M.V. - Mata Ikan

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We arose this Sunday morning after a good night's sleep and headed down to the restaurant area of the hotel for a disappointing breakfast before checking out of the Holiday Inn Atrium hotel. Once checked out we all meet in the foyer of the hotel and waited for our mini buses to transfer all of us to the Raffles Marina where we would join out dive boat and home for the next six nights, Motor Vessel Mata Ikan. When the mini buses arrived we set off on the twenty-minute drive to the marina where on arrival we unloaded our bags and headed off to the immigration office to be booked out of the county. Next we when into the marina and to a café / bar area close to the moorings where we could see our boat moored outside the marina because her size was too big to come inside with all the “Gin Palaces”. We ordered some refreshments and Jack gave us one of several briefings on the boat and our next six days at sea.

Once we had finished our refreshments, it was time to join the boat. It was only a short walk around the edge of the marina to the boat where Jack stopped us for another briefing before boarding, in the layout of the boat. We were told that we had the free run of the boat except the engine room, which way to walk around the boat to avoid the crane on board and generally what was to happen and where. It was also pointed out the footwear was not permitted in the saloon so we all put our shoes in a basket just inside the door and that’s where mine remained for the rest of the week until I left the boat on our return to Singapore. Next we were shown to our allocated cabins with Jacky, Dennis and myself sharing a four-bunk cabin. The cabin was quite compact with only room for one person to change at a time. The bunks were arranged with two on the opposite wall from the sliding door, one over the other, then the other two across the bottom of these at right angles with the extra space gained by the ends of these bunks going behind the stairs outside that led onto the deck. Jacky and Dennis taking the bottom bunks and me the largest of the top bunks, the fourth bunk been used as storage space for our bags. We found it very hot in the cabins because although there was a fan in there, the air conditioning only worked when the crew was not filling the diving cylinders and with thirteen divers with three, eleven litre cylinders apiece to fill after each dive… they were always pumping air all day until around 9-pm each evening.

Next came a call from Jack to meet on the planning deck for another briefing, we made our way up there and received more instructions for the following six days. Jack gave each of us a half litre bottle of sealed fresh water with our names one it and suggested we refill these bottles from the water cooler on the planning deck as we required them. At this time we were well under way sailing around the island that forms Singapore and heading out into the South China Seas. After a while we moored along side a floating fuel station to refuel before leaving the inshore seas of Singapore. This was my first eye opener of the poverty that exists in these waters, basically a floating fuel tank with a three-generations of family on board. We left here for an over night sail to the first dive site, The Seven Skies wreck.

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