Diving on Sunday morning saw 20 avid divers at Hantu, a local island in Singapore’s backyard. With a storm brewing, the sky remained clear and we spotted seahorses, a cuttlefish, nudis, butterfly fish and much more.
My ten year old Canon G9 wouldn’t start underwater on our first dive site. And despite showing my buddy two seahorses, I was unable to get any photographic evidence. Once I got out of the water, I noticed that my housing had also failed. The crazing around a few knobs had elongated, so it’s a sad goodbye to my faithful Ikelite housing. This set up has been retired from underwater excursions and with over 400 dives to its name, I am truly grateful for its service. Luckily, the water that managed to get inside was quickly soaked up by those awesome white gel crystals, and yes, with some sunshine and extra coaxing, the camera is still working on land.
I must say, once I explained that my housing was no-more, my dive buddy quickly whipped out his camera from his board shorts and mumbled, “Hmm, I forgot I had this with me! Guess it would have been handy near the sea-horses?” We both chuckled and I nodded.
I took the photos below on the second dive using my buddy’s Nikon Coolpix waterproof camera and a handheld strobe. Thanks Johannes for sharing your electronic equipment and I hope you enjoyed the macro life of Singapore.
I apologise for the bleaching but last month’s water temperature of 32 degrees has taken its toll and I hope the reef will recover soon.
Cheers, Karen Savins (GS-Diving PADI DiveMaster)