Archive 2006

31st December 2006: It's never too late for the last dive of the year!

Wishing you all the best in 2007. I look forward to diving with you then.

Webmaster John

10th December 2006:  Labuan Diving: 

Notes from Kirstie Davidson

Kirstie is the daughter the old master himself, Maurice, who wrote Laut Brunei and drew the oft-plagiarised sketches of the Labuan wrecks. When we asked permission to use them on this site, he was amazed and said nobody had asked him before! Take a deep breath and read on ....

Another week bites the dust. Wasn't too bad a week too. Sunday I went out diving and had the best damn dive EVER! It was totally amazing and I'm not sure if it would sound good if explained but here goes. The first one was average, but on the way up me and my two dive buddies spotted this MASSIVE jellyfish, like bigger than a football, with stinging tentacles about five metres long, in every direction and God that scared me, but it was a beautiful thing to look at, it was so alien-like, with the jellyfish looking as though it was breathing and these long thin tentacles floating around it. That made that dive. And again, in between the dives, we did another rescue scenario thing where I was the unconscious victim. But this time, there was a bit of a swell so being dragged onto the boat wasn't so smooth and I was bashed around a bit. Anyway, the second dive started out fine. We got down to the shipwreck and were paddling around the stern of the boat when I spotted some cool fish. One was a trumpet-fish (use your imagination as to why its called that) and it let me get really close to it. I actually touched it! Then I saw a file fish, which is a really thin stretched fish that likes to think it looks like coral. So as I was trying to show my two buddies the fish, they were looking somewhere else, away from the wreck and were pointing to me to look the same way. I focused and could see small tuna fish darting around everywhere, chasing something too small to see. So we sorta just hovered there watching these fast fish when all of a sudden, a massive school, of about three million, small glass fish came round the corner of the wreck and we were engulfed in them. It was stunning! I was so excited I could help but squeal with delight. There were so many you couldn't see anything around you but fish, and when you stuck your hand out you could feel them swimming through your fingers. And it turned out they were being chased by bigger fish, the tuna fish. So this massive cloud of smaller fish went darting round us in total unison, it was amazing to watch. they went inside the wreck for cover then came back out and surrounded us again. And then even bigger fish, like a foot to two feet long came into the picture and were chasing the tuna fish as well as the small glass fish. It was a feeding frenzy, there were fish everywhere going completely mad. A few of them actually started attacking the side of the wreck, they were all going phsyco! It looked like something out of National Geographic, I cannot explain in words how breath-taking it was, the fish paid no attention to us, surrounded us, engulfed us. The three of us spent the whole dive just in that spot, watching this wonderful dance in front of us. The tuna fish would surround the ball of glass fish, concentrate them and one by one dart in and snatch their meal. Unfortunately we had to go as there was only so much air in our tanks, but all the way up we could see this act of cannibalism which I couldn't take my eyes off. And again, on the way up we saw another big jellyfish. Not as large as the first one but the tentacles were longer so we got out pretty sharply and were totally high after the dive, none of the guys on the boat could shut us up! Then we headed off to the Island for our **** stop, or as one of the divers called it, "nitrogen scavenging", he believes **** is good for you after a few dives; it homes in on any nitrogen bubbles and eliminates them. Sounds good to me! We were there for longer than normal because there was a big storm heading our way; we couldn't drive home in it so we waited for it to pass over. Wow it was great. It was PISSING it down, the wind was blowing...lighting was flashing and thunder was booming. Like a twister or storm movie! When it died down enough for us to drive home in, we went. But the sea was still quite rough, that was fun! I really enjoy going through seas like that, its adrenaline boosting I tell you! Yeh......

There was an article in the BBC News yesterday about young people and their inability to express themselves - they have to be kidding - Editor

Sunday 3rd December 2006:  Labuan Wrecks - The Salvage Continues

PSAC Calendar 2007

Thursday 23rd November 2006: Somewhere off the Belait

A small window between the weather and the Hobie Championships allowed us to get a 'splash and dash' after work on Thursday. The purpose was to complete Matt Newman's Dive Leader skills. It's amazing how far out you have to go to find 15 m, but somewhere near AMDP-3 we found the depth and threw in a shot. Expecting appalling vis., we were pleasantly surprised by the 6 - 7 metre clarity. (Paul and Shona the year before had zero vis!) Well done Matt for completing Dive Leader and thereby invoking his Open Water Instructor qualification. Many thanks to Evert who deputy marshalled and drove the boat.

Meanwhile an End of Year Report from Piasau with some excellent tips on equipment maintenance.

General Assembly of the ASEAN Confederation of Women's Organisations

 Bandar Seri Begawan:  17th - 19th November 2006

End-of-Season Diving

The weather is such that the club will not be announcing dives until next year. Diving out of Bandar is still a possibility due to their sheltered conditions, and we will keep the more experienced club members informed of these dives.

In the meantime, we will slip the 'Naga Laut' for annual maintenance and an overhaul of the steering. The new compressors have arrived and they will be installed during the next few months along with a redesign of the dive shed.

So although the boat may not be going out, there's plenty happening behind the scenes to maintain the overall health of the club.

News of the Yuho Maru

Our British correspondent, Terry Dukes, has turned up some new and exciting information about our 'home' wreck, the 'Yuho Maru' (that we used to call the 'Toho Maru'). At last, we have a real photograph of the ship!

(Translated from the original Japanese by Kosuke Nishi.)

'Yuho Maru' - Iino Kaiun (The name of the ship-owner, Iino is the name, Kaiun means Sea Shipment)  5,226 tons

The ship was hit by torpedo at 04deg 54min north, 114deg 07min east, approximately 35 kilometres NNE of Cape Baram, north west offshore Borneo, at 16:11 on 26th November 1944.  She was towed to Miri port and arrived there, but sank at 04:00 on 2nd December 1944. All the 26 personnel on board were killed by the torpedo hit.

Very interesting! The location is definitely that of our wreck, however, only the stern (aft of the stern mast on the picture) lies there. The ship must have broken in two as did her sister ship, the 'Nichinan Maru No.2' that was torpedoed north of the Spratleys 18 days earlier. The remainder of the ship may have been towed to Miri, however, the tanker's draft of seven metres or so would not allow it within three km of the beach. I suspect the wreck was grounded whilst the Japanese decided its fate. On 28th November, the American air force bombed the Miri Roads (offshore anchorage) and sank the Atago Maru. Perhaps realising that the bows contained precious fuel, the Japanese decided to tow it out of harm's way to Singapore. Along the way, the bows sank, for today they lie nearly 200 km east of Singapore. Amazingly, the two parts of the wreck lie just over 1,000 km apart!

5th November 2006:  USS Salute Salvage

The salvage of the USS Salute (The American Wreck at Labuan) continues. The stern cranes, for so many divers the landmark icon of the wreck, have been pulled over. Items from the crew's quarters are scattered across the decks and the starboard propeller has been cleared prior to removal. For so many years, this amazing shipwreck that has enthralled thousands of divers, is being pulled to pieces, a victim of the soaring price of scrap metal. An appeal by the Labuan dive operators has been sent to the relevant Ministers. 

Green Turtles and Hawksbill Turtles

Kapalai: October 2006

23rd September - 10th October 2006

Our boat "Naga Laut" has been repaired, however, the steering is scheduled for a major overhaul during the Winter months. It's a shame that the weather, the failure of our own boat and the Bandar club's "Down Under III" have all conspired to prevent us diving recently. That's five dives cancelled in the last three weeks! It's not just the loss of diving, but the income of around BND 2,000. It's been one of those years when the sea has never really achieved that glassy calmness that we all remember from previous years. Never mind, we've taken the time to attend to a few maintenance jobs and have mounted a safety line running from bow to stern of the boat; one of the recommendations from the last committee meeting. Best to look forward to the end of month spate of parties and start booking some diving holidays.

What's this? Each time we go out, we keep a record of who goes and how many dives are made. The spreadsheet gets a blue colour for a successful outing. A darker blue denotes that we went to a resort or Bandar. Grey is dive cancelled due to weather or boat malaise, and dark grey is when the web master gets fed up because nobody wanted to dive or there were no marshals. During the NE monsoon, we don't record weekends when it's rough because we don't even call the dives. This year, 2006, we started with Kapalai, and then didn't record a dive until the last weekend in March so persistent was the monsoon. Then came a glorious period until end June, since when, apart from the Kapalai trip in August, we've been beset by bad weather. We took several trips to Bandar where they have better shelter, but in the latter part of this year we've dived despite the weather rather than because of it. The last five cancelled dives are really sad to see. Normally our off-season is December to February with November and March being marginal. August is a bad squall month due to the SW monsoon, but when you get bad typhoon years (and they seem to be coming more often), then October is strongly affected by the winds. I hope that between the typhoons and the onset of the NE monsoon once again, we can squeeze out a few more trips.

16th September 2006: Porter West  N 4^o 53'.561   E  114^o 21'.293

Another new reef was dived on Saturday. Lying 20 n.miles from the Fairway buoy, one has to ask was the extra four miles over the Chearnley Ridges worthwhile, but, until you try it you'll never know! I think everybody enjoyed the dives, especially the drop-off from 17 - 25 metres on the east side of the reef. Sadly, it's the first reef I've seen in Brunei with extensive fish-bomb damage. The bleak areas of destroyed reef have been covered by a carpet of young stag-horn coral. I hope that this will establish a viable base for the future.

6th September 2006: Committee Meeting

The Panaga Sub-Aqua Club holds committee meetings every two months or more frequently when it is required. Rather than issue Newsletters, we will begin to rely on this web site as the communication medium. To comply with a recent audit, we will circulate safety notices by email and copy them to the safety page of the site. All other news and reports, other than the weekly dive announcements, will be put on the web site.

The main items of interest from the meeting were:-

The new compressors have arrived. It is planned to decommission the 12-year old, 22 cfm Hamworthy in favour of twin 9 cfm Bauers running into a storage bank. The whole dive shed will be re-organised and re-wired over the coming months, but this in no way will affect our regular diving. The objective of the change is to guarantee the club reliable and clean air, with minimised operational burden on the marshals, for the next ten years. Dive chit charges will be increased from 2007 to ensure that regular maintenance on the boat, the trailer and club equipment does not see the club fall into the red.

The saddest news is that Dave Outhwaite will leave us as Training Officer. His input over the last three years has been extraordinary and those that visited Truk Lagoon in 2005 owe the whole trip's organisation to Dave. His superb mastery of dive marshalling training events is an example to anybody who wishes to understand what the TO's job is all about. John Elder will become 'caretaker TO' over the Winter whilst Mark Steinhart, who recently joined us as an instructor from Oman, joins the committee as TO apparent.

As an extra-curricular activity, JIS has started dive training under the PADI system. Since this training applies to divers as young as 12-years old, as does the BSAC system, we have passed the following resolution. Divers of 14 - 17 years old may join the Panaga Sub-Aqua Club on dives, only if buddied on the dive by one of their parents. For a diver to act independently of their parents, they must be 18 years old. Queries on this subject should be directed to Steve Smith, who joins the committee as Welfare Officer.

3rd September 2006: Chearnley

Congratulations to Matt for completing his 100th dive (Evert just beat him to it in Kapalai), and to Kara for her return to diving after a maternity break.

26th & 27th August 2006:  Fairley-2

18th - 21st August 2006:  Kapalai / Sipadan

UK to NZ Charity Drive

How often do you see a UK-registered car in Brunei ??

23rd & 30th July 2006: Labuan Wrecks

30th July 2006: Again, a nasty swell and only one available marshal forced us up to Labuan. Not that much persuasion was needed after last week, and, once again, we had stunning visibility on the Australian and American Wrecks.

23rd July 2006: Despite dire prognoses from the weather forecasters, the Bandar divers knew of no such problems, and invited a group of us to come along and help fill their boat. The sea wasn't flat but nobody was ill and, at least, the Australian wreck is only six miles from the Muara cut. Once on site and the wreck shotted; we descended, and below 10 metres, everybody realised that today was special. Despite spring tides, the visibility was stunning and this notoriously murky wreck could be seen in detail. It was the best vis. of the year, and for many divers, the best ever on the Labuan wrecks! The Australian wreck's resident lionfish and barracudas were out and about in droves; or are they always there and we just don't see them? The Cement wreck was even better, and the resident stonefish was still in the same place as two weeks before.

Cement Wreck  23.07.06

Please remember that the committee of the club makes every effort to get the club out diving twice a weekend. This takes a large amount of time and effort on the part of the marshals in addition to the time spent maintaining the boat. If the weather is too rough for diving out of KB where we have no shelter, we always try to find alternatives, however, there are few. Sometimes other local clubs that have more sheltered water will invite us along.

15th - 17th July 2006:

A couple of curiosities were snapped during these dives:-

On Ch 'B' , an inverted anemone on a stick appears to be ejecting some sort of mucus, whilst on Ch 'F' (Gorgonian Ridge) a massive school of unidentified fry swarm around the photographer

July 2006:

Unseasonably bad weather has seen no dives at all out of the KBBC this month. Even in June, we had three weeks of diving 'despite the weather', and every dive was a race against incoming squalls and rain. Fortunately, the extra shelter enjoyed by the Bandar club has allowed them to get out, and Dave, John and Nick have taken full advantage of this and have enjoyed some stunning dives on the Labuan wrecks over the last two weekends.

We've lost a number of committee members:-    Paul and Shona have departed                                                                           Jason Taylor is about to depart                                                                         Dave Outhwaite will stand down as Training Officer

However, the club tradition of procuring 'volunteers' is maintained:-

                                                                        Kara Shepherd takes over as Treasurer

                                                                        and Adrian White takes over as Secretary

Congratulations are in order. The visit of Sophie and Chris, the BSAC National Instructors, was very successful and Niall Horan, Evert Moes, Matt Newman passed their Open Water Instructor exams. This replenishment of instructors is vital to the continued success of the club. In a period of 18 months, we will have lost seven instructors, however, five divers passed their OWI exams and we received an instructor on transfer. It's all swings and roundabouts. 

Marshals are another critical resource and at the moment we have only:- Mark, Dave, John and Niall with Evert and Matt awaiting ratification and completion of their Dive Leader courses. Mind you, that's a far cry, and a great improvement on the two marshals we had in 2002 - 2003. 

We're very grateful to Bengi, our Social Secretary, for arranging two such excellent parties in as many weeks.

June 2006: Whaleshark spotted at BIMA Rig

Weekend 3rd/4th June 2006

From your Correspondent in Holland

One day (and the statistics support this), you may be transferred to Holland instead of those well-known diving centres, Perth and Sakhalin. Don't despair. The Dutch enjoy sports uniquely unsuited to their environment, and to this end, mountaineering and diving are extremely popular. I wrote about my experiences in Holland last year, and I decided to add a write-up for this year. Comparing the two accounts, you'll notice that there's a marked similarity between them. I guess the dives are a bit samey, but there's a whole bundle of other dive sites to investigate.

The great fear of the newcomer to cold water diving is "Won't I get cold? Is there anything to see?" With modern dry-suits, cold is banished and, in fact, the suits are flexible, warm and comfortable even out of the water, where wet-suits fail miserably. In Vinkeveen, there's monster pike and large perch and apparently, at the moment, the cuttlefish are laying their eggs all over the piers of Zeelandbrug. Sure; there's lots to see, but there's more of a challenge to the whole sport, and for some, that's the appeal. If you can dive in Holland, you can dive anywhere! Tot ziens, JE.

Sunday 7th May 2006:  Chearnley Ridge and the Boilers

Large jellyfish (Cyanea sp.,) towing tentacles of several metres were present shallow, and the shot-line rapidly became covered in their broken parts.

Saturday 29th April 2006:  AMRJ01

Sunday 23rd April 2006:  Fairley Patches

Saturday 22nd April 2006:  Training Day at Chearnley Shoals

A good start to the weekend with nearly a full boat on Saturday for a training dive to Chearnley Shoals. As usual, Dave's master plan was carried out with enthusiasm and success. The scenarios were particularly realistic with Adrian excelling in the part of the comatose diver. Many thanks to the instructors and students for their efforts.

Saturday 15^th April:  AMDP-17

Sunday 9^th April:  AMDP-10

Thanks to Shona for the write-up and pictures.

Sunday 26th March:  Season starts at AMWJ-23

The first giant frog fish (Antennarius commersonii) to be spotted on the platforms    

Meanwhile a helicopter pilot from the Falklands visits the Usukan Bay wrecks ....

Tuesday 21st March:  Whale stranded at Panaga Beach

Short-finned Pilot Whale   Globicephala macrorhynchus

Saturday 18th March:  Boat launched - Season begins

Congratulations to Niall Horan, Dive Section Chairman who has taken over from Bob Green as Commodore of the Boat Club.

The change of season is apparent to those that use the beach. Suddenly there is a wide beach in the evening and local fisherman are busy netting the swarms of 'glass shrimp' that move down the coast at this time of year. This has not been lost on the local whale sharks and one was beached (and fortunately re-floated) near Tutong last week. There's not been a good sighting of a whale shark by Panaga Divers since 1990. However, remember the cautionary tale of Francis Maube, the Schlumberger Manager. He spent a fortune to travel to the Ningaloo Reefs of NW Australia where whale sharks are guaranteed, almost always, but not apparently that time! While he was away, Simon Cartmer saw and dived with a whale shark off Miri!

Friday 10th March:  AGM  and Start of Season BBQ

An excellent AGM was chaired by Niall Horan in a characteristically focused 20 minutes that covered the five-year plan as well. The AGM was followed by the best attended club BBQ ever. The Relevant Authorities gave a superb performance as 45 friends and members watched and danced. There's a bundle of energy in the club and we need to get to sea as soon as possible! Of the three vacancies, the position of Social Secretary was handed over to Bengisu Koksaloglu. The positions of Treasurer and Secretary remain to be filled since Shona and Paul will leave before mid-year. These positions are critical to the club since they are mandatory BSAC requirements.

Everybody takes the finances and membership of the club for granted; that is probably the highest praise that can be given to Shona and Paul. Anyone taking on the positions has the luxury of a full hand-over. Please don't volunteer at the last minute. If you want to understand the job descriptions, please look at BSAC's web site.

Many thanks to Liz and Roy Buchan for hosting the event and their house, the Relevant Authorities for the great music, and to Bengi and the absent Kath Silva for their work in organising the evening.

Download the Latest Newsletter:  (1 Mbyte)

If you're impatient to get back in the rapidly calming seas, give us another week. We've repaired the minor chips in the hull and hope to get the boat resprayed. Then we'll be set for the season's diving. Meanwhile, Piasau and Bandar have their boats in the water and should be planning to go out this weekend.

25th February 2006: Stan's Working Party and Shrimp Boil

 Well done to all those that turned up on Saturday and many thanks to Stan for his excellent hospitality.

* from Jerome K. Jerome's 'Three Men in a Boat'.  “Throw the lumber over man. Let your boat of life be light, packed with only what you need. A homely home and simple pleasures, one or two friends worth the name, someone to love and someone to love you, a cat, a dog; enough to eat and enough to wear, and a little more than enough to drink, for thirst is a dangerous thing.”

February 2006:   The Sea, the Cruel Sea

or rather the effects of the Northeast monsoon, our annual nemesis that is with us well and truly. However, within a few weeks it should blow itself out and we can return to diving once again. Piasau are bravely advertising diving for this coming weekend, however, the advice to take seasickness pills says it all. The Bandar boat and our own 'Naga Laut' are high and dry. Congratulations to Stan and his team of worthies who stripped the hull back to the gel coat. It looks good and with a little patching may last another season. Meanwhile Evert has repaired the Bauer compressor so we have access to compressed air, albeit in small doses. The Hamworthy will be replaced by twin 9 cfm Bauers complete with a bottle bank shared with the Garrison Club. This was a major effort of negotiation by Niall Horan and Jim Bray. Well done. We should see the results in May.

Meanwhile, Dave is organising the season's first Sports Diver course, an essential element for the long-term health of the club. Last year we lost five instructors out of 8, but registered another two. Unfortunately, the latter are likely to leave Brunei in the near future leaving us with three active instructors. This will also leave a big hole in the committee, so at the AGM we may well be casting around for the positions of Secretary and Treasurer.

January 2006:  Kapalai, Sipadan and Mabul

Off Season 2006

You will have noticed that the 'Naga Laut' has been pulled from the river. No mean achievement when some of the jetty vanished in the Winter 'king tides', and the winch was out-of-action. The boat engines have been serviced, and we await a hull inspection before proceeding with any re-painting or replacement of the gel coat. Both compressors are out-of-action. The 3 cfm Bauer awaits a simple spare part, however, the 22 cfm Hamworthy, the club's main compressor, seriously needs a major overhaul. The compressor is now in its 13th year and a solution may be to replace it.

The new committee is in place and we have had our first meeting. Certainly, the new members have already voiced their opinions and, most importantly, have backed up the words with actions. That's what we like to see!

Meanwhile, it rains and it storms, but who cares, the boat's out of the water and we're off on holiday to more sheltered climes.

On a more serious note, Doug Bell leaves us this month having at last agreed to transfer from paradise to a mosquito-infested frozen bog, or Sakhalin-by-the-Sea as HR call it. Soon there will be a farewell for him; there's not much time left. On behalf of the Diving Section, we would like to thank Doug very much for his leadership, that in no little way contributed to the club being awarded the BSAC Duke of Edinburgh Prize. We wish Niall Horan all the best as the incoming Chairman.

The New Committee for 2006