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Dive Logs for Vance Stevens PADI open water scuba instructor #64181 Dives 482 May 30, 2003 Abu Dhabi Delta Buoy

Diving with: ADSAC
Dive buddies: Dusty and Bobbi
Others in dive party: Dave Teasdale and Wendy Boyle, Gilly and ..., Pete and Grant Hardy (in our boat)
Conditions: pleasantly warm, 2 to 4 feet with a stiff-ish sou'westerly
Visibility: 4 meters or so
Wetsuit: lycra skin and comfy, Bobbi had checked water temp at 33, wrist depth (was 29 at depth)
Weight:8 kg (overweight)
Diving from:Saphire

Friday, May 30, 2003

The plan was to dive the Ludwig and so we'd all selected the biggest cylinders we could find and I'd brought my pony. We got underway in good order, two boats, and despite the chop the wind was off the stern and the going not all that bad. But the people in the smaller boat complained about the ride "If it gets any worse, we don't want to go!" It didn't get any worse, but the spirit in the smaller vessel was not willing, and after 45 min at sea we turned into the wind and powered 8 km west southwest over to Delta Buoy.

My 482nd Logged Dive since 1991

Dive site: Delta Buoy
Training conducted: Dusty did the distressed diver exercise for the PADI Rescue course

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

Time down on dive computer: - 10:36
Max depth: 12.7 meters
Time started up from chart: 49 min
Dive time from computer: - 51 min
Min Temp: - 29 degrees centigrade
No-stop time left on computer: 99 min
Nitrox 21% (normal air), no deco

image here

Description of dive:

This CAN be a good dive on a good day, and we were told that a shark had been spotted here a couple weeks back, and mantas were remembered once before that. But it can also be a pretty bland dive, which is what we got. We started just north of the buoy and were told to head northwest (my best dive on this spot was south east of the buoy once, so we'd be headed away from that, but I was happy to check out new terrain). The advice was not bad. We found an area of ridges and caves and found lots of fish inhabiting them. We passed over it to the NW, got into sand with a few coral lumps inhabited by gopies and their crab friends, and at an area where hermit crabs were moving like golf balls we turned and made our way SE. I got into sand again, intuited to head to the east, finned against the current and found the ridges again. At about that point I half-flooded my mask and went into fake convulsions and Dusty rushed over to reassure me as he was being trained to do.

We'd been told to come up after 40 min but I knew the boat cover divers would have gone down long after us so I insubordinated and stretched our dive into 50 min. Dusty had gone down to 50 bar by then but Bobbi and I had plenty so I gave him my 2 meter octo hose and he depleted my tank a bit. Still we could have dived like that up to an hour. I will never understand the ADSAC propensity for spending hours to achieve a dive site and then have the dive leader, and it's happened often, declare that everyone shall cut short the pleasure of their dive to save a few minutes for some perceived reason (this time the reason given was sea conditions). Bobbi surfaced with 90 bar and me 75 having shared with Dusty and the dive was just getting interesting, lots of yellow grunts at that point. When we surfaced we were asked if we had seen the turtle that had surfaced not far from us. Might have, had we been allowed to consume our air, I thought - it's nature viewing, and the idea is to maximize the chance of seeing nature. Anyway, we were diving with pleasant people and no big deal. Fifteen minutes later the other divers surfaced and we collected them and headed home.

Pressure group out, from tables or wheel: