We had another great enjoyable weekend on The Seaborne (Live on Board), with sightings of a bamboo shark, crabs, the resident frog fish, so many nudibranchs (that we lost count), several stingrays and a huge cuttlefish! Let me tell you how the weekend transpired . . .
We left Singapore from Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal Friday night and by Fast Ferry we headed to Nongsapura Ferry Terminal, Indonesia. With a quick shuttle bus we arrived at the Seaborne, berthed at Nongsa Point Marina and Resort in just a little over an hour after departing Singapore.
It started out really quiet during dinner on Friday night as everyone was getting to know each other. Some unique and amazing diving stories were shared before we had an early night. Everyone wanted to get enough rest for the 5 dives scheduled for the next day.
On Saturday morning the weather was crazy and it rained all throughout the morning and afternoon. The first 3 dives were not fantastic due to the weather which had caused the visibility to drop. It was difficult to keep the large group of 6 divers together so GS-Diving owner (Gary Savins) who was on board to lend a hand, decided to change the dive site.
Changing the dive site proved to be the right move as the 4th dive was simply amazing. We spotted several stingrays, nudibranchs and I even spotted a frogfish! Everyone was excited again as the visibility was around 8m with lots to see and explore!
Then came the highlight of the day, the night dive. It had great visibility. When we saw our first little crab, everyone was excited and crowded around the poor little crab until Denise, a GS-Diving PADI Instructor, spotted another hairy crab followed by a bamboo shark, followed by a stingray and a huge cuttlefish one after the other. She described it as being the most exciting 5 minutes of the day. How is it possible to see so much in only 5 minutes?
Everyone crowded around Denise and the cuttlefish for about 10 minutes. For most of our divers, it was their first cuttlefish encounter in the deep. And just before the dive, Joshua had mentioned that a cuttlefish was what he really wanted to see. So needless to say, their excitement was through the roof!
Sadly, Jaylyn was low on air soon after and I had to surface with her while leaving the rest of the group to continue exploring the rest of the dive site. I guess she was too excited and started breathing too quickly.
After another 10-15 minutes, the rest of the group surfaced and though everyone was exhausted after 5 dives, the great BBQ dinner revived their tired faces. The way to a diver’s heart, is through food.
On Sunday morning, we were at a new dive site hunting for wrecks. On the 1st dive, we were unable to find any wrecks. However, the dive was great as we spotted several nudibranchs, lots of fish and the reef was beautiful. Denise even gave a diver a quick lesson on how to use an underwater camera using the macro setting to help capture some of the nudibranchs and the moray eel they saw.
When we surfaced, we found out that GS-Diving PADI Instructor Darul had found one of the wrecks and that we were just a couple of metres away. We were really excited again and Denise took a bearing in hopes of finding it on our last dive.
After much swimming around and getting disoriented a few times, we found the wreck. It wasn’t a huge wreck but it was really exciting to actually find a wreck on the last dive. We explored the wreck for awhile and tried to take a group photo on the wreck but ended up silting up the area instead. So here’s a group picture of our divers during their last safety stop.
It truly was a wonderful weekend. Now this is what a live on board (LOB) is all about! Eat, Dive, Eat, Dive, Eat, Dive, Sleep, Wake up, Eat and Dive again! Or in the case of our diver Jerine, it was Dive, Sleep, Dive, Sleep, Dive, Sleep, maybe eat then Sleep some more! Yes, her work week had been rather hectic and some things just need to get prioritised.
Cheers, Gary Lim (GS-Diving PADI DiveMaster)