27 September Diving Tioman

nudibranch

Dive vessel Frogman pulled out of the harbour on Saturday morning with three guests, the owners, two dive guides and six crew and headed to a small island off the southern tip of Tioman.  The third guest was a local man, Alan, a friend of John and Eva's coming along for a dive and to do fishing.  The boat captain led the first dive over coral reef where we found nudibranchs and colourful flatworms. A nice dive, not spectacular.  Afterwards we were sitting on the upper deck and David joked that Alan had a electronic tag on his ankle.  A quick look and I said 'could it be his dive computer?'. No it was an electronic tag and by diving he had cut the connection with the police station, received a 'why are you off the island' phone call and a speed boat was on its way to collect him and return to town.  We didn't have time to get to know him before he was whisked away but the crew assured us he was a nice guy and hadn't done anything really wrong.

Dive two was on the other side of the island, more of the same but better diversity of coral an better visibility.  Dive three was a night dive under the jetty Frogman was tied to for the night.  An easy dive in that we jumped of the boat on to the site, an average 5 to 6m deep and great creatures spotted; a leopard shark swam through and there were many exotic morays.  For us this was the best dive of the weekend

Tioman marina

We arrived in Tioman five days ago and took a berth in the marina next to a live aboard dive boat; the first one in Tioman and preparing for it's inaugeral trip.  From the moment we arrived we struck up a friendship with the owners and crew, saying hello, visiting each others boats and passing the days chatting about diving.  This led to an invitation from the Singaporean owner John and his wife Eva to join them for a two day shakedown cruise around the island.  As we have been on many live aboard dive holidays they wanted us to give them feedback and if required to make suggestions for improvements.
Our only hesitation about two days and a night away would mean we had to leave Polly cat on her own.  We choose to keep her inside with two big bowls of kibbles, two big bowls of water, a topped up litter tray and the air conditioning running.  Safety before liberty as the local tom cat had been prowling on deck at night.  The day before we went off I was baking cakes and cookies to take along and Polly insisted on helping, or is that hindering?

was 'cat' in the ingredients list?

Jackster next to Frogman

On the same day I was baking we went to the Duty Free shop to buy wine and had taken our trolley to cart it back to the marina, but the shop owner offered us the use of his delivery vehicle (it was the delivery man's day off), a motorbike with sidecar so it was a case of DIY duty free delivery.

DIY delivery

Danny, dive leader

leopard shark

Next morning we awoke to a storm passing over; the dive boat was being side slammed into the jetty and it was raining heavily.  The proposed walk to a nearby waterfall was cancelled.  Instead John and the dive guide scoped out new sites and in the afternoon we all dived a wall by the lighthouse.

Angah, dive guide

S Tioman landscape

Halfway through the dive David and I were at the back of the group bumbling along as usual and I heard him shout me (yes, you can grunt into a regulator and be heard). I turned to see a large black tip shark cruising with us.  To see a shark in these waters is a rare occurrence. Over fishing and shark finning have cut numbers drastically.  This one was big and he wasn't which scared at all. He came close three times taking a good look at the visitors to his 'hood before swimming off to look for a proper meal.
Frogman returned to the marina late in the evening. Polly had survived her home alone experience without mishap.  For dinner we popped along to our regular restaurant (in fact we only ever eat at the same place, Lina's BBQ).  David and I shared four dishes of tasty nosh; chicken, squid, fries and vegetables.  Three hours later David is suffering from chronic food poisoning which lasts until the next evening.  In the end it took almost a week for him to fully recover yet I felt fine.  How can that be?