With 19 divers spread across the MV Dolphin Explorer and the MV Southern Comfort we headed out from Republic Of Singapore Yacht Club at 8.15am Saturday morning.
We had high hopes for the 3 dives BBQ trip. Some divers returned after the amazing Vesak Day trip on 13 May.
PADI Dive Master, Karen was looking after the divers on the MV Dolphin Explorer. I had Qin Ei doing the first 3 dives of his PADI Advanced Open Water and his Buddy Samuel doing the first part of his PADI Open Water Dive Course. I also had Favian (our GS-Diving PADI Dive Master trainee) onboard the MV Southern Comfort. He was just recovering from an ear infection and had some issues and decided to play it safe and be the surface support after the first dive. He is a great Dive Master trainee. I don’t need to ask (tell?) him to do anything, he just does it.
The MV Southern Comfort is a nice boat. It is a bit slow but it very relaxing with lots of room to lay around in the aircon in the saloon or in the fresh air on the bow or up on top deck.
On the way back, I found myself dozing off because the boat was very steady and rocked just enough, to put me to sleep. Very calming indeed.
The first dive was at the Hantu Outer Reef and at dead low tide. I was expecting some limited viz but that is what we got all day.
It was the total opposite of Vesak Day (a few weeks ago) with less than 1 metre viz on the first and last dive, with maybe 2 and a bit metres on the second dive. I can’t complain, as this was the first time that the viz has been really bad all year.
Because of the viz we opted out of trying to dive one of the deeper wrecks and dived the Inner Reef and the Jetty.
The Jetty is normally better and with a slack high tide I was hoping for 4 metres, but we got 40cm.
My students did well in these conditions and completed the first part of their courses.
The leisure divers, Mike, Analu, Mike, Robert, James, Marla, Clarence, Xei Xian, Arnold, Muhammad, Jin Hong, Siew Yee and Hans all managed to see some cool stuff.
Sightings included a seahorse, baby cuttlefish, octopus, pipefish, clownfish, pufferfish, blue spotted ray, nudis, bamboo sharks, crabs and the other usual fish life.
The BBQ was awesome as always. We had Bee Hoon for breakfast and lunch was chicken and beef kababs and a hamburger that was so big it was almost impossible to finish.
Cheers, Gary.
Thanks to Karen Savins for the use of your photos.