My dear dive buddies,

Its been a hot hot week in Abu Dhabi since my arrival (40-50 degrees C). I am coming during the holy month of Ramadan and many people and divers are fasting from sunrise to sunset. It is a wonderful place to visit with lots of cultural diversity amongst all the people living here. And the hospitality of the Emerati people (my host country) have been the best! And many people here love the sea and share the passion of various marine sports.

During the first week, the Al Mahara Dive Team took myself and a few intrepid divers offshore to explore some deeper wrecks laying in 18-27meters. I am lucky as I just did my deep dive and now, the adventure continues for the wreck dive. The dive is to the popular MV Ludwig which was sank around the year 2000. It is a wonderful intacted wreck lying on its portside with the bow pointing easterly (approx 70 degrees). The MV Ludwig was a registered  coastal tanker measuring 60 meters in length and a 10meter beam and 5 meter depth. The UAE armed forces had used it as a target practice where the bridge received the direct blow and divers can see the hole on top of the bridge and also the internal walls were ripped out from the explosion. The marine life on this wreck is wonderful and I was hoping to see some of my cousins here. Due to the water temperature being pretty warm around 31 degrees C, I found it to be very warm for a shark! Even my dive buddies, Peter, Andi, Kathleen, Vaughn Dee, Dusty, Michelle, Bobbi and Vance were finding it rather warm. My team went to the bridge and we examined the exterior and shone our torches into the bridge area. I'm not qualified to do any wreck penetration until I get my PADI wreck diving specialty so I'd rather be a safe shark and explore the wreck outside. We continued to swim towards the seabed and saw many pipes running across the deck area. I think I saw 2 bridges and a small deckhouse??? The marine life was fantastic and I greeted many of my sea friends including a green sea turtle who saw up to me and said "salutations!" There were shoals of yellow snappers, bannerfish, barracudas and plenty of damselfish. We also saw a few nudibranchs of the chromodorisannulata variety. Peter took some great photos of them!!! We completed our dive in the ocean blue with the other dive team and had some fun photo moments which I like to share with you.

I can't wait til the Mussandam trip. I hear there are plenty of my shark friends there. In the meantime, I have been doing some charity work and going to the UAE Red Crescent to give donations during Ramadan.

Best fishes! Finley xoxoxo