Just got back from a 2D/1N trip on our daytrip boat, the MV Camic. Diving on the Camic is a completely different experience than diving on Peter Pan. The Camic stays out at sea the entire time (it must dock at some point, but I don't know when). So in order to get there, you go out from mainland on a speedboat, which takes not only customers, but also fuel, food, tanks, and whatever else might be needed. In order to make it there for the first dive, we have to leave mainland early, which means arriving at the diveshop at 7am. Breakfast at 7/11, some coffee, and we're off!
Riding the speedboat is an experience in and of itself. I've done it before, albeit for smaller periods. For the week that I was in Perhentian back in April I was riding back and forth on a small speedboat every day to get to and from Perhentian Kecil (where I was staying) to Perhentian Besar (where the diveshop was). That took about 10 minutes, and at 8 in the morning, it was a good way to wake up (not just by the wind, but mainly by the bumps on waves and water sprays every once in a while). So I was expecting a bumpy ride, especially since we were going through open water all the way to Koh Tachai. The crew usually stays in the front, which is nice for the wind and sunshine, but is also the place that bumps the most. It was a fun ride nonetheless, and we made it to the Camic in about an hour. We then went about the business of helping passengers onto the boat, and unloading all the boxes.
The one big difference about the Camic is how fast everything has to happen. We arrived at around 9:30am, and the first dive was scheduled for 10:30am. That gave us an hour to unload everything, set up all the equipment (customers' and our own), have some food, find our guests, brief them on the first dive, gear up and get in the water. I still feel like I'm in the way a lot of the time, especially in a boat that I don't know well, with crew that I don't know at all. But I did my part in finding boxes, finding free tanks, setting up the equipment and testing everything. We then went to meet our customers, two british guys (father and son), a vietnamese friend of theirs, and a girl from North Ireland. A nice group all in all, everyone at around 20 dives.
First dive was at Tachai Reef, which I'd done just once before (on the storm trip). Koen briefed our group on the dive site and dive procedures, and then informed me that I was guiding. Gulp. I mean, I know that it's a pretty easy dive site: just follow the reef with the current, try and find things in the bommies, and do a safety stop wherever when one of your divers gets to 50 bar. Still, I was nervous.
Turns out there was little to be nervous about, other than the fact that I couldn't find ANYTHING. At one point I resorted to pointing out parrotfish and glass fish. I tried to look in cracks and in the sand, but there was never anything there! Koen was helpful (as always!) and pointed out a triggerfish and a couple of other things, but still, I'm sure there was a lot that I missed. We got to the end of the reef and found a stronger current against us, so I shallowed up a bit and swam back the way we'd come. Came up after the safety stop and the Camic was right there (yay!). And to my surprise, all the divers were perfectly happy with the parrotfish and glassfish :-)
Second dive was on the Tachai Pinnacle, which I adore. Still feel a little confused as to where I am (the whole circular thing seems easy in theory, but I get frustrated when I don't know exactly where I am). This time I did the briefing, and it went surprisingly well, compared to the ones I did in my last trip at Peter Pan. I think the fact that we were just all sitting around a table looking at a book and chatting, as opposed to sitting in front of 15 people with a big board, helped a lot. I'd studied up where we were going to be dropped off and what we were going to do, so when we got in the water, I looked down to see where the pinnacle was. And there it was... Right over the pinnacle, this big, beautiful Manta ray, just chilling, swimming around! So Koen and I started yelling at our customers to get ready and come down, and as I started deflating, I noticed that, in his excitement, one of our customers had forgotten to put on his regulater and was already deflating! Dude, put your reg in!! Luckily he heard me, and put it on. We started our "chase" for the big manta, which was of course against the current. Made it to the top of the pinnacle and around a bit, and there it was... So beautiful! I love the way they just glide effortlessly through the water... We hung around it for a bit, until it swam away, and Koen handed off the guiding back to me. Ok, manta's gone... What can I find that could possibly be of any interest after that?? I did my best, and actually found some cool things, and as I was pointing out a banded cleaner shrimp (I think!), there it was again! Hanging out just over the little cave where the shrimp was. Forget the shrimp, look at the big Manta just two meters away! On that dive I also managed to spot nudibranches, but in all fairness, who cares? I had two divers running out of air already, probably due to all the excitement and to our swim against the current in the beginning, so Koen stayed down with the other two and I came up for the safety stop. Just under 30 minutes, but such an amazing 30 minutes! Everyone was soooo excited. Including me... I've seen Mantas once before (three of them at Bali), but never this close or this big (around 4m, I think)!
Our group decided on a sunset dive instead of a night dive, so we got ready for the third dive of the day, again at the pinnacle. I was really hoping to see the Manta again, but it was already gone. It was a lovely dive anyways, practically no currents, and so many fish! A big school of barracudas (which Koen later informed me that was much bigger than we actually saw), a moray eel just chilling outside its hole, lionfish, a scorpionfish (which was really well camouflaged and made me really proud to have spotted it!) and a bunch of other things. This dive was comfortable and uneventful, everyone followed me (for a change!), and when two divers got to 50 bar, after 30 minutes, we broke up the group again and came up for the safety stop.
First dive the next day was again at Tachai Pinnacle, but this time there was a stronger current. I usually don't mind currents when I'm following someone, it's pretty easy to just drift with and check out whatever your guide is pointing out to you. When you're guiding, however, it's a whole different story. First off, it's really hard to point out something when you're just flying past it. Second, your customers keep bumping into each other and into you. Third, you have to figure out where the current is heading, and figure out where you can get away from it. It's a lot to think about, and the worst part is that it looks so easy when you're looking at an experienced instructor guiding a group. I did manage to point out a lionfish to the Irish girl, who had missed it the previous day, and when I turned around to check people's air after 10 minutes, one of them was already at 100 bar! So I tried to shallow up, but ended up going the wrong way (yeah, I was actually going AWAY from the hard-to-miss giant rock that is the pinnacle). I corrected course, and Koen stayed down with the other three divers, while I came up with one. Definitely a learning experience. I really need to work on guiding with currents. Koen gave me some tips on that when we were on the boat, we'll see what happens the next time.
After that, the daytrippers arrived, and we got one new customer to our group, a really nice guy from Scotland. Problem was, we also got a bunch of other people, and there wasn't enough room for everyone to set up on the dive deck! So I was going to miss out on diving at Richelieu Rock. In all fairness, I was a bit disappointed (I mean, it's Richelieu Rock, my favorite diving spot!), but as I'll be heading back there soon on the next liveaboard we're on, it wasn't really that big of a deal. So I stayed on the boat and helped out changing a burst o-ring from one of the tanks, handing out a weight belt to a diver that had lost it, throwing the rope to divers when it was wavy and dangerous to hang onto the dive deck, and just generally fooling around with the boat boys (who are usually really fun!). I also washed and packed my equipment on a nice calm dive deck, which was a good change from the craziness that usually follows the last dive.
Due to the choppy water, strong wind and sheer number of people and gear to manage, we ended up leaving the Camic a little (a LOT, actually!) later than normal, and only managed to make it back to land at around 7pm. Back to the office, and after a chat with David and a couple of drinks with Alex, I headed back home for a good night's sleep. Still not sure if we'll be on the next liveaboard or not, but there's a lot still to be done on land, a possible rescue course and, who knows, maybe a couple more day trips onboard the Camic!
Riding the speedboat is an experience in and of itself. I've done it before, albeit for smaller periods. For the week that I was in Perhentian back in April I was riding back and forth on a small speedboat every day to get to and from Perhentian Kecil (where I was staying) to Perhentian Besar (where the diveshop was). That took about 10 minutes, and at 8 in the morning, it was a good way to wake up (not just by the wind, but mainly by the bumps on waves and water sprays every once in a while). So I was expecting a bumpy ride, especially since we were going through open water all the way to Koh Tachai. The crew usually stays in the front, which is nice for the wind and sunshine, but is also the place that bumps the most. It was a fun ride nonetheless, and we made it to the Camic in about an hour. We then went about the business of helping passengers onto the boat, and unloading all the boxes.
The one big difference about the Camic is how fast everything has to happen. We arrived at around 9:30am, and the first dive was scheduled for 10:30am. That gave us an hour to unload everything, set up all the equipment (customers' and our own), have some food, find our guests, brief them on the first dive, gear up and get in the water. I still feel like I'm in the way a lot of the time, especially in a boat that I don't know well, with crew that I don't know at all. But I did my part in finding boxes, finding free tanks, setting up the equipment and testing everything. We then went to meet our customers, two british guys (father and son), a vietnamese friend of theirs, and a girl from North Ireland. A nice group all in all, everyone at around 20 dives.
First dive was at Tachai Reef, which I'd done just once before (on the storm trip). Koen briefed our group on the dive site and dive procedures, and then informed me that I was guiding. Gulp. I mean, I know that it's a pretty easy dive site: just follow the reef with the current, try and find things in the bommies, and do a safety stop wherever when one of your divers gets to 50 bar. Still, I was nervous.
Turns out there was little to be nervous about, other than the fact that I couldn't find ANYTHING. At one point I resorted to pointing out parrotfish and glass fish. I tried to look in cracks and in the sand, but there was never anything there! Koen was helpful (as always!) and pointed out a triggerfish and a couple of other things, but still, I'm sure there was a lot that I missed. We got to the end of the reef and found a stronger current against us, so I shallowed up a bit and swam back the way we'd come. Came up after the safety stop and the Camic was right there (yay!). And to my surprise, all the divers were perfectly happy with the parrotfish and glassfish :-)
Second dive was on the Tachai Pinnacle, which I adore. Still feel a little confused as to where I am (the whole circular thing seems easy in theory, but I get frustrated when I don't know exactly where I am). This time I did the briefing, and it went surprisingly well, compared to the ones I did in my last trip at Peter Pan. I think the fact that we were just all sitting around a table looking at a book and chatting, as opposed to sitting in front of 15 people with a big board, helped a lot. I'd studied up where we were going to be dropped off and what we were going to do, so when we got in the water, I looked down to see where the pinnacle was. And there it was... Right over the pinnacle, this big, beautiful Manta ray, just chilling, swimming around! So Koen and I started yelling at our customers to get ready and come down, and as I started deflating, I noticed that, in his excitement, one of our customers had forgotten to put on his regulater and was already deflating! Dude, put your reg in!! Luckily he heard me, and put it on. We started our "chase" for the big manta, which was of course against the current. Made it to the top of the pinnacle and around a bit, and there it was... So beautiful! I love the way they just glide effortlessly through the water... We hung around it for a bit, until it swam away, and Koen handed off the guiding back to me. Ok, manta's gone... What can I find that could possibly be of any interest after that?? I did my best, and actually found some cool things, and as I was pointing out a banded cleaner shrimp (I think!), there it was again! Hanging out just over the little cave where the shrimp was. Forget the shrimp, look at the big Manta just two meters away! On that dive I also managed to spot nudibranches, but in all fairness, who cares? I had two divers running out of air already, probably due to all the excitement and to our swim against the current in the beginning, so Koen stayed down with the other two and I came up for the safety stop. Just under 30 minutes, but such an amazing 30 minutes! Everyone was soooo excited. Including me... I've seen Mantas once before (three of them at Bali), but never this close or this big (around 4m, I think)!
Our group decided on a sunset dive instead of a night dive, so we got ready for the third dive of the day, again at the pinnacle. I was really hoping to see the Manta again, but it was already gone. It was a lovely dive anyways, practically no currents, and so many fish! A big school of barracudas (which Koen later informed me that was much bigger than we actually saw), a moray eel just chilling outside its hole, lionfish, a scorpionfish (which was really well camouflaged and made me really proud to have spotted it!) and a bunch of other things. This dive was comfortable and uneventful, everyone followed me (for a change!), and when two divers got to 50 bar, after 30 minutes, we broke up the group again and came up for the safety stop.
First dive the next day was again at Tachai Pinnacle, but this time there was a stronger current. I usually don't mind currents when I'm following someone, it's pretty easy to just drift with and check out whatever your guide is pointing out to you. When you're guiding, however, it's a whole different story. First off, it's really hard to point out something when you're just flying past it. Second, your customers keep bumping into each other and into you. Third, you have to figure out where the current is heading, and figure out where you can get away from it. It's a lot to think about, and the worst part is that it looks so easy when you're looking at an experienced instructor guiding a group. I did manage to point out a lionfish to the Irish girl, who had missed it the previous day, and when I turned around to check people's air after 10 minutes, one of them was already at 100 bar! So I tried to shallow up, but ended up going the wrong way (yeah, I was actually going AWAY from the hard-to-miss giant rock that is the pinnacle). I corrected course, and Koen stayed down with the other three divers, while I came up with one. Definitely a learning experience. I really need to work on guiding with currents. Koen gave me some tips on that when we were on the boat, we'll see what happens the next time.
After that, the daytrippers arrived, and we got one new customer to our group, a really nice guy from Scotland. Problem was, we also got a bunch of other people, and there wasn't enough room for everyone to set up on the dive deck! So I was going to miss out on diving at Richelieu Rock. In all fairness, I was a bit disappointed (I mean, it's Richelieu Rock, my favorite diving spot!), but as I'll be heading back there soon on the next liveaboard we're on, it wasn't really that big of a deal. So I stayed on the boat and helped out changing a burst o-ring from one of the tanks, handing out a weight belt to a diver that had lost it, throwing the rope to divers when it was wavy and dangerous to hang onto the dive deck, and just generally fooling around with the boat boys (who are usually really fun!). I also washed and packed my equipment on a nice calm dive deck, which was a good change from the craziness that usually follows the last dive.
Due to the choppy water, strong wind and sheer number of people and gear to manage, we ended up leaving the Camic a little (a LOT, actually!) later than normal, and only managed to make it back to land at around 7pm. Back to the office, and after a chat with David and a couple of drinks with Alex, I headed back home for a good night's sleep. Still not sure if we'll be on the next liveaboard or not, but there's a lot still to be done on land, a possible rescue course and, who knows, maybe a couple more day trips onboard the Camic!
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