PULAU DAYANG, 10-12 March 2006
Finally, the monsoon is over in west Malaysia, diving season is open again.
It was a bit weird to prepare the gear all over again, we were getting unfamiliar and the packing was done slower than usual, the most unfamiliar thing was the burden on the shoulder from the heavy bag.
Joshua’s shop is located in quite unfriendly area for MRT riders. From office, I needed to take train, walk, change train and walk again. When the office time ended on Friday, boss and few guests were sitting near the exit. So I had to smuggle my bag to the receptionist through other exit, changed to short and slippers and off I went.
It was the high tide season, so we didn’t need to go through the suffering of small-to-big-boat transferring. We could see that the monsoon hadn’t really left yet, the water was choppy, rocking the boat left and right, sending some of us kneeling on the boat side. Without pills, I wouldn’t be spared either. The most uncomfortable moment was when we had to go up to the boat after dives. The water would hit and carried us below the boat’s rear deck. When we kicked and got ourselves beside the boat ladder again, we had to fight with the wave to ditch the weight belt and fins before we got carried down again. It was bloody tiring and highly nauseous. It made me regret doing the night dive, drift night diving, choppy exit from the water and lost appetite for dinner because of the rocky feeling and nauseous.
And more, the water was cooooold! We had never experience Dayang to be this cold before, the temperature clocked as 27 Celsius underwater, most of us were wearing 0.5mm only or just some short and rash guard, so we were shivering as the body heat lost twenty five times faster underwater. On the surface, as the wind was strong, wet clothes and hot tea didn’t help. We also had cold night on the boat and the diver’s lodge. They didn’t provide blanket, so most of us needed to make do with what we had. We had travel blanket to share, Cynthia had sleeping bag, Leo had sarong, while Froggie needed to dissemble a bed sheet for cover.
For the dives, uhm… Bali really had spoilt the market, and we didn’t really had chance to enjoy it with the lesson tasks in hand. But it sure felt good to feel the underwater world again, flying, weightless and free. Dayang’s coral was quite badly damaged, I thought after the monsoon, we would see some improvement, but apparently it looked worse than usual. We hardly see school of fish anymore, and for the whole weekend, we didn’t see the usual yellowtail school of barracuda, we even only encountered one Napoleon humphead, while usually we could see two or three and sometimes a small school. We also didn’t see giant barracuda, and even nemos or clown fish were not as many as usual.
But for comparison, first dive day, we had 100% encounter with cuttlefish, solitary and group. It reminded me of my first encounter exactly a year before in the same time, they were seen right after the monsoon and would be rare for the rest of the season. Cuttlefish season, Feb-March, hm? Different with some mid year encounter, at two occasions, the cuttlefish after the monsoon were quite friendly; they allowed us to go very near them and some even approached with curiosity. Once, when we were near enough, one opened its tentacle and we could see the mouth moving left and right. We wondered whether it was a friendly movement or readiness to shot, so Cynthia, who was the closest at that time, retracted back.
We found more type of nudibranch than usual, and from what we learned in Bali, we were able to spot more things, crab form the sea feather, shrimp on the sea whips. We knew we could find some thing below the sea cucumber, but none of us were keen to pick them up. They looked gigantic and slimy, with the thought of they like to spray the sticky white thingy for defense, we chose to leave them alone.
The other encounter, Gosh, was Titan triggerfish. I must say that was the most memorable time. We were attacked by three different titans in ONE DIVE which was the first dive. By the time we started to descend, I was facing Hubby, when we reached about ten meters, I saw a titan raced with high speed to his direction. Quickly I signaled him and he turned his back on time. On the event of triggerfish attack, we had to swim backward and let the trigger attacked the fins. The characteristic of this territorial fellow, the solitary one like titan would highly attack if they were on the mating season. We know it’s dangerous when they stay still with eyes move suspiciously. When they attack, they would hit once, swim back, make a U turn, and attack from different angle.
The first attack Hubby encountered could be faced by the theory. He let it attacked the fin while swim backward as fast as he could, the rest of us also swim backward until the trigger stopped attacking which means we were out of its territory already.
Gosh, that was the hottest welcome of the year!
Before we could log into the memory about bragging the escape later, another titan was waiting for us. That time it was the most unbelievable, it attacked with high speed that we hardly had time to face it with fins. Hubby was the main target again, the titan banged on his fins, made U turn, banged again, U turn, banged etc…. It was ******* long that both of us were loosing our breath, apparently this particular titan had a very very big territory. Usually after we swim away for about some time, the titan would stop attacking. But this one, chased us for about ten minutes plus and kept attacking from different angles. Hubby baited it with one fin while another leg was ready to switch to any available defense position, and slapped back when there was no other option available.
Hubby outran me, and I thought, “Shit, I’m next.” The titan swam toward me, banged on my fins, though for a while, “Hey, this one tastes different.” And chose Hubby’s fins again.
We were bloody exhausted, so that was how it felt to pant underwater through regulator. Finally, after going horizontal, vertical, anywhere, it stopped. This Bloody King Titan, you think all the water is yours, hah?!
We were bad mouthing the Titan with hand signal. After a while, it was time to do safety stop. For a strange reason, Hubby had a feeling that he would met another Titan, so he breathed carefully and tried not to waste his air as he was left with only 50 bar. Sure enough, he felt something was knocking on his fins, at first he thought it was me or Cynthia, then he looked to the right and found Cynthia, looked to the left and found me, but the knocking kept going on. He turned his back and there was another Titan Triggerfish trying to bite his fins off. Again, it was chase and run, he signaled me and Cynthia, when I turned my back, I saw the Titan frontally, it was chasing with super full war spirit and swam with high speed. Again??!! So it was marathon time, yes, again.
From tired, angry, fed up, I had to roll my eyes and laughed while busy cursing and swearing in my mind. What are the odds? So this was the welcome of the year, indeed. And we agreed that Hubby’s fins must had some kind of attractive factor to triggerfish, and the three culprits were connected to each other to form a gang-bang.
We did our courses after the dives. Joshua chose the times we least expected. When we were on the safety stop, he suddenly turned unconscious on the surface. We towed him to the.. bloody far away boat, half way, we stopped the exercise and we were having the luxury being towed by the Open Water students. Aother scenario, we had to shout for Froggie who was with another group and on the boat already. He had to gear up and jumped. When he reached Joshua, he was underwater already.
Another time, on the safety stop, he finned further away from us, and then suddenly, both Hubby and Froggie were chasing to his direction, I thought there was another triggerfish, then realize, another scenario, Froggie signaled me to wait on the surface, they lifted him up and we towed him back with rescue breathing exercise together.
On the boat back, it was hot but windy. It was nice to sit on the back of the boat and saw the emerald green water from under the boat being break into milky white and mixed with the blue. Sometimes we could see dolphins on the horizon, but not this time. When we almost reached Mersing jetty, the boat was stuck in the mud, so everyone moved to the front deck until the boat freed itself. Four of us except Cynthia stood and enjoyed the sun on the deck until we parked the boat. It was unlike standing on the Titanic, but small-almost-broken-wooden dive boat, however it still had a nice feeling, poetically, moving with the wind, while the sky and the sea were the limit. We enjoyed the moment quietly, few minutes only, and we gained back the red barbeque color.
It was a tiring weekend, with evidence of body aches and strained muscles. Even the jaws are tired, unknown whether it’s because of biting regulator, laughing or chewing gum. Chewing gum is prohibited in Singapore, of course we have to maximize it when we are in Malaysia or another country.
Despite the physical problem, it was sure fun as a good gathering with friends and getaway from the city.
Until next trip.
Favorite quote repeated:
The cure for anything is saltwater: sweat, tears, or the sea.
~Isak Dinesen
