News & Trip Reports

Oct 4, 2013

WMS13 27-29 Sep 2013 - Stunning corals at Tokong Malangbiru; Batu Kataoka and Igara wreck

As the end of the Singapore season draws closer, our guests taking advantage of the last few diving weekends are rewarded with some outstanding diving! From the end of September until the end of October MV White Manta visits some of Indonesia’s islands in the South China Sea; and the world class wreck diving sites including ‘Seven Skies’ and ‘Igara’.

This weekend we headed straight for the island of Malangbiru; famed for some of the best hard coral gardens in the region. We decided to skip the re-scheduled Seven Skies. This decision had been based on potential residual impact of typhoon Usagi moving through the South China Sea to the coast of Hong Kong.

The decision bode well for a throng of lesser experienced divers onboard – some of whom were training to achieve their respective PADI certifications.

By the end of the trip Becky could boast a PADI Open Water certification; Uma a PADI Junior Advanced Open Water certification (even assisting other students during the Underwater Navigation training dive); Mario, Tim and Goh achieved their own PADI Advanced Open Water licenses and little Sophie van de Waal climbed ever closer to completing a century of bubblemaker experiences! Thanks to Glenn Wright and George Hackford.

Back in July we organised an open house evening on MV White Manta where she currently resides between weekend trips at the Marina Country Club in Ponggol. During that evening Kevin Lam and Yvonne Huang decided that this season they would get all their diving friends together to enjoy a trip on MV White Manta.

And so it was – fourteen divers amassed Kevin Lam’s group alone - including Yvonne’s daughter Uma aiming to prove that being ‘navigationally challenged’ did not run in the family.

Additionally, I learnt how to pronounce ‘Jeroen’; Dave Chang fed a few fish at Malangbiru and Alessandro Cere helped capture some of the best moments on his camera.

Thank you to all of you – hope you enjoyed yourselves and see you next time!

 

Trip: WMS13 27-29 Sep 2013
Author: Christopher Hutton