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DIRty TRIP REPORT - BM12

Live-a-board : Trip BM12 on the M.V. Black Manta ( http://www.whitemanta.com/ )
Date : 9 to 11 Jun 06
Dive Sites : Ningpo Maru, Campelina.
DIRty Divers : Sean Cox, Wee Chye, Vincent Kaw, Serko and
Phua (a DIRty single tank air diver and unofficial trip
photographer)


Last weekend's BM12 served mini watermelons. They were round and
GREAT!! Sorry that you guys missed them. I am sure those DIRties on
board truly enjoyed them..... slurp!

The Ningpo Maru was resting at 42m, upright and leaning to its
starboard side. The highest point of the wreck was at 25m, at the
mid-section where Vincent Chew tied the mooring line. This site has
abundant fish life... school of jacks, yellow tail and bat fish....
due to the limited visibility (about 15m), we did not see a thousand
batfish as claimed by someone on a previous trip, but we definitely
saw a hundred bat fish. The highlight of the trip for many of us
would be the trucks and motorcycles (thrown from the cargo hold as
the vessel hit the bottom some sixty years ago) scattered on the seabed
around the vessel.

I chose to believe that surface current was very strong (and not
that my fitness has dropped), I sucked more than 50 bar of gas when
I pulled myself down the line. On the wreck, we just checked out the
structure, the overboard vehicles with their tires still intact and
enjoyed the abundant fish life. Sean, my buddy has this thing about
propellers and the problem with props is that they are always
located at places where the current is the strongest!! As a good
dive buddy, I had to fin hard against raging current just to
accompany him to see the prop. But looking at his satisfied smile,
beaming like a boy out of the candy store, I think the effort was
worth it. I just wish that one day, he would buy me a X- (oops, I
mean Gavin) so that I can accompany him to see more props with less
effort.

We did two tech dives at Ningpo, both dives were 30 minutes each
with average depth of 42m. We used 21/35 for bottom gas. Our ascent
profile started with deep stops of 1 min every 3m from 30m up, we
switched to Nitrox 50 at 21m with the following stop intervals:
4,4,1,1,2,9,4 on the way up. Earlier, Vincent Chew threatened to
make us drift back to Singapore if we leave the anchor line. We held
on to the rope for dear life as the current was very strong during
our ascent…. Oh, did I mention that there were two chase boats on
the Black Manta.... both in pristine condition.

We managed a short third dive at Ningpo to help Vincent Chew release
the anchor line. The plan we tied down with him was for the boat to
rev the engine (when everyone else was onboard), we would then shoot the bag
and the boat would move forward to give us the slack to untie. Our
plan was for Vincent Kaw to shoot the bag while Wee Chye ran deco,
as for me, I had the unglam role of supervision.... We waited for
twenty minutes at 25m, enjoying the one hundred bat fish around the
wreck but the revving of the boat's engine never came, my single
tank (as it was supposed to be a short dive, I borrowed Phua's DIRty
single tank, thanks to the uniform equipment configuration, I had no
problem using his equipment) was down to fifty bar and I wanted to
save the remaining gas for my ascent, hence, I signaled to Vincent
Kaw that I was out of air and he donated his long hose coolly
without any panic nor stress, just pure muscle memory. Thanks Gid,
for all the good training. I continued to leech on Vincent's twins
for another ten minutes and the sound of the engine still did not
come (we could not hear due to the noise from our own bubbles). We
decided to go for Plan B, Vincent Kaw proceeded to deploy the bag
nevertheless and after a short while, the line slackened and I untie
the rope with Wee Chye's help. Meanwhile, Vincent Kaw was
busy with the SMB spool as the strong surface current was trying to
rip his $150/- Halcyon SMB from the spool line..... his 30m spool was
barely enough for the 25m depth. Once the knot came undone, we said
good bye to the one hundred bat fish with a bat salute (Wee Chye's
invention) and started our ascent. Wee Chye ran a perfect deco with
1 minute stops from 18m upwards and a 3 minutes stop at 3m. Oh, if
you are wandering about Sean, he was napping in his hammock up on
the sundeck of Black Manta while all this was going on…….

We got back to the boat and started filling gas for the next day's
dive. Filling was a breeze on this trip as we had our own fill whips. Yes,
some DIRty divers custom made two 7m fill whips so that gases could be
filled more efficiently on DIRty trips. Each filling session was no
more than an hour, a far cry from the five-hour session on previous
trips. All in, four DIRty divers consumed 3Gs of Helium and 2 Gs of
Oxygen for the whole trip. Total damage for gas was about $1,000/-.

The next morning, we reached Sin Heng at the crack of dawn. The plan
was for Chris and Dr Mike to go down first, use their scooters to
scout around for the shallowest point on the wreck and sent up a bag
so that Vincent Chew could go down and tie in the anchor line. The
current was so strong that both divers did not make it to the shotline

after jumping in. Second attempt, Vincent Chew decided to go
with them. Although he had no scooter and was on a single tank, he
was the only one out of the three who made it to the wreck. He did
it by pulling himself down the sinker line, the other two, with
their scooters at full speed could not make the shot line and
missed the wreck completely! Scooter also tak jalan (cannot move),
that's how strong the current was. Anyway, brute force - one,
technology - zero. Or should I say, RSN Diver - one, Scooters - zero.

Due to the strong current, Vincent Chew called off the dive at Sin
Heng and moved on to the Campelina. There was a slight current in
certain places but vis at the bottom was good at 25m. The 80m cargo
vessel was resting at 45m of water with its hull facing up, she was
carrying sawn timber on her last voyage and was almost upside down
when it hit the bottom. A gap between the inverted deck and the
seabed allowed us to enter the cargo hold and check out the cargo of
sawn timber and wooden planks. Fish life was excellent with a huge
school of Barracuda guarding the wreck and schools of baby fusiliers
and some groupers hiding in the shelter of the almost inverted cargo
hold.

We descended with Vincent Chew to help him with the rope. On the way
down, I could see the other three DIRty Divers working hard, huffing
and puffing, helping Vincent Chew to pull the rope down, as for me,
I was just descending, checking depth, making sure we were
descending, descending, enjoying the blue, relaxing.... hey, someone
got to supervise right? But I did contribute to the tying of the
anchor line, the final thumb knot was my master-piece.

After we were done helping Vincent Chew, we carried on with our
DIRty dive... again we had to pass the prop to make my buddy happy.
As we completed the run to the prop and turn to the sheltered side
of the wreck, we came in parallel to the wreck and swam along its
side until we reached the cargo hold, we went in to inspect the
cargo hold and I kept having this thought that the cargo of timber
and planks that looked like scattered match sticks will disintegrate
above me, pin me down and make me a part of the Campelina. I was out
in less than a minute. Eerie.

As the depth of this wreck was deeper, we used average depth of 45m
and did a 25min dive. Our deco profile was similar to that of the
day before and we ascended with the help of the line as current was
strong. Phua was able to catch some shots of us DIRty divers doing
our ascend, holding on to the line and all in a mess. This might not
be his award winning shots, but I am sure he can make loads of
ransom money if he threatens to post them in this forum. As we moved
up to nine metres, the current weakened and we were able to leave
the line and got into formation. Yeah! No hands at last!! True DIRty
style.... by then, Phua had gone up to enjoy the mini water-
melons....

We were scheduled for the Igara for our last dive of the trip but
this had to be cancelled due to the salvage operation currently
going on at the wreck. So, with only one dive for the day, we washed
our DIRty gears as Zuki the boat Captain sailed us into the sunset
and back to TMFT.... stay tuned, next trip is from 30 Jun to 2 Jul
on Trip WM14 with M.V. White Manta. Join us if you want some fun,
water-melons not guaranteed. Stay Neutral !


DIRty Diver
12 Jun 06

P.S. The above was part factual part fiction. Read at your own
peril. But the mini water melons are real.... I think.