Massive Storm

Yesterday Nadine had two more open water dives with her students. The first dive was at Tanjung Basi. After checking the waves Nadine decided to do the surface skills in the afternoon.

The current was strong but with current comes also a lot of fish. After a couple of skills the three followed the reef. Because of the current Nadine decided to do a one way dive. Back on the surface the waves had been already pretty big and with the regulator in their mouth their fighted back to the boat.

At the afternoon they went to Batu Layar. The water was little bit calmer and after the surface skills they went down. Batu Layar is a reef in the sea between the two Perhentian Islands. Nadine wanted to do some more skills on 16 m in the sand but on 13 m there was a massive thermoclime. On 12 m they had 30°C but on 13 m it already dropped for 3°C to 27°C water temperature.

It sounds warm but the water cools the body down 20 times faster than on land. 30°C on land is very nice and warm but under water the diver starts freezing after a while. This depends on different conditions. The physics of someone and also if you did already some dives before. The more you jump in the water the faster you´re freezing. First dive a day will be alright, but already on the second dive you start freezing faster. A thermoclime of 3°C difference feels like swimming against something.

Because of the thermoclime they had a visibility of only 2 m. This reminded Nadine on German lakes. Doing some skills with no vis didn´t make sense. When she turned around she barely could see her students. Nadine turned around to go back to the anchor line and did the skills there. Then they stayed most of the time on 12 m and had a fantastic dive. The waves were pushing them but they enjoyed the dive.

During the dive Nadine heard the rain. She looked up and showed her students. It is fascinating when fresh water gets in contact with salt water. After a 36 minutes dive because one of the students had only 50 bar left they started the safety stop. Nadine shot her safety sausage up and on 5 m they waited 3 minutes that the body had some time to release some nitrogen. When they looked up they already could see the big waves.

Slowly the three ascended and back at the surface the sea was pretty rough. Nadine saw Anke – her boss – and two other boatman wearing a livewest. Nervous they gestured that the three of them should come to the boat. With the regulator in their mouth they fought against the big waves and on board Anke told them about the strong storm.

Back on land they saw the impact. Fallen trees, cayacs flew around and broke in peaces. Everything during the three of them had a nice dive with some current. Under water the storm is not so effective. Today everything is cleaned up and the sun shines. Nadine enjoys her day off. After only 2 days off in September she will chill out a bit.