The Black Manta

This past weekend (ending about 45 minutes ago), Matt and I went on the Black Manta. It is a live aboard boat that has about 26 divers and around 8 staff. We set out from a yacht club in Singapore, and we sailed through the night towards Tioman. We got in four dives on Saturday, two today, and then we made it back to Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal around 8:45 or so.

Details...
We went through immigration on a boat (they didn't actually check our faces with our passports...the boat just collected them, looked through them, and that was it).

The boat was sooooo relaxing and luxurious. The dive deck has tons of space, so you're not all crowded around, there's a big area with four big tables plus a buffet table, and that's shaded. There's a room with a flat screen tv and a million and one dvds. There's a sun deck on the top of the boat that even has shade, and lounge chairs. Most people stayed in private rooms with bathrooms. We stayed in the budget accommodations, which was a room with a few bunk beds - you don't spend too much time in the rooms.

The first day's dives were good, but we didn't see anything spectacular other than a sleeping scorpion fish - maybe you can spot it in the photo?

Saturday night Matt got food poisoning. He was the only one on the boat, so it was either a little piece of something icky or just something that his body rejected. He says he nearly died and could barely move, but he didn't wake me up, so I cannot be a witness. :( He sat out the Sunday dives.

Luckily...he didn't miss anything. The Sunday dives had visibility of between three and five meters. For the first dive, we got dropped off by a dinghy, and we all went under, and somehow everyone in our group stayed together - except for our dive master. We looked around for him, but we couldn't find him, so I decided to go up, but I didn't have a "sausage" - the thing you blow up to show that there are divers below, and then the boat guys know to come pick you up. Anyways, I went up, and I didn't see him, and the current was SUPER strong on the surface, so I tried to go back down to get the rest of the group, but I couldn't find them, so I stayed on the surface and screamed for Gary, and finally the boat guy came to get me, and then the other four popped up, and then so did Gary (our DM). We all went down together and basically swam up each other's asses the rest of the day.

There is also a picture here of the biggest eel we have ever seen. It was HUGE! Check out under the yellow coral. (The eel that has his head sticking out isn't the same one)

I wanted to try a live-aboard so that I could see if we could do a longer one in the Similan Islands or in the Great Barrier Reef...and I did feel pretty sea sick most of today. I took so many pills...I'm not sure if I can do it, but I will definitely do a two day trip with them again. It was outstanding service, great people, EXCELLENT food, and the diving would have been good if the vis was better - and that wasn't their fault!

Click here to see all of our pictures.