Diving Luconia and Layang

June 22
It took a long time planning but in the end I succeeded in getting a team together who share my passion for the underwater world. Eric (www.treasure-images.com) from Kota Kinabalu and Kevin (www.flickr.com/photos/wulixin/) from mainland China will join me for a diving trip in the South China Sea. Both of them are accomplished underwater photographers who took the opportunity to make a unique diving trip. Our plan is to visit offshore reefs such as Luconia and Layang Layang. All will depend on the weather as many of the dive sites are completely exposed to the wind and seas and anchoring can be precarious. We all share a great concern about the over-exploitation of the seas and we will use our media skills to raise awareness. Completely unexpectedly my Malay mate Razali did not show up for work one week before our planned departure and through the grapevine I found out he had taken on another job. A serious setback one week before our departure with permission from the Malay Navy ready to be issued. At such short notice it was impossible to find new crew and when I had already given up on the idea of having a cook on board I met up with Rachel three days ago to share some information on diving in the Philippines. She is the friend of my Dutch sailing friend Frank and happened to have the time to join us. With Frank (www.svmorninglight.blog.com/) she has made some offshore trips and she will make sure that we will not starve at sea! The last two days we spent loading 'ALK' with provisions while Eric and Kevin got aquainted on board and prepared the diving gear, cleaned the propellor and hull, installed and tested the compressor, studied the dive sites etc. Last night we got very useful last-minute information from Ian (www.sharkyjones.com/) who had just returned from a live-aboard diving trip to Luconia. So we are well prepared and ready to set off after we clear with Sarawak Immigration.
We will make postings on the blog while at sea and you can follow our route on www.winlink.org/userPositions under my callsign PA2ALK.

 Kevin and Eric are happy to offload the extra dive bottles which they carried on their flight from KK

 The young owner of Miri Marina and the captain of his private yacht were quite interested in our trip

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 The dive compressor next to the newly installed solar panels on the foredeck

Eric puts in his order for a beer!

But the beers are served on deck after a hard days' work

 Our last crew member Rachel is going to find out what it is like to feed three divers!