swirling around in this maelstrom were an amazing sight to behold.














I think I wasted more air laughing then I did breathing and my buddy and I took plenty of photos and video which we’ll be boring other members of the club with in the near future.

An excellent day of diving and I would encourage all experienced members to have a go at this wreck – definitely one for the log-book.

Saturday saw us taking two boats out to Mariam Express and once again the sea conditions were perfect. A slight current was running at the wreck site but nowhere near as strong as we’ve seen in the past. I had two buddies on the first dive and we descended on one of the hawsers floating up from just in front of the bridge. The visibility was excellent at around 15m and after about three minutes swimming alongside the ship heading towards the stern we came across a large ray which we left undisturbed hiding in the sand.

A quick tour of the whole wreck gave my buddies the lie of the land and revealed a large number of Nudibranch, both the black “Spanish Dancer” and the white “Spectacled” varieties.


















I think these are some of the most beautiful creatures but so often overlooked by divers more interested in the bigger marine life.

Swimming around the bridge we bumped into a shoal of Batfish watching the divers invading their domain so we spent a few minutes floating with them before ascending to do our safety stop and return to the boat.

The second dive I buddied up with two different divers and we again explored the complete wreck including a poke around in the upper hold looking at the strange assortment of bric-a-brac she was carrying when she went down.

The visibility was not as good this time and the ray had moved on since our encounter on the first dive but the shoals of fish around the wreck above 10m was fantastic. There were Barracuda and Jacks chasing all the other, smaller, fish and the water was crystal clear. With temperatures now up to 28 centigrade a leisurely safety stop was in order and we took full advantage to watch the marine circus spinning around us.





An excellent weekend of diving - did you win the Grand Prix or something more boring? Next weekend come diving with us – it certainly beats watching TV.

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