Crescent Island, Hong Kong

by South China Diving Club

The first of our 9am departures from Tai Mei Tuk was not quite as painful as I expected. LS picked me up and we were there early, which was a bit of a novelty for me. The taxi contingent of Eric, Mike, Greg and Carmen had arrived even earlier and put their gear down at the other pier. Trying to be helpful I attempted to pick Mike's bag up and take it to the boat. For future reference Mike's bag is easy to recognise. It's the very heavy one! Anyway I manfully struggled to carry it over to the boat with Eric looking on. Once we'd got there he asked me why I hadn't wheeled it. I hadn't even noticed the wheels, and I suspect this is because when I bought my dive bag the wheel hadn't been invented.

The first part of the morning's entertainment was provided by Greg who got off to buy some beer. Since Greg doesn't often make it out on Club dives no-one noticed he was missing, so we set off. After we'd done a lap of Tai Mei Tuk's piers we pulled in again to pick him up. We did suggest he throw the beer aboard first, so he'd have his hands free, but for some reason he thought we'd go without him if he let go of the beer.

Disaster seemed about to strike shortly after our second departure when I found out that Sophia had forgotten the tea. Since you can always guarantee to get Chinese tea on Hong's boat I hadn't bothered to bring any. Fortunately Carmen is far more organised than me (who isn't?), and had not just come supplied with teabags, but with 3 different types of tea. To cheer me up even more she managed to produce a can of beer that I'd remarkably left lying around on a previous dive. Unfortunately at this stage her organisational abilities let her down as she'd lost her breakfast. Faced with starvation in the long, drawn-out hours before lunch, a black mood descended on her which was made worse when I undid the tank strap on her BCD to see if she could remember how to put it back together. Fortunately she could because I'd forgotten.

First dive was going to be in that sheltered bay on Crescent Island. Eric did a fine job of chivvying people along and getting them in the water, so that he could spread out and adopt the Robert Ho position, albeit without the high volume snoring associated with Mr. Ho. Or perhaps his enthusiasm was a result of the Diving Officer's influence, as George was on the boat doing some instructing.
We set off around the little island in the bay, trying desperately to find some depth. It was really pretty and colourful with lots of soft coral, and quite a lot of fish life. Nothing spectacular, but a very pretty dive nevertheless. Towards the end we waited by a hole waiting to see a shrimp and a goby which were co-habiting. In this arrangement the shrimp does all the housekeeping – digging the burrow and keeping it clean, while the goby sits there watching the world go by. I could cope with that. We then headed back at high speed to where I was sure the boat was – only to find we'd come back on the wrong side of the island and ended up miles away. Calvin shouted over to ask me if I'd meant to come up there. Naturally I explained that Carmen needed to practise towing, so I didn't want to be too close to the boat. Even more naturally no-one believed me!

Mike and Greg went in planning to deploy a delayed SMB. This could have been interesting, since the depth was only 2 metres. Anyway I suspect Mike did the navigating – when they got back and Greg was asked if they’d gone round the island, he wanted to know what island. While we’d been diving, Hong had stocked up with crab and fish from the local fishermen and he and Sophia were having lunch. It looked a lot better than my rather sorry looking ham sandwich.

For our second dive we headed over to Dragon's Teeth for a change. Visibility was a bit worse, and we bumped into a local spear fisherman before we actually saw him. Fortunately we bumped into the blunt end. There were quite a lot of aggressive clown fish, along with the usual crop of damsels and gobies. Around the little wreck were a couple of butterfly fish, along with some quite large schools of sweepers, and stripeys. As we de-kitted a loud noise of escaping air caused me bravely to dive for cover. It turned out that Carmen had taken the first stage off her tank without turning the tank off, a feat of strength which impressed us all. Having seen that I don't think I'll be taking her BCD apart after she's lost her breakfast again.

The final part of the day's entertainment was also provided by Greg. Rather than carry LS's weight belt ashore at Tai Mei Tuk, he opted to throw it into the water next to the pier. For some reason LS declined to dive for it. Overall a good day out, pleasant rather than spectacular diving, but very enjoyable. Thanks to Eric and Calvin for organizing everything.

South China Dive Club

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