Blog Log! June 17

June 18, 2007

A nice coral head

Last Sunday wasn’t too good a day for being outdoors. As you all might know, we had torrential rains almost all of last week, which probably accounted for the disappointing or rather, challenging visibility conditions at the island.

A phyllidia sea slug

To add to that, we thought that as we moved out of the marina, that the weather might clear up as we headed out to sea, but for some reason the clouds over Telok Blangah looked far brighter than they were looking Southwards! So we braced ourselves for a cool dive in warmer waters, because the strong winds that swept across the sea was absolutely chilling!

The day’s first flabellina

We managed to pull into our first dive site with few problems and one of our divers clocked a dive time of 60 minutes as she drifted along the fringing reefs and spotting a Juvenile Sweetlips along the way!

A colony of sponges

Usually after our 1st dive, we’d anchor up at the 2nd dive site as we sit through out surface interval and chow down our lunch. But today, strong winds made that regular task very challenging. So we took refuge by docking at the Big Island jetty, and took a walk on the island, checking out its lagoon and mangrove. Despite the gloomy weather, the island still burst with tranquil bird songs.

Some sponges take on wacky shapes

Though the weather had worsened, the 2nd dive proved to me far more encouraging!

A seemingly innocuous-looking hydriod

Tons of fish took to schooling near the surface during the storm, and the wonderful sea whips and corals had all their tentacles out to take advantage of the increasing current.

Gloomy skies, rain, wind, and waves

ReefXplore guide and Hantu Blog volunteer Marcel, managed to turn out 2 seahorses and an eel during the second dive.

Trees swayed in the wind, as our boat did on the surface!

It’s been awhile since we dived at Hantu in the midst of a storm. It was refreshing albeit more challenging, as sometimes it necessary to be reminded that nature doesn’t always comply to our needs or wants, and that sometimes a change, even if for the worse, is good. It was all part of the experience of being outdoors – the choppy sea definately looked impressive and the rain made the day a whole lot cooler.

The jetty in the storm

The rest of the pix are for your viewing pleasure! As with most low vis times, it a good opportunity to look out for interesting coral instead of the usual hunt for queer fish!

An unusually-shaped neptune’s cup (barrel sponge)
Whips favour sites with strong currents
A young sea fan
More whips reaching out into the current
A huge sea slug! Compare it to the size of the coral-encrusted glass bottle its resting upon!
A young crinoid (feather star) seeks cover in a crevice
Tube worms
A young soft coral colony
Various corals growing together
A red swimmer crab scavenges on a tusk fish
A closer look
Flabellina
The Tan and White cowry is often found in association with red encrusting sponges.
Red and Blue algae
Whiptail
Whiptail
Coral
Coral
Seafan

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