My First Dive Trip
Well...blog or not blog. That was the question. But it was a good story and deserved to be captured, though I was not really in the mood for it.
To make a long story short, we started at 7pm, to gather at the Mohd Sultan Dive center. I had signed up for the Open Diving course with my colleagues consisting of Shirli, LipSing, Boon Teck, Debbie, Jeff. Turned out that the instructor was Dennis, my colleague from my first IT job. He was the salesman at that time. After the previous few days of intense theory and pool lessons, this was it. The final thrust. I had joined this Dive programme not so much as to get a license for diving. More so of wanting to experience this dimension in life, just to see what the entire fuss was about.
Setting off
In the crampy mini bus
Mersing Jetty
Busy jetty in the middle of the night
Our ride
Got so many divers?
Reaching there, we packed quickly and setup off to the causeway checkpoint. But the traffic was rather heavy along orchard road, and it was more than an hour to the checkpoint. Needless to say, checkpoint jam was bad as well. By the time we crossed over to refuel the van, it was already about 9.30pm - 10pm. But the drive was scheduled to hit the jetty at about 12am. We eventually did so by 1/2 hour late.
Next was a long 4 hours gruelling boat ride to the Dayang Island. We were supposed to catch some sleep here. However, sleeping on the chair was quite impossible. Debbie and Jeff also had lots to talk about, so falling asleep was not that easy. Finally, I just laid on the bare floor and tried to catch some shuteyes.
Reaching there at 4.30am
You! Go sleep in one corner
We finally arrived at the Jetty at 4.30am, quite a good time. We were hustled to our bunks and assigned beds, so that everyone could quickly sleep for a little while, until the morning first dive.
Early morning Dayang beach
Our diving boat parking lot
Early morning view of Dayang Jetty
View of Pulau Dayang
Pulau Dayang was a nice and scenic place. Very rustic. Much like the kind of Beach resort in a deserted island. Full of coconut trees for sure to make Microsoft Theme makers die of envy. I recced around in the early morning, and the water was crystal clear. There were an interesting assortment of fishes swimming around, all of which was in full view due to the water clarity. However, there was a deep dropoff from the jetty, and there the water got quite deep. I spied a more than a metre long Todak making it rounds for morning breakfast. There was also an interesting sight of a passing squid. But unfortunately, I couldn't get a sharp picture.
View from Jetty
Crystal clear water
Blur pic of a blur sotong
School of small bait fishes
Jetty view from the beach
View from the jetty
Coral view
Giant Todak
Threadfins?
Some feather type of worms?
Came morning, and after breakfast, it was time for our very first dive. We gathered at the jetty and was briefed of the drills that we would be doing. This being our very first time going so deep (12m), I was sure that everyone was quite apprehensive. Reaching the dive spot at Lang, we geared up, and leap into the water one by one. The signal was given to descend and we did so. The first impression was that of the pressure building up. Luckily, we were well versed on how to equalize the ears to the surronding pressure. Slowly one by one, we reached the bottom holding on to the dive line. The view was awesome, although somewhat disappointing at the same time. The expectation of a colorful coral reef was not what we saw there. Most of the corals were dead, although there was some pockets of fishes and beautiful corals.
We went through some drills and all was fine, until the last stretch where we were supposed to walk to further point to ascend, using the rope. All of a sudden, my regulator seemed to be leaking water into the hose with every breath I took. I was in trouble. I tried to reach for my secondary regulator, but Dennis had secured it higher up on the BCD before I dived in. Due to the limited vision, I could find it. At this point, I was drinking sea water little by little. I tried to move to Boon Teck, my buddy, to get his secondary regulater but in my panic, I couldn't quite get to it. Luckily Dennis was around at the bottom. I signaled to him that I was out of air and had to ascend. However he tried to check on my gauges and calm me down. But time was not on my side. I had to ascend that very moment. I held on to the line and tried to control my ascent slowly. (In diving, quick ascent was a No no). I was still taking in water and by the time I reached the surface, I was totally bloated with sea water in my stomach. Due to the pressure I thought, I couldn't burp out the air in the stomach and it was very uncomfortable and I was feeling very sick. Boon Teck had to pull me over to the boat to get me up on deck. Luckily just below the boat, the big burp came on, and I was immediately relieved. It was a scary moment, and dying was quite the possibility. I later discussed this with Dorothy, our Dive Master, and we figured what might had happen was that I might have knocked on the regulator purge button and the mechanism might not have closed properly. The fix was probably just a simple purge and stop to get the mechanism up and working again. Luckily for the next 4 dives, I did not experience the same thing again.
The second dive as after lunch, and we did more drills. But it got more interesting, when we went for a swim around. This time was at Crocodile Bay, and the marine life there was quite nice. We came back for a short tea time, before going out again at 4+pm.
Our 3rd dive
Push her down? Can...
Navy Seals
Oh no...my hair, my hair
The next dive saw us at Captain's Point. Again, we went for a swim. The swimming part was quite interesting and most relaxing of all. This dive, we went deeper to a depth of 18m, the max for beginners like us.
Free and easy
I do rebonding for you
Ah seng with the sotong I caught
2 sotongs
Dive Logging
Who to copy from?
What was our Pressure Group?
Logging time
There was no Anything on the island. So, Heineken will do.
Let's go dive some more?...ok ok, so fun..
After the day's dive, it was free and easy time. I took a bath and decided to try some squidding at the jetty. Debbie and Boon Teck came along to see how I was doing. Shortly after they arrived, I spotted my first squid coming to check out the lure. However, due to the clear and brigh daylight, the squid saw it to be fake and ran away.
However, the light gradually became darker as dusk came on. We chatted on the Jetty, and out of a sudden, I felt a tug, and saw a mushroom cloud of black ink. Haha, got my first one. Debbie and Boon Teck were indeed quite excited to see a live squid caught in action and took some pics. I brought it back to the others, and let them have some pictures as well. We decided to cook it to have a taste of freshly caught squid.
However, during the whole event, Dennis wasn't too happy with me fishing at the resort. I bumped into him at the Jetty, and he came over to tell me that fishing and diving don't mix. And it was rare to see squids in the water, so we shouldn't go fishing for them. Well, IMO squids usually hide in the water and not seeing it didn't mean that it wasn't around. I had thought that people might be sensitive about this, and hence limited myself to just squidding. I could easily have catch scores of fishes if I wanted to. They looked easy enough. Anyway, there was no intention to bring back any catches. However, this was his turf, and I had to respect his wishes. So, that was the end of my idyllic fishing plans. I packed my gear, and joined the others for a boring night. Things got somewhat tense between me and Dennis after this.
We did some logging of our dive details over a cup of coffee and Heineken. Man, the calculation was complex. I wasn't in the mood to use my head and just copied the answer. There was a part about what we saw during the dive and our comments. Actually, there were lots of Parrot fishes, Damsals, Angels, Clown fishes, Moorish Idol, Bat fishes and scores of others that was beyond my ID knowledge.
The next morning, there were 2 more dives. The first was at Raynors Rock. This was quite nice and I though most of us were more proficient this time and was able to enjoy more of the scenary. The last dive was just at the opposite jetty. That for me, this was the most disappointing one, as most of the rocks were bare and filled with dead corals. Quite a deary sight.
Mersing Jetty
Land!
Wait wait...I comb hair
This is the way to hold your regulator
Drive boat can make money or not?
Girl and Pink boatman
My diving good or not?
United colors of Benetton
So, that was the end of the dive programme, and we all graduated the course. We packed up and got ready to get on the boat for mersing. it was to be another 4 hours boat ride. Debbie and Jeff stayed at the helm, testing the power of the sun's UV. Jeff thought he was Hiro Nakamura (from Heroes). For four straight hours, they sat there like stones looking out for pirate ships, sucking in all the free UV. After the boat ride, they definitely looked darker and tanned.
Mersing hawker centre
Chee Kong is my long lost husband. Do you know where he is?
Every stall sold the same thing
We reached Mersing, had some simple Ramly's burger and got on the van to bring us back. The driver drove rather fast as Dorothy needed to go to the Loo :P. We were back in Singapore at about 7.30pm, wrapping up an intensive but fruitful trip.
Boat to nowhere
Pulau Aur at the back
Beach ball court
Birds play netball
Sunrise
Jetty sunrise
Sunrise over Dayang
Dayang resort
Dayang command centre
Where we stayed
My favourite beach chair
More staff of Dayang Resort
Staff of Dayang Resort
Where the good food came from
Dayang Mega Mall. Shirli went there everyday
Where we did our business
Close up of fishing boat
2 fishing boats
Man doing Fly fishing
Microsoft screensaver #49
Flourescent lamp coral
My retirement kind of place
Fishing boat
Microsoft background #13
No escaping from this island
Microsoft screensaver #1
Can I borrow?
Morning breakfast
Naughty boy in detention barrack brushing teeth
He is remorseful about his past...
Before comb hair
After comb hair
No need to comb hair
I HOT or not?
Morning before returning
Dayang brand fork
Later we go sit in front of the boat and burn ourselves ok? So fun...
Let's go to the boat
Boat trip back
Chewing gum in my mouth
Most interesting "object" of a 4hr boat ride
The gangsters that cheated my money
See...cheating one. Cards always so good
To make a long story short, we started at 7pm, to gather at the Mohd Sultan Dive center. I had signed up for the Open Diving course with my colleagues consisting of Shirli, LipSing, Boon Teck, Debbie, Jeff. Turned out that the instructor was Dennis, my colleague from my first IT job. He was the salesman at that time. After the previous few days of intense theory and pool lessons, this was it. The final thrust. I had joined this Dive programme not so much as to get a license for diving. More so of wanting to experience this dimension in life, just to see what the entire fuss was about.
Setting off
In the crampy mini bus
Mersing Jetty
Busy jetty in the middle of the night
Our ride
Got so many divers?
Reaching there, we packed quickly and setup off to the causeway checkpoint. But the traffic was rather heavy along orchard road, and it was more than an hour to the checkpoint. Needless to say, checkpoint jam was bad as well. By the time we crossed over to refuel the van, it was already about 9.30pm - 10pm. But the drive was scheduled to hit the jetty at about 12am. We eventually did so by 1/2 hour late.
Next was a long 4 hours gruelling boat ride to the Dayang Island. We were supposed to catch some sleep here. However, sleeping on the chair was quite impossible. Debbie and Jeff also had lots to talk about, so falling asleep was not that easy. Finally, I just laid on the bare floor and tried to catch some shuteyes.
Reaching there at 4.30am
You! Go sleep in one corner
We finally arrived at the Jetty at 4.30am, quite a good time. We were hustled to our bunks and assigned beds, so that everyone could quickly sleep for a little while, until the morning first dive.
Early morning Dayang beach
Our diving boat parking lot
Early morning view of Dayang Jetty
View of Pulau Dayang
Pulau Dayang was a nice and scenic place. Very rustic. Much like the kind of Beach resort in a deserted island. Full of coconut trees for sure to make Microsoft Theme makers die of envy. I recced around in the early morning, and the water was crystal clear. There were an interesting assortment of fishes swimming around, all of which was in full view due to the water clarity. However, there was a deep dropoff from the jetty, and there the water got quite deep. I spied a more than a metre long Todak making it rounds for morning breakfast. There was also an interesting sight of a passing squid. But unfortunately, I couldn't get a sharp picture.
View from Jetty
Crystal clear water
Blur pic of a blur sotong
School of small bait fishes
Jetty view from the beach
View from the jetty
Coral view
Giant Todak
Threadfins?
Some feather type of worms?
Came morning, and after breakfast, it was time for our very first dive. We gathered at the jetty and was briefed of the drills that we would be doing. This being our very first time going so deep (12m), I was sure that everyone was quite apprehensive. Reaching the dive spot at Lang, we geared up, and leap into the water one by one. The signal was given to descend and we did so. The first impression was that of the pressure building up. Luckily, we were well versed on how to equalize the ears to the surronding pressure. Slowly one by one, we reached the bottom holding on to the dive line. The view was awesome, although somewhat disappointing at the same time. The expectation of a colorful coral reef was not what we saw there. Most of the corals were dead, although there was some pockets of fishes and beautiful corals.
We went through some drills and all was fine, until the last stretch where we were supposed to walk to further point to ascend, using the rope. All of a sudden, my regulator seemed to be leaking water into the hose with every breath I took. I was in trouble. I tried to reach for my secondary regulator, but Dennis had secured it higher up on the BCD before I dived in. Due to the limited vision, I could find it. At this point, I was drinking sea water little by little. I tried to move to Boon Teck, my buddy, to get his secondary regulater but in my panic, I couldn't quite get to it. Luckily Dennis was around at the bottom. I signaled to him that I was out of air and had to ascend. However he tried to check on my gauges and calm me down. But time was not on my side. I had to ascend that very moment. I held on to the line and tried to control my ascent slowly. (In diving, quick ascent was a No no). I was still taking in water and by the time I reached the surface, I was totally bloated with sea water in my stomach. Due to the pressure I thought, I couldn't burp out the air in the stomach and it was very uncomfortable and I was feeling very sick. Boon Teck had to pull me over to the boat to get me up on deck. Luckily just below the boat, the big burp came on, and I was immediately relieved. It was a scary moment, and dying was quite the possibility. I later discussed this with Dorothy, our Dive Master, and we figured what might had happen was that I might have knocked on the regulator purge button and the mechanism might not have closed properly. The fix was probably just a simple purge and stop to get the mechanism up and working again. Luckily for the next 4 dives, I did not experience the same thing again.
The second dive as after lunch, and we did more drills. But it got more interesting, when we went for a swim around. This time was at Crocodile Bay, and the marine life there was quite nice. We came back for a short tea time, before going out again at 4+pm.
Our 3rd dive
Push her down? Can...
Navy Seals
Oh no...my hair, my hair
The next dive saw us at Captain's Point. Again, we went for a swim. The swimming part was quite interesting and most relaxing of all. This dive, we went deeper to a depth of 18m, the max for beginners like us.
Free and easy
I do rebonding for you
Ah seng with the sotong I caught
2 sotongs
Dive Logging
Who to copy from?
What was our Pressure Group?
Logging time
There was no Anything on the island. So, Heineken will do.
Let's go dive some more?...ok ok, so fun..
After the day's dive, it was free and easy time. I took a bath and decided to try some squidding at the jetty. Debbie and Boon Teck came along to see how I was doing. Shortly after they arrived, I spotted my first squid coming to check out the lure. However, due to the clear and brigh daylight, the squid saw it to be fake and ran away.
However, the light gradually became darker as dusk came on. We chatted on the Jetty, and out of a sudden, I felt a tug, and saw a mushroom cloud of black ink. Haha, got my first one. Debbie and Boon Teck were indeed quite excited to see a live squid caught in action and took some pics. I brought it back to the others, and let them have some pictures as well. We decided to cook it to have a taste of freshly caught squid.
However, during the whole event, Dennis wasn't too happy with me fishing at the resort. I bumped into him at the Jetty, and he came over to tell me that fishing and diving don't mix. And it was rare to see squids in the water, so we shouldn't go fishing for them. Well, IMO squids usually hide in the water and not seeing it didn't mean that it wasn't around. I had thought that people might be sensitive about this, and hence limited myself to just squidding. I could easily have catch scores of fishes if I wanted to. They looked easy enough. Anyway, there was no intention to bring back any catches. However, this was his turf, and I had to respect his wishes. So, that was the end of my idyllic fishing plans. I packed my gear, and joined the others for a boring night. Things got somewhat tense between me and Dennis after this.
We did some logging of our dive details over a cup of coffee and Heineken. Man, the calculation was complex. I wasn't in the mood to use my head and just copied the answer. There was a part about what we saw during the dive and our comments. Actually, there were lots of Parrot fishes, Damsals, Angels, Clown fishes, Moorish Idol, Bat fishes and scores of others that was beyond my ID knowledge.
The next morning, there were 2 more dives. The first was at Raynors Rock. This was quite nice and I though most of us were more proficient this time and was able to enjoy more of the scenary. The last dive was just at the opposite jetty. That for me, this was the most disappointing one, as most of the rocks were bare and filled with dead corals. Quite a deary sight.
Mersing Jetty
Land!
Wait wait...I comb hair
This is the way to hold your regulator
Drive boat can make money or not?
Girl and Pink boatman
My diving good or not?
United colors of Benetton
So, that was the end of the dive programme, and we all graduated the course. We packed up and got ready to get on the boat for mersing. it was to be another 4 hours boat ride. Debbie and Jeff stayed at the helm, testing the power of the sun's UV. Jeff thought he was Hiro Nakamura (from Heroes). For four straight hours, they sat there like stones looking out for pirate ships, sucking in all the free UV. After the boat ride, they definitely looked darker and tanned.
Mersing hawker centre
Chee Kong is my long lost husband. Do you know where he is?
Every stall sold the same thing
We reached Mersing, had some simple Ramly's burger and got on the van to bring us back. The driver drove rather fast as Dorothy needed to go to the Loo :P. We were back in Singapore at about 7.30pm, wrapping up an intensive but fruitful trip.
Boat to nowhere
Pulau Aur at the back
Beach ball court
Birds play netball
Sunrise
Jetty sunrise
Sunrise over Dayang
Dayang resort
Dayang command centre
Where we stayed
My favourite beach chair
More staff of Dayang Resort
Staff of Dayang Resort
Where the good food came from
Dayang Mega Mall. Shirli went there everyday
Where we did our business
Close up of fishing boat
2 fishing boats
Man doing Fly fishing
Microsoft screensaver #49
Flourescent lamp coral
My retirement kind of place
Fishing boat
Microsoft background #13
No escaping from this island
Microsoft screensaver #1
Can I borrow?
Morning breakfast
Naughty boy in detention barrack brushing teeth
He is remorseful about his past...
Before comb hair
After comb hair
No need to comb hair
I HOT or not?
Morning before returning
Dayang brand fork
Later we go sit in front of the boat and burn ourselves ok? So fun...
Let's go to the boat
Boat trip back
Chewing gum in my mouth
Most interesting "object" of a 4hr boat ride
The gangsters that cheated my money
See...cheating one. Cards always so good
Comments
Ahhh, I missed your humourous writing. Do blog more if you can.
Don't mind this Denise lah. Gays are like that one.
The dive was very fun. Let's go again!
From:
Naughty boy from the detention barrack
Cheers,
Deb