Download now!

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That is all,

Rob

chairman@scdc.org.hk

Click here to view the dive schedule.

Yes, it's here... the newsletter you have been waiting for... in all of its glorious technicolor display and shakespearean prose. I do expect that your reaction right now should be something like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOTDn2A7hcY

So, make yourself look busy for the boss. Tell your colleagues that you've got an important project to work on. Don't answer the phone, and indulge yourself. You deserve it. 

Download your copy here:

http://www.scdc.org.hk/assets/files/Newsletters/SCDC%20Buddyline%20(2011%2011).pdf

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That is all,

Rob
chairman@scdc.org.hk

Robert Christie Chairman

Steve Howarth Diving Officer

Jacqui Roberts Membership Secretary

Michael Belshaw Treasurer

Ben Suzuki Training Officer

Paul Bayne Expeditions Officer

Eppie Kwok Social Secretary

A special thanks to the outgoing committee for their support and dedication to the Club!

In it you will find out about the social happenings this quarter, dive reports from both overseas and in Hong Kong as well as end of year updates from our committee. So, be sure to print it out, load it up on your iPad, snuggle down by the fire with a glass of mulled wine, or on the beach with a PSM and indulge.

Nils

• Chairmum: Gabriele Fabian
• Diving Officer: Andreas Fabian
• Secretary: Jacqui Roberts
• Training Officer: vacant – others have volunteered to take on bits of the responsibilities until someone can be found - General Training: Andreas Fabian; Technical Training: Paul Bayne; Instructor Training: Steve Howarth
• Treasurer: Andres Hernandez
• Social Secretary: Arantzazu Diaz
• Equipment Officer: Joerg Steffen
• Member’s member: Sheli Bowman

In it you will find various dive reports ranging from our own murky waters to such exotic locations as Treasure Island, Subic, Malapascua and Phuket. We also report on the social happenings within the club, such as the Treasure hunt and the Tram party.

Also, don't miss out on the findings of Members' survey - see what you said and what we plan to undertake. If you have any other ideas or comments, please do reach out to us.

All in all, I think you'll find it a good Sunday read, so mosey on down and download it here.

Nils

• Sunsplash - slightly posher with aircon rooms
• Cocobana - fan and aircon cottages, a cheaper option. I stayed there and it was fine.
• Hippocampus - similar to Cocobana but rooms rather than cottages

There are 3 restaurants that I liked a lot. When I go away I always prefer to try the local cuisine. Well that plan fell apart as soon as I found the Italian restaurant. It was so good that I was planning to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner there, then invent a few more meals so I could go back more often. My second favourite restaurant was Sunsplash, which does a variety of Thai, German, Italian and some Philippine food. Isla Bonita is cheaper and has more Philippine food on the menu, but was also very good. You won't starve!

One of the other operators, Exotic Divers, is a full resort and so has its own restaurant . Since it is a bit of distance apart from everything else, if you stay there you may well find yourself eating at it more often. I don't know what it's like as I didn't eat there, but you could ask Mike Pak or Steve and Eppie.

One word of warning, there is limited freshwater on the island, but that's no problem because you can always drink beer and at 40 - 50 pesos a bottle it's a lot cheaper than Hong Kong! Actually there is plenty of bottled water available, it's the showers that might cause you a problem as the water is a bit brackish. But it's not as bad as I expected and after the first day I didn't even notice it.

The Diving

Unfortunately there was a tropical depression which affected our last 3 days diving and kept us close to Malapascua itself. But here's a few of the sites we did and what we saw:

• Monad - Thresher sharks. We had a 60% success rate (3 days out of 5) at seeing them which seems to be pretty good. (There was a really nice Italian couple who'd been a lot less lucky and only seen them twice out of 12. This year the sharks don't seem to be quite as numerous as in previous years, but sightings were picking up towards the end of the week).
• Gato Island - white tip reef sharks plus lovely clear water and a nice tunnel that leads through the island. Once through the tunnel there was a wealth of life on the walls.
• Tapilon wreck. This was a 2nd World War Japanese cargo carrier at between 22 and 28 metres. It was torpedoed and is in several sections, although certainly recognisable as a boat. When I was there it was shrouded in thousands of small barracuda despite very recent dynamite fishing which left many of them dead / dying on the bottom. This isn't supposed to happen, especially as the whole area is a marine park.
• Chocoloate Island - good reef and macro stuff

• Lighthouse - dusk dive for mating mandarin fish, plus seahorses, cuttlefish, pipe fish, and some very tiny little bubble-eyed squid - fingernail-size.
• A site up to north of the island with pygmy seahorses and other good macro stuff and a lovely coral garden
• Bantigue - looks like Hong Kong dives with sandy bottom and the occasional rocky outcrop. Great muck dive - sea moths (?), a ghost pipefish that looks just like a floating piece of seagrass, mantis shrimps, schooling catfish, zebra crabs hidden on urchins and lots of other stuff. I've never seen so many shrimp and goby pairings together. When I first saw it, it looked like a barren, boring check-out dive site, but turned into one of my favourites because of the variety of life there.

Thresher Shark Divers

They are run by an English couple, Andrea and Trevor. She takes care of the business and he handles the diving operation. They are both experienced divers themselves, but have a team of local dive masters: Felimar, Tata, Botchoy and Je-ann. I dived with all 4 of them and have no complaints about any. They have different strengths and interests. Felimar seemed to be able to find anything; Tata is a fish expert and really helpful going through the books when you get back; Botchoy is incredibly laid-back; and Je-ann would "guarantee" everything, and in general delivered on his guarantees.

On the whole I was very impressed with their operation. The shop is brand new, they moved in a couple of months ago after being at the other end of the beach. Their boats are all in excellent condition and are kept very clean. The staff were all incredibly helpful and friendly. I didn't use the rental equipment, but it looked in good condition, the regulators are all Scubapros and Trevor services them himself. The rooftop bar above the shop is a really relaxing place to have a drink after the last dive of the day, and you can even order take-away from the Italian restaurant. They've also got a nice line in T-shirts.

Perhaps most important, they were very helpful and did their best to fit in with the dives that we wanted to do, which meant that despite the weather we still managed to get to a good variety of different dive sites.

Oh and last but not least I should mention Oscar, a lovely black labrador puppy who is the latest addition to the team.

I did hear there had been some controversy about the early morning dives as most (all?) of the other operators go out as early as possible to see the Threshers, whereas Thresher Shark Divers are more flexible. Apparently they started off going at the same time as the other operators, but then they experimented with going later and found that they were still seeing the sharks, with the added advantage that you would arrive at Monad Shoals as the other boats were leaving - meaning less divers in the water with you. Plus you got a lie-in (sort of!) For the record, I went out at 05:30, 06:30 and 07:00, and saw sharks at 06:30 and 07:00, but never at 05:30. Plus a couple people in our group saw one at 3pm when we were supposed to be looking for mantas. So I think it's a case of sometimes you're lucky, and sometimes you're not. 

Conclusion

I would thoroughly recommend Malapascua as a destination. I found it more laid-back than Puerto Galera, with good macro life and also some big stuff. There's quite a wide variety of dive sites. For beach lovers, the beach is pretty good, there's sand on it anyway, and there are some surprisingly good restaurants. I was very impressed with Thresher Shark Divers. In short, I had a great time and hope to go back.

Links:

• Photo album
• Thresher Shark Divers
• Exotic Dive & Beach Resort
• Sea Explorers

 Neil Hambleton

(Photos by Rita Cheung)

Happy snap of Pearson and Etsuko.

Just as everyone was getting into the pre-dinner drinks the lights went out. Electrical problems once again, so no water or operating toilets. The galley crew still managed a brilliant chicken satay, though the intended pudding gave way to melting ice cream and berries.


7/4: Last diving day

Everyone was up early preparing for the trip grand finale, the Yokohama Maru. In the 60 - 70 m range, the large Japanese freighter is upright and very well preserved with lots to see. Great for Brian and me on trimix, but Andy admitted to being narked off his trolley.

The three of us got in two great dives, whilst the others only had one because of an early flight the next morning. This of course meant they were up and on the beer by 11 am. The saddest part of any dive trip ensued, the breaking down and washing of kit.

Greg, who had been perpetually winning his own personal ugly shirt contest, managed to dazzle with a stunningly hideous concoction which resembled what is referred to in Japan as ‘subway pizza’. Anyway, it couldn’t put people off the great Aussie steaks we had for dinner and certainly not off the farewell drinks. It was time for the trip to end, as beer and duty-free supplies ran dry.


8/4: Armed guards

The others set off at 5 am, whilst Brian, Andy and I slept-in, then had lots of time to pack our kit. Lots of goodbyes from the wonderful Golden Dawn crew and finally we piled gear and bodies into the tender. The transfer to the hotel was a caged van with bullet-proof glass and two armed guards. However, we were guessing the security threat a little over-rated when we set off with the passenger door unlocked. I leant over and snibbed it!

Armed Transport

The hotel was very fairly basic, but clean, and it had a nice pool and restaurant. It was Easter weekend however, so the little gift shops and the beauty salon were shut and for some reason this also affected the sole computer with (or rather without) internet. With no messages or massages to while away the time we could only lay by the poolside. Although the pool was very inviting, the posted sign ‘Pool closed for cleaning’ compounded with Brian’s long list of evil diseases he figured might be lurking in the water, managed to squash all desire to swim.

In the evening we were lucky enough to have the hotels inaugural Sunday dinner buffet, which was honestly fantastic.


9/4: Dash for civilization

We met at the restaurant for breakfast, again quite a nice buffet and I personally managed to consume almost all the passion fruit on offer. We got our sizable amount of kit into the lobby and sat waiting as our pick-up time came and went. A lot of frantic calling around and it seems the order for our pick-up, which we’d confirmed the previous day, had never been placed. Lots more frantic calling and the van arrived and we were off, though this time not quite as wowed by the armor and guns.
We need not have rushed. There was no queue and we were quickly checked-in and excess baggage paid. It’s a quick 45 min to PM where we had 45 min to change planes and catch the one to Singapore. Then came the announcement, our flight would be delayed four hours, which is when the situation became interesting.

In the end it was only delayed less than two hours and we were assured the flight to Singapore would wait for us. At PM I dashed off to sort out our check-in in the international part of the airport, whilst the boys got the bags. The flight had been delayed for us and by the time they arrived with the bags we were sorted and ready to go except for the inevitable excess luggage changes.
Back to civilization, Singapore airport was a welcome relief. We’d survived the wilds of PNG.

Tawali House Reef

There were electrical problems, so no flushing toilets and no running water for after-dive showers. Even so. there was still ice for the G&T’s, lots of cold beer and cheesecake for dessert, so the problems didn’t seem too severe and we went to bed looking forward to diving a B-17 the next morning.


3 /4: Tawali

During the night the electrics went from bad to worse and Craig made the decision around 3 am to turn back. Thus we woke-up moored off Tawali Resort. Andy, Rick and I were up early so we went for a wander around the resort. Lots of large cabins on stilts were connected by plank walk-ways, which led to a lovely clubhouse and restaurant. There was a fantastic view of the bay from the sundeck, with the house reef visible through the clear water. There we met Rob, the resort owner who was chatting with Craig about the Golden Dawn’s problems.

Whilst our electrics were being worked on, the boat boys filled our tanks using the resort’s compressors. The first dive site was called Sponge Heaven, though we didn’t notice an abundance of sponges. It was however a fantastic dive with lots of mini caves and swim thru’s. With Andy on a single tank we managed a 75 min, 30 m dive, though much of that time was spent in the 6-10 m range, and to be quite honest I only ended my dive because the camera battery died.

After spending a salty night without a shower it was wonderful to use the shower on the resort pier after the dive. The main generator was still out so only the small generator was being used for the boat’s water maker, so whilst the boat had a little water it was very limited.

The boys refilled the tanks at the resort and we were soon motoring off to Lawadi. We moored up at Dinah’s Beach for more diving. We did another brilliant reef dive of similar time and depth, though mine ended up at 95 min as I continued past the boat to try to find an area reported to have lots of octopus and squid. Good muck diving but no cephalopods. Third dive we did actually find a number of them as Andy’s footage will attest to. It turned into night dive and coming up under the boat my HID torch head was dive-bombed by thousands of tiny fish the boat’s lights had attracted.

There was still no water, but after a lovely dinner of barramundi almandine and sticky date pudding, the usual alcohol-enhanced merriment ensued unabated.


4/4: PNG cannibalism

We woke-up to a pleasant surprise … a functioning shower and flushing toilet! Luxury.

Blackjack Cockpit

A day late but we were to finally dive the Blackjack, a B-17 bomber almost completely intact and resting upright on a nice sandy bottom at 47 m. Even with twins it was still no problem to go in through the roof hatch, then sideways through the bomb bay and into the cockpit. Most of the propellers are intact, a very good photo opportunity.
With an 18 min flat bottom time, I went up the nearby reef for a very pleasant and relatively short bit of deco using 100% O2. I did an extra 20 min at 6 m once the computer had cleared just because the reef was so nice, then went to Greg and Sloan to see if they were bored and wanted to go up yet. We’d done pretty much the same dive time, but they were both on air deco and using ultra-conservative Viper computers. They still had 15 min left to clear their computers! A selling point for accelerated deco and the more realistic VR3.

The next dive was at Vogel Reef, which was supposed to have hammerheads, mantas and other large treats. Brian and I went back and forth along the reef at around 31 m, staring out into the blue. Nothing, nada, zip, zilch. The only excitement was a group of snappers feeding on a colleague, alive and struggling along the bottom. About a quarter of its body was eaten away when it finally stopped moving and the others suddenly left it. The PNG history of cannibalism is apparently deeper than reported.

My ribs were finally on the mend and it was the first day I didn’t feel the need to be laying down all day, so in between dives I finally put together my Sports Kiss. I was ready to take it in for the third dive, but a free-flowing reg cancelled that. I missed the dive on Keast Reef, but the others said it was quite good (of course). A quick clean-up and adjustment and the unit looked good to go... very exciting as it had not been wet for over a year!
A brilliant dinner of lamb racks and key lime pie was followed by a bit of a lads' session with Andy downing all of Brian’s prized whisky (in his absence!).


5/4: Shark on the line

There had been a bit of over crowding on the line at 6 m, so we opted to dive in very staggered waves, each over a two hour period. The S'Jacob is a sunken Dutch merchant ship, with most of the dive in the 45-55 m range. Brian and I were on trimix, however the scarcity of helium in PNG meant the bubble makers were on air.

I did a quick plop in the water to check the unit, then with all systems go set off on the first wave. The S’Jacob is upright, very much intact and a truly stunning wreck. We all got in two dives and our wave was graced with a decent-sized shark sighting whilst doing our deco.

A normal evening

After a great curry dinner, followed by homemade ice cream (which was to accompany all the desserts on the trip), the guys popped open a bottle of bubbly to toast Brian’s birthday. We then set off to risk the clubhouse, which was packed with a rather normal looking crowd of expat drinkers. Back on the boat the gents continued the celebration, getting well stuck into the whisky. So far the trip was proving to be quite bearable.
We set off for Alotau, where we were to pick-up the Sydney contingency, however as we got up to speed there were engine problems. Craig decided to turn back, so he contacted Pearson to cancel their PM-Alotau flight.


31/3: PM adventure

After breakfast we headed off on foot to face the dangers of Port Morseby. Although I really wanted to see PM, fairly soon this proved to be a bad idea as I lagged behind, holding my injured back against the jolt of walking. Hobbling like an old lady, swearing like a lorry driver, on I went.

Blood red splodges of betel spit lined the roads and people of all ages smiled red smiles, as we made our way past the docklands and up through the centre of town. We came upon a beach crowded with families playing in the surf and a number of long, single outrigger boats were racing. Back in town we stopped for a coffee at a very nice hotel then ordered a taxi back as the walk was proving too much for me.

Before the others arrived, Andy and I took advantage of our early arrival and swapped to a much bigger cabin. Beer o’clock coincided with the arrival of the Steves (Pearson and Sloan) and continued through a dinner of BBQ wahoo and pavlova. With the whole group onboard and all repairs made we finally set off again.


1 /4: Let the diving begin!

As we motored out to the first site, the wreck of the Maritime Hibiscus, gear was sorted out and we went over the very comprehensive deck plans. Of note was Pearson’s sadistic joy in watching me get my wet suit and twins on over the cracked ribs. About mid-day we finally got wet.

The Hibiscus is a cargo ship sat upright, though slightly listing to the port side. We got in two brilliant dives, with lots of easy penetration possible. As would be the norm with this crowd, drinks started right after the last dive.

We were picked up at the airport by Terry, who used to work at LBC in Puerto Galera, and Simon, who in addition to helping with the dive guiding, was the boat's camera / video-man. Luggage was loaded and we all piled on a bus to take us to Big Blue Explorer. Here we met Lynne, who despite being called the "Boat Manager" insisted on calling the "boat" a "ship". Big Blue Explorer is the biggest liveaboard I've been on, and was very comfortable, particularly for Mark and Kelly, who ended up with the best cabin. It was bigger than my flat, with a king-sized bed in it, and a sofa.

The crew are mainly from the Philippines and are very helpful and friendly. Diving was from 2 tenders, which were originally named Hammerhead and Grey Reef. Although by the end of the week, they'd been renamed Airheads and Grey Beards (although Old Bastards was the name that stuck). Terry and Simon were going to look after the Old Bastards, and our boat got Gatt-man and Boyet the Palauan Rock-star. These turned out to be a right pair of characters, so it was a good job that we'd brought our own pet lunatic, Rita, who provided most of the entertainment both above and below water.

The first afternoon / evening was spent settling in and getting gear set up. I got things organised so quickly that Gatt had me pegged as the most organised diver he'd ever seen, an impression that I quickly managed to dispel the following morning. Dinner was served, and we got stuck into our bar bills and the wine that some of us had brought. Les then made a bit of a blunder by accepting a small glass of Park's whisky, then half the bottle, some Tanduay rum, and most of a bottle of vodka. When everyone else went to bed, Les was still going strong, although he wasn't going at all the following morning. He did manage the check-out dive, but then skipped the second because the alcohol fumes were frightening the fish. I have to say that I wasn't in great shape either. I'd managed to get to the stage where I could get both my eyes to focus, but was struggling to get them both to focus on the same thing at the same time.

Checkout dive was on Ngedbus Coral Garden, which was a pleasant introduction to Palau. We saw a few White Tip sharks, or Puny White Tips as Park called them, and the Old Bastards saw a turtle. Next dive was on German Channel, which was blasted through the reef by German phosphate miners before the First World War. Here there are several cleaning stations for manta rays, and we were fortunate enough to see one.

There is not much else at German Channel, apart from a few schools of jacks, and a field of Garden Eels, so it's really the mantas that people go for. We also dived New Drop-off, a vertical wall that goes down a long way down with grey reef sharks at the edge of visibility. Some of those who weren't doing the Nitrox course went for a night dive at Ngedbus Wall. It was pleasant but not spectacular.

Day 2:

Today we got to do some of Palau's signature dives starting with Blue Holes, which are four holes in the top of a reef which lead down to a massive chamber with an exit on the reef wall. Dropping into these was spectacular, as was looking back up at the surface. There is a small plaque to a Japanese diver who sadly died when he swam into a cave system off these holes. We spent a while looking at the cave before heading out onto the wall where we were greeted with more sharks than you could shake a stick at, as well as huge schools of fusiliers, mackerel, and loads of pyramid butteryflyfish.

Blue Corner is perhaps Palau's best known dive site. Unfortunately the currents weren't really running when we first dived it. But we still had a good dive with a massive shoal of barracuda swimming in blue water. Dave Taylor saw a couple of turtles, but kept it to himself so the rest of us didn't chase them off. This was Mark's 50th dive. Just to avoid any confusion, I mean Mark Andkelly, not Mark Kelly. It also turned out to be Rob's 50th dive, but since Americans have trouble counting when they've run out of fingers, he didn't realise for another couple of days. Actually I need to be a bit careful taking the mickey out of people counting. I know I always use 11 lbs with my wetsuit, so I put 3x4 lbs and a 3lb on my weight belt and spent the rest of the week gradually removing weights and congratulating myself on how much better my buoyancy was getting. Finally I did the maths - for the hard of thinking that comes to 15 lbs, not 11.

Day 3:
On the Tuesday we headed to the southernmost point in Palau, Peleliu, where we dived the Peleliu Express. Here the reef hooks we'd borrowed really came in handy. We hooked onto the rocks and watched a parade of big Grey Reef Sharks, a Napoleon Wrasse, Bumphead Parrotfish, and masses of Unicorn Fish, all heading into the current, and making it look easy. When we unhooked we finished the dive as drift dive and were picked up by the tender. By law, dive boats in Palau must carry 2 engines and a radio. This was introduced after an incident where some divers were lost after their boat's engine couldn't start. Without a radio the boatman was unable to raise the alarm, and the divers were swept away in the current.

Apart from Brian, who was keen to maximise his number of dives, most of us went ashore for the Peleliu land tour. Peleliu was the scene of some major fighing between the Americans and Japanese in 1944. The Americans were preparing to recapture the Philippines and wanted to take Peleliu to protect their flank as it had an airstrip on it. It didn't prove as easy as they had expected and their casualties were very high, especially when they ran out of water and supplies. Japanese casualties were even higher, with something like 10,000 of the 12,000 defenders killed. The land tour took us around the airstrip, and up to the ridge where the Japanese had dug a warren of caves. There is also a small museum which the people of Peleliu hope to officially open this year as part of the 60th anniversary of the Battle of Peleliu. It certainly showed a different side of Palau, and was well worth doing.

Japanese battle tank on Peleliu with the team (L to R: Lorna, Tai, Les, Dave, Crazy Girl, Linda, Trevor, Chas, Neil)
(Calinna)

In the afternoon it was back to the diving. The Old Farts headed off to Peleliu Express first. We joined them later, and found ourselves hooked on slightly behind them. Except for Louisa who, in a case of mistaken identity, ended up right next to Chas and Linda. They helpfully unhooked her a couple of times, but she persistently hooked herself back in before finally realising that she'd joined the wrong group. Once again, it was a great show with lots of sharks providing the main entertainment.

We finished the day off with a dive at Turtle Cove, where I decided to demonstrate to Louisa and Eppie how not to deploy a delayed SMB. But when the reel freed itself and came back down, I did make a rather spectacular one-handed catch.

Day 4:
Wednesday was probably our best day. It started with Louisa's 200th dive, on Blue Corner. This time there was some current and we hooked on to watch White-Tips and Grey Reef Sharks, barracuda, trevally, dogtooth tuna. Somehow Rita managed to get in front of her hook, so rather than stopping the current washing her away, it was acting as a restraint to stop her chasing the fish. After we unhooked we met Boyet's girlfriend, which turned out to be a large Napoleon Wrasse. There was also a large moray eel, pyramid butterflyfish, grouper, triggerfish, and it was an excellent dive.

Next came Eppie's 50th dive, and she celebrated it on New Drop-off. There was another Napoleon Wrasse, but the star attraction was a large Spotted Eagle Ray, that we were watching for 20 minutes. When we finally drifted off for the boat to pick up, it followed us up into the blue water.

We then did Blue Corner again, and the current was raging. We got swept up and over the wall, where we hooked on as close to the edge as possible. Just to be different, when the Old Duffers did it, Brian ended up at 38 metres and had to climb back up the wall from like a mountaineer. There was plenty to see and was another excellent dive.

The fourth dive was at German Channel. We didn't see any mantas this time, but came across two groups of Japanese divers. The first were doing a course of some sort. But the second group were all arranged in rows with several cameramen with some serious camera gear. A couple in the middle were wearing all sorts of frilly things, and nobody seemed very happy to see us blundering through the middle of the proceedings. It's possible this group were also doing a course, but it's also possible that we'd just gate-crashed an underwater wedding. It was certainly a bizarre sight, especially when Dave ended up between the happy couple.

On the way back we tried snorkelling with pilot whales. Dave got closest by staying still. Rita is incapable of staying still and enthusiastically pursued them whenever there was a sighting. Rob and I came across the ugliest fish I've ever seen which head-butted his ankle so hard that the zip on his boots caused quite a deep cut. It turned out to be a Mahi mahi also called a Dorado (or Dolphin Fish). It was probably pissed off because Lynne landed on it when she jumped in to try and see the pilot whales. This wasn't the only casualty. When we got back we found that Les had been assaulted by a Titan Triggerfish. Not content with biting a hole in his fin, it had gone on to bite a hole in his calf. It was a day of injuries as Fong had a plaster on his forehead – the result of running into a bump-head binocularfish, just outside the bridge.

We finished the year of the lamb with a night dive on Baa-aa-rnum's Wall (pun intended). Loads of lobsters, a few sharks and a salp, which is a bizarre-looking, long, jelly-like thing.

Day 5: Kung Hei Fat Choi.

To greet the Year of the Monkey, we did Blue Corner again. There were no complaints about continually doing the same dive site, as it had been so good. We then headed off to Siae's Tunnel, which is a large tunnel that emerges further along the reef wall.

Lunch was a picnic on a beautiful deserted beach on Ulong. Dave, Rob and Lorna went to see some cave paintings, which involved climbing up a rope to get from the beach as the island has been cut away at the water line by the sea, leaving a dramatic overhang. Inevitably Rob added to his collection of cuts and bruises, but they did get to see the paintings.

One of the advantages of diving from a live-aboard instead of land-based is that you avoid the long speedboat ride to the dive sites. Another is that the land-based operators often are forced into very similar schedules to maximise the number of dives. Liveaboards help you avoid the crowds. This became apparent one day on Blue Corner when we were alone on the dive, but came up to find 15 dive boats had arrived while we were down. The only time we had a problem with other divers was at Ulong Channel, a great drift dive. There were only our two boats there, and we dived first, as the Old Buggers were busy taking their teeth out and being helped into their wetsuits. We hooked on at 15 metres to watch the biggest sharks we'd seen all week. After a few minutes a familiar, long, skinny shape appeared in the middle of the sharks. One of the other group, who shall temporarily remain nameless, hadn't seen us or noticed his own group turning to go behind us instead of in front, and ended up right in the middle of all the action. Finally realising what was happening, he headed off back to his own group. Meanwhile 3 of the biggest sharks started to follow him. Before long they realised that there's not much meat on a Darvellius ganglius, and headed off into the blue.

Day 6:
Our final day's diving started off with the wreck of the Iro Maru, a Japanese tanker that was torpedoed on 31 March 1944. It lies upright and was an interesting dive, and made a change from all the reefs.

Most of us then hiked over a mountain to the interior of one of the islands to Jellyfish Lake. The lake has been cut off from the sea and is full of millions of jellyfish which have lost their stings. They follow the sun from one side of the lake to the other.

Jellyfish in the Lake (Park Ng)

SCDC Diver Kidnapped! Twice!
Our penultimate dive was at Chandelier Cave. This is a cavern dive with 4 chambers each of which is quite large and had a big enough airspace for all of us to surface and be treated to Gatt’s rendition of “Limestone Cowboy”. In one chamber you could actually climb out and explore some of the cave system, which Dave and Rita did. And it was nice and quiet for 10 minutes, until Rita got back. From the final chamber we switched our torches off and could see a vague blue light from the cave mouth. We all swam towards that but after 2 chambers I realized Louisa wasn’t with us. Dave and I went back to try and find her, and eventually bumped into her in the fourth chamber. Quickly we turned around and headed back out. As we emerged Gatt looked relieved that his 3 missing divers had turned up. Or at least 2 of them had, because Louisa disappeared again. Gatt and I went back this time and found her in the first chamber. This time I didn’t let go of her BCD until we were back on the boat. It turned out that as we’d set off for the exit a group of Japanese divers had grabbed hold of her, turned her around and taken her up to the surface in the fourth chamber. It was only when she told them she wasn’t Japanese that they let her go. That was when Dave and I found her. When we got to the exit, yet another group kidnapped her. She was our most distinctive diver – with a largely pink wetsuit, so how could the other groups have made such a mistake? Well it turned out that half the Japanese divers had pink wetsuits.

Our final dive was at Mandarin Fish Lake. Gatt warned those of us on Nitrox to watch our depth, then went on to advise anyone who ran out of air to remember their emergency SUB procedure, where SUB stood for "Stand Up and Breathe". It was less than 3 metres deep. Strictly speaking it’s not a lake, it is just a very sheltered stretch of sea hidden in the middle of an island. We got to see several of the lovely little Mandarin Fish in amongst the coral.

It was probably the best trip I’ve done. Great dives, a really nice liveaboard and a superb bunch of people. We had a lot of fun, and owe Trevor a big vote of thanks for organizing it all.

Indiana Bones & the Indonesian liveaboard

Chinese New Year in Hong Kong is generally cold and wet. So what better way to spend it than in Indonesia, where it's warm and wet. Eight of us decided to spend 2 weeks on a boat doing some diving between Bali to West Timor. We set off on a Friday afternoon, via Singapore, before arriving in Jakarta. Early Saturday morning and we flew to Denpasar where we were met by Marc and Sheren, who are now living there. We were also met by Vidar, whose boat we were diving from. He arranged for 4 taxis to take us to the boat. 3 of them arrived at about the same time, but then Marc got a phone call from Brian because they were lost. This was probably because Brian had his GPS out and was telling the driver which way to go. Finally they turned up and we stowed the gear on to the boat. Inevitably Brian immediately set his gear up to make sure he was ready for the first dive the following day. In the meantime Louisa checked the vitally important schedule - the meals schedule, and was very pleased to find there were rather a lot of them. First a pre-dive breakfast, followed by a post-dive breakfast. Then lunch, afternoon tea and dinner. As a bonus there was always some food lying around just in case she got hungry between meals. We met the rest of the crew, Vidar's wife Alice, and the Indonesian guy whose name I can't remember. The two of them were responsible for the wonderful food. Also we met the couple who were going to be helping out with the diving. Adam, a photographer who was also going to do some of the driving, and Nienke from Holland. We had dinner with Marc, which gave him and Keith time to catch up on a few of their favourite arguments.

The team, slumming it

It's been a number of years since SCDC has visited Truk in force, although there has been the occasional individual visit. This has largely been due to Continental Airlines' scheduling, which made it possible to get from Hong Kong to Truk, but only if you were prepared to pay a fortune and spend a week doing it. Getting back was worse. Well last year they changed their schedules to make life easier for Hong Kong-based wrecks (shurely Hong Kong-based wreck divers ?? Then again, perhaps you're right. Ed.). Trevor and Steve moved into gear and put together a crack team of experienced divers to take advantage of this. When they realised they could get a discount if they had 12 people, Louisa and I were invited as well. From SCDC there was Steve, Etsuko, Trevor, Robert (a late replacement for Les who was legless), Neil and Louisa. From elsewhere in Hong Kong's diving community was Dave Sharpe, Chas and Linda Doyle, Bo Fussing and Park Ng. Finally a frequent visitor to Hong Kong on his quarterly migration route between the UK and Manila and Bangkok was Ian Green. Ian's the guy who has almost as many holidays (3 in 2001) as Steve (3 in April).

Rather than go to Truk with a whole bunch of diving gear that I hadn't dived with for ages, I did a warm-up dive in Hong Kong. As a result I ended up going to Truk with a whole bunch of diving gear that I'd never dived with, when it turned out that half of it needed replacing. That included a computer that thought I was at 1000 metres above sea level.

In my experience SCDC dive trips tend to be a series of setbacks and problems punctuated by some good diving. The first setback came before we'd even got on the plane, as Louisa's ticket was issued in the wrong name. Chas was able to sort that out, which meant I was unable to go on my own. The second setback appeared to have happened when we arrived at Guam at 04:30. As in every SCDC trip I've been on, transport had been arranged. And as in every SCDC trip I've been on, it wasn't there. Several people jumped in a cab, which did the trick, as 5 minutes later a van from Professional Sports Divers arrived and asked if we were the Australian party. Not wishing to look a gift horse in the mouth, we pushed Trevor to the front and he confirmed that we were. We got to Santa Fe on the Bay at 5 am and most people went to bed in preparation for the 11am dive. Unfortunately I spent the next hour and a half re-packing everything so that my dive gear was in 1 bag instead of 5.

Professional Sports Divers is run by Simon Pridmore who used to be with the police in Hong Kong. He arrived at 11am to pick up 11 bleary-eyed potential divers. Repeated attempts to raise the dead were unsuccessful and Robert stayed in bed. We picked up some Nitrox cylinders at Simon's shop and were driven to the pier and loaded onto a boat for the 10 minute trip to the mouth of the harbour. We were warned to expect poor visibility as a US aircraft carrier had turned around over our dive site about an hour earlier. We were going to dive on the Cormoran and the Tokai Maru. The Cormoran was a German ship that had parked in Guam during the First World War. After several years of fairly relaxed internment, the German crew realized that Uncle Sam was gingerly climbing down off the fence, and was planning to join the winning side and claim all the credit. Rather than let the Cormoran fall into American hands, they scuttled the ship. 35 years later and this time Uncle Sam was unceremoniously pushed off the fence by the Japanese. They went on to take Guam, where the Tokai Maru was subsequently anchored. An American submarine found it and torpedoed it. On its way to the bottom it hit the Cormoran and came to rest about 8 feet away. In 1993 an earthquake pushed the 2 ships together, so now their hulls touch, a rather bizarre legacy of 2 world wars, and a unique dive site. Visibility was apparently poor, but not by our rather sad standards. We dropped down onto the Tokai Maru and saw where the 2 hulls touched. We then swam along the much smaller Cormoran before crossing back to finish on the Tokai. There wasn't much coral, but quite a lot of fish life. Our second dive concentrated more on the Tokai Maru. It was a good start to the trip,

Dinner that night was at the Lone Star and even Robert woke up long enough to eat. The Lone Star is a steak restaurant that specialized in massive quantities of red meat. The only vegetarians in there are on the menu. The beer was fairly substantial too. Fortunately they laid on a van to get us back to the hotel, because none of us were capable of walking. The excess weight was too much for our puny legs.

A small beer with your cow?

Sunday dawned bright and early, but fortunately I missed that by about 5 hours. After we'd checked out, the plan was for several of us to go to a shopping mall. The girls were going shopping, while we considerately waited for them in a bar. Like any good plan, this one fell apart almost immediately when half of the group headed off, and the other half had to wait patiently for an hour while Ian got on the phone to sort out his sleeping arrangements for the post-Truk part of his trip, the Manila and Bangkok legs. We finally caught up with the others at Planet Hollywood. After a small beer we headed to the airport on the way to Truk, so we thought. Once there we were treated to a comedy double act by Steve and Etsuko, who had managed to lose their tickets and passports. After that came the bad news. 8 of us were on the flight, but Steve, Louisa, Chas and Linda were not. This must have been particularly galling for Chas who had been to a dinner with Continental Airlines' chairman some weeks before. We had a long discussion at the front desk where Steve quite legitimately pointed out that our seats had been confirmed months in advance. In response Continental Airlines adopted a bizarre customer service ploy, and threatened to arrest him and Etsuko. At that point we went through to try our luck at the gate. The problem was that it had been raining in Truk, and as any pilot can tell you, if it's raining, you have to throw a few of the passengers off to make room for the crew umbrellas. Everyone boarded except for the 4 unfortunates, along with Etsuko, and I. Oh and Dave Sharpe - who had considerately waited behind to laugh at us. Anyway at the last minute they got approval to load some extra passengers despite the rain, and we all rushed on board.

When we got to Truk we found out how they'd managed to squeeze on the extra passengers despite the restriction on aircraft weight. They'd taken off 78 dive bags. This was a little excessive, as they only really needed to throw Dave's off. Continental Airlines offer a very generous luggage allowance of up to 2 bags of 32 kg, i.e. 64 kg.Despite this, Dave had single handedly used up all the excess for all 12 of us. Repeatedly reminding him of this guaranteed that I wouldn't be borrowing anything from him during the rest of the trip. (His foresight was somewhat justified when his primary and backup computers both started acting up. Fortunately he was able to switch to his alternate backup computer). Needless to say the 78 bags included all of ours, except Robert's. It was a shrewd tactical move by the Guam staff, who'd elegantly shifted the problem somewhere else. We filled forms in at Truk airport until the early hours. This seems to be a regular thing, and the airline is in a monopoly position, which is how they can get away with it. Continental's chairman has recently written a book about turning the airline around called "From worst to first". I think it might be time for the sequel - "And back again".

Thorfinn

We turned up at the Thorfinn and met Captain Lance Higgs, who filled us in on the history of Truk and the Thorfinn. Truk was originally run by Germany, but the Japanese were given it for siding against Germany in the First World War. They turned it into a major naval base as it is a huge lagoon surrounded by a fringing reef. In 1944 they had a large fleet of merchant ships there when the US decided to attack it. Over the course of 2 attacks from aircraft carriers they sank over 40 ships. (If the US navy had adopted the same methods as Continental Airlines only half the planes would have arrived, and they wouldn't have had any bombs on board). Lance also went over their diving rules, which include some fairly heavy stops to reduce the risk of DCS. 2 minutes at 18 metres, 3 minutes at 9 metres, and 10 minutes at 6 metres as a minimum, even on no stop dives. With up to 5 dives a day, and the nearest chamber 600 miles away in Guam, these precautions are sensible. Diving is done from 4 tenders which means that there are only a few other divers on each of the wrecks at any time.  

Part 2

Finally we arrived in Truk. And the following day our luggage turned up. But it was worth it...

                                                                         Photo courtesy of Don Dixon

The following day and we got some good news. There are not many flights a week to Truk, but fortunately there was another one in the morning, and better still, our luggage was on it. As a result we missed a couple of dives, but it could have been worse.

First dive was a 40m dive on to I 169 a Japanese sub that sank because of a mistake by the crew. The rear of the sub is intact, but the front is badly damaged as the Japanese depth charged it after bringing out the bodies of the sailors who died. As Trevor repeatedly pointed out, this is not one of the best dives in Truk, but gives the dive guides the chance to assess people without too much risk, as even Steve couldn't get inside.

Louisa and I were diving with the only 2 people on the Thorfinn not with our party. 2 Americans, Don and Bob, from the frozen wastes of Wisconsin had joined us. They'd spent a week thawing out in Palau, and were now doing a week in Truk. (Don very kindly donated some of the accompanying photos, and you can see more of his excellent photos from both Truk and Palau). The next dive was on one of Truk's showcase dives, the Fujikawa Maru. The wreck is upright in 35 metres, with the mast coming up almost to the surface. We swam through the engine room, and saw a workshop and some other rooms before popping out in one of the forward holds. Here are parts of 3 aircraft, including the cockpit and fuselage of a Zero. There are also several torpedoes and a whole host of shoes. There was a lot of coral and loads of fish.

Next the night dive - yes some of us did one. Even Robert postponed his after-dinner nap. This was on another upright wreck, the Sankisan Maru, the ammunition wreck. It was a bit crowded, but we saw a giant puffer fish while swimming through the holds. There were several truck chassis in the holds and on the decks, and tons of ammunition in the first hold. We didn't get to the stern, but we wouldn't have seen much if we had. A large bomb landed in the aft holds and set off the ordinance stored in them. It was a good dive marred only by the fact that I flooded Steve's torch. It was probably due for an upgrade anyway as it was the same colour as his old car.

                                                                      Ammunition from Sankisan Maru. Photo courtesy of Don Dixon

The first dive on Tuesday was on the Amagisan Maru which was in deeper water. Consequently the water was remarkably clear. The ship is on its side and has a staff car in one of the holds. There was an anti-aircraft gun on its turntable. It was good, but the stops were longer than the dive.

Robert missed this one, and complained that his buddy should have woken him up for it. That seemed a bit harsh, since waking him up is practically impossible.

Our next dive was on the Rio de Janeiro Maru. This was a huge passenger liner which used to take Japanese farmers to Brazil, where the Government was giving away land, to try and settle more of the country. It is on its starboard side, and we dropped down to it in bright sunlight. The rear hold was full of sake bottles in crates. The 2 propellers and rudder were impressive, as was the rear gun that was bolted on when the Japanese Navy took over the ship. There were lots of fish, and it was another excellent dive, helped by the sunlight on the wreck.

Next was the Gosei Maru, which was again on its side. There was not much doubt about why this sank, a massive hole where the hull should have been. There were a number of torpedoes which had 'exploded' when their compressed air burst them open. The engine room was easily accessible. We did the stops on the hull near the stern accompanied by a huge shoal of sweetlips.

When I first heard about the Thorfinn, I thought that the hot tub was an unnecessary luxury. After getting back from several of the dives a bit chilly from the wind in the small boats, it rapidly became essential. Every dive boat should have one. Oh and the waitresses bringing food and beer to you while you soak would be a welcome addition to Hung's junk as well. This was particularly valuable after the last dive of the day. We started doing a sort of dusk dive, by postponing the 5 pm dive until around 6pm. This provided the benefits of a night dive without requiring the superhuman willpower needed to turn down a beer in the hot tub. This popular innovation was started by Chas, Linda, Bo and Park in the starboard boat. I've always said I'd do a lot more night dives if they could be done earlier in the day. But the only chance of that happening is if we do a trip to the Arctic Circle in winter. That's a bit unlikely since Louisa consider 25 degrees Centigrade an arctic temperature.

On Wednesday we did the Sankisan Maru in daylight, and it was spectacular. This time I did head out over the stern, or rather the hole in the seabed where it had been. Eventually I came upon a lump of ship, but it was a long way from the rest of the wreck, and not very recognizable. The forward hold was full of small arms ammunition and detonators. Number 2 hold was full of trucks. The sides had rusted away, but the wheels still had tyres on (and they're probably in better shape than those Firestone ones that Ford keeps putting on its Explorers). Steering wheels, engines, radiators are all still recognizable. There are some cowlings for Zero fighters in there too. It's a very pretty wreck with lots of coral and fish life.

We did the Aikoku Maru in the morning. It's a deep dive, partly because of the hole that it blew in the seabed when it exploded. Like the Sankisan Maru, a bomb landed in a hold full of 1000 lb bombs. This time it was one of the forward holds. The largest part of the front of the ship that has been found was about 18 inches long. The rest was vaporized. The superstructure absorbed the blast and sank first, with the stern sticking up. It hit the bottom at high speed, and then settled upright. The front of the superstructure looks like someone has taken a giant meat cleaver to it, bending down the steel as if it was (Space reserved for a witty metaphor). The stern section is remarkably intact considering. The rear holds were full of Japanese marines, all of whom were killed. There is a memorial to those who died at Truk on the superstructure. It is a spooky, dark, atmospheric wreck. I'm glad we did it, but I would hesitate to say I enjoyed it. The stern has a large gun on, pointing upwards. It was firing up until the ship sank. We saw a shark and a large school of barracuda, but there was less coral because of the depth, we stayed around the top, but were still at 52 metres. Several partially successful attempts to restore Steve's torch to a useable state came to an end on this dive, after it flooded catastrophically.

We really appreciated the way the Thorfinn organizes their diving after the Heian Maru. We arrived to find the Truk Aggressor already there. We should have gone somewhere else, but the Heian Maru is the biggest thing in Truk, so how crowded could it get? Very! Every time we tried to come out of a hold, about 10 people would be pushing their way in. The hold entrances were quite narrow, and the ship is on its port side, so the holds were actually quite dark. There was a skull in one of the holds, which attracted the entire Aggressor group who wanted to pose for photographs with it. The Heian Maru was a submarine tender, and there are several periscopes stored along one of the companionways. Linda mistook these for the longest telescopes she'd ever seen. In a hole on the hull we came across a massive octopus.

Dusk dive was on the Sutsuki, a patrol boat. It was quite small and cramped inside. There were a lot of recognizable gauges in the engine room, and we came across a bunk in the crew's quarters. Outside again and we finished the dive as a night dive.

The highlight of the trip for me was the San Francisco Maru. It's another deep dive, as the decks are at 50 metres, but it's remarkably intact. The bomb that sank it landed in the only empty hold, otherwise it may have ended up as badly damaged as the Aikoku. Steve's group covered the rear of the ship, where one hold apparently has more rifle ammunition than the "ammunition wreck", the Sankisan Maru. The other hold is full of 1000 lb bombs. I spent both my dives at the front. There are 3 tanks on the deck, 1 on the port side, and 2 on the starboard side in a compromising position, with one on top of the other. The number 2 hold is full of trucks including several fuel tankers. There were also front wheels from aircraft landing gear. The bridge telegraph has fallen from the bridge onto the deck just behind the second hold. The first hold is full of anti-ship mines. They are stacked up the entire height of the hold. There is apparently a steam roller on the seabed off the port side, but our bottom time was pretty limited, so we concentrated on the main parts of the ship. The following day's dive here was made more interesting when the tender's anchor chain broke and we had to do the stops in blue water. Fortunately there is no current in the lagoon so that did not present a serious problem. It also threw Linda's eyesight or memory (?) into question. She remembered the bow gun, but that was about it. "Did you see the tanks / trucks / mines" all drew a rather blank response. Still she had missed her breakfast, so was perhaps not at her best.

                                                                                    Especially for Linda. Photo courtesy of Don Dixon

 Part 3

I did the Hoyo Maru at dusk. It's an oil tanker, like the better known Shinkoku Maru. The engine room is at the back, and that was where the ship was hit. Apparently it's about the only place a torpedo could sink these ships. Both this and the Shinkoku were hit in the same place. Anyway it's upside down, but we had a good root around the engine room area. A massive space, with tangles of pipes all over. Park found a Spanish Dancer, some swimming shrimps. There were also some tiny porcelain crabs on the coral.

                                                          Just to prove there was some life there, whatever Steve tells you. Photo courtesy of Don Dixon

My final dive of the trip was on the Shinkoku Maru with Ian, Trevor and Robert. This is one of Truk's best known wrecks, partly because it features on a T-Shirt. It is upright, covered in coral and fish and an excellent dive. Trevor spent the dive photographing Ian, so Ian could explain what he'd been doing for 3 weeks in Asia.

Party Time. (Sake bottles from Rio de Janeiro Maru). Photo courtesy of Don Dixon

That evening the crew cooked a barbecue on the deck, and we did our best to empty the fridge of beer. We left the Thorfinn at lunchtime on the Sunday and had the chance to do a tour of Truk. This was not what I would call value for money. We got to see the old Japanese communications headquarters, which is now a school. Apparently there are 2 craters on the roof from where 2 500lb bombs were dropped on it. Ian could perhaps have picked up some tips on how to build a real roof, but unfortunately we couldn't get up there to see them. We also got to see an old gun in a cave. This was part of the defences the Japanese had installed. I would not have liked to be in the cave if the gun had ever been fired, as it looked as though the roof would have come down.

Our flight out was in the middle of the night again. I think Continental Airline pilots are only trained to fly in the dark. Or perhaps they've got a job lot of headlight bulbs that they're trying to use up. Anyway after dinner and a few beers at the Truk Stop hotel, it was off to the airport. We needed 2 trips, one for Dave's luggage, and one for everything else. After the traditional struggle with Continental Airlines we finally boarded the plane, pausing only briefly to confirm that we didn't have any shipwrecks concealed among our luggage. We arrived at Guam at around 5 am, and managed to find transport to the Santa Fe on the Bay quite quickly. Once we arrived, checking into our rooms took rather longer. Presumably in an attempt to save time they gave Louisa and I a room that was already occupied. Fortunately the previous occupants had put the safety chain on the door, but they didn't sound very happy to have 2 people trying to force their way in at half past five in the morning. We got up in time for lunch at the Lone Star. The 18 ounce Cajun Rib eye was the most popular choice on the menu. Oh and we had to have another one of those beers. One was enough.
 

All in all it was a great trip despite Continental Airlines. We did have a number of equipment failures, mainly torches and computers, but fortunately we had plenty of backups between us. The only other problem that marred the trip was that Louisa missed the last day's diving. She'd had a rash on her arms and legs for most of the week. After she came up from one dive with a headache, we belatedly wondered if it might be a mild form of DCS. Fortunately Don is a doctor, and he put her on oxygen for a while as a precaution. Later I had to stop taking the mickey out of Dave Sharpe so I could borrow his satellite phone to ring DAN. They pointed out that if Louisa had had the rash all week and hadn't keeled over then it was not diving related. They also pointed out that "trial by survival" was not the appropriate way of diagnosing DCS. The most likely explanation was stress-related - all that enjoying yourself is hard work.

I was busily assembling my equipment mulling over the effort that would be required to lug the twin 19L steel cylinders, that were now receiving 9,120 litres of EANx36 (yes they fill them to 240bar) from the filling whip, when I casually walked over to the van we'd hired to have a look round. Shit....the others all had either twin 15's or 17's. The Bastards had left me the 19's (or 121's as there known there) the only set available. At least we all had the same deco cylinders steel 12L jobs filled with pure oxygen. None of that mamby pamby EANx80 stuff here obviously..!! serious kit, for serious diving...

Our first dive was in Peacock spring which was conveniently located a mile from Bill Rennaker's filling station, our base for the week. Peacock is a huge cave system off the Suwannee river (the one they wrote the song about) although you'd be hard pushed to tell from the surface. All that was evident was a few sumps (cave word for pool of water in the middle of a forest!) We got our gear on and sprinted for the water (OK we didn't sprint, more like staggered) and then sat down at the edge of the sump to put our fins etc on. It was then that Rick discovered he couldn't get back up so proceeded to fall (very ungracefully) into the sump. This was quietly observed by Tom Mount CEO of IANTD (we're not worthy, we're not worthy) our instructor.                                                                                        

The water in the sump made Hong Kong vis look decidedly good and I was beginning to feel like this could have been a hell of a lot of effort for another low vis dive when I broke clear of the "dark water" (another cave term) into gin clear fresh water and followed Tom down through a fissure in the rock, into the cave proper. We swam passed the "Stop! You will die if you go past this point" sign and on into the realms of cave diving proper.....amazing.

We swim on to 'Olsen' another sump about 1000 feet away at a more or less constant depth of 20m. We had the opportunity to try laying line and 'jumps' on route. One of the students also did a magnificent job of demonstrating how to tangle the main line around a manifold causing Paul to be given an impressive underwater bollocking by Tom for trying to help the guy out. I think Tom was saying "excuse me Paul, am I correct in thinking I'm teaching this course not you?" or something like that..... Anyway we all made it to 'Olsen' in one piece. We had a chat on the surface of Olsen then retraced our steps through the clouds of silt we'd kicked up.....oops..!!

That evening Paul and myself set off for a beer.....no such luck..!! the bloody county is dry..!! I was gutted; half way round the world to go diving in a location that doesn't serve beer. No problem says Paul, we'll go to the Brown Lantern, a pub in the next county the gang had been to the night before. "OK show me the way" and hour of driving down straight roads at 70mph later and we were there? "it's convenient then" I commented to Paul. (There then followed 2 hours of drinking and ogling the rather well built bar staff the details of which will remain out of print) We then decided to get a good American steak on the way home. Far from it, all we could find was a diner that had an "all you can eat Catfish special" on. We declined the Catfish special and ordered 2 of the worst steaks I have ever seen.... at least the diving is good.

The next day we were diving "little river springs" this was deeper than peacock being an average of about 30m but the main difference was that this cave system had 'flow', it really was an underground river. Little river was very spectacular and has the dubious distinction of having the only permanent 'T' on the main line of a cave system in Florida. We swam into the flow for about 1200 feet until Rick was at his 'thirds' then turned round and came out on considerably less gas. On the way out Tom made things interesting by having us do all sorts of fun things like lights out drills, out of air drills, lights out and out of air drills and other interesting ways to smack into limestone in total darkness....

After this dive we sat about comparing the state of our hands. In 'high flow' caves you pull as much as swim your way into the current. Gloves are a no no due to the ability to handle line tangles so it can be compared to rubbing your fingertips with sandpaper for 2 hours. We decided Andy had won the "carved up hands award" for the day. We then re configured our gear as everyone had decided that they could improve things and more than one of us carried another primary cave light, as burn time became a major issue on the last dives of the day.

After a day of diving "little river" we headed home to collapse on the floor for a good nights rest (it's amazing how well you can sleep on a floor when you're completely knackered) The next day was going to be a good one..... "The Devils Ear" at Ginnie Springs.....

(To be continued)

We all get out of bed (off the floor) at an ungodly hour as we are diving Ginnie Springs today. I was intending this to be a case of "being temporally awake" while moving myself from the floor, to the van, however I hadn't bargained on Bill's driving. Bill Alias Mr Schumacher proceeded to thrash the van at unfeasibly high speed (given the half ton of gear and 5 bodies) down the dead straight roads. This may have been OK if he'd stayed on the road but every time we took to the grass (at 100mph) it woke me up..!!

Anyway 50miles later and we arrive at Ginnie Springs to dive the "Devils eye" Ginnie Springs reminded me a bit of the good old days of Stoney Cove in that it had a shop, a small cafe serving good greasy diver type breakfasts, and a 'system'. Every good inland site seems to need a 'system'. This one consisted of registering at a desk, paying, and in return being given a bracelet that said "Cave", "Cavern" or "SCUBA" on it. The idea being that they could make sure everyone dived within their qualifications. The one flaw in the system was that everyone put their suit on OVER the bracelet rendering it useless. No one dared take it off until the end of the day however..!!

The Devils Eye is a fissure in the bottom of a largish spring lake. The entrance is fairly small and as such has a substantial flow through it. We were advised that "style don't count for shit getting in", basically fin like **** and pull your way in. No need to worry about silt, their isn't any when there's 4 knots of permanent flow..!! Once inside the flow drops to a reasonable level after the cave opens up. The cave system is huge and our longest dives of the week only scratched the surface. About 400 feet in is a restriction called "the lips" where the current picks up again and proved to be a favourite spot for some kind of critical equipment failure as determined by Tom.

Depth in this cave is around 30m and after a reasonable time spent exploring, we were well into deco even though we were breathing EANx36. The deco was carried out on Oxygen from 12L stages that we dropped near the entrance to the cave out of reach of any thieving scubydo divers. Getting out of the entrance with the direction of flow from behind pushing you towards the surface, and a serious amount of deco penalty, certainly focuses the mind. The management had thoughtfully placed 2 large tree trunks across the fissure to make this easier. We then sort of 'hung on' comparing the various computers deco requirements.

Out of the 6 of us diving there were 4 different computers. I had my VR3, there were 2 Nitek 3's, a Cochran, and an Aladdin Pro Nitrox, which belonged to Paul (we'll see you back on the surface in 30mins) Neilsen. Paul did a good job of trying to convince us that the extra deco due to the Aladdin only being a single mix computer was an advantage because it was safer. We knew better, he just couldn't lay his hands on a dual mix computer that's all..!!

Post dive was the usual daily debate about the chances (not usually good) of getting a beer that evening, before the high speed trip back home. Well that was until the Wednesday evening when a car behind decided to light up the back of the van with a blue flashing light, yes Mr Schumacher has been pulled by the county sheriff. Laugh I nearly cried..!! After the usual get out, spread your legs, 9mm automatic pointed at the back of your neck routine Bill got his Hong Kong licence out.....That sort of stumped them and they let him off with a major b*!@*ing (I've managed a similar trick in the UK several times I must admit) we then continued home at a steady 70mph although Bill still kept me awake by driving on the grass from time to time.

The rest of the week was a similar routine of diving, driving, and not drinking much beer. I went on the cave course with the intension of getting top class instruction from Tom Mount thinking I'd be able to use it to improve my wreck diving, my primary intention was not a desire to see the caves. I must admit however that I'm now a convert. The caves themselves are extremely spectacular and I'd definitely go back to dive them again. I'd highly recommend the course, it's probably the most stressful diving you'll ever do, but also some of the most rewarding. It's not for the faint hearted however, and also not for people unless they are totally comfortable diving large twins, using ERD type diving techniques.

I've purposely avoided talking about some of the more 'interesting' things that happened as I figure I'm still in a beer deficit following my 10 days "in the land of no beer". So.....for the price of a beer or two on a Thursday night I'll tell you some more.....

Steve Pearson
BSAC Regional Coach-Hong Kong