The Doha Digest: Overnight Dive Trip

Because of Eid Al-Fitr we had a few days off from work. On October 24-25 the scuba club organized an overnight boat trip. There were about 12 of us that went. This was my first boat dive, so I was very excited. We took two boats to Sharaiwah Island (about 1.5-2 hours from shore.) A brief description of the trip: an afternoon dive near the Island, then onwards to the Sharaiwah island to setup camp, a night dive around the island, overnight camping and socializing, and finally two day dives at the M.O. (the best wreck dive in Qatar) before the return trip home.

By far, the best part of the trip was the diving at the M.O. It was amazing. After our first dive, my dive partner told Jon, “I think your wife is hooked! Every time I turned around her head was down another hole!” I guess my eyes were pretty wide and excited the whole time. We saw a lot of sting rays, angel fish, bat fish, and lots of other fish I don’t know the name of. One of the divers on the trip had an underwater camera. Once I get some photos from him, I will post them here. Until then, here are some details of the dive and pictures above water.

Site Name: MO Wreck
Site Location: Offshore Qatar
GPS Coordinates: N 25° 19.809´ E 52° 26.729´
Depth: 20 meters
Wreck Details: The Alexion Hope was a general cargo vessel of 9,084 gross tons, registered in Piraeus, Greece. She is 148.08 meters long with a beam of 20.4 meters, and she used to draw 8.8 meters. The ship was owned by the Alexion Maritime Corporation, but presumably is in the hands of the insurers now. Launched as the Hellenic Renaissance, her name was later changed to the Konstantis Yem. She was built in 1968 in the Hellenic shipyards at Skaramanga with a 5 cylinder oil burning engine supplied by Sultzer Bros. Ltd.