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Published: February 6th 2015
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Looking out at the dive site from the Tambora I heard the dive guides say they had checked the current and it was medium to strong. Uwe mentioned, well emphasised, that at that time of the day in the afternoon light if we surfaced in the surf the boatmen would have little chance of seeing us. We are diving up on the equator in the Indonesian through flow which flushes a few billion litres of water from one hemisphere to another every few seconds so theres a fair chance you could expect some currents at some stage. Quirkily enough, if your a geography geek and can line your body exactly on the equator underwater you will be a few centimetres shallower on one side of the equator than the other down one side of your body. The mixing of oceans is truly an awesome thing to study..which I didnt, so I am thankful for Harald.
No one has ever maintained position long enough nor been geeky enough to actual film this though, but trust me, its true. All you need to do is ask Norwegian scientist Harald Sverdup who came up with the Sverdrup as a way to describe the
flowthrough which means "öne million cubic metres of water per second"' - he knows a lot about the flowthrough - unfortunately he died in 1957 so I cant give him a call to verify. Its what gives Indonesian diving its diversity and beauty in some places more than others.
So after another amazing lunch and a quick doze it was time for our afternoon dive we were whisked off to a spot that looked like it should be good diving apparently. From the surface it looked fairly benign. As this trip was exploratory we were diving some sites that hadnt been explored before so it was an unknown as we backrolled in.
I later wrote this dive down in my logbook as DAFUQ point..as wtf you cant dive here!. It was hilarious really - swimming down against the strongish current was a workout and once i got down to the protection of the reef the current seemed to swirl around and be coming from my right. I looked over the shoulder to see Fiorman a local from Tobelo who was joining us for this trip to show us the area from a locals viewpoint.
My reg started
free flowing. Air, air precious life sustaining air stop bloody streaming out
puhleeze......I didnt have time for this shit hanging onto a rock somewhere east of Saywha? Nowhere.
I tucked my chin down and head in trying to stop it while Fiorman checked I wasnt losing air from anywhere else.
We crabbed over a ledge onto what should have been (and it was if you layed down flat and used a reef hook) a protected nook where Fiorman got his reefhook out which I hung off. The problem with being 48kg is you kinda act like a flag in a current which requires a reef hook.
We tried to find a more protected spot and get down deeper to use the terrain.....just wasnt happening.
Hanging off the reefhook there was a school of something going past but nothing I recall worth hanging off a hook in a stupid current for - I logged this dive as Dafuq because wtf was that? apparently a niceish dive for those who managed to get down out of the current but after hanging there for a while not worth the effort.
We decided to surface and I
got a reverse block. Ive never had one before or a reg free flow. I remember holding my ear and gritting my teeth in pain as we ascended and Fiorman asking continually if I was alright as we did our ascent. I wanted to go down deeper to relieve the pain but I also do not have gills so had to deal with it.
At this point of the dive hanging there in the blue with Fiorman i looked out to the west and saw the swell - I was pretty much over this dive actually!
I came up into the swells - which actually always look like your bigger when you are in them - ear issue back to normal - to find the boat right ontop of us, which was awesome - except I made this girly squealing sound when I thought the boat was going to hit me in the head. I have no explanation other than Fiorman became a ventriloquist and it was actually him squealing.
Stupidest dive spot ever.
Simon, Tim and Sofie were sitting in the boat having come up before us. The general concensus was .. thats a stupid
place to dive. If you did a cost benefit analysis using happiness and diversity of species as quality indicators you would find ..Dafuq some parts of the ocean just aren't worth diving at that point on that day. Maybe another day. Not that day.
For those who did get down and out of the current apparently it was..nice. Nice! For negative Return on Investment i want stunning. But that's the ocean.
Back to the Tambora anchored leeward of a small island we spotted bats up in the ..how do you describe the wilds of papua?....jungle? mountains?..its simply breath taking.
Ebola and ISIS are on the news every day at home and I was sitting there looking at the most amazing scenery.
We decided not to leave that night and watched the sun set.
High above us, Jungle on basaltic rocks born from fire came alive.
The sky filled with hundreds..maybe thousands..of bats.
The sky turned orange and scarlet, the stars came out and the bell rang for our three course dinner.
Life was pretty damned good. Even if that was the stupidest dive spot ever.
The rest of the diving on
the trip....well....fkn awesome! That dive - stupid..totally fkn stupid !
Underwater pics to come.
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taracloud
Tara Cloud
Diving drama!
Well, you didn't die despite some high drama in an incredible current, and you got to explore a new site, so right there, I think you're ahead, not to mention the fine, jungly, bat-filled sunset. I should think a certain number of exploratory dives would end up flops like my exploratory hikes to dead ends and impenetrable brush. Besides, the terrible dive made a great story. Glad the rest of the dives were great.