WOW – What a crazy weekend! I was glad to be off the boat on Sunday night. We experienced really bad weather with 3-4m swell. This weekend I had Sophie, Anne and James on the live on board boat called The Ark.
Just before we arrived at our first dive site Saturday morning, Katoka Rock at Anambas, Indonesia, a storm came and the seas turned ugly. So rough that we cancelled the dive. The dive platform was moving up and down about 3 metres and no one was safe near that. So we headed to protection behind an nearby island called Malang Biru.
We completed 2 day and 1 night dive at Malang Biru. The viz was great at 30 metres and the coral and fish life was pretty amazing. So good we did 70 minute dives.
This weekend, I conducted PADI Rescue Diver with Sophie and Anne. Sophie was also taking TDI Intro to Tech. We are planning to complete TDI Advanced Nitrox and TDI Decompression Procedures later in October.
It was a bit challenging to complete the rescue divers skills in rough seas on Saturday, so we skipped and hoped for better weather on Sunday. Sophie did very well all day using twin tanks for the first time.
Sunday morning was planned to dive Igara Wreck, but when we arrived it was too rough again, so we headed to the safety of Bintan and completed two dives there. We managed to complete all the rescue diver skills as well.
The first dive at Bintan was pretty good, the second was fun with a strong current pushing us along the reef at a pretty fast pace. Viz was ok, not great.
Congratulations to Sophie and Anne for completing your PADI Rescue Diver Course. Although the conditions were less than ideal, “a bad weekend diving is still better than a good weekend in the office”. In the photo below, Anne is near the rock, James is on the left and Sophie is at the top.
Cheers, Gary Savins