After the two days in Salang, Ketam, Ketamnette and Don Isse headed out for Kg Tekek. We have buddies which we have not dived with for sometime there. The dive boat in Tekek will be leaving at 9 am thus arranged for a water taxi to bring us there, first tried to arrange a 7.30 boat, the boatman requested 8 thus there we were at the jetty at 8 am waiting for the boat. We waited and waited till 8.30 and the small speedboat arrived. The journey to Tekek will be 15 mins thus we were cutting it close.
Luckily we were just in time and we boarded the dive boat. It was a bigger boat with 8 dives with two DM, luxury hehehehe. Tom was our DM and he is one of the best nudi spotter in Tioman.
Dive 6. Tiger Reef
Tiger Reef is a submerged reef in the middle of the sea. Because of the strong currents and proximity it is normally choked full with marine life. The rich waters means the whip corals are tall, the soft corals abundant and macros everywhere. The most important thing when you dive Tiger Reef is to hold the drop line fast. Ketam absentmindedly did not heed the briefing and did just the opposite. Don Isse splashed first, grabed hold of the line and descended. Ketamnette descended without much trouble. Ketam did a giant stride. Collected camera rig from one of the crew and while clipping the camera (5 sec at the most) were swept 20 m from the boat and the line. Tried swimming to the boat, without success, released air and dip to fin faster, got about halfway but still no cigars. Hmnnn this requires some strong fin kicks!!! Descended to about 3m and kicked hard.... harder.... harder.... then saw a buoy a line ..... grabbed it ad got pulled to the boat. Apparently everybody have already descended hehehehe
Visibility was not good and when reached the bottom saw everybody anxiously waiting, gave the OK sign and off we go. The current was all over the place, changing directions and intensity frequently. Soon Ketam saw why, thermoclines... really severe thermoclines hehehehe. As such Ketam tried to stay close to the reef or bottom and started to hunt nudis. Amazing finds, Magnificas, Facelinidae and much more. We reached a sandy bottom in between the reef and there were so many juvenile nudis it was mind blowing. Snapping, snapping, snapping.
Forgot to mention that Don Isse buddy for this dive was a Japanese fella with a camera. This fella is really a piece of work. He would push for position, snap in your face and when you are just focusing (involves slow breathing, steady hand and waiting for a good shot) this fella will stick his camera in front of your rig and obliviate the whole moment. Luckily our DM Tom, saw this. So whenever Ketam was taking pictures, Tom will appear and conveniently suggested a different subject to the fella.
After an hour we ascended. Happy with a wonderful dive and found out that the next site was Pulau Labas!!! Wonderful.
Dive 7. Pulau Labas
Labas is an island that seems to be made from huge boulders. A beautiful reef have formed arround the island with a few swim throughs. Ketam always liked Labas and it seems that Ketam is not alone, four dive boats are already present. We have our surface interval here and the boat was hitched next to the Black Pearl (a LOB plying these waters). As Ketam was just about to relax heard someone shouting 'Ketam! Ketam!'. It was Jade and Kapt Ben on the Black Pearl. It seems everybody was in Tioman this weekend. Had a wonderful chat, with Nescafe, cold drinks and fruits complimenatary of Balck Pearl hehehehe. About half and hour later, the Black Pearl departed and we need to suit up for our dive.
Buddy check done and splash we were on the way. Straight away at the bottom we have subjects waiting, moray eels, stonefishes and various nudi. We were soon near the entrance to a swim through. As divers entered one by one Ketam took the opportunity to use Ketam's dive light for some exploration under the crevices. About halfway through the swim through Ketamnette stopped. The swim through were not that long (about 7m long and 4m high) and more than 2 divers inside would easily make it crowded. So hanging there in the swim through which was dark, Ketam waited and waited. Saw Nette swimming in between the side and another diver and saw the bottleneck. A diver was blocking the exit point and he was just 'lepaking'. To other divers reading this, please refrain from doing this, some divers are claustrophobic and afraid of the dark. Problems may arise and a swim through is not a good place to have a panic diver situation hehehe.
Just after the exit we were greeted with divers from the other boats. Now frequent Tioman divers would recognize the nationality of these divers, even underwater. They would be decked in color coordinated gear and usually of the same brands. A head to toe Scubapro, Aqualung or something (you get my idea). They would also be most often then not with camera rigs that seems to be so wonderfully good that you don't need to focus to take the pics and they are really bent on blinding all the marine creatures here. Hehehehe
Now these divers also bring with them a phenomenon detrimental to underwater photographers, the Tornado. It seems that whenever they congregate, the visibility will be reduced by 5 meters. Either through their fining of the bottom or their tanks breaking the corals as the turn without a care near the reefs. Hehehehe not all of them, some of them are as infuriated with their buddies as Ketam were hehehehe.
The supermacros were amazing. Plenty of nudis below 2cm. After an hour the DM signaled for safety stop and we started to do our dive ritual. Suddenly Nette was blaring her airhorn/quacker.... the signal was for a wonderful subject, Ketam went to her to see that it was a Nembrotha.... Ketam's fav. Needless to say we spent another good 10 mins photographing it.
We reached the dive center happy and contented. Signed up for another dive that afternoon.
