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Dive Logs for Vance Stevens PADI open water scuba instructor #64181 Dives 477-479 March 14, 2003 Khor Fakkan, UAE Martini Rock and Hole in the Wall

Diving with: 7 Seas
Dive buddies: Toni and Michael Ibrahim on his last Rescue Course dive
Others in dive party: Kathleen, Peter, Alistaire, others
Conditions: sunny but breezy, slight swell rocked boat at anchor
Visibility: 4 - 5 meters or so
Wetsuit: my 5 mil farmer john with the 3 mil Typhoon top
Weight:10 kg-ish
Diving from:7 Seas dive boat

Friday, March 14, 2003

A few stalwart members of FrogLegs did turn out and do an overall body moistening christening of the waters adjacent to Khor Fakkan this past weekend. Braving sandstorms that have made headlines worldwide, a small group of FrogLegs did pick their way along Emirates road in apalling conditions, vis reduced to meters ahead, spreading baby shampoo on the windscreen to defog, till the port of Dibba was reached and then the wind abated a bit for the drive south along the coast.

Thursday night the wind picked up blasting those taking the night airs on the corniche in Khor Fakkan, though some respite was found at the hostel, where in the morning the dancing palms put paid to any ideas of going to Musandam. Being only three we pitched in with Kathleen and her crew, and putting to sea in one of the 7seas boats, heeded her warning that due to the wind and chop we would get wet. Thus we braced ourselves in chill sea spray on leaving the Khor Fakkan harbor.

My 477th Logged Dive since 1991

Dive site: Martini Rock
Training conducted: none on this dive

Data from dive computer:

Interval on computer from previous dive: nil, first dive of day

Time down on dive computer: 11:19
Max depth: 18.6 meters
Time started up from chart: 57 min
Dive time from computer: 57 min
Min Temp: 22 degrees centigrade
Nitrox 21% (normal air), no deco

Description of dive:

But after that somehow the drama became anticlimax. The wind and swell were with us, it was a fairly easy ride over to Martini Rock, and where calm prevailed, and there were plenty of morays (green, gray, mottled, honeycomb) to be seen, and pipe fish to be fondled, cuttlefish to be alarmed, and dozens of lion and scorpion fish to be noticed in their many niches on the soft coral encrusted rocks. Michael and Nicki and I had a pretty nice normal dive on the Rock.

Pressure group out, from tables or wheel:

Surface interval: 26 min

My 478th Logged Dive since 1991

Dive site: Martini Cove
Training conducted: Michael Ibrahim's Rescue Diver Training Exercises 12 (complete rescue scenario), final checkout dive for Rescue Diver certification

Pressure group at start of repetitive dive: ?
Data from dive computer:

Time down on dive computer: 12:44
Max depth: 8.9 meters
Time started up from chart: 28 min
Dive time from computer: 26 min (deducts surface time)
Min Temp: 22 degrees centigrade
Nitrox 21% (normal air), no deco

During the surface interval Peter and Vance went diving (divemaster and instructor) and lo did Vance surface without his buddy, at which point rescue diver candidate Michael went promptly into action to affect, after some long minutes, the surfacing and rescue of said divemaster, complete with ventilation and recovery postioning, so that the victim recovered with only loss of snorkel (was replaced in compensation).

Description of dive:

The boat had gone into the cove for the surface interval. To set the scenario I dived with Peter to the east along the cove. We then turned south over the sand and looked for rays, basically keeping trying to make the bubble trail a little less obvious. When we got into the rocks I turned back west toward the boat, found a rock with a moray on it, and left Peter there to watch the moray. I then continued west a few kicks, moved south into the bay a few more kicks, and surfaced. I called the boat and re-submerged, went back to check on Peter, then moved off the spot toward the center of the cove. I found Michael moving at the surface according to directions from the boat. I told him to ignore me, I was just diving with him for safety.

We went down and Michael started square patterns that took him out over the sand and came back to brush the edges of the rocks only obliquely. After a couple of these appeared to be getting nowhere he surfaced and sought further help from the boat. He was directed more toward the rocks and descended pretty much right on Peter. I'm not sure if they had guided him from the boat to his bubble trail; if so, anything's fair in a rescue as long as it works and replicates a likely scenario, and it was correct for Michael to surface when he did and use the eyes on the boat. After that he got Peter back on board pretty smartly. I kept Peter's weights during the rescue but Michael retained the mask and snorkel and the snorkel was lost. Again, I'm learning about equipment handling in these scenarios. All in all the rescue went well, and Peter survived and was spotted later in a bar.

My 479th Logged Dive since 1991

Dive site: Hole in the Wall
Training conducted: none, all done, pleasure dive

Data from dive computer:

Surface interval: 43 min
Pressure group at start of repetitive dive: ?

Time down on dive computer: 13:57
Max depth: 12.2 meters
Time started up from chart: 57 min
Dive time from computer: 55 min (discounts time at surface)
Min Temp: 22 degrees centigrade
Nitrox 21% (normal air), no deco

PSI/Bar in: 100 in main tank, 200 in pony
PSI/Bar out: 20 bar on main tank, 30 on pony, having shared quite a bit with Michael

Description of dive:

The second dive was at the hole in the wall, with FrogLeg divers Vance Michael and Toni finding a nice ray therein on the second pass through. Actually we're told this little u/water channel is not the actual hole in the wall, but in any event it's nice to find a ray inside, since it's trapped there but moves about thinking to escape, sort of jostling with the divers blocking its exit, definitely the highlight of that dive. Neat thing is we went thru one way, no ray, back for a second look, and there's the ray. Cool.

One NOT neat thing is that as I was carrying my pony tank sidesaddle my buoyancy was impaired and in the tunnel I put my hand on a sea urchin. Pointer and index both swelled up and now a month later, index is still swollen like it's arthritic or something.

Pressure group out, from tables or wheel: n/a