Overdue Update - Part 1
Dive Trip to Pulau Aur
Over the last weekend, we (ms Clover & I) finally packed our bags and gathered our sea legs for a liveonboard dive trip to Pulau Aur (West Malaysia Straits).
The dive company, MV Seaborne, that we went with is outfitted with not 1 but 3 liveonboard vessals that can accomodate roughly 10 - 15 divers and 3 - 6 crews! For this trip, we went on the biggest one as we have about 10 divers (5 OW, 2 AOW, 1 Nitrox, 2 D.Instructors) Heheh... the morning before our departure, it was a crazy rush to the dive shop in Concourse to get Ms Clover her wetsuit and some other essential stuff.
One thing I like about MV Seaborne is that we get to clear immigrations @ the dock in West Coast's Republic of Singapore Yacht Club (RSYC) without the hassle of land-based transportation of getting on and off the bus and transferring from bus to ferry then to the the resort in Pulau Dayang. This liveonboard characterised a one-stop all the way and back: you board the boat, clear immigration @ the dock during boarding, settle into the boat's accom, sail to your dive sites over the 3 days, return to Singapore and clear immigration when you disembark @ the dock.) Really convienient and we can get all the rest we need to fully enjoy the dives.
The weather in Malaysia is great on arrival the next morning (20th May 2006) with water visability of about 20m and temp around 29 degrees (perfect for rashguard diving instead of the troublesome wetsuit). Did our check-out dive after a hearty breakfast (cooked on the boat by one of the boatmen - excellent cooking too !) and ha, had my 1st visual encounter with the famed aggressive trigger fish. Thank God that there's no attacks on the group as Trigger fishes are highly territorial and we happened to dive near its territory boundary. Managed to see an green sea turtle upclose also with my dive instructor (coincidentally, also called Ronald but surname Wee) leading the way for the Advance O/W divers.
In general, the 3 days passed so fast and so leisurely. We slept through the 9 hours sailing time from Singapore to Pulau Aur, awake around 7.30am the next day for a good breakfast and started diving around 8.30am.. then return to the boat for a good long surface interval while going through my advance course theory on Navigations, then another dive before lunch and a longer resting period after lunch which we used to watch DVDs (yes, the vessal is outfitted with a DVD and KTV functional inner deck) or just suntanning and enjoying the seabreeze. Near evening, another dive (this time a drift dive) to see the straits inbetween Pulua Dayang and Pulau Aur (din go to the Aur Wreck) but again, met with 2 huge trigger fishes which swam even closer than the one at our check out dive (Ms Clover didn't even know about it until we surfaced)... the marine life may not be as nice as the ones found in Manado but I enjoyed evey second underwater just being free to explore the beauty and serenity of this private paradise.
A pity as we dun have an U/W camera to take all the wonderful scenes (sad)
*note to self - Save up for an underwater camera.
So the dive sites we went to were Pulau Yu, Pulau Lang, Crocodile Rock, Jack Rock and Pulau Aur Reef.
On the way back to Singapore, we met with very strong winds that caused quite some big waves to rock the boat rather in a rodeo way... the boat were rolling and pitching, tossed almost like a rag doll in the great ocean and we were insanely sitted (the whole group) at the sun deck enjoying the rodeo motions which resulted in some getting seasick and nauseous after awhile. Can't go back to our beds to sleep as the rocking of the boat will toss us up from the boat (yeah, it was that bad) but thank God we passed the storm area after an hour of slow advancement as the captain has to guide the vessal skillfully towards the angle of the incoming waves and slow the boat down so we don't pitch increasingly in the waves... so we managed to 'survived' this ordeal without motion sickness or seasick.. hehehe.. and that means, we can go for longer liveonboards in future!
Anyway, back in Singapore, we did a good dinner around 8pm @ the Wharf restuarant inside the Yacht club to celebrate my birthday (thanks you guys for the birthday SMSes :) really nice of you to remember) and to end a good dive trip. Am so looking forward to the next one.. sigh...
^.^
Over the last weekend, we (ms Clover & I) finally packed our bags and gathered our sea legs for a liveonboard dive trip to Pulau Aur (West Malaysia Straits).
The dive company, MV Seaborne, that we went with is outfitted with not 1 but 3 liveonboard vessals that can accomodate roughly 10 - 15 divers and 3 - 6 crews! For this trip, we went on the biggest one as we have about 10 divers (5 OW, 2 AOW, 1 Nitrox, 2 D.Instructors) Heheh... the morning before our departure, it was a crazy rush to the dive shop in Concourse to get Ms Clover her wetsuit and some other essential stuff.
One thing I like about MV Seaborne is that we get to clear immigrations @ the dock in West Coast's Republic of Singapore Yacht Club (RSYC) without the hassle of land-based transportation of getting on and off the bus and transferring from bus to ferry then to the the resort in Pulau Dayang. This liveonboard characterised a one-stop all the way and back: you board the boat, clear immigration @ the dock during boarding, settle into the boat's accom, sail to your dive sites over the 3 days, return to Singapore and clear immigration when you disembark @ the dock.) Really convienient and we can get all the rest we need to fully enjoy the dives.
The weather in Malaysia is great on arrival the next morning (20th May 2006) with water visability of about 20m and temp around 29 degrees (perfect for rashguard diving instead of the troublesome wetsuit). Did our check-out dive after a hearty breakfast (cooked on the boat by one of the boatmen - excellent cooking too !) and ha, had my 1st visual encounter with the famed aggressive trigger fish. Thank God that there's no attacks on the group as Trigger fishes are highly territorial and we happened to dive near its territory boundary. Managed to see an green sea turtle upclose also with my dive instructor (coincidentally, also called Ronald but surname Wee) leading the way for the Advance O/W divers.
In general, the 3 days passed so fast and so leisurely. We slept through the 9 hours sailing time from Singapore to Pulau Aur, awake around 7.30am the next day for a good breakfast and started diving around 8.30am.. then return to the boat for a good long surface interval while going through my advance course theory on Navigations, then another dive before lunch and a longer resting period after lunch which we used to watch DVDs (yes, the vessal is outfitted with a DVD and KTV functional inner deck) or just suntanning and enjoying the seabreeze. Near evening, another dive (this time a drift dive) to see the straits inbetween Pulua Dayang and Pulau Aur (din go to the Aur Wreck) but again, met with 2 huge trigger fishes which swam even closer than the one at our check out dive (Ms Clover didn't even know about it until we surfaced)... the marine life may not be as nice as the ones found in Manado but I enjoyed evey second underwater just being free to explore the beauty and serenity of this private paradise.
A pity as we dun have an U/W camera to take all the wonderful scenes (sad)
*note to self - Save up for an underwater camera.
So the dive sites we went to were Pulau Yu, Pulau Lang, Crocodile Rock, Jack Rock and Pulau Aur Reef.
On the way back to Singapore, we met with very strong winds that caused quite some big waves to rock the boat rather in a rodeo way... the boat were rolling and pitching, tossed almost like a rag doll in the great ocean and we were insanely sitted (the whole group) at the sun deck enjoying the rodeo motions which resulted in some getting seasick and nauseous after awhile. Can't go back to our beds to sleep as the rocking of the boat will toss us up from the boat (yeah, it was that bad) but thank God we passed the storm area after an hour of slow advancement as the captain has to guide the vessal skillfully towards the angle of the incoming waves and slow the boat down so we don't pitch increasingly in the waves... so we managed to 'survived' this ordeal without motion sickness or seasick.. hehehe.. and that means, we can go for longer liveonboards in future!
Anyway, back in Singapore, we did a good dinner around 8pm @ the Wharf restuarant inside the Yacht club to celebrate my birthday (thanks you guys for the birthday SMSes :) really nice of you to remember) and to end a good dive trip. Am so looking forward to the next one.. sigh...
^.^
happy belated birthday old man! hahahahaha.
no wonder buy new toy! =)
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Anonymous |
8:57 AM