Blue Water Wreck & American Wreck - 23rd July 2006

BW IV - The Manta's BACK! Haha....
Nice to be back to blue water again this month! It has been a hot-spot for divers lately. We were delighted to see the water was so calm, so clear and so BLUEEEE.... We geared up and headed down excitedly. We were looking for the school of batfishes but couldnt find any. Instead, we saw lotsssssss of barracudas, jacks and trevallies. I was surrounded by barracudas at one point that it gave me a chill down my wet suit! hehe... We met the usual residents there, namely the trumpet fish, the lion fishes, the stone fishes (this time i spotted a small one too), clown and titan trigger fish and more. Uwais and Joseph spotted a 1-metre long sting ray! (Dammit! i didnt see that one). Upon ascent, we spotted one batfis following us to our safety stop to say GOODBYE... Till we meet again at blue water....

This trip, we had the BEST surface interval picnic ever! Rachel brought curry chicken and bread, and tuna sandwiches! YUM YUM! Linda brought macaroni salad and egg sandwich. Elvin brought nasi lemak and roti telur! GOSHNESS... I ate till I felt that I needed extra weight to make me sink! After the sumptuous meals (hehe) we headed for American wreck. "Captain" Elvin took over the control of the boat to bring us there. Azli was the first to head down for the wreck, making sure that we are at the right place and set the anchor line to lead us straight to the wreck. He came up and briefed us that the current was strong and do not let go of the anchor line. We dressed in, backroll down and grab hold to the anchor line. When everyone's ready, we headed down. I took the lead, followed by Uwais, Linda, Joseph and... I cant see the rest... the underwater current was so strong that I literally horizontal while holding on to the anchor line. At about 10 metres, I stopped and I could only see Joseph, Linda, Uwais and Azli. Didnt even notice he was behind me. But... where are the rest? I could not see my Elvin, Sau Wei and Rachel. Azli signalled to ask me where are there. I signalled back - I donno. He signalled to ask us to descent and he will go up to check. We paired up - Linda and myself, Joseph and Uwais. We descent and the current is better. We heard the boat engine started, I suspect that they got drifted and Azli went to pick them up. We then went around the wreck, spotted nudibranch, cleaner shrimps and then I went around to look for bullets as promised to show Linda. Yes, I managed to find it and Uwais spotted a slate with condolences messages to the victims of the ship. At this point, we were reunited with the rest of the divers. Unfortunately, we had also reached our max bottom time and we need to ascend. I signalled to Azli and he also noticed that Rachel has lost her weight belt and could not sink. We ascent, to the disappointment of the rest.

Joseph has requested to do another shallow dive near a Red Buoy. We took abt 30 minutes break and then headed down for our 3rd dive. As advised by Azli, it is good for us to do the shallow dive as it will be like an extended safety stop after 2 deep dives. Again, the current is as strong but we have decided to do a drift dive this time and Azli will follow our bubbles. Joseph took the lead and we followed. Interestingly, this is the most relaxing dive as we hardly need to kick. Just let the current take us around. We spotted lots of gobies and some anemone fishes... We stayed for a good 20 minutes before surfaced to an island for yet another picnic! BLOATED....!

What did I enjoy most in this dive trip? The FOOD! Haha...!