With 7 kids from an international school and 7 adults we headed out from Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal, Singapore to join The Seaborne (LOB) at Nongsa Point Marina, Indonesia. Big Andy, GS-Diving PADI Dive Master was on board to help out with some on the PADI Advanced Diver Course dives.
For those readers who are not familiar with an LOB, it is a live on board boat, where we sleep and eat and then dive from, all weekend. It is a great way to enjoy a diving trip as you don’t have to transfer between a dive resort and small boats, it is a complete package.
I was busy with 2 PADI Open Water students, 3 PADI Advanced Open Water students and 1 PADI Side Mount student. Andy was a great help conducting must of the PADI Advanced Water skills whilst I was doing the PADI Open Water skills.
It was a big group of people and sometimes we ran into each other, as we were co-ordinating the dive schedules. Anyway, it was still a lot of fun watching Andy teach the kids how to navigate underwater. Michelle was a bit lost the first time round, so she did the navigation square again. The second time was perfect.
Paul, Federico, Vicky and Ji Yeong dived together and enjoyed all that Riau has to offer. They were amazed by the number of sea fans and the untouched soft and hard coral. They were also very happy to see the school of trevally, yellow tail whiting and barracuda.
Gerald, one of the kids from the school, is my latest and youngest PADI Dive Master trainee. He dived with Chloe and the rest of the leisure divers. On the last dive of the weekend he and Chloe lost the rest of the group and they just dived together. He claimed that to be his first guided dive. Not bad for a 16 year old kid.
The visibility was not as good as the Easter long weekend, but it was still good enough to enjoy the dives. It’s always fun teaching kids to dive.
On Sunday, the Seaborne was cruising back at 12 knots, which was about 2-4 knots faster than average. It was so fast that we got back to Nongsa early enough to take the earlier ferry and we arrived back in Singapore at 4pm. It was a great way to finish a great trip. Big Andy said, “The Seaborne is so fast, I think it is blowing me off the back of the boat!”
It was a bit of a rush catching the earlier ferry, so I did not get a chance for a group photo. Sorry.
Some of Paul’s topside photos are below:
Cheers, Gary Savins