April 20-24, live-on-board trip to Anambas with the famous MV Vincent and it has never been of any suffering at all.........you know, the usual living on - board scares, ...sea sick......cannot sleep well...... ......boat wobbling every now and then...........not a sweat with this 66 footer.

First stop : Seven Skies Wreck (21/4)

Located 220km Northeast of Singapore. Maximum depth is around 200-230ft with the top point of the wreck, the funnel of a super tanker, sitting upright at around 85ft. My first dive and a challenging one with slight currents. Hit a max of 142ft and averaging at 80ft (according to the divecom). Vis was around 30-40ft. Luckily, the funnel provides some shelter from the current and it has beautiful corals encrusting her sides with fishes darting in and out the various openings.   During descending, all divers were greeted by a huge school of Batfishes from all around my sight (360 degrees)! Good pelagic life, corals, with windows and doors make for entertaining swimthroughs for which the inside are Stonefishes' haven. Unfortunately, as I descend deeper, signs of dynamite-fishing taunted the dive. Dead fishes of huge sizes, mainly Travalies and Jacks, can be seen lying around at horizontal surfaces. Although there's still schools of such huge Travelies, Jacks, and an occasional Giant Barracudas cruising around, it was still a very sad sight. And so the resident Manta was gone as well.......no luck! #@%&!!!

Right pic : Yeah!!! Maybe next time..............

Bottom pic : This batfish just passes right infront of my cheapo cam!

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Right (1) : Counting...

Right (2) : Threesome...

will get more pics.....

Next stop : Gosong Margesson (Jemaja) - (21/4)

As the name implies, "Gosong"...........almost Kosong (empty)!!! This is very much a trial site and max depth was just around 55ft and I averaged around 35ft for not hitting the sandy bottom. Vis was okay at 50ft and all that it contains are the general marine lifes and nothing spectacular. Spent only 28 mins underwater before surfacing. Good in a way that I can saved some shots for the main event (the rigs!!!).

Next stop : Pulau Ipan (Jemaja, near coast lines) - (21/4)

Although this site is still within the vicinity of Jemaja Island, down here was much better than the last site. This is also a trial site (first time for everybody) and is ideal for shallow diving after the 142ft hit! Max depth is 50ft and the average is around 30ft. Vis at 45ft so no complain lah.............general marine lifes, couple of white tips (reef shark), turtles, stonefishes  were sighted and it has a better spread of soft and hard corals. Did not waste too much shots here either..............actually, I didn't bring the cam down!!!

This site is also where I did a night dive. Yes....oh yes.....it has been a long long time.........since my last night dive and I really glad that I did it! Couple of huge stingrays were sighted and wait for this, a huge turtle measuring the size of a human was "resting" on a boulder and..........a bit scary lah! Imagine only a narrow beam of your touch sweeping the surrounding and there she is, with huge eyes staring at you! And the usual, shrimps underneath the boulders sum up the dive and also an eventful day. Max depth : 55ft, average : 35ft and most of all, WARM waters!

Main stop : Udang Oil Rigs (22/4)

Finally, after some 18hrs of travelling, we arrived at Udang Oil Rigs. It is Located 440 km Northeast of Singapore. Maximum depth here according to the records is 270ft. Was told that the best diveable depth ranges between 100ft to the surface. This is known to be one of the best dive locations within the region, and fast becoming a popular site despite the effort required to get here. Untouched for years these abandoned oil with lifeboats, satellite dishes and even the fire extinguishers are still in place. There is even a Helicopter landing pad. However, from what I see, the rusty structures may not last as long as it appears to be. With some debris seen underwater, resting at the pillars. There are actually two rigs in the area Udang A and Udang B.

The challenging part of this dive is that potentially it could be hazardous as the visibility is too good. You'll naturally descend deeper and deeper without noticing your gauge already hit triple figures! There's some current at different stages and there is very little shelter from the current (if its running) and it is easy to get washed away from the rig. Looking at all the pillars that just disappear into the blue is kind of eerie. On the southern side of one of the rigs there is a line running from the rig itself to something at the bottom (don’t know what) but it was probably used by the rig divers as a descent line (was told).

Udang A : Max depth - 121ft, averaging 63ft  (2nd dive - 118ft, 75ft) with vis of 40-60ft. Extremely large schools of huge jacks, travalies, batfishes and barracudas were commonly sighted. The barracudas (averaging about 1m in length) forms a spectacular wall. The groupers and snappers looks much smaller around here. The pillars are decorated with mostly soft tree corals.

Udang B : Max depth - 94ft, averaging 55ft with vis of 40-50ft. Marine lifes are almost similar to Udang A but schools of Mackerel (same family) can be seen here. Apart from that would be some emperor angels. I think the pictures speaks a thousand words.

Return route : Seven Skies Wreck (23/4 morning)

Max depth : 121ft, average : 70ft, vis : 35-50ft. Current was stronger during the return leg to this tanker. The second chance of sighting the resident Manta was once again ended in much disappointment.

Return route : Aur / Dayang (23/4)

Again, after the morning's deep diving, it is time for some shallow depth to release some "gases".....

Dayang - Captain's Point   - Max depth : 87ft, average : 48ft, vis is around 30-40ft. Located at the Northern tip of Dayang. Did a drift dive towards Telok Jawa, no descend line and waiting to be picked up after surfacing. 

Aur - Pinnacles - Max depth : 54ft, average : 39ft, vis ~ 25-40ft. Located on the Southeast side of Aur. We skipped Rayner's Rock (recent sightings of a 3m wingspan Manta) for the fact that the tide is low and besides, sighting the Manta has been all talks by the various dive shops in Singapore. Nevermind lah!!! Anyway, this dive here is probably the best one I have done at Pinnacles. The pinnacles are formed by 3 large rocks that lie just below the surface and have wonderful arrays of barracuda (Giant, in pairs), moray eels, large populations of fusilers and damsels, beautiful sea-fans and corals. Last dive surfaced around 1900 hrs and MV Vincent headed home (24/4).

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