The sky was still dark when the we left home. We gather at the meeting point at 05.45 am. Then we left Jakarta at 06.30 am heading to Carita.
After 2.5 hours of driving, we finally arrived at Carita harbour. As sleepy as it could get, we slowly prepared ourselves for an hour boat trip to the Krakatau crater. We took the 'Voyager' with 1 captain and 2 crews. Our group consist of 1 Nitrox Instructor, 1 Divemaster, 1 recreational diver and 3 Nitrox students (including us). At 10.45 am, we arrived at the "Batu Mandi / Karang Serang" site and learnt that the current was quite strong. Anyhow, we geared up ourselves for the first dive with Nitrox 32. When we hit the water, we could really feel that the current was trying to sweep us away. So we swam to the anchor line and prepared to dive from the line. We went down at 11.21 am, the current was strong and the visibility was only 2.5m. We could not really see much. After 5 minutes, the cold current suddenly hit us. It lasted for 10 minutes then a very warm current took place. I felt like sweating underwater. We still struggled through the current so it took all my breath away especially with the fin which could not keep up with the current, I had to do some crawling along the stone wall. We dived for 30 minutes and I saw that my air was running out. So then, we headed to the bluish-brownish water to do our safety stop. We hold hands to avoid being swept away separately. The dive lasted only 37 minutes!!! However, we had some fun watching the shadow of big Tunas, huge Angelfishes. Headaches hit us as soon as we surfaced.
The boat then sailed to the beach for our lunch break in Panjang Island. The lunch was a box of Nasi Kuning (Turmeric flavoured Rice) served with fried Chicken,, fried Tempe, Omelette and of course fried chili sauce. For dessert, we had Brownies fresh from Bandung. After lunch we chatted with other group of divers who were having their lunch as well in the island. After two hours of surface interval, we headed to the sea again for our second dive.
The second dive site was planned near the first site. But the condition was remaining the same. So the instructor decided to move to a site which has no name yet but he claimed that he has been diving at this spot several times. It was near the "Pintu Satu" site. He then name the site after himself.
The second dive was in a very calm water. There was no current. We dived at 02.03 pm, the sun was shining brightly lighting up the sea below. The visibility improved a little bit to 5m. During the dive, we spotted a big lobster sticking out its antennas and a big Juvenile Oriental Sweet Lips (Dakocan). Well, Krakatau is very famous for its extraordinary big fishes. I do not know why, maybe it's because of the current or the thermocline or both?
We enjoy the second dive more than the first dive. We were using nitrox 36. The dive lasted for 47 minutes. Even though we still had half of the tank full, we surfaced since the visibility was dropping.
We then headed back to Carita harbour, took shower and drove back to Jakarta. Arriving in the meeting point at 08.00 pm we then given the temporary card for the Enriched Air Diver. We did it! :p So next time, if anybody looking for a female Nitrox diver Buddy, you could give us a message then we go dive together!!!
Let's dive with nitrox!