It was a Sunday of firsts.
A first for me diving off a “real” sail boat that required manual changing of sails (without the luxury of buttons) and a first for Richard, diving in the green brackish waters of Singapore’s local island called Pulau Hantu.
The morning started with drizzle along the East Coast Parkway (ECP) as we headed to Marina at Keppel Bay, Singapore.
The Lucky Marlin was our vessel of choice this weekend and luckily Richard gave Gary a helping hand when it came to loading the tanks on board.
Richard was completing the open water skills for his PADI Rescue Diver Course.
I was to be the panicked diver and unconscious diver.
Our PADI instructor for the day, Gary, put us through our paces and enjoyed every minute of it.
Despite Richard’s parents Louise and David, being a little worried and truly concerned at one point (I think she thought we had a real situation on our hands), Richard was a true gentleman with an acknowledging twinkle in his eye.
Richard even managed to find the wrong weight belt as part of his search and recovery mission.
So Gary had to do his own search and recovery mission to find the original hidden weight belt simulating a missing diver.
Richard was not too keen on the diving aspect of our trip, as seen by the low viz from the pictures.
And in the second dive, the viz was down to maybe less than 1 metre and the sea-horses, normally found at the jetty, had packed up and I am sure, and gone to the nearby reef for a holiday.
I loved it. Getting wet, seeing the macro life and snapping away randomly using Gary’s point and shoot underwater camera.
We saw feather stars, nudi branches, hard coral, soft coral, crabs, a lost shoe, nudibranch eggs, pomfrits, star puffer fish, coral fish, pink sponge coral, pipefish and bat fish.
The last time I went diving was at Easter, earlier this year.
But I think, if given the chance, Richard may decline the next invite to Hantu.
I know I won’t.
Thanks to Louise and David for being so kind as to take us out on their yacht. It was a wonderful experience.
Cheers – Karen Savins (PADI Divemaster)
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