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Please see the requirements for joining and diving with the Panaga Sub Aqua Club - Diving Requirements

Early start due to the need to beat the lunchtime low tide back to the boat club. Groans all around. However, sleepy heads were soon cleared as 9 divers headed into the blackening storms over Chearnley Shoals. Thankfully, as is so often the case in these parts, the squall had blown over by the time the dive site was reached, and calm blue seas and skies were the order of the day.

There were 2 dives conducted on the reef in a lovely spot with large bommies and ample coral and fish life – unfortunately though there is some evidence of leaching and blanching in the corals there. Nevertheless, there were nudibranchs aplenty, prides of prowling lionfish, menacing morays in their hidey-holes, lobsters under ledges, a porcelain crab casting his feathery filters into the current to sift out microscopic morsels, a barracuda soliciting for a scrubdown from delicate pretty cleaner wrasse, and even a white tip reef shark. Chearnley usually delivers lovely chilled out diving, pottering around at 10 metres or so with visibility in excess of 15 m – granted, this is never going to be a site with record-breaking vis a la Great Barrier Reef, but it is a great location for relaxed and enjoyable diving.
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Sunday saw a small group of us (where were the rest of you?) head out to the Chearnley Reef Area. It was a special day because it was Kari's birthday and she joined her dad on the dive boat. Yep...so we had a VIP on board. I had the helm on the way out and soon discovered that with the engine trim problem and the hull issue the boat was not so easy to handle. Louis gave me some grief about being drunk in charge of a boat....yeah...well on the way back it would be his turn. We first checked out a new spot that was picked up from a recent bathymetry survey; Evert was keen......"maybe a new wreck?"....well dream on boys and girls, the blip on the chart was a non event when we cruised over her with the side scan. Better luck next time. I must say it would be my dream come true to find and dive a new wreck site.

We then put the shot down on a new location, a side reef at Chearnley . The small satellite structure at 18-20m. The shot was at 22m and it was somewhat poor vis, however on top of the reef this improved and along with Brigitte and Hazel we had a pretty good dive. Lots of fish life, Shoals of Yellow Tail, a small ray, a Monster Puffer fish and a a lot of the other regular beasties. I also was playing around with my new GoPRo Video Camera, the results were OK, but I'll be keeping the day job for while yet! We did the second dive at the same site, but this time the murky gunge had moved onto the reef and the vis was significantly poorer. Still the dive was ok and we had a good time. Louis go this turn on the helm and also discovered that he had a hangover too, he did however manage to berth the boat without causing any damage...well done that man!

***Website Administrator's Note - The presence of the potential wreck can not be discounted so easily and I believe that there may have been an issue with Paul's navigation. Here is the Website Administrator's impression of what the wreck actually looks like.

***Website Administrator's Note - Note how these photos below are obviously computer generated...

This reef is a very small small reef approximately 50m across, 25 m deep and approximately 500 east of the main Chearnley Reef. As best we know it is a new dive sight that has not been dived before but has obviously been heavily trawled by commercial fishermen. The reef is only 2-3 m higher than the surrounding flat sand plains and despite the obvious damage to the corals by the fishing activity it was a really good dive. The most surprising find on this site was the numbers and size of the fish, of which the largest and most numerous were coral grouper.

Take 11 divers including several platform dive virgins, good sea conditions and you have an excellent day’s diving planned on an Ampa Platform.

It was a bit choppy on the way out but we made good time and arrived at the platform in 45 minutes. Evert had smuggled the fish food on board and shared it with the fish at various intervals throughout the day. Hazel brought her own fish food but we were more than happy for her not to share hers.

I was kitted up before the engines had been turned off so I guess I was quite keen. I was diving with Don and his camera, so 40 minutes of being an underwater model called but I feel Don would have been more than happy with just the fish for company.

We dropped down and could see most of the way to the bottom so the visibility was at least 25 metres. There were lots of colourful soft corals within the top 15 meters and many small fish hiding amongst it all. There were bold banded shrimp that were standing their ground and looked like feisty little fellows so the first photo opportunity presented itself. Many more followed with small crayfish, nudibranch, clams, boxfish plus a variety of other fish were spotted.

The highlight for me as a first-time platform diver was the chance to see the schooling barracuda which was a beautiful sight to witness out in the blue. Tara and Ryan were kind enough to point out a good sized octopus that put on quite a show for us however; we didn’t have time to linger as our 3 minute safety stopped called. Even at 6 metres we were entertained by a number of shoals of small silver fish swimming around us.

Everyone enjoyed both their 40 minute dives and as everything had run smoothly we headed for home and straight into a drop of rain (or 2) arriving back at KBBC very moist, but very happy. Thank you to everyone who organised the day and as the big man says; ‘I’ll be back!’

PSAC club Welfare and Dive Insurance policies have been updated - see Club Policies.

After two exploratory dives in 2009, it was time to return to this little wreck. With no fisherman in sight to guide us to the site, we spotted the shot using GPS with no trouble... soon the fishermen came and we had to fend several boats from throwing lines- anchors overboard and requests to find some lost anchors ! On the bottom we were disappointed with 1m visibility despite having the "right" tides. We were fortunate to see a schools of 1m long barracudas on ascent as well as shrimps, moray eel and a 3 cm long scorpion fish on the wreck ... You can see stuff if you look ! For our 2nd dive we headed for Chearnley C site. Not much to report other than a flattish site with lots of anemones with the obligatory clown fish and some whips coral.

Photos to follow

Now Sunday - the 2nd outing for the weekend for Naga Loncat, the boat was almost full (9 divers) plus Paul, who was our dedicated chauffeur for the day. With a flat calm sea, it was time to head further afield to Ampa Light, the "lighthouse" - an opportunity to go down along a jacket (well, let's call this the 1st platform dive of the year) and then explore the remains of an old rig at 11 m scuttled as an artificial reef. Some of us found it on both dives, one group drifted onto the "bare" surroundings having taken a bearing from their descent point ... not from the jacket; a misunderstanding between the marshals of the day. In the water, we were greeted by large angel fishes on the rig who were keen to perform in front of the camera. Moorish idols, many nudibranches and a variety of crustaceans were spotted. Heading passed the rig (on the same heading from the platform i.e. keep going past the bits of metal), the corals got even better ... something to remember for next time.

Where were you all divers ? My three partners in crime were willing to forgo the obligatory WE lie-in to go to Heather reef always in hope of finding the elusive whale shark which was seen in Miri a couple of weeks ago. The sky was blue, the sea flat calm and it could not have been a better day for diving. Down under at 20+m with 20m+ visibility, there was quite a bit of current but so many schools of fish (yellow fins, giant trevallies, small little things - anchovies?) were swimming around us and a large tuna. We also saw a sting ray, many clown fishes/damsels, beautiful large gorgonian fans - you did not have to search for anything - it was in front of us all the time. Two dives later - fished out, we returned safely to KBBC.

This is a small reef (500m across) slightly further out than Chearnley, we had a small group diving on Saturday the 25th, just five divers. After playing dodgems on the way out with a huge number of substantial logs that spread out in a couple of large swaths and slightly choppy waters only four of us went for the first dive. The reef is about 15m to 25m on the northern edge. The descent went through a particularly murky layer where visibility was only a few metres though we had 20m+ on the reef. It has a great array of gorgonian fans, whips and hard corals and a huge amount of large anemones with every type of clownfish guarding them, definitely a Nemo fans destination. Some interesting nudibranchs and a particularly large and fairly aggressive bat fish. There were some pretty strong currents which made for a swim, drift, swim, drift dive. Some currents being swept between coral formations sported quite large schools of fish. Found a gigantic lobster and shy blue spotted ray hiding beneath coral overhangs and surprised my buddy by pointing out a stone fish that took him a while to see. The highlight was on the second dive though when my buddy was shining his torch under coral overhangs to see what he could spot I looked up to see a huge school of squid swimming into the current - fantastic! Loved diving on this reef and was the best diving I've done so far in Brunei except for the platforms. Worth the extra travel time!

We were part of the first group to dive on Sunday the 18th when we went to Chearnley B reef. Once down we had great visibility and it was a typical Chearnley (12-15m) dive apart from more fish than usual and the fact that almost straight away we saw a Crown of Thorns starfish. We hadn't seen one before and know that they are considered a danger to coral reefs in large numbers. I started taking photographs of the first couple that we saw but very soon we had seen well over 30, every few seconds we'd see one or sometimes up to six crowded on one piece of coral. Maybe this is something we should follow up on with some of the biology groups at local universities. In small quantities this animal is just another part of the coral reef ecosystem, however, when the crown of thorns starfish occur in great numbers they can eat corals faster than corals can grow and reproduce, leading to major reductions in coral cover - something to keep on eye on in the future?

After no diving for weeks, the weather was at last kind to us to dive. So many divers were keen to join that two trips were organized for what was the 2nd outing of 2010 ! Trip 1 planned to depart soon after 7 am with Trip 2 scheduled to leave after 1 pm.

So we headed to Chernley reefs for two dives and do some sport diver training under watchful eyes of Evert, Hazel and Brigitte. The reef could be seen from surface and we enjoyed 15m+ visibility. There was plenty of fish life with schools of yellow fins, clown fish angel fish etc... seen. A few hours and a few SMB and DSMB deployments later, we headed home for a quick turnaround for trip 2. Pictures by Bridgette Dale-Pine.

Trip 2 headed to Heather reef (If we could only do one dive - this was the place to go - looking out for treasure possibly) ! Don kindly agreed to drive the boat allowing everyone straight in the water. The vis was great 15 m+ again with lots of great fish life on one side - sting ray, squids, colourful nuddybranches were spotted. Unfortunately over part of the reef, we found many dead fishes which possibly died as a result of poisoning - such a disappointment to all. With the sea picking up, we decided to check out a bump north on the new sonar (nothing but flat seabed at 38 m - sorry Don) and headed closer to shore for the pyramids.

After a bit of searching for the structures, Don found them - Dave threw the shot and we all headed down to the dark side. At 15 m, the sea turned from brown to pea soup with only the top 20 cm of the pyramids visible - Dave and Mas descended to the bottom for some "exercises" ! Suhail and Brigitte laid a line only to return a few minutes later to surface (minus Brigitte's reel - which got detached whilst jumping off the boat - more treasure to search for next time). Thomas, Alan, Paul and Julios bumbled along for 15 minutes before they all surfaced. The boat made it back before 6:30 pm in good daylight - partly due to short 2nd dive.

So all in all, four dives is possible at a stretch with a return to KB in between but three is more do-able. Pictures by Bridgette Dale-Pine.

The Naga Loncat has now had her electronics fixed and had new anti-fouling applied to her hull. The engines are running like new and now with all of the weed removed from her bottom the boat is a fast as ever. Don Twaddle, Steve Smith and Ryan Brothers brought the Loncat back from Tutong where the work was done. While the boat was high and dry Don and Ryan also installed the club's newest tool, a side scan sonar. The new tool will allow us to more safely asses and plan our dives, especially in new areas.

Many thanks to Don and Cathy Twaddle for hosting our 2009 Annual General Meeting and a wonderful curry dinner afterward. The event was attended by more than 20 members and guests

The AGM was held on 12th March 2010 at G4/2 attended over 21 club members. The above report was presented to the meeting and approved by the members. The 2010 committee members were voted in

The existing PSAC committee all stood down, as per protocol and the club members in attendance nominated and accepted new committee members:

2010 PSAC Committee (* indicates that these people held the positions through 2009)
1. Chairman: Brigitte Dale-Pine *
2. Diving Officer: Evert Moes *
3. Membership Secretary: Tara Brothers
4. Welfare Officer: Astrid Felius *
5. Treasurer: Paul Saville
6. Training Officer: Thomas Kuehnel *
7. Equipment/Boat Officer: Don Twaddle
8. Equipment/Boat Team: Ryan Brothers, Paul Saville, Ann Williams, Rachel Handford, Paul Strobech

9: Social Member: Hazel Allen *
10. Environmental Officer: Craig Grant *
11. Webmaster: Ryan Brothers *

It is important to note that the first five positions listed above are mandatory, according to the BSAC constitution.