Total of 80 dives for 2012, almost beat 1997 total of 81, and the best diving for many years even though I had one ear infection when in the Philippines last April.
Apart from three dives from Atlantis (Monorail shore dive when Atlantis Divers were still around plus two dives with Al Boom), all of my other UAE diving has been on the east coast primarily with Scuba 2000 but also a few dives with Divers Down. 60 dives in UAE with Car Cemetery and Martini Rock being the most dived for 2012 (13 Dives at each of these sites).
Buddies have been my daughter Yanni, Vanjie, Terry, Ged, and Gemma, otherwise I have been solo.
Main dive sites have been Car Cemetery, Inchcape 2 and Martini Rock, but also dived a few others, Anemone Garden, N of Sharq Island and Dibba Rock.
Main focus has been of course nudibranchs, and this year has been pretty good between Car Cemetery and Inchcape 2, along with a new addition of a wet dioptre and using my 105mm lens again, I have managed to obtain some interesting shots, and some new (to me) species.
I later added +5 and +10 Sub Sea wet diopters as well as a Light and Motion focus light, so my micro-photography is now getting to be a serious addiction.
One of the other exciting finds has been a seahorse on the bow of Inchcape 2 as well as some small crocodile fish along the starboard side to the stern.
Two trips to the Philippines were pretty amazing, one with friends that I met here years ago, Carole and Leon, who now live in India, and later with Terry and Ged. The first trip was to Puerto Galera and the second to Anilao as well as Puerto Galera. Both trips were excellent, but the on the first I caught an ear infection and that buggered up things half way through the trip.
On the second Philippines trip I was using a new ProEar2000 mask that keeps my ears dry (ish) as well as a regime of pre dive treatment with Earol and post dive treatment with an alcohol/acetic acid mix, seemed to do the job for multi-dives over multiple days.
Water temperatures have remained cool to say the least, at the end of August I was still wearing a 5mm wetsuit …… WTF. There has been a consistent thermocline running up the east coast and from 16M and below temperatures have been around 22-24C when normally they are 28C. in the last week of 2012 water temps of 24C an air temps of 22C, been in my 5mm semi dry now for at least the last 6 dives.
Yanni was back briefly on her way to the Seychelles for the GVI Reef Research Project and we made a couple of dives before she left Dubai and then later when she returned from Malaysia we had a weekend over on the east coast diving with Divers Down and Scuba 2000 before she returned to Scotland. Later during her Christmas break we managed another couple of more dives over on the east coast, making the total of 31 with her, still outside my top 10 though.
I found a huge seahorse at Coral Garden and Yanni managed to get better shots than me!
I also decided to do the PADI Self Reliant Diver course with Paul Sant of Divers Down, Ged also joined me for this course, and although I thought I had all of the required gear and was fairly proficient at using it, I did take away some additional information in particular using a pony, so I have now changed from using the 13 cu ft (1.84L) to a 30 cu ft (4.2L) bottle, which while longer is still slim and easy to handle whilst carrying a camera.
During the course this was also the first time I dived without a camera in over 500 dives!
As far as I am aware Ged and I are the first people in UAE to do this course, and Paul is the only instructor to have taught it here in UAE.
Also changed over to using a wing in October, totally awesome, plus got myself a set of doubles at a very good price, all O2 clean and a 5 year hydro.
Also been busy writing articles for OutdoorUAE as well as for EDA. Best assignment was for ARAMCO magazine, I actually got paid!
Hoping that 2013 will be just as good
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