Advancing into deeper waters

I am now a certified Advanced Open Water diver!!! Hoooowhhooo!

Just got back from Perhentian last weekend where I did my AOW with Bubbles Dive Centre and my weekend was wonderful. Not as orgasmic as my Redang trip of course, but still almost as good. *grin*

Late Thursday night, Tom came to pick me up at midnight and we went to pick up Gan and Kong and met Andy, Violet, Elvin & Pei Pei at the toll. We used the Gua Musang way and reached the jeti at 7am and took the Bubbles boat to Perhentian. By 9.30am, we were geared up for our first dive to Tokong Laut, the famous Temple of The Sea, a 30m rock column rising straight up from the bottom of the sea and breaching 1 meter above sea level. It is our Deep Dive, one of the prerequisite dive of the AOW course. The other dives we decided to take were the Night Dive, Wreck Dive, Peak Buoyancy Performance & Navigational Dive.

The Deep Dive
The Temple of the Sea is a 25 min boats ride from Bubbles. And when we backrolled into the slightly choppy water, we descended to 18 meters where the line stopped (the current was too strong to descend normally - we would've been swept away if we didn't) and continued deeper till the 28 meter mark. This is a Deep Dive, diving to a depth beyond 18 meters. It is deep and when you look up, the surface looks miles away. For a while there, my heart skipped a beat but then my attention got caught by the HUGE porcupine fish that was 1 meter long! It was just hovering lazily above a huge patch of soft corals, watching us watch it. =) We also saw a hawksbill turtle, loads of blue ring angelfish, a couple of scorpion fish, a juvenile puffer fish, a baby white-eye moral eel shyly peaking out from beneath a patch of staghorn corals, and a crazy titan trigger fish that was attacking everything in its sight, including us. My instructor acted fast and managed to avoid being bitten. There were also schools of black parrot fish, yellow tails and scores of other fishes that I can't identify. Looking upwards towards the surface, I saw that it was a long way up but then I started noticing more - the corals, the schools of fishes like silver flashes, the sea fans waving gently - the column was teeming with life - it was amazing. I understand now why they call it the Temple of The Sea and why my dad waxed lyrical about this dive site when I was young. I can imagine it must have been more spectacular back in the old days when my dad dived here countless times.

Introspection
Afterwards, Tom asked me how did I like the dive as he knew I had always wanted to dive there. All I could say and do was sigh and give him this dreamy look. He laughed. Since we were stoned from the night driving and all of looked like we were suffering nitrogen narcosis because of it, Gan our instructor decided to skipped the evening dive so that we could rest. I took this time to wander along the beach and soak up the pleasure of being on the island again. Honestly, I wished I had someone to share that amazing feeling with but since it was a couples trip and Tom being in training for his Divemastership and Kong being all reserved and stand-offish, I had no one to talk to; I was alone. I walked the length of the short beach and found an almost flat rock at the very tip of the beach where there were nothing but rocks and water. I laid down on the precipice and thought about where Life has brought me and being thankful for it. There was a shallow depression in the rock and a pool of clear water. I looked into it. I saw scenes of my life being replayed. One thing about being alone on a beautiful beach is that you tend to think about the people within your life and those without. It hurts but life goes on, so must I.

That night, after the debriefing and briefing for the building of the Peak Buoyancy Performance frame, Andy, Violet, Kong and I took to the beach for a little drinking session. Yeah, where would we be without alcohol... *wry smile* Anyway, Kong doesn't drink and pretty soon he wandered off. Tom came to join us later after he had finished his dive master-in-training duties.

Assembling our Cage
The next morning, despite going to bed at 3am, we all woke up on time as was geared up by 9am. After briefing everyone on how the frame is to be built and dolling out duties, Gan led the work force into the water. We floated to the site and descended. Well, everyone descended except Pei Pei, Andy and me as we were assigned to pass down materials to the divers below. We basically floated around, getting materials from the boatman, holding onto it until they were needed below. It was interesting just floating there but all three of us wished that we were down there helping them assemble the frame. Oh well. After 72 minutes, we finished assembling the frame and we all headed back to beach for lunch and R&R.

The Wreck Dive
After an hour plus rest time, it was time for the wreck dive at Sugar Wreck located 25 minutes from Bubbles Dive Centre. The sun was shining brightly and it promised to be a good dive. When we reached the site, the water was clear enough that we could see the bow of the wreck 5 metres down, booby-trapped with black spiky sea urchins peppering the deck. The wreck lies on its left side and the depth was max 18 metres. We roll-backed and waited for everyone to get into the water and descended gingerly onto the deck. We stopped a meter from the deck and with hand signals from Gan, we filed into pairs and floated after him. He was my dive buddy and let me tell you, while having your instructor as your dive buddy is a safe thing, it is also a scary thing when your buddy always takes the most scary route. *sigh* The wreck was covered every inch with razor sharp clams and mussels, and metal sides that are jagged with sharp rusty edges that can slice a person to ribbons. I had my reservations about going through tight spaces but I reined in my fear and followed him wherever he went. Around the wreck, in between the mast and the seabed littered with sea urchins, in between sinewy, silt covered ropes, into a shallow "cargo hold" and through a square 1.5 x 1.5 metre port hold / trap door and out, and in between slimy nets. The whole time, the song "I will follow you wherever you may go" phrase played ridiculously over and over in my head!

It was an "interesting" experience to say the least but it is one that I would not repeat. I confess I have a phobia about sea urchins piercing my skin. I once saw a sea urchin's spike in one of my dad's student's ankle. It pierced his ankle clean through his flipper and out the other side when he accidentally kicked it. And the pain etched on his face is one I will always remember. Maybe I'll do other wreck dives but one thing I will not be doing until I master my buoyancy is penetration. Which is how it should be as wrecks are actually a very dangerous place to dive and you have to respect the wreck and be a good diver in order to stay safe. One thing I do love about wreck diving is the abundance of life you get at wrecks. We saw 2 big lion fish, bonitos, a pair of a metre long barracuda, puffer fish, porcupine fish, a stingray, & scorpion fish. Since I was with Gan, we were in front when a black banded sea snake roughly a metre long swam up to the surface right in front of me. I was delighted! The thing was gorgeous as sun rays sparked against its silvery skin. I tapped Gan and pointed and he motioned a sea snake sign (obviously). We were down there for only 50mins and after doing our safety stop at 3 metres, we ascended. Everyone was happy actually coz they saw a lot of marine life. I was happy not to have seen the skeletal remains of some poor soul that is reputed to be a few metres off the base of the mast and I thank God that Gan didn't deem to show it to us. *shudder* As much as I love diving, I do not want to see that... yet.

Peak Buoyancy Performance
The next dive was to be our most fun - our Peak Buoyancy Performance dive. Initially, we were all scared that we might fail this test and we were quiet as we swam to the frame we set up this morning. All the divers and instructors joined us for this dive. As you can guess, the pressure to perform was mighty heavy on us all. The first test is to hover in the 2 metre x 2 metre cage and you cannot exceed the barriers of your cage. The second test is that you have to swim through a metre wide hoops set up along the cage and you aren't supposed to touch the sides. The instructors showed us how all is done and it was our turn. The water horn sounded and we controlled our intake and exhalation to control our buoyancy. It was actually ok but I was pretty scared that I would fail. Funny thing was that even though I was hovering within the top and bottom barrier, I was not hovering perfectly still. I actually drifted into my neighbour's cage! (Andy) and he gently pushed me back into my own when I bumped into him. =p How embarrassing. Anyway, we all passed. Next we did swam through the hoops one by one and we passed that as well with a few bumps here and there... hee hee.

Ronnie: The underwater referee.

Underwater Circus
After our turns, it was our instructors' turn and that was when the fun started! Those monkeys must have fishes in their last life as they zipped and floated around effortlessly. The funny pair was Pei Sze and Ronnie. All the instructors challenged each other to go through the hoops flawlessly and in the fastest time. Pei Sze did hers and got stuck! Straight away Ronnie blew the water horn and zipped in from the top and shoved a red card in front of her mask whilst he was floating head down. It was a damn funny sight and you can tell that both of them were laughing uproariously in their mouthpieces! Everyone was laughing in their mouth pieces! The rest of the divers were watching from the sideline (a line from the buoy served as a field-divider) and one by one they tried the hoops. l It was damn funny. Apparently all the non - students failed as everyone of them had one problem after the other going through the hoops! Coz they were just playing and having fun. They did stunts and even took out their BC and swam with it in front of them through the hoops as you would in tight caves. Gan took off his mask and tried to do it that way, but he couldn't judge the distance correctly and ended up not being able to go through the hoops! Ronnie again blew his water horn and shoved a red card right in his face, just in case he can't see it we found out later! The whole exercised was caught on film and when we played it back during debriefing, it was laughter non stop for the entire 30 minutes! Gan will be sending us copies of that dive soon on CD. Hee hee can't wait to show it to my family and friends!

The Night Dive
The next dive planned was the night dive. This was the dive that I felt really apprehensive about. I was worried about my buoyancy control that I might not be able to do it properly and something might happened. I brought my worries to Tom and he assured me. I had initially asked that he'd be my buddy but then Gan took that option right out of my hands by assigning Tom as the dive guide and my buddy was to be Kong. I have my own reservations about Kong as a diver and with me being all apprehensive, I was sure we were both a bad mix. Anyway, I swallowed my fear and bucked up. Each of us were given a torch light and with our buddies we swam out to the house reef. When we reached deep water, we descended into darkness and dived to a sandy area where we were required to turn off our lights and be in the darkness for 10 minutes. I had no problems with that. When our eyes adjusted to the change, we found that we could still see in the dark as there was moonlight above. Then to our delight, when we shook our hands in the water, tiny effervescent silvery blue things formed and swirled madly with our motions. We played like that for a while. Then we played "search and rescue" with Gan being lost and Kong and I being the search team. Haha. Kong couldn't find him but I did, as I switched off my light and looked around. Then I saw a faint glow and I took off after it and Kong and the rest of the group followed. After that, we went diving around the house reef and I found that my buoyancy control in the dark was no different or difficult than my normal daytime dives! I was truly delighted and my fear vanished just like that and I began to explore the reef. I was hovering above a patch of sand when I felt something rammed up against my leg. I thought it was another diver, but when I shined my beam downwards, I discovered a very disoriented HUGE puffer fish below me. Needless to say, I was very surprised and delighted too. Everyone soon gathered around it and the poor thing got more confused when more beams hit it. After a while, when it thought "enough of shining your light into m eyes" it swam off. The underwater world is very different after sundown and you can help but notice the little things, things that you'd not notice in a daytime dive. I like night diving. *GRIN* My fear was for naught.

Sleeping under the stars
That night, we tani again, what else. Code name: drinking session. Haha. Anyway, after that, we drag our sleeping bags onto the sand and slept under the stars. I didn't sleep much as Tom was next to me and he snored, loudly. It was peaceful after he stopped snoring and I watched the stars shift ever so slowly in the sky. I drifted off for a bit and when I next opened my eyes, there was a slight orange tinge on the horizon. I sat up and watch as the beginnings of a new dawn crept slowly across the dark sky and awaken all with its gentle rays. It was a beautiful morning. I went back to sleep after that, and when I woke the rest were gone except for Tom. It was 7.30am and I decided to get up and get ready for the morning dive at 8.30am. Tom slept on, as usual.

Thank god I'm not Schumacher =P
When I got back to my chalet which I shared with Violet and Andy, I discovered that both were asleep in there. So I knocked and woke them up. Andy got up to open the door for me. No sooner than he pulled opened the door, his drawstring pants dropped to the floor!Thank goodness he was wearing his boxers! I was stunned. He was stunned. He didn't react immediately. He just looked down at his pants and then looked at me and said, "It's not what you think..." I couldn't help it. I laughed out loud. Violet was laughing uncontrollably on the bed. I just said, "uh huh, sure..." and went into the bathroom to change into my swim suit. After that, I heard muffle laughter and tussling on the bed. They are such a cute couple, Andy and Violet. After that, Andy kept asking if I saw his "Red Ferrari"!!! LOL. No I didn't. I swear! *chuckles* We still tease Andy about this today and he still keep asking me if I saw his 'ferrari'... *grin*


The Navigational Dive
Our last dive was the Navigational Dive where we learned to navigate with a compass underwater and how to gauge the distance with our kick-cycles. This was a fun dive too. Kong and I were given instructions and then we were required to navigate away and back to the check point. It was fun as we took turns with the compass. One person will count his/her kick cycle and the other will navigate with the compass. We both pass the navigation with flying colours but didn't do that well with our kick-cycles, esp mine. Apparently my kick-cycle is very big, therefore taking us further off course. Sigh... we did it again and succeeded in staying within the error margin. =p It was a very short dive as we had to leave by 11am and it was already 10.15am. Scrambled to shower and packed... but then the boat was late, it arrived at noon. But we got the extra time to talk to the instructors and the other divers. It was good as it also gave us a chance to take group pictures and funny pictures. Still waiting for Kong to send them to us. Kong, where are the pictures??? Soon pls. Thanks.

The long drive back to civilisation
Gan didn't come back with us as he stayed on on the island. So it was just Tom, Kong and I in Tom's car and I got to sit in front and keep the driver awake. I thank the stars that I didn't have to sit at the back with Kong as he was having bowel problems. Now and then, we had to wind down the windows to let some fresh air in... *ahem* anyway, it was a long drive and I only slept a little when we got to Batu Caves. Tom drives very fast but he's not reckless. It's one of the reasons I always like to travel in his car. I reckon he's one of the safest drivers around. Plus his car has a good stereo, shock assorbtion and massage chairs! Kid you not. Talk about driving in comfort. Just the driver and passenger seats. Hee hee... On the way back, we talked about our childhood and I realised that his is not much different from mine. We both grew up with nature in our backyards and we both started to appreciate nature since young from our dads, who are both adventurous nature individuals.

We reached KL around 10pm and I reached home half and hour later. Gave me just enough time to unpack and drop tiredly into bed, with a smile on my face. Totally refreshed, totally relaxed for my new job tomorrow - advancing into deeper waters in more ways than one.

Only from a wonderful diving trip can my soul be enlightened...