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Dive Logs for Vance Stevens PADI open water scuba instructor #64181 Dive 386, 387, 388 April 19-20, 2001 Musandam: Ras Sarkan and Ras Dilla; Diba Rock

Diving with:Adsac
Dive site: Ras Sarkan
Dive buddy: Ron Breakwell
Others in dive party: Mary and Wendy; Andy and Ian Smith
Conditions: mild seas with slight swell, balmy air, warm sun
Water Temp: 22 to 25 degrees C on dive computer
Visibility: 5-6 in Musandam, 4-5, 7 in shallows, on Diba Rock
Wetsuit combo: typhoon top and O'Neil overalls, comfortable
Weight:10 kg, a little heavy with 10 liter steel spare
Diving from: Yellow Diver

Training conducted: none; fun dive

My 386th Logged Dive since 1991

Data from dive computer:

Time down on dive computer: 13:13
Max depth: 34.5 meters
Time started up from chart: 00:44
Dive time from computer: 45 min.
Min Temp: 23 degrees C (comfortable)
Nitrox 21% (normal air), no deco

Pressure group out, from tables: not relevant

PSI/Bar in: 200
PSI/Bar out: 30 plus 200 bar in 10 liter spare

Description of dive:

A really great dive: we checked the wall with the fish finder before ducking in, found 40 meter plus depths. Dropped in with Ron off the point with the distinctive castle-square rock. Headed down through school of barracuda to depth, where I saw a bull ray gliding along the bottom. Came across schools of bat fish and BIG fusiliers with bright blue stripes, numerous and attractive. Midway through dive saw a pair of devil rays just below us. Toward the end, rounded a coral bedecked rock and encountered a leopard shark coming the other way with a remorah in tow. The shark rounded the rock right at me and swerved away only as I allowed myself to sink nearer his path, so his snout passed right below me, an impressive puppy dog of a fish. Everyone saw the leopard shark, and Andy and Ian, bringing up the rear, saw 8 devil rays together.

Surface interval: 18 hours 19 min.

My 387th Logged Dive since 1991

Data from dive computer:

Time down on dive computer: 8:19
Max depth: 42.4 meters
Time started up from chart: 00:49
Dive time from computer: 50 min.
Min Temp: 22 degrees C (comfortable)
Nitrox 21% (normal air), no deco

Pressure group out, from tables: not relevant

PSI/Bar in: 200
PSI/Bar out: 30 plus 140 bar in 10 liter spare, shared with Ron

Ras Dilla next morning: Another great dive, lots of rays resting in the sand, scooting along the bottom, and also two hidden in the coral shelves. Ron wanted to go deeper than he'd been before so we charged down to 42 meters. Nothing much there but sand and irridescent yellow, blue, and white whip coral. Ascending gradually, we found a big leopard shark at around 35 meters and found two turtles (only one of which Ron saw despite my clacking). We saw ray after ray as we ascended the coral encrusted wall, breathing a bit off my spare air to prolong our dive, and at the end of the dive, we found a colony of crayfish deliciously exposed.

Surface interval: 4 hours 03 min.

My 388th Logged Dive since 1991

Data from dive computer:

Time down on dive computer: 13:15
Max depth: 12.8 meters
Time started up from chart: 00:45
Dive time from computer: 42 min.
Min Temp: 25 degrees C (comfortable)
Nitrox 21% (normal air), no deco

Pressure group out, from tables: not relevant

PSI/Bar in: 180
PSI/Bar out: 50 plus 100 bar in 10 liter spare, which I sucked down on a stressful dive

The engines had been giving trouble, and we could not rectify their fuel starvation. I would have preferred diving the Stack or Lima Rock, just half an hour from Ras Dilla, but Ian wanted to get back to Diba and relative safety before playing around, so we decided to do Diba Rock on the way back. We moored off the southeast point of the island and Ron and I swam north, into a stiff current as it turned out. We ended up clawing our way along the rocks, me cutting my hands (no gloves) and wondering if I was gaining anything by hauling the spare 10 liter tank (I had had a tank leak due to a speed bump on Thursday, so I'd gone in with only 180 bar in my prime tank). The tank caused drag against the current and it was not easy to keep its hoses from grabbing on the coral, from which I occasionally had to free them. We saw dozens of morays, often grabbing rocks around which they were curled, and I found a pipe fish. We escaped the current by moving shoreward where it was shallow and vis was better against the richly varied coral. I found a flounder there. I would have then headed back seaward to drift back to the boat in the stiff current but Ron wanted to circumnavigate the rock. We ran out of water and had to stand in the sand and spot the boat and snorkel a bit before we could get to deeper water. Andy told us we then swam under the boat, late to return, since our computers had stopped timing while we were effectively on the surface. I remember seeing a mooring there but had thought it was the wrong one because its rope appeared so slack. We came up far side of the rocks and saw the boat on the other side, and so thought we had gone that side of the rocks. We then plunged where we encountered other divers in our group and made our way back of them to surface near the boat. After the dives in Musandam, not a remarkable dive, and I remember it as being stressful.

Pressure group out, from tables: not relevant