This was the second trip for the Seaborne to Riau, Indonesia. We headed off on Friday night from Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal, Singapore to join her at Nongsa Marina, Batam. After dinner we departed. The seas were nice and calm and like a lake at our diving destination when we arrived early in the morning.
I had a group of 8 friends and 3 other divers. Gareth, a PADI Instructor joined to learn the ropes.
Stuart completed the final dives for his PADI Advanced Open Water Course with me. Congratulations Stuart!
We dived a new site called “The Wall” and it turned out to be the best dive of the weekend. During the dive there was no current, 10-14m visibility and an array of soft and hard coral every where. The site was also teeming with small and medium size fish.
One diver commented after the dive that they would rather dive here, any day, than at Tioman, Malaysia. Nothing was broken and all the coral was in pristine condition.
We also dived “Sea Fan Alley” and once again I looked and looked and looked everywhere for a pygmy seahorse, but with no luck. One day, I will find one! There must be a 1,000 or so sea fans all covered in colourful feather stars. The sand is also littered with blue spotted rays that sometimes startle you as they emerge from under the sand, right under your nose.
I went back to a small island were schooling fish are located. Trevally and barracuda can usually be found there along with a lot of soft coral. But the current was a bit too much and we could only dive on one side. There were no schooling fish. I guess they were around the other side of the island enjoying the nutritional items that currents bring. But it was still a great dive.
The night dive was, well, a night dive. There were a few crabs to be seen, but not much else. We managed a maximum depth of about 6 metres at a site I call “Safety Stop Reef”.
The BBQ on Saturday was amazing as always. It was great to once again enjoy this awesome BBQ. We did not manage to finish the food. I had to ask the boys to stop cooking and save the rest for later.
Cheers, Gary Savins