The Seven Skies Wreck

Diving Trip to 7 Skies Wreck 31Oct -02 Nov, 08
On the 31st October 08. Eunice, Val and I were out on a 3days 2nights LOB dive trip with MV Samudera Quest to 7 skies wreck. This will remain one of my dive trips that I will never forget in my life! The 90,000 tons supertanker Seven Skies wreck is measured at 262m long, sank due to an explosion in 1969, she is now resting upright in 64m of water, about 4hrs east of Pulau Tioman. We departed from Singapore Taman Merah Ferry Terminal at 6.30pm and sailed throughout the whole night. First dive started shortly after breakfast and briefing. The current was mild, visibility were at least 30m from deco bar. Right before I did a deep entry, a fellow diver popped his head out of the water and shouted “WHALESHARK, WHARKSHARK!!!” Immediately I descended to 36m, where the bridge of the wreck is, but I saw no sign of any whaleshark. Sigh… I guess it I was too late, so I resumed my wreck diving. Due to the depth, and using air tank, we weren’t able to stay underwater for too long, only for about 15min. While on the way to the deco bar, at the depth of 26m, Val signaled to me “shark, shark”, but I saw no shark? Suddenly out of nowhere a gentle giant popped out! Wow, the sight was amazing! I started swimming away from the line and swam right into the open water and chased after it, it was fast! After a few shots of the gentle giant, I got tired, and I swam towards the deco bar to make my safety stop by breathing 100% pure O2 provided directly from the vessel and ended my dive after 15min of safety stop. While on board, everyone was talking about the whaleshark and manta ray but I didn’t see any manta ray! Even Eunice and Val saw it, the only person that never saw it was me! I was like, WHAT THE FUCK! Where was the MANTA RAY! I saw nothing! Shit!!!

My second dive started before lunch, Eunice didn’t want to dive, so Val and I went instead. This time, I looked around cautiously and this time I saw the MANTA RAY! I got so excited and simply dropped down like a rock to 43m but it was getting too deep so I decided not to chase after the “Majestic Giant” which was at least 50m and below! It was impossible to chase after it anyway. However, I still managed to get a few shots and aborted the dive due to deco. I skipped the 3rd dive though as I had already seen what I expected to see on this trip.

On the following day, we dived at another wreck called Maritime Fidelity, nothing spectacular as visibility was poor, but we got to see a huge red grouper roaming around the wreck, the swim through and penetration should be good if only the bottom time was longer. Overall, it was an amazing wreck dive trip. Highly recommended!

都是大发现

Channel U 都是大发现 Filming
On the 28 October 2008, Ocean Ambassador was invited by Channel U for the filming of “都是大发现”. Special thanks to Alvin Lim, Jerry Siah and his team from A Nation in Concert (ANIC). Thanks to the participants; Emilio Choo, Jeffery Soh and Hay Qing Hui. Also thanks to OADC dive team Mark Tan, Lily Tan and Val Tan for helping out in this filming, in spite of their busy school and work schedule. Thanks to Mediacorp and the TV hosts for giving Ocean Ambassador Dive Center such opportunity. Thanks everyone for making this film a success and again a memorable one for Emilio, Jeffery and Qing Hui.

Back to Pulau Aur

Diving Trip to Pulau Aur 17-19 Oct, 2008
17 Oct 2008 a day after returning from Roach Reef Resort, I travelled to Pulau Aur. For some reason, lots of the marine life underwater was gone. I guess they have migrated due to the coming monsoon season? Not even a turtle is being spotted. Made the first dive at Raynes Rock in the late morning, and then headed to Pinnacles after lunch, Captain Point after everyone’s favorite homemade donuts and night dive at the house reef. On Sunday morning as usual, we got up at 6 am and started descending into Raynes rock by 7 am. Got to see humphead but of course not as many as what I had seen in RRR. I got to see a huge potato cod and a lobster though. On our last dive, every one of us decided to do the house reef because we wanted to find the sunken fishing boat wreck but we were unable to locate it. My second failed attempts already…sigh…

Hidden Secret of Roach Reef

Diving Trip to Roach Reef Resort, Sabah 13-16 Oct, 08
On the 13th October 2008, Eunice, Lily and I decided to go for 4 days 3 nights dive trip to Roach Reef Resort (RRR), a man-made island located right at the edge of the Borneo Shelf. It is an hour speedboat ride from Tawau Yacht Club. A beautiful island, it is only an hour away from Sipadan island. Roach Reef surely is a paradise for divers and non-divers who are looking for exotic diving and relaxation. We flew via Air Asia from Singapore International Airport into KL for transit and made our way to our final destination, Tawau, Sabah. Yes, it was a long day of travelling and waiting at the airport. Due to the arrival in the evening, we had to stay in Tawau for a night. And oh yes! We had fantastic seafood dinner nearby our hotel.  Not to say the good food, it was cheap!! I assure you, I will bring anyone of you who are reading this now to eat there, well, if there is a chance of you travelling to Tawau with me.

Next morning we were picked up from the hotel, went for breakfast and headed to the yacht club for the boat ride to Roach Reef Resort. Far view from the island, Roach Island is magnificent, got a very warm welcome by the staff of the resort and checked into to our water villa room. We started our first check out dive shortly at the house reef. Roach reef is quite open in the ocean; therefore all of our dives are easy drift dive.

At RRR house reef, the first critter we spotted was the white “Leaf Scorpion fish” then lots of shy “Jaw fish”. At the sandy bottom of the reef, the whole reef was full of cute but shy “Spotted Garden Eels” hundreds and thousands of this eels roam the whole reef. It was not easy to take pictures of them as they go disappear immediately if you go too near to them or make any sound. There are many different species of Nudibranches, cleaner shrimps, crabs, and squat lobsters are also spotted easily! Reef is very healthy as they are fully covered with colorful reef fishes. At the mixture of reef and sandy area, I spotted a crocodile fish and flounder!

There is so much to see, so little bottom time! Wish I had a CCR so I could stay underwater for hours! The amazing sight which I would never forget is the Bumphead parrot fish dive, we got up as early as 6 am and went underwater no later than 6.30 am. I counted 28 giant bumphead waking up so early for their breakfast. Now I truly understand why we usually get to see bumphead at Raynes Rock, Aur at 7am.

2nd reef is further out of RRR, about 15min away. Though the current there was pretty strong, this dive site is really magnificent. I have never seen such an “untouched” reef before. The table corals are bigger than my queen size bed! Usually staghorn corals are being damaged, but the stghorn at 2nd reef is flawless!

Throughout the whole dive trip we had made a total of 7 dives, RRR House Reef, Viking Point, Lobster Point, Corner, Mid Point and 2nd reef. All dive site are amazing, it is not something I can express in my blog, so I suggest each of you to experience it yourself! Highly recommended!!!

I will surely go back to RRR again, in fact, I’m already planning to head back there on December 2008. Staff there is very friendly, though our dive guide, Ambrose is a new diver, he is willing to learn, we looked for things together and enjoyed all our findings together! I really appreciate him so much. Not forgetting the food at the resort, it was pretty good too! We never went hungry.

Hantu Seahorse & C4 Hunt

Diving Trip to Pulau Hantu 05 Oct, 08
On the 5th of October, I brought Glenn and Eunice along with their DM Val for their first open water dive. For some weird reason, Val always loses something underwater in almost every dive trip and this time she lost her UK eLED C4. I had to search and recover back for her. Luckily, she had actually switched on her torch before she lost it. But it still took me 5-10min to find it! Damn! Don’t know why she always has something fishy going on during a dive trip. Last few trips, she broke her mask, lost her slippers, drop her fin underwater and put herself into the engine room. Sigh… Anyway, back to the main plot. That moment came on the 3rd dive: seahorse!!! I got so excited and so did everyone, because I had found what I had craved to see in Hantu. It is the common seahorse. Seahorse, as usual is cute and adorable, they fin as if they are flying, so unique! But too bad, I did not bring my camera along with me as I had to teach. Well, there is always another time.

Roger 300th Dives @ Hantu

Diving Trip to Pulau Hantu 01 Oct, 08
On the early morning, first day of Oct, we decided to make 2 dives at Palau Hantu. It was Roger Won’s 300th dives!!! Congratulations, Roger! Many divers don’t like diving at Hantu due to the visibility and therefore always assume there is nothing to see. That is so not true. However, I do believe it’s up to the individual diver; some divers prefer good visibility dives with beautiful reefs, some just don’t care much as long as they can see things they want to see. The current on both dives were quite strong, we didn’t manage to see turtle, but as usual we saw different macro life. I got separated from Roger after I managed to spot a pipefish for him to shoot at. Just about 5min after separation, there was a pointer banging sound (found out it was from Roger after we surfaced) non-stop. I did not bother finding out who did it and why he/she did it, I thought it was Roger trying to locate me. Well, there was some miscommunication underwater. Never mind about that. Once surfaced, we all realized Roger had spotted a seahorse. I got upset because I have yet to see a common seahorse before and I should have located him when he created those noises, damn! Overall, all of us enjoyed the day.

上海, The Growing Dragon.

Shanghai 18 – 21 Sept, 2008
Went to 上海 on a business trip on the 18-21 September 2008. Been to China many times, but this was my first time to Shanghai. Main purpose was to attend the China Dive Exhibition (CDEX), 2008. Spent a day at 豫园, half a day at 上海海洋水族馆 and the rest at CDEX. I’m not going to enclose anything about the exhibition though. This trip was an experience, Shanghainese are friendly, and the shopping street is a kilometer long. 豫园, an old garden built during the Ming Dynasty is located in the middle of the city and it is truly a beauty. This garden is opened to public for the rate of 40¥ per pax. Some of the halls are so majestic, and the square where event, gathering or shows were held in the past could accommodate at least hundreds of guests. The structure of the building, the hand carved symbol on walls, wooden pole, and on the rock are certainly very symbolic to the Chinese culture. I also went to 上海海洋水族馆, was told that Singapore Underwater world was also involved in this project and also helps to maintain the facility. The aquarium is considered okay, as I had been to a better one. Nevertheless, it’s a very educational place for people that want to know more about the underwater world. Overall, I learned a lot on the Chinese culture during this trip and I will go back again regardless as a business or vacation trip. China is truly a growing dragon.

Special Divers in Training

Diving Trip to Pulau Tioman – Special Divers in Training 22 -24 Aug, 2008
22 August, 2008 was a special moment for all Ocean Ambassador Dive Team, divers, and non-divers that had participated in this special trip! OADC brought four special divers out for their open water dive! Emilio, is wheel bounded, Geeta, who is deaf, Jeffery, who had suffered from tunnel vision and Qing Hui who is a special need student.

First I would like to thank A Nation in Concert (ANIC) especially to Jerry Siah and Alvin Lim to make this trip so meaningful for all of us. I would also like to say thank to my dive team member, Mark Tan, Zacky, Chunyi Yeo, Lily Tan, and Val Tan. Not forgetting those other divers who participated in this charity dive or without dive, thanks to Sin Yong, Shuying, Yuan Xiang, Chee Chong, David(Qing Hui’s father) and Chunyi’s parents. Thanks everyone for making this trip so memorable to us, especially Emilio, Geeta, Jeffrey and Qing Hui.

Swason Brothers

It has been a while since I last blogged. Anyway, let’s start with some old trip from the past few months.

Diving Trip to Pulau Aur 15 – 17 Aug, 2008
On the 15-17 August 2008, I brought Ian and his brother Eben, a New Yorker who was actually on a one month vacation to Singapore to visit his brother, out to Pulau Aur for their Open Water Diver course. To them, diving was a new experience. I also borrowed Val’s camera and housing for this trip. This trip was excellent; we got to see a lot of rare macro life that it not easily being spotted in this part of the reef. Both brothers even saw the bumphead and turtle coming to the shore. Bumphead, turtle, cuttlefish were spotted in almost every dive we did. Juvenile black tip shark was also seen early in the morning at shore before we headed out for the usual morning dive at Raynes Rock. Overall, both brothers enjoyed their trip very much and surely was a memorable vacation for Eben who was spending his summer vacation here in Singapore.

The Night Out

Had a wonderful evening with few of my ex-camp mates at Acid Bar last night. We used to meet up at Wala Wala every once a year but this time I decided that we need to change to another live band instead of the “Unexpected”. The live bands in Acid Bar are actually pretty good. We got our dinner there too, the satay was tasty, but I think the best of all was the Hawaiian pizza. Of course, we had a few bottles of beer, since it was one for one before nine in the evening.

We started off playing the kind of regular pub game, “big fish, small fish” but then we changed to “five-ten” because Kelvinn kept losing and he got too high! Well… We changed the game, but still… Kelvinn kept losing out…

The night was still too early, too young. So we decided to play pool at “Pot Black” We played few round of eight balls, but it became boring after a while. Thus I suggested to mix pool and poker cards together. The 2 noob, Simon and Kelvinn kept picking up ‘chao durian’ left over by Alvin. It was simply hilarious game. Anyway… it had been a great night with those dudes that I have not met for a while.