Diving the South China Sea.

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When we arrived in Viet Nam our first foray into the ocean sent us scrambling out pretty quickly. In February the water temperature was no more than 21 C and though this is considered practically balmy at home we had just spent the past few months south of the equator where the water was much, much warmer. In addition to the cold, beaches here are sandy and shallow with big foamy waves that break in parallel lines as far out as the eye can see. It is so shallow that even if you swim 600 meters straight out from the beach you are still being pounded by waves. These are terrible conditions for diving or swimming. We have two beautiful white sandy beaches close to our home -Cửa Đại and An Bang - and on beach days we are pretty happy just hanging out and body surfing, but we'd both been jonesing for more so a few weeks ago we signed up for a boat trip to the Cham Islands, a group of 8 protected islands off the coast of Hội An.

We chose a dive operation run by Italian and French guys, most of them married to Vietnamese women and living here full time. They were relaxed and funny and a ball to be around. They also "got" what we wanted to do right away when we told them we were freedivers, charged us the snorkeler rate but took us to the scuba diving sites, and took the time to point out deeper reefs and fun swim throughs. Then they left us alone to do our thing.

The day before we were scheduled to go a thick fog rolled in and blanketed the city and it was still there when we woke up. We were a little concerned that we'd chosen the wrong day but with the deposit already paid there was no backing out. The weather posed a problem for the captain of the boat who had to navigate the sand banks to reach deeper water. Matt and I climbed up top and watched two men perched on the bow yell directions back at the captain. Navigation seemed to be by sight alone and weather hampered their jobs. They couldn't see the bottom as the water was opaque from lack of sunlight and the flags designating deeper channels through the banks were lost in the fog. The boat only drafted 1.2 meters but even that wasn't enough. We beached on a sand bank about 1km out from the marina and were stuck waiting for help for about 20 minutes. Once pulled free it took a couple of hours to make the 16km trip to the Cham Islands. Luckily, about halfway through the trip the fog dissipated and the sun shone through hot and bright.

The monofins were a hit on the boat, as they seem to be almost everywhere we go. The capain of the boat said I looked like a whale and I had to correct him. Um, a mermaid, fine; a dolphin, yeah; even a seal is ok. But never refer to a woman as a whale!

The first thing that hit me when I jumped in was that it was still cold. We both had 3mm wetsuits on but they weren't enough. Unlike Indonesia there were several thermoclines at shallow depths, the first one only at 3 or 4 meters, and we didn't have hoods or gloves or socks. In two months the water had only warmed up by 1 degree. The next thing we noticed was the profusion of crinoids; neither of us had ever seen such a diversity of feather stars before! There were also many colourful soft corals and plenty of nudibranchs and small fishes: butterfly fish, clownfish hiding in anemones, damselfish, etc and the most beautiful black and white sea urchins. What was missing though were any large fish, the sea was absolutely barren of them. The Chams are part of the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and we didn't see any fishing boats at all, so we're not sure why there are no large fish. A friend posited that it may have to do with possible dynamite fishing in the past, or maybe poaching. There were some currents in the area so we expected to see larger fish moving through, but nothing. We did stay quite shallow (below 25 meters) as visibility was poor and we were cold, and perhaps would have had better luck in deeper water.

The tour included two dives off of different islands and lunch on Hon Lao, the largest and only inhabited island. The cooks prepared grilled fish in banana leaf, cold octopus and vegetable salad, BBQ pork chops and lots of rice, noodles and vegetables. Afterward Matt and I found an abandoned palapa and chilled out, jumping into the water to cool down every few minutes and just enjoying some beach time.

On the way back to the marina the fog rolled back in and by the time we arrived at Hội An it was raining and cold. We learned later that in the City the nasty weather had never lifted which made us grateful we'd chosen that day to tour the Chams after all.

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Photos

Really bad selfie
But just look at that beach!

Rough Seas
You can see the flags indicated the channel boats use to get in and out of the harbour

Comments

[Dawn]

Finally...some diving!
You must have been happy, albeit cold, to be back in deeper water and diving again. I'm sorry you didn't get to see any big but there were JELLIES!!! Gotta love those jellies. Looks like the one you were racing was relatively large. As usual some beautiful pictures. When and where are you planning your next dive? Love you so much, Mom