My Days have got muddled- Advanced Diving Pt 2

I got up at 7 to get ready to go diving, I met up with Sian and her friends at the jetty at 7:30. We were all going to get the boat together to Long Beach to save money as it is cheaper than going Coral Bay directly and you can easily walk through. Before we left I went to the jetty to grab a lunch packet of beef and rice. Abang Sabri my neighbour took us he's a really nice guy who does a lot of the Snorkel Tours for our project. Dan was at Tiga Ruang and I was hoping he would be able to get a taxi to meet us at Sea Voice in time for our dive at 12. I asked Abang Sabri to go collect him just so he had a boat but Dan had no way of receiving my message I had sent him so it seemed they missed each other. Rather than sit around in the shop in the morning I joined Sian and her friends on their dive to Panglima Abu. Chris who was my instructor for my Advanced offered to take me just me and him while the girls did their own thing. We sorted our gear out and headed to the dive site, this was at the north of Perhentian Kecil. The site was just off Tanjong Butong a beach we often do beach clean ups at. The dive site itself wasn't very deep 15m, we dived for 57 minutes however it wasn't the best of dives. I saw much of the standard fish we normally see snorkeling and a few nudibranch. We did see a big orange spotted Trivali which was cool. I ate my lunch and then got ready for my next dive. This was the dive I had been looking forward to the most, the wreck dive to Police wreck. Police wreck is an artificial wreck where 3 old police boats were deliberately sunk for a dive site. I was gutted I didn't have a camera on me as it was an awesome wreck. During the dive for my advanced course while under the water I had to identify 3 hazards, 3 points of interest and then locate the boat we dived from while under the water. I managed to complete all three, fortunately the hazard identification didn't consist of me being caught in it. There was so much life on this wreck it was amazing I saw a Red Lionfish which was something I had really wanted to see while here in Malaysia. 

http://www.facts-about.info/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Red-Lionfish-in-the-Caribbean.jpg

Red Lionfish

Other cool things I saw was a Blotched Porcupinefish as seen on other blog, Cleaner and Brown Banded Pipefish, Shortnose and Yellow Boxfish and a Nudibranch Leopard Chromadis. Photos Bellow:

http://cdn2.arkive.org/media/90/90BA8C5D-0671-44CE-BE07-0BD7DE8595A4/Presentation.Large/janss-pipefish.jpg

Cleaner Pipefish

http://cdn2.arkive.org/media/A4/A4B0D558-3C78-4AAD-9C19-1A3D592465F2/Presentation.Large/Male-banded-pipefish-with-eggs.jpg

Brown Banded Pipefish

http://www.diverosa.com/categories/fishes_Ostraciidae/L/IL3b-189%20Shortnose%20boxfish,%20Rhynchostracion%20nasus.jpg

Short-nose Boxfish

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqMa_pj9boUn07wbh9e8uDF1qIVYs1RZs4Xr40jYelfgVYOHW2EcC0AFeZ7Sm9xObJ4oKXjxOCZY_JG7KkBjEmV9kQZyjhAzt6SGsptjmlPE-hm7peRNhQbNGt97IeOFAhVk6X5mxa5pk/s1600/Yellow+boxfish.jpg

Yellow Boxfish

Nudibranch Leopard Chromodoris

http://www.erickeung.com/koken/storage/cache/images/000/100/2013-cabilao-nudibranch-leopard-chromodoris,large.1387296933.jpg

The final dive of my course was at Sea Bell Rock, this was just off the coast from Coral Bay. This was for my Navigation dive, Chris quickly went through what he wanted me to do and off we went. I felt pretty confident as my compass work with Sue for my Open Water went well. We started by doing a straight line navigation where I swam thirty kicks away from Chris and then turned back using the compass and swam back. Visibility was very bad but I did it and found Chris. After this I did a square this time only 10 kicks and this was fine. The final test was a distance test, Chris timed how long it took me to swim 10m and then how many kicks it took me to do the same distance. This is important to know for when I'm diving on my own and need to know how quick it takes me to go places. We then just had a free dive around the sea bell rock. I saw a pregnant Map Pufferfish, there was a giant porcupine pufferfish which was near Chris then another one zoomed and swam by Chris's face. During the dive we were followed by a couple of Titan Triggerfish and we were on guard as Chris has been bitten by one before and they aren't nice bites. I also saw a beaked butterfly fish and the highlight was a juvenile green turtle but it swam off very quickly when it saw us. I was kind of glad as I didn't have a camera.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fe/Chelmon_rostratus_Luc_Viatour.jpg/1200px-Chelmon_rostratus_Luc_Viatour.jpg

Beaked Butterfly Fish

 Back at the shop we went through the log book and Chris signed me off as an Advanced Diver. Or well I would have been if I hadn't forgotten the pin on my card. Kib said it was fine and to pay later. I had a lot of fun with these guys while diving and was gutted to be finished. Chris and Kib especially it was like I had known them longer. I hope to be back for a fun dive or something before I leave the Perhentians.

Day 89-91- Last Time at Tiga Ruang

Due to my visa error I wasn't staying at Tiga Ruang until Thursday, instead going back to the village on Monday. There was discussion about closing Tiga Ruang while me and Ramona are away on Visa Run so this would be my last time on the nesting beach. This meant that it would be my last time to capture me in this beautiful landscape. I had a lot of fun messing about with my self timer on my camera taking various photos around the beach. I also took some of Maisy and while we were taking photos the group of monkeys came around camp and we watched them for a bit. There was one juvenile who was half orange and half black/grey. The rest of the day was very chilled, some reading, watching films and a nap. Once all the tourists had left the beach and it was a bit cooler I set myself the challenge of running a 5km. Tiga Ruang is around 300m so I did 9 laps up and down the beach and timed myself. Before coming out to Malaysia I had done a 5km run in my hometown in 24 minutes so was curious to see how I compared. It turned out I had got slower completing my beach 5km in 27 minutes however, this was on sand and bare foot. The real test will be when I return to the UK.

 

Monday morning I got packed up and waited for Joju. Maisy had asked him to come at 11 and in true Joju fashion he turned up at 10:30. I got back and no one was in yet. Dan was out with the volunteers and Ramona was at Blue temple. I made myself some lunch and began data analysis of Dan and the volunteers surveys while I had been away. Dan did a survey at Pitani Friday afternoon with two of the volunteers and Lenny, normally at PIR we are lucky to see a turtle and if we do we have only seen a juvenile and a female green. Dan managed to see and get photos of an adult male Green and a Hawksbill which is amazing. The volunteers who have been here 2 weeks have seen more Hawksbills than I have.

The next day was a very boring one 6 hours looking at nesting turtle photos. We had 27 nesting turtles this year and I had to check to see if they were returners or new compared to our database. I had already done a few but needed to get as many done as possible as I am diving tomorrow and off on visa run Thursday. I managed to get 7 done leaving only 6 left to finish it off. In the evening I could hear Ramona watching a film and she was laughing a lot. I asked her what it was she said Last Vegas I didn't know it but she gave me it to watch in Kota Bharu. Ramona has also been great at keeping me in the loop with staff information as I am still without a phone. I am so excited to finish my advanced diving course tomorrow.

Day 88- Swimming Race around Perhentian Besar

Saturday morning I was up at 5am and made myself a coffee, shortly after I woke up my volunteers. They weren’t very happy about being woken up, a couple of them had breakfast before we went to community house at 5:30 am. We all headed down to the Jetty, there was 9 of us in total we would be the feeders to swimmers that would be competing in the 16km Swim around the Big Island. This meant handing them food and water when they ask for it or at certain times. We got on a boat to Coral View jetty, here we were assigned boat man and swimmer. There were two events going on a 4.5km swim with a trek back to coral view and a 16.5km swim around Perhentian Besar.. Most of the swimmers competing in the swim didn't look like very fit athletes but I suppose it's about endurance rather than physical fitness. I was with swimmer number 7 a Malaysian guy probably in his 40-50s and two boat guys from the village. We set up a bottle of water on a string and had bananas and biscuits at the ready. The race started just after 7am. We waited just past the start/finish line and we waited until our guy showed up. When we spotted him we stayed close being his line marker so he didn't go too far out to sea or too far into the coast. They used large red balls like beach balls to mark the edge they should be keeping. During the early stages many of the swimmers were quite close and one Scandinavian bloke got very annoyed as he could taste the petrol from our boat. Our guy was fine and was about 6th. A few hours in the swaying sensation of being on a boat made me need to pee so went and joined the swimmers for a pee before climbing back in the boat. We had Malaysian music while we followed our swimmer and the other guy in the boat got seasick halfway through. When we were at the east of the island we heard people getting very excited and being loud near one of the dive sites. My boat guy told me that he got a text there was a whale shark there, I asked him to take me there but we had to stay with our swimmer unfortunately. It was coming up to the last stretch and our guy was still in 6^th, but we could see another swimmer up ahead slowing down. He had stopped free style swimming and started using breast stroke, we could see him going to his kayak helper a lot so we knew our guy could take him. We timed the water stops perfectly and our swimmer kept a steady rhythm compared to the guy we took who was changing stroke and kicking to much which meant he tired out. We got round the last stretch and could see the finish our swimmer was knackered but he carried on. At the finish he swam to the beach and there was a tape for him to run the rough and his wife waiting for him. We went a parked the boat and gave him his stuff he didn't use. He thanked me for my help and asked where I was from, I told him England and he was like what you doing here then. I told him about the project and he was taken by it. I was just getting back on the boat to take me back the village when the guy handed me 100 rm, he said thank you again and said it was a bonus. This was lucky as I am very short of money and with visa run coking up needed a bit extra, was very kind of him.

No.7 My swimmer I was helping

The Big Balls used to mark the swim line around the island

This was a 7 hour event and I got back to the house about 2pm, my volunteers on the other hand got back at 4pm. They did not have as a good day. One of them had been put on a boat with the other race and dumped at beaches where he had no clue where he was or what he was meant to do. The other three weren’t fed like promised for 7 hours and one had no job to do as he was on a boat which already had a feeder. They came back to the house and shouted at me it was not a nice experience, I was very disappointed at how they were treated as I had been told they would have a good day out like I had. Instead they went almost 12 hours with very little food and not a lot to do. They also got left at PIR beach when they should have been taken back to the village after the race, it was only cause they asked someone that they got a lift to the village. I listened to their concerns and then gave them some money so they could go for lunch. I spoke to Ainn who had organised it and she didn’t really have much to say, I was off to Tiga Ruang in the evening but I still felt guilty they had an awful time. I spoke to them after and apologised on behalf of Ainn and they seemed to be in a slightly better mood. I got a boat at 6:30 to Tiga Ruang, I offered to do the late shift as I was knackered. At around 11pm fisheries woke me up and I spent about ½ an hour chatting to Jarr with Maisy, Jarr cracks me up and we had a great laugh. Jarr also told me we are down to our last 3 nests so I think Tiga Ruang will be shut soon. Now that it’s the end of the season we are doing 1 ½ patrols which make it easier to sleep between walks.

 The view while waiting for Joju to take me Tiga Ruang

Day 86-87- Visa Ruang

Thursday morning Maisy and I went out on Survey to PIR, we were planning on shooting some more video of tourist interaction as well. We both hadn't slept very well and the kayak over there was tough. We did however see 7 turtles when over there which was cool and managed to get some nice turtle footage. While over there we saw Connor and his girlfriend they were with Abang Sabri our neighbour as Connor's girlfriend wanted to get some turtle pictures. After Survey, Dan was back at the house with the volunteers and I took them for lunch. Wid was due to visit with shopping tomorrow but we were off to Tiga Ruang tonight so I went out to get some Bread, Carrots, onions, eggs and apples. After this I walked to Alunan to check my parents booking was all good which it was. On my way back I saw a bird trap net just off the path which angered me, I was going to take it down but I didn’t have anything to cut it with. Once back I got ready for Tiga Ruang. Just as we were leaving it started to rain so I put my bags into a big bin bag to try and keep them dry. Once at Tiga Ruang we set up camp most tourists had left probably cause of the rain. Maisy cooked us dinner while I finished unpacking the stuff. I agreed to do the early shift as Maisy said she couldn't sleep so she would do the late shift. Maisy was talking to me about my visa run and was talking about how she was 2 days over and was lucky to be allowed back in which made me wonder and count my days. I had asked the travel agent to fit me in before the 90 days so assumed my flight was fine. Turns out it wasn't I would have also been two days over. There wasn't a lot i could do about it at Tiga Ruang so planned to go back to the village the next day. I watched two movies during my shift and there were no turtles, fisheries didn't turn up so there were no hatchlings to release, I think we are getting to the last few nests as well. The next morning we made breakfast and I went to chill in the hammock for a bit, before having a swim followed by a sunbathe. After my swim I went back to the hammock, I had just put another film on when Maisy came up to me and said there was a snake in the kitchen. I thought it was going to be another vine snake but it wasn't it was a 1m-1.5m wolf snake. It had got itself underneath the hob and had its tail sticking out one end and its head out the other. It was a really cool but a pain to get out our kitchen, eventually I got the Broom and helped it onto the tree outside the kitchen. I then went for a shower, when I got back I was just getting changed when I saw this tail behind the bed I pulled the bed and the snake was in our hut. I grabbed Maisy and used the Broom again to eventually move the snake out of the hut. Luckily Joju was late as I was due back at the village at 3pm and only just got the snake out.

Snake Pictures will be added

I got picked up and immediately looked at options to fix visa problem. We talked about a few options but eventually went for a trip to the Thai border to get a fresh visa stamp. Then come back to Kota Bharu stay 3 nights in Kota Bharu then get the normal flight. As I needed to confirm with Wid that her taxi friend could take me I asked Dan to go to Tiga Ruang for me and I stay in the village tonight. He was fine with that, it did mean I had to go to Malay dinner but that was fine as it was at Kah Dahs. We went and she fed us well, she asked when I go Singapore and o told her meet week she said you bring my t-shirt as last time I saw her I said is a would. She also asked about parents coming told island and having Malay dinner with her. After dinner I booked a room in Kota Bharu for 3 nights for 93RM hopefully taxi to the airport is cheap. They moved my flight to 10am from 6:45 am so have more time in the morning luckily.

Day 83-85- Best Survey Ever ft Video Links

Monday morning I came back from Tiga Ruang with Ramona and I met the new volunteer at the house. She was called Katie and was also from Essex like Dan and just like Dan didn't have that over the top accent. Maisy was doing Katie's orientation, Dan was out doing a beach clean at Teluk Keke with the Volunteers which meant I could catch up with the world. In the afternoon I borrowed Lenny and went for a Snorkel Survey to PIR with Nadia and Priyanka. We only saw 4 turtles, 3 juveniles and an adult however, one of the juveniles couldn't be identified. This was partly due to Lenny's poor photography and we only had one side so even if it was a new turtle we can't confirm it unless both sides are photographed. Never letting Lenny with the camera on survey again can't risk a new turtle being missed.

Video footage of Long Dragon one of the males in our database

https://youtu.be/t6UZSXlQNz0

Turtle Surfacing

https://youtu.be/R-LY3eTngqY

Adele not the singer but the turtle

https://youtu.be/Q6hs_EDNWQc

Tuesday myself and Maisy went on another survey in the morning and we were meant to be picking up Nadia and Priyanka, however Priyanka had text Maisy saying Nadia was ill so wouldn't be coming on survey. We met Priyanka at the Jetty and started our survey, in the first 5 minutes I saw Hope, followed by Long Dragon. Priyanka swapped with Maisy and most of the survey it was me and Maisy in the water. It was such a fun and successful survey and we saw 11 different turtles. We also got some amazing video footage of the turtles swimming, eating and tourists interacting with the turtles. Normally we do not bother with videos, but Sian from Community project is going to be making a turtle awareness video so we got lots of footage for her to use. This was the first time in ages that two Interns had been out on survey together, it was also the first time I had a photo of myself taken with a turtle.

Me and Konnington

Me and Joelle

Wednesday was Maisy's day off and I didn't realise. I am so used to Maisy being first one up I stayed in bed until 10 when I finally checked the time and jumped out of bed. I had a day full of computer work, I was sat for 6 hours review the last of the underwater data. I was checking photos to make sure they were the correct turtle and there was only maximum 3 photos in each folder. Yesterday was a much better day. In the evening we went to Tuna Bay to Coco Hut for dinner as it was Ainns 26th Birthday. I spent too much money, the taxi was 15RM return, then I had a beer with my meal which was 11RM, tuna friend rice 13RM and then got tempted by a king tiger prawn at the fish stall which was 18RM but was so tasty. 

The gang- Some of Turtle Team and Community Project

Fresh Fish Stall (Too expensive!)

Day 79-82- 4 Nights at Tiga Ruang

Not a lot can be said about the last few days at Tiga Ruang with Priyanka and Nadia. Each evening when Fisheries turned up we released some hatchlings which was cool. We are getting down to the last few nests as it is the end of the season. There hasn't been a nesting turtle for a week and we don't expect there to be anymore. During the day consisted of sleeping in the hammocks, reading my advanced open water book, my biography on Dave Grohl an absolute LEGEND and watching movies. On Saturday Lenny and Ainn popped over for the afternoon which was nice. Lenny and I went for a snorkel and I saw two new Angel Fish species I had not seen around the Perhentian Islands before. One was a Six Stripe Angel Fish, but not sure about the other.

Six Striped/Banded Angelfish

http://www.marineworld.com.pk/sites/default/files/Sixbar%20angelfish.jpg

When we finished we showered and were drying off when all of a sudden there was a loud bang followed by a scream. Ainn who had been sitting in a Hammock screamed as a coconut from the palm tree had fallen behind her and landed on the boat wreck. It was so funny, Ainn ran away and refused to sit in the hammocks anymore.Later on Lenny had decided to stay the night and Ainn went back to the Village. I told Lenny it was unlikely to see turtles again but he was happy just to stay anyway for a change of scenery. In between patrols the girls had been playing a Monopoly card game which they taught us. Once we got our heads round it, we all got very competitive and I won quite a few games. Would definitely recommend it if you are bored of normal card games. The girls left in the morning with Lenny, I was staying the Sunday night as well and Nick was going back to the village. Around 4:30pm Ramona turned up and Nick went the other way, Ramona had been looking forward to getting away from the Village for a night. She was due to join up with Blue Temple the following week to see how they do orientation and research with the Volunteers as Ramona was going to be running dive project next year. When she settled she filled me in on everything I had missed in the village and also told me something about one of our volunteers arriving Monday. I wasn't sure if it was my tiredness or Ramonas German accent maybe a combination of the two, but I thought she said that the volunteer had "Cancer". However, Ramona carried on chatting like it wasn't a big deal which made me question it and it turned out she meant "Cancelled" my bad, panic over. This meant we only had 1 volunteer arriving Monday.

Me and Lenny messing about on Ainns phone

Day 77-78- Learning Individual Turtles and Fish Species

I forgot to mention Wednesday I was looking after Dive Projects Volunteer Jess for the morning as Ramona had a meeting with Steph and George as Ramona is taking over Dive Project next year. As Dive Project focus on coral and sea grass their volunteers don't get to see many Turtles so I took Jess out for a Survey to PIR. Jess was really nice company and it was a fun survey, we saw 7 turtles. There was a sad thing about this survey was seeing 100 people all swimming around Joelle the turtle with the broken shell. I have got so good at recognising turtles just from one side of the face or a distinguishing feature on the carapace or flippers. Even the juveniles I can spot patterns and know who it is without having to Manual ID. Which is what we did when we got back to the village in the afternoon.

Turtle Sightings:

P2F- Polly

P3M- Long Dragon

P20J- Pippi

While I was on survey Dan welcomed two new volunteers who would be helping us out for just under a week. They were staying at PIR but would be joining in with activities during the day. Their names were Nadia and Priyanka, they both lived in Kuala Lumpar Nadia was Malaysian and Priyanka Indian but raised in Malaysia. Dan went through the welcome presentations and took them for water confidence, it turned out the pair of them were not very confident in the water and would definitely need life jackets for snorkel tour and survey. In the evening I cooked for the pair of us, as Wid had only just been shopping there was plenty of food in the kitchen. I decided to go for a pasta as Dan wanted to add his disgusting tinned sardines. I chopped carrots, cauliflower, onions, garlic and a couple of chillis. The chillis is the important part of this as these chillis were fresh, they were only small chillis but even cutting I had a feeling they would be strong. I started cooking the pasta and frying the onions, garlic and chillis. As I was doing this instantly there was this intensity that filled the kitchen I cannot begin to explain, lets just say it made us a bit emotional. Ramona walked into the kitchen and said "What you cooking?" followed by "Woah chillis I can feel the heat from here!" I've never experienced something like it. Once it was all finished we sat and ate my creation, immediately we got a glass of water as it was that strong. Dan started dribbling at one point but it tasted good so we kept eating. We must have finished 2 litres of water between us at dinner.

The next morning I was taking the volunteers and Eleanor the Media and Marketing Intern at Marapoh who had been over a few days to try to find ways of promoting the project and things we want our volunteers to know before they come out to the project. We started the tour by going to pick up Nadia and Priyanka from the PIR Jetty, our boat guy was Mat Lias and he asked where I wanted to go with these guys. I knew these guys wanted to see some nice coral and fish so we started at Fish Point. I knew the two volunteers were not confident swimmers so made sure they had life jackets however I thought Eleanor was going to be okay. It turned out Eleanor hadn't even worn a snorkel before, I asked if she wanted a life jacket but she said she'd be fine. It only took 5 minutes and realised Eleanor was not fine, when using the snorkel she thought she could dive down and then wondered why it was filling with water. I sorted her snorkel out and got her a life jacket to make it easier for her to enjoy the coral etc.

Eight-Banded Butterfly Fish

The next spot on our snorkel tour was Shark Point, but not our normal stopping spot at Shark Point. This time we went further round in the shallower water, we got off the boat and Mat Lias joined us as he had some tourist that wanted to see some sharks. I went off to the left away from everyone as I saw that my volunteers appeared to be following Mat Lias as well. On my own tour I saw a large Titan Trigger Fish, Blotched Foxface Rabbitfish, Gobby and a couple of Blue Spotted Stingrays

A Pair of Blotched Foxface Rabbitfish

Blue Spotted Stingray

Goby Fish on a Clam

I met up with Mat Lias in the shallows and saw a couple of baby black tip reef sharks however, didn't get a photo unfortunately. We had a quick head count and only got 6 when there was meant to be 7, Eleanor was missing. I climbed on a rock to see if I could see her life jacket or if she was on the boat, however I couldn't see her. We all swam back and when I was on the boat looked around to see if I could locate her, off to the left I saw her with a different group of tourists in red life jackets. Luckily she was in an orange Ecoteer one, Mat Lias brought the boat round to her and she got on. Turns out when she was in the water she lost us and just followed the others, she had a good time and didn't mind getting lost. The next stop was Tiga Ruang Meningis, here I saw another Titan Trigger Fish a Goat Fish and a cool group of Golden Rabbit Fish.

Five Golden Rabbit Fish 

Titan Trigger Fish with trigger up!

Goat Fish

The final spot was at the rocks just before PIR, there is a lot of really nice undisturbed coral there. I was tired so just stayed on the boat with Mat Lias, while I waited I did go for a little swim not to look for coral instead to practice my freestyle swimming. We dropped Nadia and Priyanka at the PIR jetty as they needed to get ready for Tiga Ruang as they were going there with me in the evening.