Wednesday, September 29, 2004
BURAN REEF, day 3 & SAINT JOHN'S REEF
........................As I was saying. There are BAD days. And today, the currents are even worse than I've ever experienced while diving in Singapore waters. Makes the "Superman Currents" two days back seem like a stroll in the park...or a swim in the baby's pool....or just plain easy. Apparently, the window for diving THIS particular site of Buran is only about an hour...$%^&@*&$
But it was exciting. Things that went through my head as I was doing the deep transect was:
At Transect 1: "Wah, the seafans and seawhips quite nice, ah."
At Transect 2: "Wow...the seafans are getting more colourful...ooohh and bigger too!"
At Transect 3: ".......I wonder why...."
At Transect 4: "BASKET BASKET BASKET BLARDI...............................HEEEeellLLLLlll...!!!"
As I let go of a rock I was hanging on for dear life, I flew...literally FLEW...back really fast....Almost banged into Tse-Lynn who also flew past me soon after.
Despite all that, we still managed to take a few photos. Hey, who could resist. We've decided at Buran is macrolife haven. Fighting against current, we bring you these photos that Tse-Lynn took:
Polyclad flatworm
Glossodoris atromarginata
Jerona funebris
And all this was taken in the midst of doing work and current...so can you imagine if you were doing a leisurely dive and had time to actually LOOK for things! HmmmMMmmm.....
The currents were so strong that we did not even manage to finish the shallow transects. Aborted dive halfway to find out that the next window to dive is at 5.45pm! Had to. Go dive. To retrieve. Back. The. Damn. Tapes. Shack-ness. I need massage...
SAINT JOHN'S REEF
Well, that was actually the more exciting half of the day...which was the second half. The morning dive at Saint John's reef was rather uneventful. Just helping Priscila do her stuff and then Tse-Lynn mucked about and took a few photos...Oh, forgot to mention that the vis was again...GREAT...about 2.5 to 3m. Slurp.
Anyway, although this part of Saint John's (near the jetty) is quite infested with Sargassum along its reef flat and reef crest, the reef slope area is rather free from it and can prove to be quite a pretty dive site. With many many nice corals and other friendly creatures!
Big big Diploastrea coral.
Bubble bubble bubble!!! Coral! BUBBLE CORAL! (Pleurogyra)
Witch's nose coral (Mycedium).
Ooohhh....Weapons UP!
Oh, and on the way to Buran Reef, we also saw THIS! A barely alive Trevally with a sizable chunk off its mouth area. Big shark. Big shark. Remember the rather larger remora the boatmen caught....Shark...Shark....Drool. Never seen one while diving in Singapore before. Mmmmmmm.......
The poor thing was barely alive...
¶ 11:17 pm 
But it was exciting. Things that went through my head as I was doing the deep transect was:
At Transect 1: "Wah, the seafans and seawhips quite nice, ah."
At Transect 2: "Wow...the seafans are getting more colourful...ooohh and bigger too!"
At Transect 3: ".......I wonder why...."
At Transect 4: "BASKET BASKET BASKET BLARDI...............................HEEEeellLLLLlll...!!!"
As I let go of a rock I was hanging on for dear life, I flew...literally FLEW...back really fast....Almost banged into Tse-Lynn who also flew past me soon after.
Despite all that, we still managed to take a few photos. Hey, who could resist. We've decided at Buran is macrolife haven. Fighting against current, we bring you these photos that Tse-Lynn took:
Polyclad flatworm
Glossodoris atromarginata
Jerona funebris
And all this was taken in the midst of doing work and current...so can you imagine if you were doing a leisurely dive and had time to actually LOOK for things! HmmmMMmmm.....
The currents were so strong that we did not even manage to finish the shallow transects. Aborted dive halfway to find out that the next window to dive is at 5.45pm! Had to. Go dive. To retrieve. Back. The. Damn. Tapes. Shack-ness. I need massage...
SAINT JOHN'S REEF
Well, that was actually the more exciting half of the day...which was the second half. The morning dive at Saint John's reef was rather uneventful. Just helping Priscila do her stuff and then Tse-Lynn mucked about and took a few photos...Oh, forgot to mention that the vis was again...GREAT...about 2.5 to 3m. Slurp.
Anyway, although this part of Saint John's (near the jetty) is quite infested with Sargassum along its reef flat and reef crest, the reef slope area is rather free from it and can prove to be quite a pretty dive site. With many many nice corals and other friendly creatures!
Big big Diploastrea coral.
Bubble bubble bubble!!! Coral! BUBBLE CORAL! (Pleurogyra)
Witch's nose coral (Mycedium).
Ooohhh....Weapons UP!
Oh, and on the way to Buran Reef, we also saw THIS! A barely alive Trevally with a sizable chunk off its mouth area. Big shark. Big shark. Remember the rather larger remora the boatmen caught....Shark...Shark....Drool. Never seen one while diving in Singapore before. Mmmmmmm.......
The poor thing was barely alive...
