Australian Wreck, American Wreck & Pelong Rock - 25th March 2007

Sad to say that I do not have any pictures for these 3 beautiful dives. It was definitely dives to remember and filled with mesmerising memories. Although it was not captured by camera (sob sob, missing my camera) , the photos are printed in my mind and most importantly heart. (But I've curi some photos from my buddy Tat's camera... HoHohO..!)

A few important things that I've noted in these dives. Buddies briefing are really important. Sometimes we got so comfortable with our buddies that when we have new dive buddies joining, things may get disoriented. Buddies went separate ways or ascent without the knowledge of others. "For those without a dive computer, please watch your time!" A note from a retired DI who felt responsible to look after Esjay and myself, since both of us has got no dive computer.

Beautiful "photos" captured from this dive:
1. Esjay the sea-snail - PUKE-NO-MORE... i am proud of you! She did 2 deep wreck dives and she's loving it! We definitely love to have you with us in our future dive trips :). Well done!

happy esjay

2. Beautiful and i mean, absolutely BEAUTIFUL jelly fish with little fishes around it who are immune to its stings. EXCELLENT

3. Lobsters - one huge lobster about 1.5 feet long who defended itself when we try to get close - a bit scarie la...

4. Lots of snappers, yellow-tail barracudas and giant barracudas

5. OK, maybe this one is a not-so-nice memory, but it is definitely worth-sharing.
"When we were at Pelong, Tat, Han Pern and I were showing each other "jewels" of the sea.. such as nudibranches. And, as I was diving, i felt someone pulling my fins. Excited, i tot somebody must have spotted more "goodies", I turned back and quickly follow Tat who is the one that pulled my fins. I have got a smile on my face until i notice the "jewel" that he was pointing out for me is actually a piece of Sh*t!!!! Excuse me, but i mean it and it is literally a piece of LONGGGGGGG brownie Sh*T!!! NO KIDDING! I have to scream out of disgust underwater and i am very sure Tat heard me screaming. I did ask him to take a photo of it and he actually took a MACRO shot of the sh*t! It was too late by the time he realised that he was so close to it. Haha..!"

Check out the poo! Who did this??? :P

Pictures:

1. Elvin holding bullets - who loves exploring historical wrecks

2. Flabellina nudibranch

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...!

Australian & Cement Wreck - 23rd April 2006

Dive marathon begins!

23/4/2006 marks the first day of the Dive Marathon, organised in conjunction with the arrivable of honorable Sau Wei! Haha...!!

The Blue Manta (except for the Mares Sea-Pig who got caught at work) and some other divers went to Australian Wreck and then to Cement Wreck.

Visibility was pretty bad at Australian Wreck, probably around 5m. Didnt manage to see much except for lion fishes, some groupers and school of barracuda. Another dive group managed to see Marble Ray at American Wreck which is just not far off from our dive site.. D'oh!!!

As for Cement Wreck, visibility was around 15m. We saw lion fishes, pipefish, scorpion fishes, batfish, octopus and more. Everyone loves Cement Wreck because it was their first time there, except for me, Linda and Sebastian.

After two beautiful dives, we headed to Rusukan for snorkelling and then picnic.

What a great trip! And more to come...

Comment received:

from zyan

got SLK wreck??? wonder how it look like... :)(http://spaces.msn.com/zyaneric/)
April 24 2:37 PM

My reply to comment received:

There's always an answer to a question. Just sink an SLK! Need help, just lemme know! I am sure we can find one VERY easily. Hahaha!(http://spaces.msn.com/keileem/)April 28 6:56 PM