We had a somewhat testing start to the day with only two of the three vans arriving to transport our rowdy central crowd combined with a rather unfortunate opening of the heavens resulting in a rather tardy arrival time in Sai Kung. Throw in the crazy Sunday seaside crowds and the fact that four of our divers had decided to bring along their own surface cover in the form of a personal yacht, our DM for the day had quite a task on his hands to coordinate the day’s proceedings.
After apologies were made for absent vans, delayed arrival times, unpopular dive sites, dive boat tails, allowing Belshaw on the boat and life in general during the dive briefing… the first wave of divers got underway. Moods were transformed as realisation dawned that we could see a whole 5 meters away in the shallows at Pak Lap. The site was teeming with life and largely sheltered from the chilling thermoclines blessing the other locations around Hong Kong.
With his choice of dive site validated and critics silenced, our DM could finally relax and enjoy his dive. The weather didn’t agree though. The summer showers appeared at the most inconvenient moments throughout the day - wave 1 exit / wave 2 entry was no exception. Cue torrential downpour number 2.
It was an eager bunch of divers asking permission to splash for dive number two. Well, those that didn’t have a better offer - tissue anyone?? Minimum surface intervals were enforced (much to the despair of one) and diving continued after lunch. Underwater palm trees were found, photos were taken, and a nudi or two were spotted to keep our resident Italian satiated.
Timing was tight as the second wave surfaced from dive 2 and our crew, ever anxious to get home for tea, were hastily gesturing to the black clouds looming on the horizon. Cue torrential downpour number 3. You’d have thought a T8 was about to hit with the reaction from the captain and his wife but by some miracle we survived and were back on our merry way to Sai Kung in under 10 minutes. Go figure…
Canadia day was duly celebrated and those with a compass on their Canadian computers were provided with suitable beverages. One particularly bad influence was also navigating her way around the boat with Canadian ice wine.
Our next outing coincides with the DM’s birthday… more celebrations to look forward to on Saturday! See you there!
More photos here