Sunday, 6 June 2010
We headed out for a morning coffee and the weather had improved overnight and our driver was spot on time again. At the marina, the boat was ready for us, but today we would be diving in the company of four guys working with Shell in Brunei.
The boat departed the marina and headed out into the South China Sea; the low swell and remnants of yesterday’s chop made the waters very sloppy and a quite uncomfortable 30 minute ride to the first dive site. Of course usually any boat ride spells doom for Tracy and her seasickness, however, dosed up on drugs from the doctor, we set off optimistically.
Dive 1 – Santak Point. The rough ride was forgotten as soon as we entered the water. 40+ metres of visibility; water so clean and clear it might not have even been there.
The flat coral bottom at 20+ metres made the gigantic fans standing proud look even bigger.
In the mucking, there were a plethora of nudibranchs, moray eels, small fishes in the hard and soft coral gardens. There might not have been as much obvious life as around Mabul, but the visibility and the flat bottom made the experience beyond description.
There was quite a strong surface current which dramatically as we neared the bottom, but nothing compared to the impossible currents around Mabul. The gigantic fan corals were larger than 6 feet and the dive was just otherworldly as the visibility and colour of the sea were just extraordinary.
One of the other divers was sick at the end of his dive which led to the domino effect and two of the other divers also decided to feed the fishes. However, much to Tracy (and Scott) amazement this didn’t make Tracy join in.
Dive 2 – Anemone Garden. After an hour surface interval to reposition, we entered the water for the second dive; immediately noting the visibility was reduced, but was still in excess of 30 metres. This was a shallow dive on another flat bottom reef. The mucking was very much like before, but the micro-environment was well balanced with the presence of massive schools of jacks and other larger fishes, and a dozing 7 foot giant of a barracuda. Our diving group was joined by two massive bat fish who stayed in close proximity for just about the entire dive. As the name suggests there were hundreds of amazingly coloured anemones including some fire-engine orange, deep crimsons and bright reds, many home to clownfish, giant clams and Nudibranchs. Also new for us was the bubble corals which are beautiful.
Dive 3 – Eve Garden. After another surface interval to reposition and take lunch (provided for us), we arrived at the final site for the day. This site is another flat bottom coral garden with depths 2 to 7 metres.
Due to a limitation with the camera we have, we chose not to go the edge where the reef drops sharply to over 12 metres. The visibility was still in excess of 30 meters.
Just because the water was shallow didn’t mean there was less to look at; there was abundant soft corals as well as bumphead parrotfish, clownfish (including the most brilliant red anemones), yellow tail fusiliers and angelfishes etc.
We arrived back at the jetty after a short boat trip from our last dive, to find our driver waiting for us and we waved goodbye to our fellow divers as they would not be heading out with us tomorrow. We made it back to the hotel at about 3:30 leaving plenty of time to relax before heading out to dinner at Khan’s Indian Restaurant.