Why do we do it?

[NeilB]

You know how sometimes life seems to fall into place without your intervention? Well the last week was one of those occasions……

As I have two weeks vacation to use up I had contacted Oman Charters with a view to chartering a yacht for a bit of sailing for my son and myself. I was in the negotiation stage looking at dates and prices when my friend Hamoud called me. He had recently returned from Ajman in the U.A.E. where he had bought a 70 foot Dhow. It had taken him and a couple of friends over a week to sail it back and now he wanted a group of people to give it a try out as a dive boat.
A quick email and a few phone calls later and I had seven divers available for the weekend! The plan was to meet early on Thursday morning and use our 23foot dive boat to move all our gear and equipment to Hamoud’s dhow that was moored a few bays away from the Marina. We would then sail east to Ras Abu Dowd for the diving.

The plan ran fine to start. The dive boat was loaded. The dhow was loaded. We set sail.

We arrived at Ras Abu Dowd close to noon and dropped anchor. The plan was to swim around the west end of the islands and then head east eventually being picked up by the dive boat. Unfortunately we were dragging the anchor so we moved the dhow again and dropped a larger one. This appeared to be holding better so 6 divers kitted up and entered the water. As the dhow was now nowhere near the corner we opted to swim through a gully in the islands and then east to the end, turn the corner and end up back in the bay near the dhow.
The dive was fantastic! On the out side of the islands there was a school of fusiliers that swam past us for over 20mins and still no end of them was in sight. There was turtles, rays, eels and more fish than you could count. The visibility was over 10m but the water was a bit cool at 23 degrees.
No problem with the dive then. However on surfacing we found that the anchor had dragged again and the dhow was back at the west end of the islands. With no dive boat in sight my buddy and I started the swim for the dhow. After we had covered half the distance we could see the dive boat but it appeared to be drifting away from us and the dhow. So, with the current with us, we carried on finning back to the dhow. After about 20 minutes we made it back and were helped back on board by one our party who had opted not to do the first dive. From the dhow we could see that our dive boat was drifting with Hamoud onboard trying to start the engine. Fortunately he had drifted towards a couple of fishermen who took him in tow and brought him back to the dhow. A quick look at the engine showed that the throttle cable had slipped out of the bracket that is supposed to hold it in place so it would not rev. A quick fix and we collected our distributed divers.
Google Earth shows that we swam a distance of nearly 500m. For those that are interested the group of islands that make up Ras Abu Dowd can be found at 23°19'16.68"N 58°55'6.13"E

Being a bit tired we now headed to Quriyat harbour to fill up with fuel and water. The tying up was done without incident but our skipper needs more practise pulling away from a lee pier as he nearly squashed a fishing boat.
From Quriyat we headed out to the local wreck. It is only in 15m or so of water and didn’t take to long to find with the gps and depth finder. Again the anchor was dropped and people kitted up. As the anchor was dragging again myself and son jumped in as quick as possible with the plan to find the wreck and tie my dsmb to it so everyone else could follow. We hit the bottom and watched the anchor bounce away along the sand. A nice neat furrow had been dug so we followed it towards where the wreck should be. After about 5 minutes my buddy give me a nudge and pointed a little off to the right. One more minute and we were at the wreck. Turns out he had seen a pile of fish swimming that way and decided they knew something we didn’t. The dsmb was inflated and tied to the stern.
The Quriyat wreck is quite old and has sunk into the seabed. The bow and stern are still visible but the centre section has disappeared below the sand and all that leads between the two is a couple of masts. The stern section used to be a good site for photographers as it had a companionway running around it with nets draped over the outside. The result was to create shafts of light filtering through the net illuminating the fish that hid behind. Unfortunately Cyclone Gonu has got hold of the wreck and all the top section has gone. There is now a pile of rusty scrap on the seabed next to the stern. The bows are still intact with many rusty holes that give a good view of the inside and the fish hiding there. In one hole we saw dozens of catfish eels all looking out. It was quite an amusing site to see all these little faces with whiskers looking up at us as we looked down on them. We traveled around the wreck a couple of times exploring the top and the sides, having a good look under and around everything and not once did we see another diver. Leaving the perfuse fish life behind we followed the anchor groove back towards where we came from but lost it after 5 minutes so surfaced. Again the dhow had drifted a long way away but at least the dive boat was active picking people up. However, by the time the dive boat came for use we had swam within 10m of the dhow so climbed aboard the big boat.
That was enough adventure for day 1 so with winds freshening we headed back into Quriyat port for the night.

Day two started early as we heard the dawn call to prayer from mosques in Quriyat. Forsaking breakfast we headed back to Ras Abu Dowd to repeat yesterdays dive as it had been so good. The dhow was anchored at the east end and this time the anchor appeared to be holding so as a group we jumped off the dhow and headed for the gully. The dive was equally as good as the day before with numerous fish, colourful corals and some large parrot fish.
On surfacing we found the dhow where we left it for a change so swam over and climbed in.

Our second dive of the day was the mainland behind Ras Abu Dowd islands. It is only shallow being less than 15m deep but the sandy patches are well known for sting rays. This dive did not disappoint with one cow-tailed ray and three thornback rays being spotted. There was also lots of soft and hard coral and the many reef fishes that live between them. The dive being completed we surfaced to find the sky grey and large rollers making the sea very choppy. The dhow was not too far away so we swam back to it and with a little difficulty climbed back aboard.

Judging the weather to be worsening we packed our gear away and lashed everything loose down. Tying the dive boat on the stern we started on our journey home. After a few minutes it was obvious that the tow rope was too short as the bow was being lifted out of the water as the dhow went down the far side of the rollers. We slowed down so that two ropes could be joined together but the wind and waves pushed the dive boat around the side of the dhow. A large wave pushed the dive boat onto the side of the dhow just as the dhow came down. The was a horrible second when I watched the stern and port side of the dive boat dip below the waves and take on a lot of water. We called for the skipper to get the dhow into the waves to straighten the dive boat out as waves were breaking over the side. At this point the 120ltr petrol tank in the rear was floating and the transom was one inch above the surface. The dhow moved forward, the dive boat came around, the water in it settled out and the dive boat levelled out. Using just enough power to keep the dhow into the wind and waves we managed to pull the dive boat along side and a brave man jumped in to bail. As he went aft the stern dipped so another person jumped onto the bow to help keep it level. Several buckets of water later and it looked like we had saved the boat so the tow was lengthened, the men were taken off and we headed home for the second time.

The waves got larger, the wind got stronger but the dhow pressed on and the dive boat stayed floating. Five hours later we were safe in Jissah Bay and the dive boat could be run around to empty out the water from under the deck. That, however, is not then end of the story as the dhow’s mooring had been taken by a friends boat because of the weather. So we had to drop the dhow’s little anchor in the bay, move the friends boat to the anchor and then tie the dhow up. Unfortunately the friend’s boat had a faulty battery so only one engine would start but the anchor was dropped, the dhow was unloaded and we all got home safely.

There are lots of learning points from this weekend, not the least of which is ‘the dhow needs a better anchor!’

We must have enjoyed it overall though as we are already talking about going back to Ras Abu Dowd to remove some old fishing nets that we saw this trip. I guess worse thing happen at sea……….

[Big Kahuna]

Sounds like a great report and a good weekend. have a green

[dry suit diver]

we're gonna need a bigger anchor

[Steve S]

Originally Posted by dry suit diver

we're gonna need a bigger anchor

The Dud's a bigger w*nker great report Neil, I'm glad it turned out ok.

Safe diving,
Steve