Crystal Bay, Penida
The Crystal Bay Dive Site
Nusa Penida
The boat then sailed to the second dive site which was Crystal Bay. At the bay, we met up with group of divers from BIDP and exchanged story and jokes. After 1 hour 38 minutes of surface interval, we were ready to go for the second dive. The group was divided into 2 directions.
Divers from boat 2 dived to the left side of rock and divers from boat 1 to the right side of the rock. We were trying to get into the cave. Unfortunately, the current was too strong and it was low tide so the surge was also quite strong. After we reached the outskirt of the bay, we could feel the current was trying to push us to the open sea and a thermo cline hit us with water temperature of 18°C. It was like being showered with ice water from the fridge!!!!! The thermo cline stayed all the way with the down current. We tried to fight back the down current but it was quite strong. We decided to wait for a while by holding to the rocks. Unfortunately the current did not slow down, so we decided to head back to the bay. The dive back to the bay was not an easy one. Exhausted because of the current and cold water, we had to hold on every possible rock. Entering the bay, we still had to fight the current and surge. After 39 minutes, we finally surfaced with headache! What a dive! A great experience and exercise!!!! ?. The divers from the boat 2 were already on board.
Story from the other boat (quoted from Rizal Prayuga)
Since the other boat was still lazing around, our guide ,David decided to go dive ahead. When we dived down, we could the cold water surrounding us. The temperature was 19ºC but the visibility was excellent around 25-30m. We passed a group of divers from BIDP. By the time we passed the big stone we could feel that the current was swirling around. Considering the condition of the divers in our group, we headed back to the bay. We then dived around in the bay area for about 20 minutes.