Blog Log! 31 Aug 2008!

September 1, 2008

When we departed from our berth at RSYC this morning, the boatman looked into the water and said, “Today’s a good day to dive, the water looks good.” “Really?” I ask, half excited, half cynical. “The water’s been good,” assures Chay Hoon who often dives with the Blog, “I was in Kusu [Island] recently and the water was very good.” I was convinced, the water was good. I told all the divers on the boat, “Perhaps it’s your lucky day! All you first time divers are going to experience Hantu at its best!” And not receive the challenge that so many divers have had to when they decend into the mucky depths of our little gem of an island.

We chug along the Southern Islands, under the dark stormy clouds and hope that it doesn’t storm because the forcast has been at it all day, that there will be thunder storms with lightning in the late morning and early afternoon.

But when we got there the skies over the island were fair and things looked good. We rigged up excitedly and launched ourselves into the water, signelled OK for the descent and entered waters much murkier than we’d expected! GAH!

My attitude began to change. Nervousness, frustration, STRESS! With every dive I’m concerned that the new divers get a good impression of Hantu, and I don’t expect the visbility to be perfect, just not as bad. Today’s vis was challenging. Strangely, I was possibly the most stressed about it, despite having dived there over 200 times. Every dive at Hantu is like a box of unlabelled chocolates – you never know what you’re going to get. You hope and pray you get your favourite flavors, and when they don’t show up, you toss and turn over everything until you find the best that suits you. And that’s what we did!

As you should’ve already been able to tell from the pictures, we made the best of it! We don’t get the water conditions get us down! Because the reef and all its wonderful wildlife is still out there waiting to be discovered, photographed, and blogged about! It’s always fascinating the new things we discover – Chay Hoon spotted a nudibranch she’s never seen before today (and she sees a helluva lot of nudibranchs!) and I spotted a few fish which pictures I’ve sent to the Biodiversity Museum to get identified because I’ve never seen them before either!

Check out our gallery to see more awesome pix from our challenging dive at Hantu! We’re not afraid to tell you that our water’s aren’t clear because it’s the critters that we’re fussed about! Come join us for a dive and blow your mind away with an adventure and intimate reef encounters in Singapore waters!

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