"On October 10, 2002 another group of divers left for their annual pilgrimage to Anambas. People assembled between 1800 - 1900h at Simon's Dive School inside the Big Splash complex. Quite punctually, around 1900 hrs, the transfer of miscellaneous dive gear, dive bags, scooters, etc. to the shore began and everyone helped with the task.
The MV Seri Delima (photo below) was a short distance off shore and soon her dinghy started to take on gear items and people and transfer both to the SD. Shortly past 1900 hrs we were able to set sail.
The divers were a motley crew put together from Simon's friends and students and a small contingent from Davy's side, Steven Seow and I. The chemistry within the group was rather good with no bickering or disagreements throughout the entire trip. This was so much so, that these few days saw the entire group sharing roaring belly laughs until tears flowed and stomachs hurt, some enterprising females raiding the galley not in pursuit of more food, but to prepare a large plastic tub full of vegetable sticks and another tub full of a cream cheese dip with the rest of the gang carefully watching the proceedings and occasionally snitching a stick of carrot or cucumber.Captain Tan Yu Seng again cooked as if he had a bunch of pot-bellied, starving children from Biafra on board. We ate until we could eat no more. There were dishes of fish cooked various ways, vegetable dishes, curry chicken, spaghetti, goreng pisang sizzling hot straight out of the frying pan, salted eggs, fried slices of bread dipped in egg batter which we ate with a thin topping of Nutella, these went off the platter with lightning speed and no left overs. Then, of course, there were the snacks that came out of personal bags at night like various types of cookies and crackers, nuts and dorito chips with salsa, there was even red wine and serious gin tonics with real lime slices floating in them. It was just a great surprise that we didn't have more severe buoyancy problems with all that high calory food intake.
Among the divers we saw UW-photographers, an UW-videographer, one person on twin-tanks, at least one person with stage bottles, one diver using a KISS rebreather and two divers using scooters. The lady videographer experienced problems with her VCR as she tested the unit before the diving began in earnest. The darn thing could not be switched on once inside the housing. No matter what she tried, the camera remained uncooperative. Her face fell and her mood dropped, visibly! After all the anticipation that was built up for this trip with possible whaleshark and manta encounters this expensive piece of Hi Tech equipment refused to work.
Ling - that's her name - was devastated. After much fiddling and trying and being just that far
away from giving up, she took the camera out, switched it on, then placed it inside the housing again. Ling took it down on the next dive, hoping for the best. The VCR ran continuously since the SHOOT function could not be turned off. The smile was back on Ling's face. Some serious editing however will have to be done since the VCR ran continuously from the moment it was
placed inside the housing and until the tape ran out.
Ling's smile became even wider when the whalesharks (no kidding!!!) and the mantas really did turn up. We did get to see these beautiful animals on the SEVEN SKIES wreck, where after a long period of disappearance our old friend "Batman" showed up again. Batman came up from the blue depth towards us and gracefully swerved off to the side. It was just one pass, but a pass that was highly appreciated by all who saw it.
Our next stop at Damar Island presented us with an underwater vista of healthy corals of all kinds, the number of fish present, however, was a bit disappointing. Two divers went off to examine the fish population further down under the ledge, where bigger fish are known to hang out. But here, too, the fish were hiding on this day.
During the night the SD steamed to the Udang 'B' oilrig, which was reached the next morning. Here the real fun began. Here Ling's smile became so wide that her face began to resemble a radar dish. This was due to the ad hoc appearance of a young female whale shark, perhaps 5 m long. A special mark of identification was the right fin. While scootering alongside the animal,
Davy noticed that the fin was only about one third as long as the left fin (see photo of Davy scootering alongside the little baby taken by Merciless).
Back on board the SD, we speculated on the possible reason for this and came to the conclusion that this is very likely a propeller injury. The shortened fin seemed to be well healed and not a recent event and the whalesharkappeared otherwise perfectly alright.
When the first few divers hit the water and swam the short distance towards the oil rig, the whale shark was first spotted close to the surface. Divers still on the boat heard Davy's shout : "Whale Shark, Whale Shark". Ling promptly jumped queue and hustled her way to the stern. Other divers helped to kit her up and she was in the water with her camera in record speed. (ok, I jumped queue, but that was so I could capture the magnificence of this creature for the greater good of this species! ;)
The animal apparently went up close to every diver to check them all out. Some people actually got close enough to experience the texture of the whale shark's skin. We saw that a rebreather combined with a scooter makes an awfully good combination for whaleshark pursuit.
All that action took place right outside the oilrig. Nobody bothered to swim under the oilrig. With so much excitement outside, the structure suddenly offered little in the way of diving appeal.
There were quite a few people who never had a chance thus far for a whale shark or a manta encounter. So this trip probably left a very lasting impression on these guys. This is not to say that the others with whaleshark experience were not touched by the encounter, on the contrary.
Everybody was charmed by the grace and harmony with which this huge gentleanimal moved among the divers.
The best was, that the whale shark girlcame back on our second dive and people were in for a second helping of whaleshark fun. Nobody was disappointed in as far as I could tell.
We are all hopeful, that our happy videographer Ling will let us all have a look at the edited version, once it's ready. (yeah, photo of me following in the fin-steps of the little beauty)
Our last stopover on the way back was Damar Island one more time. Two dives were done there and some people came back after the first dive and reported having seen a baby manta that was mostly white in colour. The excitement among the divers was stirred again.
For the second dive I went with Davy, both being with scooters. We decided on a bit of long distance scootering in the direction where the manta was seen. The current had picked up a bit after the first dive and the scooters proved to be a big help in making headway. We scootered for quite some distance, perhaps 15 minutes or so, without seeing anything spectacular. We stopped then and just hung around and observed. I kept my eyes peeled for anything on the surface and continued doing 360' turns, you never know .....
As we were about to turn back and had begun to move, the white (well, almost) manta came out of the blue. Davy saw it first. It is not actually a baby, but a young adult with a wing span of perhaps 1.5 - 2m across. The manta just inspected us, then flew off into the deep blue expanse, but not without being captured by Davy's camera. Well, you have got to have proof for such things ...
After the last divers were picked up and safely back on board, the SD swiftly pulled anchor and began her journey back home to Singapore. On the way out to Anambas we found that the SD was accompanied by 7 dolphins which rode the bow wave in front of the ship. People were hanging over the railing and craning their necks. On the way back there were also some dolphins. These however did not stay as long as the other group.
The day came to an end with people rinsing their gear and getting their packing started. It was a long night with the remainder of the snacks being brought out and the events of the last few days being discussed, logbook entries were done and we had quick reviews of the footage taken by the VCR and what was captured by Davy's camera. Eventually, everyone called it a day and people retired to their chosen sleeping spots one by one. It was a short night as we arrived in Singapore very early in the morning on 14/10/2002.
I believe that everyone was grateful for having made the decision to come, despite possible time clashes with work concerns, family commitments or financial constraints. The trip was well worth it.
For those who could or would not come, Davy had this to say : "If you snooze, you lose".
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