The excitement mounts as another trip beckons our Hero Bandit, the cold months are almost over, the snow and ice have given up their grip for another Winter. Bandit opens the garage door, steps in and reaches for his dive bag. Once all the items are removed he inspects everything Carefully, looking for any defects. Bandit knows with the Portland dives or any dive come to that, his equipment must be perfect, preperation is the Key.
Once Bandit is satisfied, a pool dive is on the cards to test all the equipment.
Bandit stands and smiles to himself, feet apart, hands on hips (the MSD stance everyone knows) the sun emerges from behind a cloud and catches Bandit's smile......................'The Adventure is about to Begin' he says out loud, and laughs.,,,,,,,,,
Watch this space my friends, The Portland Adventure nears!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sounds nearly as good as my MSD trip but as I know some of these marks, better than the instructors, I get paid to lead the dives as a DM :-p
Thursday night, I pack my dive bag (twice to make sure I havent forgot anything), set the alarm for 5.30am and get some rest.
Alarm goes off and jump into the 4x4 on the way to Fujeirah (east coast of the UAE, some 195km from Dubai). After an amazing drive through the desert and mountains I arrive at Al Aqqah and get assigned the red boat, tanks, medical oxygen, weights, weight belts, life jackets, satellite and mobile phone all onboard. Into the dive centre and pick up my list of 6 PD's, all advanced which means deep and wreck, what joy... Roll call on the boat and gear set up I give the boat safety brief, twin 250hp engines this baby will fly.... 10 minutes to Inchscape 1, deliberately sunk for an artificial reel this 21m boat lies in 31 - 28m of water. Give dive site briefing and assign buddy pairs, moor up on buoy line and after buddy checks proceed with back roll entry and onto mooring line. (making sure all divers do their weight check, you wouldn't believe the amount of qualified divers who enter the water and cant get down) Anyway, 20m down the whole wreck is visible, tap water diving, so clear. Lionfish guard the 2 opening hatches, 1 eagle ray sits just under the bow and a massive 2m stingray just off the port side in the open sand. Fred the resident 8 foot long Moray pokes his head out of the air conditioning hatch waiting to be stroked but I'll not risk my pinkies just yet. Groupers, jacks, baracudas and hundreds of other fish dart past before we start ascending before we go into deco, slowly following the buoy line up a giant baracuda breaks away from a shoal which has been shadowing our ascent and moves within 2m of the group, his eyes firmly locked onto us and his mouth open, somewhat smiling with his toothy grin (big teeth) 3 minutes at 5m and ascend, climb on the boat and all the divers were amazed at the viz and aquatic life. 10 minutes back to the centre for a debrief and lunch before heading out to the next site... MSD's out here are 2 a penny but very inexperienced, not like UK MSD's...
Off out to Oman Friday and Fujeirah Saturday, guess what, getting paid to dive again. What a weekend I have in Dubai......
See you all when I get back in May, spend a few days with my kids (sons 12th birthday) then off to the Philipines for more diving....
