Sira Island Divesite, Damaniyat Islands

This past weekend, a diving buddy and I decided to go diving out of the Millenium Hotel in Mussanah.  It was an 80 km drive (45 minutes) from City Centre Seeb.  I arrived at 8:15am and the boat departed at a little after 9am.The dive center is in the building to the right of the Millennium Hotel as you’re facing the marina.It was quite a large group of us that went out on the boat.  No problem with a large boat like this one!  This was the largest boat I have been out diving on so far.  Because the boat was so large, it was also the smoothest ride I’ve had!Al Sawadi (pictured here) was about a 30-minute boatride from the Millennium and it was another 30 minutes to our divesite.  You can see the Sawadi Tower in the left corner of the photo.We finally arrived at Sira Island divesite just after 10am.  This was dive #25 for me!The map of Sira Island that the Oman Sail’s dive centre in Mussanah used for the divemaster’s orientation for divers.  The divemaster of the dive centre is Thani Mohammed Al Hamdani.This is my dive partner moments after the descent.  Our maximum depth on this dive was 18.5 meters with a bottom time of 45 minutes.This was the 1st of 2 turtles we saw on this dive!There were several moments of very poor visibility which made everything seem greenish.  There were also moments of good visibility.  Overall, it was a great dive!What made this dive even more exciting was seeing my first shark!  I was told that this is called a Leopard shark.  My partner says we saw this shark twice but I’m not convinced that we didn’t in fact see 2 Leopard sharks on this dive.  I also saw 2 moray eels, plenty of clown fish, parrot fish and schools of yellow fish.Plenty of sailing and watersports activities available at the Millennium Resort.

It cost 51 OR for 2 dives including the environmental permit to head to the Damaniyats.  That included renting their equipment.  My diving partner who owns all her own equipment paid something like 33 OR.

If you’ve never been to Mussanah, I recommend a trip out for boating activities or diving if you ever get the chance.  The best way to do it would be to stay the night at the Millennium Resort!

Here’s a 5 minute video of some of the highlights from the dive, including the 2 turtles and 2 Leopard sharks:

Kharabah Island, the Damaniyat Islands Marine Park

  In between dives this past Saturday, we dropped 3 Europeans off for snorkelling on this island before picking them up about an hour later.  The main instructor of Global Scuba, Abdullah, told me that the island/beach is called “Kharabah“.  It is one of the most gorgeous white-sand beaches I’ve seen in Oman!  6 of us dove at 2 dive-sites (posts coming soon) and we saw all kinds of interesting fish and marine animals, but failed to spot any sharks.  The 3 snorkellers saw several black tip reef sharks just meters from shore!  In addition to sharks, they saw a lot of colorful fish (which – like me – they seemed unable to identity!) and a lot of squid. (I got totally confused because the Italian snorkelers kept calling them “calamari”! 🙂 )  If you are interested in snorkeling or scuba-diving at the Damaniyat Islands, I recommend either Global Scuba or Omanta as those are the dive centres I go with and they’re both great.  Other dive shops that travel out there are Extra-Divers and Oman Dive Centre (and others).     Have you ever seen such water before?! It’s unreal!  Here’s a video from 4 different clips of the beach and immediate area to give you a much better idea of just how gorgeous this spot is:  The Damaniyat Islands are a definite must-see in Oman, whether you scuba-dive or not!

“Noodle” Divesite – Damaniyat Islands

   “Don’t ask me why they call it Noodle!”  That’s what the trip coordinator, Faisal, from Omanta Scuba told us as we approached “Noodle” divesite in the Damaniyat Islands.  The dive was at a depth of 17.9 meters with a bottom time of 42 minutes and viz was good!  All the pics you see posted here are courtesy of my diving buddy, Denise Boyd.    Denise took this incredible video of a sting-ray during our dive:   And here’s a 21 minute video from different clips I took during the dive:

Black Tip Reef, The Damaniyat Islands

  The Damaniyat Islands consist of 9 islands and there are a total of 12 recognized dive-sites to explore there.  Our first dive (which is my 19th dive to date) on Thursday, April 13th, was to Black Tip Reef; so named because of the black tip reef sharks which are often observed there. (Not on this dive, thank God! 😉 ) We were with Faisal, Muneer and the gang from Omanta Scuba.  It was a beautiful day for diving!  Our motley crew heading to Black Tip Reef!  Getting ready for the dive…We were down for a total of 48 minutes at a bottom depth of 26 meters. (Apart from the 1st 2 pics of this post, all photo credits go to Denise Boyd! Amazing job as always, Denise!)  Here’s a video I put together from different clips I filmed during this dive:

Whether it’s for snorkeling or diving, anyone living in or visiting Oman should try to make it to the Damaniyat Islands at least once. Gorgeous!