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 THE DIVES Day 1 The skipper had motored overnight to Musandam and I was glad when they anchored up at about 0130 in the morning. I did get off to sleep once the dhow had anchored and woke up to some spectacular scenery in the morning. The comparison with Norwegian fjords is not far off the mark. Not that I have been to Norway but I have seen photographs and I imagine it would be like this. Reno had briefed us to be ready for a 9.00AM start the night before so everyone was up and milling around the breakfast table around 8.00AM. Against my better judgement, I had breakfast before the first dive. It was very pleasant but I make a point of not eating at least 2 hours before a dive and I should have stuck with that rule. It's not pleasant when your breakfast keeps repeating on you during the dive! Dive 1: Red Island Max Depth: 25m+, Vis: 5-10m 
I dived with David as we both had cameras and it made sense to dive together. Prior to the dive I decided to do a leak test on my housing without the camera. I'm glad I did as it had a leak somewhere and flooded. I later deduced that it could only have been as a result of how I'd had placed it on the tray. I decided to leave it on the boat!On most trips, the first dive is usually an easy dive to enable the Divemaster to check out the divers in his or her charge as well as allowing the divers a chance to sort out their kit. This trip was no different. This was an easy first dive around part of the island that the boat was anchored near. Most of the life was fairly close to the cliff, which descended into the water to become the reef wall. There wasn't much life on the sandy area but that should not put anyone off having a look as Neil and his buddy did see a ray or two. Visibility was about 5-10m. It got a lot better once we had turned the corner. There was a lot more life and coral once we more round the edge of the cliff. Not surprisingly, the sea life was similar to that I have encountered in the Red Sea, although I would say that there was more of everything. Dive 2: Mushroom Max Depth: 30m, Vis: 5m 
Reno our Divemaster called this a sunken island. I guess this is accurate when the tide is in though I don't think the top of the island actually breaks surface when the tide is out. He warned us that there might be a current. He was right. It was OK in the lee of the "island" but as soon as you got near the exposed parts on either side the current did pick up to a point where swimming against it seemed to be a waste of time. Some of us turned back but a couple of pairs of divers decided to go right round. They did make it, all the way round but I could help thinking that they must had had a bit of a swim. Apparently the water here is special. It is able to make Dave Lock more buoyant then anyone else. Dave ended up wearing 12kgs with a suit he normally wears only 10kgs. Dave did point out that was very likely to do with the Aluminium cylinders which seemed to be extra buoyant. There were lots of barracuda, angelfish and the usual culprits. Dive 3: Red Island Max Depth: 20m, Vis: Night Dive We repeated the site that we did in the morning for our first night dive but in the opposite direction. A very good dive indeed, much better than I have experienced elsewhere. My only conclusion for why I found this much better is that we are the only boat here and there are only ten divers on board so everyone can spread out. During the dive we came across a giant puffer, a moray and an octopus. The flouresence in the water seems to be greater here too. Switch of your torch, wave your hand about and everything lights up. Fanstastic! Day 2 We were quickly getting in to the routine of sleep-dive-eat-rest, which was repeated for whatever number of dives we were doing on any particular day. We have several days to get this perfected so there was no rush! Dive 1: Ras Musandam Max Depth: 30m, Vis: 8-10m 
Ras Musandam is the farthest point North of Jazirat Musandam, one of the largest islands in this area. The cliffs drop straight in to the sea like most of the other sites here. The strong currents make this a good site for a drift dive although we did not have much current to contend with on our dive. The current also explain why large areas of the wall don't have much coral life on it. Plenty of fish but not much coral in some places. Reno decided to leave us to our own devices as he had sussed out that we were an experienced group of divers. Most of the sea life can be found at 10m to the surface so no surprises there. We saw several eagle rays in the distance as they sped past at high speed. I left the camera on the dhow as I didn't have time to set it up.Dive 2: Jazirat Musandam Max Depth 30m+, Vis: 15m I suggested to David that we stick to a sensible depth as we both had cameras. Our plan was to keep to a max depth of 20m. As I said before most of the interesting sea life (from a photographic point of view) is usually in the shallow depths. I'm glad to say that the plan worked well. There was just enough of a current to make this what I would call a "working dive", that is you had to swim against it to stay in one place, if you want to take pictures or look at something. The cliff near the headland can drop to 50m+ so you need to be aware of any strong currents. Fortunately, there weren't any. Swimming along, the cliff gradually turns into a coral garden with lots of fish. The best place to see the larger pelagics, is in the currents where they normally feed. We looked but didn't see any. Dive 3: Ras Aliel Max Depth: 50m+, Vis: 6-8m 
The visibility on this dive was not as good as the previous dives but still good enough to take pictures, even when it as low as 6m. I thought it would be best to keep back from the main dive group as we were trying to entice the fish to come out and be photographed. Most of the sea life here seems to be extremely skittish compared to other places. The slightest noise from our air bubbles and they were darting for cover which makes taking pictures extremely frustrating. Maybe it's because they don't see many divers. Nearly missed the nudibranchs and it almost became a night dive by the time we surfaced.I'm starting to wish that I'd brought the rebreather now. 
Day 3 We are really getting into the routine of sleep-wake-dive-eat-sleep now. Of course after the final dive we needed proper sustenance and for some of us that meant a G&T or two. Just to change the order of things occasionally we'd confuse people or ourselves by adding a bit of reading or downloading pictures between dives. Dive 1: Ras Khaysah (South) Max Depth: 30m, Vis: 10-12m Reno said this would be a wall-slope-wall-slope dive until we reached the headland. We would know when we got there as there would be large boulders. And so it was. This turned out to be a gentle drift dive with the current going in the same direct as we were which made it that much more pleasant. There were large shoals of goat fish, butterfly fish and loads of glass fish. We also saw shoals of fusiliers darting about and even the odd giant puffer. Halfway during the dive we came across a large net suspended from the floor. Fiona lifted up at one end to make it easier to pass. I'm not sure if it was meant to be there as it looked abandoned. Dive 2: Ras Khaysah (North) Max Depth: 30m, Vis: 15-20m That's more like it! This was more akin to a Red Sea wall dive. The sea was still a bit murky (all that plankton I guess). That may explain the large numbers of small jelly fish and other small critters. Lots of fish, more than I have seen elsewhere. The colour of the sea seems to be greener here more like UK waters. This was an easy dive with not much current to deal with. Dave and Mark are taking the lobster hunting personally as one or two have got away. Dave was presented with a trident to help persuade them out of their holes. It didn't work. Dive 3 : Ras Ahrous Depth: 30m+, Vis: 15m Wouldn't you know it, just when you think you've got it all sorted I had problems with the flash on this dive. There seems to be a short somewhere and the flash just kept firing. I had to switch it off. It was like jelly fish soup in the top 2m of water when we entered! We descended quickly to avoid them. We swam against a slight current to start with but then turned back to drift with it. The site was consisted of boulders, patches of coral and sand. I wondered how often the rocks do fall into the water from the cliffs above. Hopefully it's not that often and not whilst were diving. I'm still not happy with the set up of my camera and the close up stuff is pretty poor but I'm learning. Dive 4 - Ras Ahlisl Depth: 20m, Vis: Night dive 
I left the camera behind as it was too much hassle to sort out before the dive. I ended up being a spotter for David. And spot I did. I found several rays and lots of fish that normally don't stay still during the day, all having a snooze. This is definitely the best time to dive. A lobster was found but it was too cunning and gave up it's feelers rather than be caught. So far it's lobsters 3, Dave nil. We got back to the boat after dark for a well deserved rest and chatted over what we had seen. Day 4 What a great way to spend your birthday, on a boat in Musandam, diving. It can't get any better than this. Dive 1 - Umm Alfayyarin Depth: 50m+, Vis: 10-15m Alfayyarin is an island about 4km from the mainland. It has large coral beds all around that consist mostly of hard coral with the occasional pocket of soft stuff. The small box fish were in plentiful supply here. I am not used to seeing so many which makes this site that much more interesting. Neil shouted underwater and I just managed to catch the eagle rays as they sped away into the deep. Too fast to take any pictures. 
About half way through the dive I saw Neil photographing something very large not far away from me. With the reduced visibility I could not make out what it was so I decided to investigate. Guess what? It was a Mola mola or more commonly known as the Sunfish. My first sighting in all the years I have been diving! Whatever next? As far as I'm concerned this trip was worth the money just to see this one fish. It was huge. It must have been at least 2.5 metres tall and about 0.5m wide. It started swimming away and as we were near 30m I did my best to get a couple of shots. If you want to see more pictures of Sunfish then have a look at this link: Here Not only that but during our safety stop, a turtle swam past. What else can I say but brilliant! That's the best birthday present anyone could wish for! Dive 2: Ras Bashin Depth 30m+, Vis: 10-12m Ras Bashin is a big outcrop just at the edge of the bay where we were anchored for the day. The site is covered in large boulders with coral growth here and there. We saw more coral as we neared the end of the dive just round the headland. There were several lionfish and lots of the usual smaller coral fish you would expect to see in these waters. Dive 3 - Al Maqta Depth: 30m+, Vis: 10m We were told that we might see dolphins on this dive but no such luck. I guess it's like any other place: you'll see something if you are in the right place at the right time. The visibility was not so good in places and again there were several lionfish on this site but mostly small stuff. Day 5 Another 4 dive day! Did I hear David mutter he'll be glad when he gets home so he can have a rest. Surely not! Dive 1 - Ras Dillah Depth 30m+, Vis 15m There was a short swim through a tunnel at the start of the dive. We all thought that Reno had said that the tunnel went from 5m to 30m but we couldn't have heard it right as there was an Ocean Diver in the group. It turned out that it went from 5m to 13m. This site was very much like Al Maqta, consisting of large boulders, sand and outcrops of rock covered with small amounts of coral growth. The big difference was there was more life here especially in the nooks and crannies in the rock. We encountered several clusters of clown fish, lionfish, lobster, shoals of butterfly fish, angelfish, fusiliers and all sorts. Dive 2: Ras Sakran Depth: 30m+, Vis: 15m The guide book says that you should be aware of currents here but like the other dives, we didn't experience any here either. More boulders and fallen rocks again with some coral growth. I kept looking out into the blue to see if I could see any of the bigger fish such as Trevally or Tuna but nothing was visible. Maybe they heard us coming. More lionfish, several pockets of anemonefish, a moray and some nudibranchs. I would rate this as a good site despite the disappointment of not seeing the bigger fish out in the blue. Dive 3: Ras Marovi Depth 30m+, Vis 15m 
One thing you learn about having cameras is that they need time and gentle handling. Although I had charged the batteries the camera decided that there was not enough charge on them so didn't switch on. Being a small island I expected to see a lot of fish and I was not disappointed. We saw an eagle ray at the start of the dive, as well as several morays and nudibranchs. The main spectacle though, were the big shoals of Barracuda circling around us as we swam along. Pity the camera was not working!Dive 4: Ras Samid Depth: 20m, Vis: Night Dive It's official! The best time to take photographs is at night. A lot of fish that dart about during the day are, not surprisingly, very still at night trying to take a nap. That is until some diver sticks a great big light in their face! Robin reckoned that had he known how bright Dave's torch was going to be he would have left his on the boat! He was also miffed at his torch not lasting as long as he had been lead to believe. He was thinking of taking it back and complaining but decide to wait when someone told him that they switch of the electricity on the boat in the afternoon. It's quite likely that the torch hadn't received a full charge. Something else to remember when you're on a liveaboard. Another great night dive and we found a turtle although it was not too happy to have people shining torches in its face. Day 6 Our final day of diving! Where has the week gone! Now I'm used to this I don't want to leave. 
Dive 1: Octopus RockDepth: 30m+, Vis: 20m The top of the island looks like a swirl of ice cream that you get from a Mr Whippy ice cream van except that there is a small boulder on top instead of a chocolate flake. There are several ridges radiating out from the centre hence the name octopus rock. Some people have suggested a better name might be Jellyfish as it has more than eight ridges radiating out. I couldn't see it myself but then I was focussed on the fish. At the right time you might see Nurse and Leopard sharks but alas it was not the right time for us. The best way to do this site is to go to the max depth and work you way up the stack. It will feel like a merry go around as you get near the top but there is so much to see that you won't mind. I had my video on this dive so you'll have to view the short clips when I load them on the club site at: Here Dive 2: Lima Rock (South) Depth: 30m+, Vis: 20m Island sites definitely make for good dives. We were expecting to see a sea horse or two but they were nowhere to be found. I spotted a big ray at the start of the dive so tarried a while taking pictures before following the rest of the group with my buddy. I didn't know it at the time but David's camera had flooded just after he had entered the water. He's making a habit of this! There must be a Christmas award for this. A lot to see but I would have loved to have found a sea horse. Dive 3: Wonder Wall Depth 20m+, Vis 15m 
This site is not in the guidebook but it was good nevertheless. It began with boulders and I thought "oh-oh!" but I needn't have worried. It improved as we got shallower. What did we see? A laced moray, a burrfish and a turtle at the end of the dive. I think they seem to know when you are near the end of your dive so come along to taunt you. We had our final meal on board the dhow that evening and whilst there was muttering of doing another dive in the morning that was not to be. With all the gear washed and ready to be packed we left that for something to do the next morning. 
The team pose for a photo before departingIN A NUT SHELL Was it a good trip? Yes! Would I come again? Yes! A must for next time? Nitrox, on every dive. Anything else? Yes! Take the rebreather! Currency: Emirates Dhirum (AED) Charter: Al Marsa dive charters Contact +971-50-4621304 Website £552.77 per person Dived with: Muscat Divers; Very friendly BSAC club Flights: Emirates £367 per person Hotel: Moscow Hotel, Dubai £105 for 3 people sharing Transfers: From airport to hotel: £6.42 From Dubai to Dibba: £30.55pp Parking: £62.00 Shopping: AED lots!!! Notes: I have converted costs to GBP from dollars or dhirms. Also, the depths given in this article are max depths at the dive sites and not necessarily the depths we achieved on the dive. Diving was conducted within the depth range of the minimum qualification in a dive pair and did not exceed 30m in most cases (for SD and above). The depth is greater on some sites than I have indicated but this should give an idea of the depths that can be encountered at each site. Raj Mistry Return to OMAN | ||||
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Musandam 2006 
Dubai, is the second largest emirate in the UAE and is situated on the banks of the Dubai Creek, a natural inlet from the Gulf which divides the city into the Deira district to its north and Bur Dubai on its south. Our hotel (The Moscow hotel) was in Deira.
Next morning we had breakfast and decided to check out some of the malls we had heard about. We were men on a mission to go shopping. Err did I say shopping? What I meant was we were on a mission to reconnoitre electrical goods. Yep that sounds much better. As we had no idea where the best places were for computers and photographic equipment I volunteered to find out. The receptionist dually informed me that it was Friday and for most businesses it was their day off. However, we would find some places that open after 1400. This is an international city after all.
The Dhow