Shipwreck diving at night
Last week we had friends Josh, Grace and Tom wanting to go on an exploration night dive on the Boga shipwreck, also known as the Kubu.... How could we say no!
We decided the best option before discovering a new night diving spot is to go suss it out by day. We packed up the dive bus ready to leave Amed at about 3:30pm and arrived in Kubu just a little after 4. After Wayan gave a detailed briefing and checked out the site map, we suited up, buddy checked and jumped in ...(well not literally… it’s a shore entrance… but anyway!)
After a beautiful decent down a gentle slope with subtle corals, we arrived at the dark outline of the bow of the ship which appears almost out of nowhere. We found some Nudibranches and an array of other life to the side of the ship, and swam to the stern of the boat to see the propeller (which is still intact). After a bit of swimming around and exploring, we decided to head back as the current seemed to be picking up a bit. We could tell this by constantly monitoring the conditions and you could start to see the bubbles start to drift. Wayan decided the best option was to use the lines attached to the wreck to assist us on our ascent which lead us up nice and slow. After we surfaced we found out that just after we descended a really heavy rain storm had passed over by which had caused the water to flow down into the sea and had caused the current.
...we waited for the day to end and the darkness to settle in.
After a decent surface interval (as it was a deep dive) and some drinks and snacks, we waited for the day to end and the darkness to settle in.
The local workers had carried our new tanks down to the entrance and after another briefing it was time for our main adventure. It’s always very exciting when we get to do something new so you can imagine the atmosphere surrounding us! There was a tiny bit of current pushing us on the decent but nothing like the first dive - whenever you are doing a night dive, whether or not it is a new site or one frequently dived, you always get that feeling that you are in a completely different place and have no idea where you are! The wreck again appeared out of nowhere and we were left free to explore - we found some really cool glowing fish under the stern (still to find out exactly what they were) and lots of moray eels. Half the team decided to explore further inside the wreck while the other preferred to search the exterior. As we were swimming up the slope we had lots of critters to play with - all in all in made for a very exciting afternoon/ evening!
After returning back to the shop, the boys were waiting to get all of the equipment washed and sorted which left us free to go to one of our favorite restaurants just opposite the dive shop - Warung Osin, for some yummy local food and of course Bintangs!