Raja Ampat – Day 6: A Diving Milestone
RAJA AMPAT
Day 6: A Diving Milestone
May 12, 2023
Last day… Well, last diving day in Raja Ampat, that is. We’d only have two dives and they’d both be in the morning considering all of us would be flying out the following morning.
Our first dive would be at Sardine Reef – a promising one to say the least, given that we descended right next to a black-tip reef shark facing a school of barracudas, with a large shoal of trevallies behind us. It only took a few minutes for peace and tranquillity to give way to chaos and madness as the strong current started dragging us along, with Keith being unable to manage, prompting Dom to quickly give him his reef hook. Alex and I, on the other hand, kicked as hard as we could to stay next to the other two, grasping onto rocks for some respite whilst we caught our breath once again. I had never experienced such a strong current, and lemme tell ya, it wasn’t easy to keep up.
Whilst Dom had warned us to expect such currents in these waters, I have to admit that I didn’t quite grasp the full extent of it. Suddenly, it felt like we weren’t in Kansas anymore. But, as always, being thrown in the deep end is one of the best ways to learn, and facing a different challenge was welcome. I was a divemaster after all – how could I be proud of my title otherwise? As much as I had learned, there was so much more left. And you know what they say… A smooth sea never made a skilled divemaster!
Acidic Mysteries and Angry Titans
As Keith hung onto the rock with Dom hovering effortlessly next to him, Alex and I proceeded to explore the surrounding area. Whilst I got a bit used to swimming in the current, I can still say it was exhausting, and, worst of all, a huge distraction from appreciating the marine life.
If that weren’t enough, after a while, I also started to feel pins and needles over my entire body. “That’s it for me… It’s DCS!” I thought to myself, resigned to the fact that I’d die there. It wouldn’t have been the worst place to die, to be completely fair, and having been in so many life-or-death situations over the past year, I quickly made my peace with it. Worst case would be if I were to make it to the surface only to find out my skin had dissolved away. That I could never make peace with.
Of course, with the pins and needles suddenly turning into an intense sensation of burning and itching, my initial diagnosis quickly changed. That, together with seeing Alex scratching himself all over, reassured me. By the time we got back to Dom, my entire body was on fire – my lips seemingly swollen and close to falling off. Keith and Dom didn’t seem to be faring much better either. The other groups then joined us, all of them struggling against the current and the mysterious symptoms that seemed to afflict everyone. The word ‘perplexed’ doesn’t even begin to describe how I felt. Could it have been a thousand tiny, microscopic jellyfish floating about? Millions of hydroid particles shorn off by the current, perhaps? Some crazy fisherman pouring acid into the sea?
With the rest having started their safety stops, we seemed to have gotten accustomed to all our hardships and continued the dive as planned, admiring all the fish and creatures there were to be seen. As if the current and the acute dermatological issues hadn’t been enough, we also had to deal with an angry titan triggerfish which started chasing us for dear life out of nowhere. It took us everything we had to swim away from it, with Dom using his metal rod to scare it away on a couple of occasions. It was by far the least pleasant dive I had ever had!
After the hell dive, Johnny and the divemasters had a lot to explain. The current wasn’t something they could quite help, nor the presence of what they think were minute, invisible jellyfish. After reassuring us we’d be just fine cause it’s not the first time that happened, they went on to tell us that during breeding and nesting seasons, titan triggerfish are notoriously aggressive, defending their territory at all costs. As such, any unsuspecting diver approaching their cone-shaped territory would likely end up in their firing range, their bites possibly resulting in major injuries considering how big their teeth are. In fact, Keith told us he had seen one of them rip off a good chunk of flesh from someone’s shoulder a few years back. Friggin’ scary! To think I had gotten so close to so many of them back in Central America… Brrr!
The Century Mark and PADI Politics
By the time we had had our breakfast, most of the burning and itching had gone. Finally relaxed after that dive, which was possibly my worst one ever (except for the tank-dropping one), I sat down to start logging the dives I had been accumulating over the previous six days. Turns out, the very last dive – the dive from hell – was my one hundredth!
I couldn’t quite believe it. There on that very ship were some very experienced divers who had been doing it for decades and didn’t even have a hundred dives. Yet there I was, in my first year of diving, having reached such an important milestone. Now mind you, Johnny had some twelve thousand dives to his name, so I knew mine didn’t quite amount to much. But to me, those one hundred dives were formative. They had changed my life. They had upended my entire existence. Ever since that first breath underwater back in Belize, my world had changed, expanded. And to think, it had been less than a year! Coincidentally, it had been exactly eight months since my first dive. Now? Now I couldn’t imagine going a month without diving – even though I had and I would.
As if that weren’t enough, we had been closing into the civilised margins of Indonesia and internet connectivity seemed to be a bit more stable. Whilst celebrating my achievement, I also stumbled upon an email from PADI stating my application had finally been approved and I was finally a fully-fledged divemaster! I had finished my training some five months previously, and, after a few months, neither Amelia nor I had received any word regarding the process. When we finally heard back from them, it turned out that Amelia’s application had been missed and they quickly accepted it.
Mine, on the other hand, couldn’t be approved on account of not having done my first aid course (despite being a fully qualified doctor and having jumped through the hoops back in Utila). After much back and forth, the organisation informed me I needed to fill out a form signed by my clinical supervisor to confirm that I have indeed practiced first aid and CPR in practice. More bureaucracy… But, finally, it was official!
A Whale of a Sign
As I revelled in my progress, I stood on the deck looking wistfully at the horizon as I tend to do when everything seems to be right with the world. It was at that point that the universe sent me a sign.
The calm and still horizon was broken by a waterspout, followed by a dark blue silhouette with a tiny bump at its surface – a friggin’ whale! According to Johnny, it was likely to be a Bryde’s whale; a rorqual belonging to the same family as blue whales and humpbacks. Little did I know ‘whale access’ would be good here too!
I felt so damn lucky! One hundred dives, being accepted as a divemaster, and spotting a whale – all in one day. Now I don’t believe in things like destiny or trying to find meaning where there is none, even though that’s something that defines us as human, but come on… This had to mean something, right? Just like that, it felt as if my luck had reversed and that things were looking up.
And, on a more spiritual level, I just knew I’d be all right. If medicine and hospitals wouldn’t feel like home anymore, I knew I had another one right here. The sea was now an integral part of my life, much like it had been when I was just a kid. It felt like a complete 180.
Chicken Reef
After it had all sunk in, I was unbelievably excited to embark on the Zodiac for one last dive here in Raja Ampat. No matter the current, no matter how many jellyfish there’d be, I couldn’t wait to be underwater once again.
We headed towards Chicken Reef – yet another coral slope. It was a great dive overall, and despite not spotting anything new, it felt like this reef had brought everything together. Schools of barracudas, trevallies, and fusiliers, shoals of damselfish, chromis, and jacks, angelfish and butterflyfish of all shapes and colours. And, of course, the gorgeous, pristine coral – brain, mushroom, fan, barrel, staghorn, finger, you name it and there it was. And best of all? No jellyfish or currents. The perfect dive. Idyllic and relaxing, entertaining and mesmerising.
Once we were all back on the ship, the crew started busying themselves to unfurl the sails – something they’d do only for theatrics and nothing more. Once they were all unfurled, they had us go on one last Zodiac trip around the ship in order to admire its beauty (and take photos for publicity, I’m sure). False pretences apart, it truly is a sight to behold – the Sea Safari VI in all its glory!
