Bwerhala Wreck

[yazid]

Will be off to Bwerhala wreck this weekend. Point of interest will be the Japanese World War II frigate. This will be an interesting trip, it will be my first Live On Board (LOB).

Will be experiencing deep dive and hopefully not Nitrogen Narcossis. Well, I will never know until I do it. The only legal way to get high.

Will post some report when I get back.

[dodo]

good luck yazid

[Sinn]

have fun man...

wish i could join ya...

[Razo]

take more pic n show us

[nleong]

Enjoy the wreck. I wish i can be there.....

oh, if u going to use back the snapsight, remenber to grease the o-ring after reloading.

[kelstorm]

enjoy the dive my friend.. enjoy the narz if u ever get it.. hahahaha

[marvellous07]

wowww... haf fun yazid! i'm so jealous... take alot of pics yah...

[yazid]

I'm back safe & sound from my very first Live-On-Board leisure dive. I have to admit though that I do have butterflies in my tummy initially , but after the first dive, I feel like a butterfly.

I would give DiveMaster Boat a rating of 6/10. Not bad actually. Open concept double deck and with single or twin mattress. Aircondition 24hrs. Could accomodate 16/18 persons. Twin toilet with hot shower. Dining area equip with TV and DVD player. Rigging area quite spacious. And the boat crew is a helpful lot. Nice sun deck. First lunch was so-so but dinner was lamp-chop, sweet sour sea-bass, veggie,rice and longan fruit as desert and the second day lunch was chilli crab and ice cream for desert. Second day breakfast was nasi lemak.

The only problem is getting onto the boat at 1am. Have to do rope and wall climbing as there aren't any easy path across a few trawlers. We board at a fishing warehouse. Not to mention the fishy smells.

I've got good company in this trip. If my memory does not fail me, the Orpheus working crew are Lester (I), Kenneth (I), Jeremy (DM) (first pro trip), Kelvin (DM). Geoffrey (DM) was on leisure dive. Keith who won the lucky dip and paid only $69 for this trip . The ladies on board was Juliana (Lester wife), Carol (Sub editor from Straits Times), the lookalike Japanese idol (I forgot her name, hweewin or something like that), Vanessa who works in UAE. And 4 more guys from KL, Kanna a radiologist, a french VP guy who works in Nestle, Najip with his ever difficult puzzle quiz and lastly the guy who keeps pointing his centre finger (bandage centre finger).

More on the fantastic dive site... coming..

[yazid]

First Dive Site: Berhala Wreck

Total Dive: 2

This dive site is near Pulau Berhala. Berhala in Malay means statue. It is a very small island with a large protruding hill that looks like a statue. There are many other wrecks around this island.

The main attraction is a World War II Imperial Japanese Navy Frigate. If you are wondering what is a frigate, it is a smaller version of a destroyer. It looks like something like this .

Approaching the wreck, I felt eerie at first. The first thing I saw was plenty of long white worm all over the wreck. It reminds me of maggots. Visibility was only at 5-8m. I got to come closer to ship. It was quite high and long. It was broken into 2 or more parts. The front bow and the rear of the ship was still visibly intact. The centre portion was blown apart I think. The twin turret at the rear and the single turret on the front are still intact. Saw a white broken porcelein washing basin and other remnants of the ship.

What amaze me was the variety of mushrooms that make the ship its home. Giant mushroom, purple , red, pink and orangy colour mushies. On the seabed was a field of elephant ears. Plenty of unidentified colourful corals can be found around the wreck. No SPS and mostly softies.

We were not allowed to enter the wreck. But I bet there are plenty of resident giant fish hiding in there. Saw a big puffer fish roaming around. Batfish, various damsels species, blue ring angelfish.

Stay tune for the next dive site.

[nleong]

Yazid,

Can't see the image.

oops.... too fast Can see now.

[Sinn]

more more more!!!!!!!!!!!!

[yazid]

Just back from my surgery... still in the pain...

Camera: Snap & Sights

Film: Fuji Superia X-TRA 1600

Flash: Battery flat so no flash..

Here's the photo of the anti air guns..

[yazid]

Another anti-air gun

[yazid]

Colourful world of mushies.... red, purple

[yazid]

I told you about the white porcelein washing basin

[yazid]

I saw my very first bubble coral ... growing on the anchor... Some are huge... 5 feet long..

[yazid]

This is Pulau Berhala... translated as Statue Island.

Camera: Canon Powershot A40 (Auto Mode)

[yazid]

The second Dive site is called the Cargo Wreck. It is actually a Sugar Cargo Wreck that overturn. This site is not far from Pulau Berhala. I bet there are plenty of wrecks here as surrounding Pulau Berhala is rocks formation that protrudes to the surface.

The wreck doesn't look like a ship at all. It is just a pile of steel plates on top of each other. Probably because it overturn that I can't see much. There are plenty of creepy holes from the rubble. Some actually saw a resident Giant Moray Eel hiding in the crevices. I don't have much shots of the wreck. But notice plety of elephant ear mushroom.

[yazid]

The fourth dive is the most interesting dive of the day... It was a dusk dive. Time in 1850. There is a different feeling on this dive not only because it is going to be dark soon but the dive site is called Snake Stone.

According to Najib, based on what he heard, during dawn all the sea snakes will move out of the area in a swarm. That gives us the creeps. But he haven't seen it personally though. We were wondering whether the sea snake will come back during dusk.

The surface surf was rough. I really mean rough. The first 2 guys was holding the life buoy while waiting for the rest to join in. Suddenly, Lester shouted seasnake. There really was a seasnake resting on the life buoy where the 2 divers was. The 2 guys scramble for their life. The seasnake was shocked and swim away. Wow! no wonder this place is called "Snake Stone".

Anyway, Seasnake venom is lethal but its mouth is too small to bite a human. Moreover, the fangs are not on the outside like most land snakes. Instead it is in the centre of the mouth which makes it more difficult to get bite.

This dive site was the deepest of all the dive site. At 23.7m. I did not bring my underwatercamera along as my flash is not working and it is going to be dark soon. Arm with a underwater torchlights we make our way down.

I was surprised to see a large long net covering the entire rock formation. Initially I thought some trawlers net was abandon. Later, one diver mentioned that he saw huge cable underneath the net. The net was to protect the cable. It was such a pathethic sight. The corals are covered by the net and everything looks lifeless.

It was not until someone uncover underneath the net that we saw a big nurse shark hiding under the rocks. Everyone was excited to see that big nurse shark and was relieved to see something interesting. The next few metres, we were shocked to see more and more nurse sharks hiding under the crevices. It was an astounding site. There were so many that I lost count of the number. I then got closer to the large tube sponge only to see seasnakes sleeping in them. We tried to peek at every crevices and found more seasnakes hiding in there.

This site was the most exotic site to view nurse sharks and seasnake.

This was the last dive of the day. As the surf was strong, Lester decided to call it a day. No night dive for us eager diver. . We were looking forward for the next dawn dive.

It is inside this large sponge tube that seasnake sleeps. You can find multiple snakes in one tube sponge.

[Sinn]

wow cool...

more more more!!!

[yazid]

During the night the boat move to a different location. Of course after a heavy dinner comprising of lamb chop, sweet sour seabass and sweet longans, I decided to sleep early.

Next dive was a dawn dive. Dive site name is Sri Buat in Endau, rompin. The last 4 dives was at Nenasi. Buat means "make" in Malay. Sri is a title of some sought. We wanted to dive at 6:30am, instead with all the heavy sleepers on board we descent at 7:04am.

Visibility was quite good and depth was only at 10.9m. This place is surrounded by islands.

This is one of the beatiful site with plenty of SPS. We found a lobster hiding in the crevices and many more sleeping fish under the rocks.

Got a few photo shots of the place.

[yazid]

Another shots of the dive site.

[yazid]

The last dive of the trip was at a site called "Tekong Burung" or another name given to this site is "Submerge reef". I'm not too sure what Tekong means. In Sepak Takraw terms, that's the central guy taking the serve. Burung is bird.

Probably a central place for birds. Indeed, there are plenty of birds circling the island. From seagulls to eagle.

Do you spot the birds on the photo below?

[yazid]

A small island with cave. Do you see the cave?

Lester decided to bring his group to visit the cave. The current was quite strong especially near the beach. I really need to fin harder to move. At some point I was banging against the rock. Lester found the entrance to the cave and lead us the way.

[yazid]

I was panting when I took this shot. Walking up the lane. Notice the red color on the wall. Not sure if it is blood. Pretty eerie. Lester venture inside and found that there are no bats inside and plenty of broken glass on the sand. For our safety, we decided to dive back and search for the submerge reef.