It’s 4.52am on Sunday 15th July 2007 when I commenced writing this dive report. I had just woken up probably because
I am over-exhausted..and saw four SMS from the loved one. Anyway, this is a dive report, so I’ll talk about diving.
It was 4am when we finally departed the PETRONAS station before the Bentong toll house, and the CD player played everything from punk-turned-new romantics of Adam and the Ants to chill-out compilations by DJ Ravin of Buddha Bar.
Somewhere near Chegar Perah I was already struggling to keep myself alert and awake but luckily Deepblu got up in time to keep me company. Otherwise I would have stopped at Merapoh to catch a power nap, that I finally got to do at Gua Musang at 6.30am. The CD player was playing DJ Ravin’s compilation again and again until when I finally got up at 7.58am when I received a good morning wish SMS from my loved one. We finally recommenced the journey 15 minutes later to reach Kuala Besut jetty at 10.30am to get onto the 11 o’clock boat. The swells were high and the speedboat could only move albeit slowly. Spazm had SMSed Deepblu informing that current was strong and viz equally bad. We finally made it to the dive center (DC) at 11.45am, just in time for the 12 o’clock dive at Terumbu Tiga.
DAY ONE – 14th July 2007
TERUMBU TIGA
Max Depth: 20.5m
Dive Time: 52 minutes
Viz: 5m at best initially, 15m towards the end of the dive
Surface Temperature: 32 Celcius
Bottom Temperature: 27 Celcius
Two dive boats went out. Our boat consist of Lou the instructor with her Arab student, Gee the DM, Deepblu and myself. The other boat was led by another instructor, Varda, with four students of hers. At the dive site, Lou and her student separated from us while Gee, Deepblu and I went on our own excursion in the bad viz. As I was diving without a camera (Deepblu didn’t either as he did not have enough time to set up his camera), I had to do something to keep me from feeling bored. Gee just followed what we did. The stark difference between the surface and bottom temperatures saw Gee shivering in the depths, so I removed and handed her my gloves while I continued doing penetrations at some of the swim-throughs that seemed almost impossible to go through. I moved cautiously although the fearsome resident Titan Triggerfish was nowhere to be seen. I think Deepblu and I were more interested in looking for nudibranches, squat lobsters and impossible swim-throughs more than anything else. The viz improved drastically towards the end of the dive while Deepblu and I commenced our mini-deco stops from 12m. I saw Gee still
folding her arms, shivering, and signaled the Scottish lass to surface and wait for us on the boat.
TUKUN LAUT
Max Depth: 19.3m
Dive Time: 52 minutes
Viz: 15m at best
Surface Temperature: 32 Celcius
Bottom Temperature: 28 Celcius
After a 2-hour surface interval and lunch of rice, fried egg and the Kelantanese budu, Deepblu and I went to Tukun Laut (wrongly called Tokong Laut by outsiders) accompanying Birgit the instructor, and a foreign diver who spoke the Queen’s English with American pronounciations that I found rather odd. Anyway, the boat’s engine developed some trouble while Aidi the Boatman (who comments on my blog as BOATMAN) and I tried to remedy the problem. Anyway, we got to Tukun Laut 40 minutes later amidst huge swells, strong current, surge and crashing waves on the top of Tukun Laut.
Backroll entry and I quickly grabbed hold of the boat and made my way to the buoy line fighting current. I also had to move quickly as the current and crashing waves were threatening to smother the boat. Birgit signaled us for descent, I blew air out of the BCD and dived head first towards the bottom. Fighting strong current, I made it to the bottom first while waiting for the rest. As usual after the first ten minutes at close to 3 ATA, I checked my pressure gauge to make sure my rate of air consumption was within the normal limits. Deepblu and I separated ourselves from Birgit and the other diver. Marine life was in abundance and there was this ball of huge yellow snappers occassionally disorganised as Trevallies moved in to attack stragglers. Several times my mind was elsewhere and Deepblu and I separated. In the end I found him again. Current flow changed towards the end of the dive and I was already feeling the effects of not having enough sleep and fighting current. We commenced our first mini-deco stops at 12m as usual to off-gas.
Back on the surface the boat was missing. Apparently Aidi had moved away from Tukun Laut because the waves and
current were menacing. I steered the boat as he helped Deepblu on board and also keeping an eye out for Birgit and the other diver. Finally, with all divers safely on board, we made our way back to the DC. The engine was still giving problems so Aidi did not make speed. I literally fell asleep and several times almost fell onto the floorboard. The floorboard was very tempting but we had promised Gee and Varda a roti canai tea session, as Gee would be leaving the DC next week to work in the Philippines.
Back at the DC, I was met by Terry, the dive instructor of the ‘B’ Squadron of the police commando unit, the VAT69, whom I used to dive with during joint-exercises back in 1993 in Lumut and Pangkor areas. The VAT69 were there on training.Varda, Gee, Deepblu and I walked to the stall at Teluk Kiker (again wrongly refered to as Keke Bay) and the VAT69 camp was located next to the stall. I did not recognise any of them initially until, when on the way back to the DC, I was greeted by Sgt John, Inspector Ben (the unit’s dive officer) and two other veterans whose name I cannot recall. They still call me ‘Tuan’ (Sir) as they did 14 years ago and invited me to join them for the next training session to be held at Perhentian in August. Inspector Ben and Terry then had a talk with me about the equipment they currently use, evaluating, and future requirements.
After a sunset walk, followed by shower, dinner, enjoying the night breeze and a phone call to that someone who was
about to sleep, I finally fell asleep before midnight.
DAY TWO – 15th July 2007
Woke up to an SMS at 8.33am. I only got to sleep again at around 6am before that. Washed up and brushed the teeth,
prepped the equipment ready for the next dive. Had some minutes to spare so rushed a nasi lemak breakfast.
SECRET REEF
Max Depth: 29.3m
Dive Time: 35 minutes
Viz: 15m at best, 5m below thermocline at 24m
Surface Temperature: 30 Celcius
Bottom Temperature: 27 Celcius
On the boat were Birgit with two divers, Varda with one, Deepblu and myself; while Lou and two other divers headed out to Batu Nisan on the other boat. I briefed Deepblu on the dive plan and the planned stops, which I also informed Varda. Added one more weight to the tank strap for trimming. Birgit’s group went down first while the rest of us waited for Deepblu. Once he was in, Varda gave the okay to descent sign. I blew all air out of the wing, flipped fins up and swam down to 30m, overtaking Birgit’s group in the process who were doing free descent.
Deepblu arrived and quickly took a photo of me with my slate that says 200 depicting my official 200th PADI logged dives. After that Deepblu went to take photos of lionfishes. I looked at him and wondered if his strobe battery had died on him since he did not recharge the battery on the previous night. After 10 minutes, I checked my gauge to recalculate my “air time remaining” against my dive plan, and my dive computer.
At 15 minutes I signaled to Deepblu that we had 3 minutes left before we had to make it back to the ascent line. We circumnavigated a boulder and I was then smack bang in a bait ball with snappers and jacks darting in and out to feed. It was a very frustrating scene as I did not have my camera on me. It’s time I get a new housing or a proper video camera with HID video lights. But that will have to wait until after I get my toy.
On the 18th minute we ascended to 24m for our first deep stop for 3 minutes, and one minute every three meters thereon, with longer stops at both 6m and 3m to off-gas even further. The Nitrogen Tissue Loading Bar Graph on my PDC went down two notches at the end of the stops as it took me another 3 minutes to get to the surface from the last stop. Both Deepblu and I felt fresher than the usual recreational dives had we stopped only at 5m for 3 minutes. As usual back on the boat Varda, Aidi, Deepblu and I exchanged friendly banters to kill time. Picked up Lou and the two divers at Batu Nisan.
We later learnt what had happen to Deepblu’s new Inon strobe – it got flooded big time.
SUGAR WRECK
Max Depth: 19.3m
Dive Time: 46 minutes
Viz: 15m
Surface Temperature: 32 Celcius
Bottom Temperature: 29 Celcius
Last dive for the trip. On the boat were Lou and two fun divers (one German and one Portuguese), Deepblu and I. Lou told us to descend first. I informed Lou that Deepblu will be doing dive-site mapping for his DMT assigment, while I will dive alone. However, I told her if she needed assistance to just holler me.
We got to Sugar Wreck and Lo! and behold. Viz was excellent as we could see the wreck almost to the bottom. Deepblu and I wasted no time in descending upon the wreck. At the top most part of the wreck (its portside), I stood there, arms folded, and cursing to myself for not having my camera with me. Schools of Jacks, Yellowtail Barracuda,
Batfishes, Snappers were playing around me. Deepblu did not have his camera with him too. Deepblu then commenced his exercise while I swam to the edge of the wreck (keel side) before free-descending to 18m. The viz right at the bottom wasn’t as good as above 15m. But I could see the surface clearly. I finally bumped into Deepblu again towards the end of the dive as we commenced our multiple stops to off-gas. At 6m, Lou passed me one of her charges for me to ring to the surface.
All in all it was a good short trip. On the way back we stopped twice; once to refuel at Kuala Krai and porridge in Gua Musang. And the trip back was accompanied by songs by DJ Ravin, SMS and calls to someone, and Deepblu’s attempt in being a record holder as evident in the picture below.
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