Arriving at Keppel Marina on Thursday afternoon, we were greeted by the day’s expectation of “rain”. Luckily it didn’t stretch to Hantu, a local island off Singapore, but stayed onshore (yes, the dark clouds definitely were over the mainland especially over the China Town area).
On board we had Captain George, Boat Boy Noel (my Dad), Sandwich Maker Myra (my Mum), Anna, Gary and myself. George was kind enough to ensure the canopy was errected so that the Boat Watchers, Mum and Dad didn’t get too burnt or too wet (in the event of rain).
Our first dive was a dark dive, with 1-2 metre viz, but with Gary as my dive buddy, he was happy to plod along while I took photos. Our maximum depth was 14.7 metres around the inner reef. We managed this “deep dive” due to the high tide where the break wall was just above the water.
At 5 metres on this dive we came across clown fish on steriods. At least 5 different families lived along a stretch of reef near an abandoned fish trap. We also saw an octopus, various nudis, a few crabs hiding under rocks, beautiful squirts, feather fans and file fish (my Dad calls them leather jackets).
Our second dive was on a new dive site now called George’s Crap Reef. Upon descending we had to avoid the sea grass (which tickled and felt like something was moving around your legs) and with a maximum depth of 10 metres, the current was ripping at the sand. This was a short dive of 26 minutes. Again small nudis and file fish were at this site. It was supposed to be a wreck dive (so George’s sounder indicated) but that wasn’t the case. But we all had a good laugh on the way back! Cheers – Karen
