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25th April 2009: New BSAC Dive Centre in Kota Kinabalu

Sabah, Borneo's first BSAC Dive Centre has just been established by Borneo Dream in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia. Their BSAC training programme is open to all levels of diver - from the entry level BSAC Ocean Diver through to Extended Range Diver, Sport Mixed Gas and Diver Cox'n courses.

Further information on Borneo Dream's BSAC Dive Centre can be found on their website:

http://www.borneodream.com/scuba-diving/bsac-scuba-diving-courses.html

9th March 2009: A Day of Two Firsts and a Last (By Mark Steinhart)

When the new boat was ferried last week from KK, the objective for Mark Steinhart became to organize a last dive with the new boat, and preferably on a platform as this would most likely be his last dive in BSP for the foreseeable future.

With the help of several people, the Naga Loncat was made ready for diving and permission to dive on AMDP-8 and AMDP-27 was secured.

As it turned it became the first dive with the new boat, the first BSP platform dive of 2009 and Mark's last dive day with PSAC.

The initial forecast was marginal but got better over the weekend. However by Monday morning the rain was coming down massively and the departure was postponed until midday to allow the rain to clear. We eventually headed off with 9 people on board the new boat to AMDP8: Mark S, Evert M, Don T, Pete E (now a Bandar member), Hazel A, Hilko de J, Marc R, Robert vD, Andre vdE.

Needless to say that the crowd was impressed with the amount of space. All jaws dropped when Don opened the throttle and the boat started planning.

After a short wait we moored at AMDP-27 and stayed there for both dives to save time and still make 2 dives, after the weather delay in the morning.

Water looked a bit murky but this proved to be a thermocline with clear visibility beyond the 28 m beams.
As predicted there was still a decent current when we started the first dive, but the conductors offered good refuge.
Given the low SD+ numbers, the instructors had agreed to train some SD trainees in assistant marshalling and other modules, resulting in some very short deeper dives for some air guzzling trainees... We do have 15 L steel bottles for a reason, you know!

Visibility was great, and on the second dive the different dive groups saw lots of aquatic life: trevallies, lionfish, a turtle, a baby moray eel, lots of soft and colourful coral on the structure.

The swell and waves picked up a bit in the afternoon but proved no issue as we sped back at 50 km/hr, outpacing the SMR fastboat.

Everybody made 2 dives. We had zero sick cases, 9 huge smiles back onshore, and lots of envious looks from the crowd at KBBC.

4th March 2009: Naga Loncat "THE BEAST" is Now Presiding Over the KBBC (By Jeremy Clarkson)

The Naga Loncat is safely berthed at the KBBC (where it now dwarfs the Naga Laut). It is difficult to describe the performance... It's just awesome. If the Laut is nimble like a Suzuki Vitara, then the Loncat is the equivalent of a Hummer.
 

After reaching the 10 hrs of moderate revs at 3000 rpm for running in the engines and doing some 40 km/h, we cracked open the throttle by another 500 revs and we were cruising at 54 km/h... This is near but not full revs yet. It took about 3h:15 mins from release of the moorings at RBYC until we reached the KBBC jetty. This boat does not ride over waves, it just crushes through them, absolutely amazing! Handling in open water is a doddle. By conversion, handling this size of vessel at the KBBC between the sail boat and the other boats takes careful maneuvering and crew support with the mooring ropes!
 

The weather cooperated and for both legs of the passage where blue skies, little wind and almost no swell made for a pleasant journey. Many thanks to Mark Tuttle, Thomas Kuehnel, and Ryan Brothers who sailed the boat from KK to Muara on day 1 and Mark Tuttle (again), Mark Steinhart and Don Twaddle who sailed the boat from Muara to the KBBC on day 2.

23rd February 2009: Chearnley Shoals (By Tara Brothers)

We got up early. We loaded bottles into the boat.  We had our back teeth rattled out of our heads and got sick. We got wet. We ate lunch. We got sick again. 29% of us did not do a second dive. We got sick again. We got even more wet in the boat on the way back than we did when we were at 18 m. We took 90 minutes to make a 30 minute journey. We unloaded the bottles and went home. But at least we started the new dive season!

23rd February 2009: Chearnley Shoals (By Ryan Brothers)

We were up and raring to go at the crack of dawn. We loaded up the boat and had an invigorating ride out to Chearnley Shoals. Some of us decided that it would be more fun to hang our heads over the side of the boat. We took the plunge and relished the cool water, challenging currents and reduced, but perfectly adequate, visibility. We had a tasty feast during the surface interval. Some of us decided that it would be more fun to hang our heads over the side of the boat again. 71% of us were overjoyed to do a second dive at the Chearnley Shoals training site where we saw some fantastic table corals. Some of us decided that it would be even more fun, yet again, to hang our heads over the side of the boat. As we were starting to dry out we decided that, since we are divers, we wanted to get even more wet in the boat on the way back and the wind and waves obliged. We took our time on the return journey because we were having so much fun. We had a great final workout unloading the boat and were upset that it was all over. So, as you can see, we had a great time starting the new dive season!

Kapalai Trip October 2008 (By Brigitte Dale-Pine)

While this may be a little late being posted it is well worth a look. Here is an account of the PSAC trip to Kapalai in October 2008 with some fantastic pictures. Just follow the link to the 2008 latest news archive but give it a bit of time to load fully. Kapalai Trip October 2008.

Feb 14th Weekend Trip to Kota Kinabalu  (By Brigitte Dale-Pine)

On Saturday 14th February, a group from Seria flew off to KK for some diving on Borneo Dream's boat. Juliana, Suhail and Pam aimed to finish their OD open water dives with Don and Brigitte, ahead of the start of the dive season in KB. Khaled, Polina and Aaron took the PADI open water and PADI scuba diver courses with Ron of Borneo Dream. Cathy, Rudolf and Andrea had some leisure dives. By the end of the trip, most of our mission was accomplished in good weather conditions. We also had some fun looking the reefs and fishes, sampled KK night life whilst returning to Brunei on Monday with some additional qualified divers ! An action packed weekend!

PSAC Committee Meeting Minutes - January 2009

PSAC Committee  - MOM January 2009

Annual Report 2008

 
The 2008 Annual report has been published.(2008 Annual Report)

January 2009:  PSAC Annual General Meeting (By Mark Tuttle)

Many thanks to Bengi for hosting our 2008 Annual General Meeting and a wonderful curry dinner on Friday evening. The event was attended by more than 50 members and guests

We were delighted to host Nigel Goring, Diving Officer of the BSADC in Bandar Sri Begawan who brought his family to Panaga for the evening and following KBBC breakfast, Ian and Karen Donaldson, who are respectively the President of the Panaga Recreation Centre and Equestrian Adviser, Dave Outhwaite, our ex-Training Officer (2003-2006) with his wife Mas, Peter Henneberg who is probably our member with the longest history in the club, Hazel Allen who has the longest history of all club members as as a BSAC diver and many new faces, all enthusiastic divers or divers-to-be. PSAC also used this occasion to thank three very hard working committee members (Mark Tuttle, Mark Steinhart and Elaine Steinhart) who have stepped down from their respective PSAC committee positions as they will be leaving Brunei in the coming months.

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

2009 PSAC Committee (* indicates that these people held the positions through 2008)
1. Chairman: Brigitte Dale-Pine *
2. Diving Officer: Evert Moes
3. Membership Secretary: Ivan Yong
4. Welfare Officer: Astrid Felius
5. Treasurer: Stephen Smith *
6. Training Officer: Thomas Kuehnel
7. Equipment Officer: Don Twaddle
8. Assistant Equipment: Rudy Schulper

9: Social Member: Hazel Allen
10. Boat Officer: John Clouatre *
11. Expedition Officer: Robert Van Delden

12. Environmental Officer: Craig Grant
13. Webmaster: Ryan Brothers *


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

20th January 2009:  Naga Loncat (the new dive boat) Updated pictures.

Here are some updated pictures of the Naga Loncat with some of the final remaining items being completed.

6th January 2009:  Naga Loncat (the new dive boat) is 99% Complete (By Mark Tuttle)

I visited Godfrey in KK last week and had a good look at Naga Loncat. Some photos below.

Godfrey moved the wheelhouse forward by about a metre to give us more deck space, sacrificing the forward berth to become little more than a chart table and dry storage space. There is enough room in there for a small compressor, should we ever wish to install one. Apparently a 5.5 or 10 kW genset can be retro-fitted to either engine with ease. Admittedly a 190hp penta running a 10kW genset is overkill.

There should be ample storage space on the port and starboard seats and central bottle-rack for 36 single 80 cf cylinders.

She is 99% complete with some minor outstanding work.
 

January 2009: Latest News Archive 2008: Archive 2008

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