Currents and Counter Currents
We knew that some of our dives might be a bit demanding. Most were wall
dives where only a ledge at 35-50 m separated us from the bottom more than
200-1500 m further down. And most dives were drift dives.
Drift Away
Sometimes we drifted slowly along a wall at 35 m, went up to 20 m and the
current would take us in the opposite direction. At 10 m we were yet again
forced to turn around. But one or two fin kicks kept us in the same place
with amble time to study yet another weird underwater creature.
At other times we covered considerable distances, in fact, even the dive
boat had trouble finding us again.
Trust the Fish
You can often tell which way the current goes by looking at f.inst. small
schooling fish as they usually have their heads turned into the current. But
not always...
To the Extreme
Currents are always an integral part of diving in Indonesia and most certainly part of the reason for the great bio diversity.
Our dive briefings always included a bit about the current but usually we didn't know for sure which way to dive until we descended. But on most of our dives we worked with the currents instead of against them (a lost battle anyway). One notable deviation was our dive at Sahaung at Bangka Island.
