The divesite called “Mousetrap” was our 2nd dive out of the Millennium Hotel’s Marina in Musanah. (My 26th dive in total) The first was Sira Island.
This is the Musanah Oman Sail Divemaster, Thani Mohammed Al Hamdani. Quote of the day by Thani during the diving orientation: “Maximum deep last in the corner – 20 meter. If you want more deep, take one shovel and go down.” 🙂
Other divers waiting for the rest of us to get in the water. Mousetrap was right next to Sira Island. This was the first time diving in the Damaniyats where the 1 hour break between dives was not spent at “Police Island” near the gorgeous whitesand beach of Kharabah Island.
The visibility was quite poor on this dive so most pics came out looking “greenish”. It was still a great dive though! I saw several schools of yellow fish, as well as clown fish, parrot fish, cuttlefish and a turtle. Check out the video below. I almost missed the turtle as it was swimming over my head!
I can’t quite remember what they call these fish. Any divers out there want to help me out so I can properly label this fish?
There was so much debris during parts of the dive that it was almost as if it was snowing under the water. Check out the video below to see what I mean. Some European divers on the boat said that it’s always like that when diving in Oman but that is simply not the case. Visibility has rarely been an issue when diving for me.
I think we caught 2 cuttlefish making out on this dive.
Just look at that beach in the distance! There are so many wonderful places to snorkel, sunbathe and dive at the Damaniyats!
If you look close enough, you’ll notice that some cannisters are just slightly larger than the others. The smaller ones are 13 litres and the larger ones hold 15 litres. For this dive, I used the larger cannister and it made a huge difference for how long I was able to leave the water. When I got out after a 55 minute dive, I still had 70 bar of oxygen left! BTW, the tank with the green sticker is for Nitrox. If you take one of PADI’s most popular specialty courses, “Enriched Air Diver Course“, it “gives you more no decompression dive time. This means more time underwater, especially on repetitive scuba dives.”
Heading back to the Marina at Millennium Hotel in Musanah with the Damaniyats off in the distance
Here is a 10 minute video taken from many short clips of our dive at Mousetrap. Notice the poor visibility in some spots and be sure to check out the huge turtle swimming over my head (starting at 7:05)!
Be were fortunate to be diving during the Laser World Championships 2013 – which is taking place out of the Marina at the Millennium! The boatride back was made much more interesting with dozens of sailboats out on the water!
I got this list of watersport activities from the Marina and thought readers might be interested in knowing current prices for such activities at the Musanah Marina. 30 minutes of Stand Up Paddle Boarding for only 3 rials?! Or Kayaking for the same price!? To learn more about Stand Up Paddle Boarding in Oman, check out this awesome blogpost by Heather Duncan from the “Duncan Adventures Blog”!
Any of you ever dive out of Musanah with Oman Sail? If so, how was your experience? We really enjoyed it and love that the diving options of Oman are slowly growing! To book with Oman Sail in Musanah, just visit the Oman Sail office to the right of the Marina. Tel: +968-2671771 Email: info@seaoman.com Website: www.seaoman.com
Nadim (Надим) Attieh @Nadimz
Andy in Oman 