Well hey now, here it is almost the end of March and I very nearly let the month slip by without a message to you. Per the usual, I don't really have all that much to say, but I suppose I can come up with something.
Our bit of excitement for March was a trip to the eastern coast of the UAE to do some diving. Connie and I are in the process of obtaining our Sports Diver certification which requires us to perform a series of (underwater) tasks in the company of a qualified diving instructor over the course of several dives. Even though the water is still what I would call FREEZING but to others may only seem chilly, we had an offer of training from a fellow member of our dive club so we decided to take him up on it. A group of us met up at the dive club villa in Khor Fakkhan on Thursday night with plans to set off bright and early the next morning.
Well, around these parts, there is always a story. Several weeks ago, in some choppy seas, due to high winds, a fishing boat got stranded. I don't have the exact details but it seems that a coast guard member fell and was lost while jumping from his boat to the disabled one. Since that time, if the weather is good, they will only send the fishermen out decked in bright red life jackets. Contrary to what would seem to be common sense, none of these guys knows how to swim. On other days, if there is even a breath of wind, nobody at all whatsoever is allowed out by the coast guard. Never mind that diving is a huge tourist draw here. Or that we are all certified divers, swimmers, boat handlers and first aid givers. Or that we typically set out with enough food, drink, oxygen and flotation devices to see us through any minor disaster. Or that if by some strange twist of fate anything should ever befall us, the absolute last people on earth we would be remotely tempted to call would be the local coast guard.
Understandably, it was with fingers crossed that we launched our boat into the water on Friday morning. Everything looked to be okay but things can change pretty quickly on the ocean. By the time we had gassed up the boat and made it to the coast guard shack, the breeze was up and the waves were a bit choppy. Nothing that we couldn't deal with. But the answer was sorry, no, and no amount of pleading, yelling and talking to supervisors on the phone was going to change that. So back to the villa we went and alternative plans were discussed.
In the end, since Connie and I were there on a mission, we made the decision to try a shore dive from the public beach. This is not ideal since you have to trek down to the water with all your gear on your back through ankle-deep sand. I felt like I was training for some special ops mission. And though I was wearing a wet suit, it was really cold. But we completed our tasks and even saw a couple of unusual sea creatures including a hermit crab transporting a sea anemone on its back.
For the next day we had the following choice: try the coast guard again, or drive to Dibba, in Oman and hop aboard a dhow for the day. A dhow is a large traditional boat which lends itself very nicely to leisurely sea excursions. Read comfy, but slow. In other words, we would start out early, be gone all day, and have to make the 3 hour drive back to Abu Dhabi that night.
These are dhows.I guess it wouldn't be much of a story if we didn't take the dhow would it?
Bob drinking coffee. On the dhow.It was a lovely day. Dhows are perfect for diving because there is lots of space to store gear and tanks. Plus, even though it's slow ( it actually took us 3 hours to get to our diving site) you wouldn't want to make that trip at all in a little dive boat because it's the open sea. There was plenty of food and drink and places to stretch out and snooze or read. And the scenery is nothing short of breathtaking.
The port of Dibba.Since, again, Connie and I were in training, we didn't set out to do any underwater sightseeing but we did have the bonus of seeing a huge school of squid, a couple of nice moray eels and some tiny rock lobsters. We performed all our necessary assignments with skill and aplomb (or so I am told) and now only a couple of items stand between us and our sports diver credentials.
Sailing into the sunset.The trip back to port, back to the villa and then back to Abu Dhabi was exhausting and in the end I caught a mini-flu which doesn't sound bad but it was. I'm over it now and finally well rested enough to complete the rest of our requirements. But first I am going to see COLDPLAY at the Emirates Palace on Saturday which is going to be awesome and I'm seriously psyched or at least I will be as soon as I can off load these 2 extra tickets that I bought for some inane reason. Let me know if you want them!
love Jaimie
Our newest addition: Trip Monkey!
