Archive 2005 2004

Once a topic or dive has been aired in the 'Latest News' page, is it placed into its correct category. A few topics, however, are 'one-offs' or special events. These reside forever on the Archive page.

December 2005 - End of Season

This poster is displayed by the Panaga Swimming Pool

The end of season BBQ was a great success, despite many alternative parties and temptations. Dale Chenery was presented with Maurice Davidson’s Book “Laut Brunei”, and it was announced that Paul Harrison had been officially ratified as BSAC Open Water Instructor 4667, and Shona MacDonald as OWI 4668. Congratulations, and many thanks to Kath Silva who organised the evening.

The season is changing. The weather forecast shows, for the first time this year, the winds and seas building up consistently from the Northeast. This would appear to be the start of the NE monsoon and it heralds the end of our diving season. The Bandar club may get out occasionally in the shelter of Labuan, but for most of us, the next diving will be the club’s trip to Kapalai in January 2006.

Early next year, the boat will be pulled out of the water for the application of a new gel coat. If you have been down to the KBBC recently, you’ll see that over a period of time, the ‘Naga Laut’ develops a distinct list to starboard, so there must be a small leak that needs to be remedied.

The New Year will see a very changed committee. The Boat Officer, Justin Peer, has already left and the Equipment Officer, Dale Chenery and Chairman, Doug Bell will leave soon. Since we have no natural specialists available, the committee decided to lump Boat and Equipment together under Stan Groff as focal point for a team comprising Jim Bray, Jason Taylor and Evert Moes. The new chairman will be announced shortly.

2nd November 2005:  Buckingham Palace

19th September 2005

"The crew are the heroes, the heroine is the ship; the only villain is the sea, the cruel sea that man has made more cruel."

Nicholas Monsarrat

If not exactly cruel, the southerly force 10 that passed through Fairley on Saturday morning and pulled the seas up over four metres was distinctly nasty. A good call on a particularly accurate weather forecast precluded any diving for the weekend. It's this early and vigorous typhoon season that's the problem. Although Sabah is famously known as "The Land below the Wind", lying as it does south of the typhoon belt, these monstrous circular storms drag in air from 1000's of kilometres away, spinning off squalls and general turbulence. You might not have noticed, but at high tide on Saturday morning, a 20 cm storm surge allowed Jalan Utara to flood near the Sungei Seria, and waves were lapping over the top of the bund wall.

On a positive note, the BSAC Sports Diver training at the new venue of the Megamass pool was a great success as nine divers were instructed in sheltered water rescue skills. Many thanks to Megamass for use of the pool.

30th August 2005 - Panaga Divers in the News again !

From World Expo 2005 in Aichi, Japan, comes this photograph from today's Borneo Bulletin. Notice someone familiar by the right ear of the tallest gentleman? Click on the picture to check it out.

Indeed, none other than our old DO, Steve Holyoak. The slide comes from our original presentation to Management in November 2002.

27th August 2005 - Panaga Divers does it again

On the 25th July 1993 at 15.26, John Elder and Beverley Howe of the Panaga Sub-Aqua Club located, dived and identified a lost seismic cable. The discovery earned the gratitude of Halliburton Geophysical Services whose expensive cable had been dragged into the Belait River by an errant fishing boat. A report on the discovery earned us top letter in Diver magazine.

History repeats itself !  Today's dive on Chearnley Shoals was punctuated by a repeated SECURITE message broadcast by BSP. A three km seismic cable had 'got lost' and was drifting eastwards from Iron Duke. Being 20 miles to the west we payed nothing more than the usual attention to such a message. Returning to KB, about three miles from the fairway, we noticed a strange inverted orange craft. On inspection it looked awfully like a tail-buoy from a seismic streamer. We alerted VSL and were put in contact with SMR who quickly mobilised the pilot vessel 'Sarah' to investigate. Thanks to GPS, we were able to re-position the dive boat right beside the buoy and guide the 'Sarah' onto it. Indeed, for the second time in 12 years, Panaga Divers have discovered a lost seismic cable.

14th - 18th August 2005:  Trip to Malapascua, Cebu, Philippines

Thresher Shark, Monad Shoals, Cebu   06.34 16th August 2005

Over two weeks, seven members and friends of Panaga visited the Malapascua Exotic Island and Beach Resort located at the north end of Cebu in the Philippines. The first two divers were unlucky, the weather, flight delays and a number of circumstances acted against them, nevertheless they had good dives. For the group of five that followed the week later, everything just fell into place, and I can honestly say that I enjoyed some of my best ever diving here.

6th August 2005

21st July 2005

It always good to hear from ex-members of the club. 

"Great dive sites; shame about the crowds!"

3rd - 8th July 2005:  Trip to Luconia Shoalls and Louisa Reef

7th - 14th February 2005:  Truk Lagoon

 

 

 

 

 

19th December 2004 - End of the Season

 

When the boat is dragged reluctantly from the Belait River, then it's a sign that diving has finished for the season.      Statistics: (% improvement over 2003) It’s been a great year that has seen 1184 (16%) dives; the fourth highest total in the club’s history. In total, 66 dives were advertised, four were cancelled due to boat malaise, eight were cancelled and two aborted due to bad weather, making 52 (33%) dive trips in all. 711 dives (18%) were made from Kuala Belait, and 473 on expeditions (14%).    On 13th December, John Elder stood down as Diving Officer after two and a half years. “I feel that the club is on a roll. We achieved our goal of maturing a solid team of instructors and marshals to run the club’s diving, and I hope that Mark Tuttle, the incoming Diving Officer and the Committee, will build upon this success in the future.”

 

 

 

2nd October 2004

 

Well done Dave !! Not an easy call, particularly after the storms on Friday, but the declining sea-state made it worth, at least, going out. To everybody's credit, although the marshal phoned around and explained the situation; "lumpy seas and the chance of aborting the dive", everybody volunteered to come along. It was worth it too, although the expression "atmospheric dive" is so often a euphemism for dreadful visibility. And dreadful it was, with a raging current down to about 12 metres, after which the vis. opened up to about 20 metres and the current diminished, although never really went away. We solved the problem of ascents and safety stops by rigging cunning shot and transfer lines.   A turtle was seen on AMDP-27 and the picture right gives a clear indication of the near-surface conditions. Very green, very fast, very typically Baram water. The divers hold onto the transfer line, for the current is too strong to swim against.

 

 

5th September 2004:  AMDP17

 

Sometimes, it’s not just the diving, but the people who go diving that make it such fun. Terry and Tracy are such a couple, and we have to thank Tracy for insisting that we dived on AMDP-17; and I quote this well-travelled PADI Course Director, “One of the World’s best dive sites”!   PADI insist that their instructors should not just look after the welfare of their charges underwater, but on the surface as well, and Tracy’s verbatim rendition of the Cucumber Man advertisements had us amazed. We said to Terry, “you don’t need a car radio, you can just listen to Tracy”.   They will soon be leaving Brunei. This will reduce the active PADI instructors in the country from two to zero. They were driving the BSADC hard, and their enthusiasm will be very difficult to replace. They’ll be moving to their old haunt in the Philippines, and Panaga Divers wish them all the very best. Read all about their exploits on their excellent web site.   Terry and Tracy in the Philippines, 2003.