By: Mayawati NH (MyTrip Magazine)

"I once swam after Simba who broke his rope while on-tonda," said Pak Herman (WWF-Indonesia), Simba's speedboat assistant. Tonda means being tied up and pulled behind when the mother ship (Menami ship) moves to change locations.

"Once in one night, Simba was released three times. It was on Kapota Island in Wakatobi. It was the west wind season," he continued, shaking his head. Mr. Herman, who is originally from Bajo, and Mr. Muhidin, who is from Wakatobi, are the crew members of the Menami Ship who are specifically assigned to Simba's speedboat. Mr. Muhidin has worked on the Menami Ship under the banner of WWF Indonesia for 10 years, while Mr. Herman has been an employee of WWF-Indonesia for 8 years.

I imagine it must be very tiring!. The mother ship is moving quite fast, around 8-10 knots. The length of time from when the crew on watch at the back of the ship knew the rope was broken until the ship finally stopped and Mr. Herman dived to swim after it, must have missed several hundred meters. Yes, if the waves happen to be calm, if they are high and there is a current? Super hard work!

The two Simba crew members worked hard all day driving us divers to the dive site, and assisting us as we prepared to dive into the ocean. Once we had all disappeared underwater, they had to direct Simba to the approximate location we would be surfacing.

Unlike a recreational dive where a dive team of 4-6 people emerge from underwater at the same location - or even if different, no more than 20m away, an expedition team is a different story. A team of at least 4 people will surface in 3 different places. The minimum distance is 100 m, the farthest can be more than 300 m.

Their eyes have to be really observant to see divers and surface marker buoys (SMD) that appear on the surface. After picking up the divers, Simba still has to 'pick up' the SMDs at 3 points that are far apart, sometimes also dragged by the current to a great distance.

"The Menami ship used to be a freighter, then it was bought by WWF," said Pak Muhidin. The ship docks in Mandati, one of the harbor villages on Wangi-wangi Island, Wakatobi, Southeast Sulawesi. "Menami has been everywhere, including to Banda, Flores, and around Wakatobi. We were once hit by a storm around Wakatobi, the water entered the deck with the dining room," he continued. Wow, it's high too. Spooky.

"Do you ever feel scared, sir?" I asked curiously. "No, just surrender, it's the risk of the job," he replied casually.

WWF-Indonesia's expeditions or water area monitoring activities are quite numerous, so the Menami boat and crew stay in Mandati for about 10 days at most. That's when Pak Muhidin, Pak Herman, and the other crew members take a break and go home. After that, they went to sea again, running errands.

I heard these stories when I was forced to miss my second dive because my Buoyancy Compensator Device (BCD) was torn at the connection with the inflator, and I had to wait for my teammates to dive.

There were many more stories I could have gleaned from them, but the task awaited them, picking up the divers who had already surfaced.