Tai Long Wan

The Magnificent Seven at Tai Long Wan.

Due to the Sports Diver training that is going on at the moment, Mr. Yip's boat was not exactly full. The Magnificent 7 consisted of myself, Brian, Luc, Sophie, Paul, Janet and John. As a dutiful Dive Marshal I arrived at the boat last, to find that Mr. Yip and Brian had gone shopping. Before long they returned with some essential part of the boat's engine. After a short but comprehensive briefing, which pointed out the wet and dry sides of the boat, we set off. Wind was force 4 and easterly, which restricted our choice of dive sites, so we ended up on the north side of Tai Long Wan, at a place that even Brian had not dived before! Unfortunately in order to avoid the swell, the boat had to be parked some distance from the most interesting part of the bay, which left us with a bit of a surface swim, but it was worth it. The site itself was quite varied. There was a sandy bottom with rocky outcrops, a section with large van-sized boulders, a mini-wall, and nearer the boat a flattish area with quite a lot of kelp. Visibility was between 5 and 7 metres, with no current, but a strong surge in the shallows. It was possible to get down to 17 metres, but we stayed at around 8 - 10m.

Sophie led our dive, and seemed keen to demonstrate that she was Olympic swimmer material without the steroids, as she raced off into the distance, leaving me struggling to catch up. At the end of an exhausting dive I was very relieved to find that she'd navigated us back to the boat. It was a very good dive, fish life was prolific for Hong Kong. Lion fish, scorpion fish, a big grouper, clown fish, damsels, a couple of cornet fish and lots of wrasse. Hidden in the rocks were several crabs, cowries and small shrimps. We also came across a large sea snail. In addition there were lots of schools of juveniles of different species. There were even some cuttlefish eggs anchored to the kelp. Brian and John found 6 parrot fish, which is quite unusual here.

Back on board, Brian explained about some long worm-like creature with a forgettable name, Benolia or Bulimia or something. Apparently the ones you see are all female, the male is a small parasitic creature, that lives off the female. Paul pointed out that it is good to know that there is at least one species like that. Jan's view was slightly different, she felt that the male being a small parasitic worm was normal - can she mean John?

Inspired by the quality of the first dive, I unexpectedly opted to dive again, this time with Paul. Visibility was not quite as good, but since Paul is not as attractive as Sophie, that was not a serious problem.

We got back at the pier exactly on time where Luc balanced precariously on the edge and naively expected John to save him from falling in. As Paul put it, Head down: 18:16. Head up: 18:17.

Well the day went very smoothly, which was a pleasant change after the problems of recent weeks. As Dive Marshal, I would like to take the credit for that. However in my opinion leadership is all about delegation, and I would like to thank my delegates who really deserve the credit. Sophie was transport marshal, and I left all the work to my assistant, Luc, apart from choosing a site, which I delegated to Brian. This left me free to spend most of the day asleep.