Saturday, 31 January 2009
Friday, 30 January 2009
THE WEEK IN BRIEF
DAY 1 - ONE NIGHT IN BANGKOK
3 pm return and started our Enriched Air Diving course (Nitrox)
DAY 7 - NITROX DIVING \ COURSE
7am start. 2 Nitrox dives, first at EAN 32% (32% Oxygen content) & 2nd EAN 36% (36% Oxygen content)- Did a dive plan before setting off for our first dive at Chumpon Pinnacle, to work our EAD (equivalent Air Depth) Oxygen exposure & reset our dive computers to Nitrox. Dive 1 - Medium current to start and visibility not all that good, but improved as we came up.
Dive 2 - White rock -Other chaps in group had to do navigation so Si and I mooched around ..20mts or so visibility was bad but when we rejoined the group near the reef, visisibility was a lot clearer ...one of the girls had panic attack ..so Nathan our instructor had to surface and Tom (a divemaster trainee) took charge of the group.
And thats the end of Week 1, see you in 7 days for another weeks round up...!!
Coming next week.... "The Hill" , Rescue Diver (tough course) and the long Divemaster Trainee course!!.
We had a couple of hours to spare before tiredness set in so we ventured out from our hotel for our first taste of Thailands capital. Bangkok seems to be a city choking on its excesses, evident by the constant haze that never seems to clear. Cheap food, market stalls, hotels, cars, bikes, thrills & people. This is a place that can easily overwhelm you. What a crazy place!
DAY 2 - DEPT BANGKOK TO KOH SAMUI AND FINALLY ONTO KOH TAO
Early start 05:15 taxi to the airport. Checked in we headed to the dept lounge for a welcome cuppa & breakfast. Flight to Koh Samui was good but had a 5 hour wait for the Koh Tao ferry and a horrendous time dragging our luggage down the pier steps, through a boat onto the actual ferry. Not something we're looking forward to doing again! On arrival at Koh Tao we were met by Alan, owner of Koh Star Villa which is going to be our home for the next 4 months.
DAY 3 - CRYSTAL DIVE INTRODUCTION
Finally meet Matt (Course Director) who we had been emailing. He gave us the low down on courses, history etc over coffee in Sairee village. So much information ..felt totally swamped!
After a hairy ride on his bike he took us to see the dive center & meet some of the crew, boy is there a lot to take in! That afternoon we hired a bike, so we're finally mobile!
DAY 4 - FREE DAY
The morning was spent exploring part of the island with Heidi & Alan (villa owners) in their jeep. On the way we stopped off at Crystal Dive to drop off our dive kit. The actual island is 7x3km ...but seems that people just stick to their part ..not surprising seeing that some of the roads are shocking. We had our first Thai Green curry and it was delicious :-D
DAY 5 - SCUBA REVEIW & 2 FUN DIVES
Not diving for over 12 months we had to complete a 1 hour scuba review in the pool, mask clearance (which I personally hate), buoyancy, running out of air scenario, air sharing, taking kit off & on etc ..we passed with flying colours of course ;-) We then signed up for 2 afternoon fun dives which were at Tanote Bay & Aow Leuk Pinnacle ..the visibility was great on the first dive, apparently there was suppose to be a wreck which we didnt find but came across an old motorbike, which was cool. The 2nd dive visibility was much better, 10-15 mtrs, lots of fish and at the end of the dive I think we'd all collected rubbish of some kind which felt pretty rewarding.
DAY 6 - FUN DIVES - SAIL ROCK
This is the most southernly dive site in Koh Tao where Whalesharks have been spotted and hasn't been dived since last year due to bad weather. The Staff at Crystal Dive get their names picked out of a hat as to who goes its so good. Usually costs 2500 Baht - Dive 1 - Slight current and we should have decended through a chimney down to 18mts but our guide missed it, so we decended to 28mts, visibility was poor but above 15mts it was great, moray eels, angel fish, barracuda the lot - Dive 2 - Decended through a chimney which levelled out at 18mtrs. Visibility much better after surface interval ...can imagine it'll be beautifully clear in a couple of weeks.DAY 2 - DEPT BANGKOK TO KOH SAMUI AND FINALLY ONTO KOH TAO
Early start 05:15 taxi to the airport. Checked in we headed to the dept lounge for a welcome cuppa & breakfast. Flight to Koh Samui was good but had a 5 hour wait for the Koh Tao ferry and a horrendous time dragging our luggage down the pier steps, through a boat onto the actual ferry. Not something we're looking forward to doing again! On arrival at Koh Tao we were met by Alan, owner of Koh Star Villa which is going to be our home for the next 4 months.
DAY 3 - CRYSTAL DIVE INTRODUCTION
Finally meet Matt (Course Director) who we had been emailing. He gave us the low down on courses, history etc over coffee in Sairee village. So much information ..felt totally swamped!
After a hairy ride on his bike he took us to see the dive center & meet some of the crew, boy is there a lot to take in! That afternoon we hired a bike, so we're finally mobile!
DAY 4 - FREE DAY
The morning was spent exploring part of the island with Heidi & Alan (villa owners) in their jeep. On the way we stopped off at Crystal Dive to drop off our dive kit. The actual island is 7x3km ...but seems that people just stick to their part ..not surprising seeing that some of the roads are shocking. We had our first Thai Green curry and it was delicious :-D
DAY 5 - SCUBA REVEIW & 2 FUN DIVES
Not diving for over 12 months we had to complete a 1 hour scuba review in the pool, mask clearance (which I personally hate), buoyancy, running out of air scenario, air sharing, taking kit off & on etc ..we passed with flying colours of course ;-) We then signed up for 2 afternoon fun dives which were at Tanote Bay & Aow Leuk Pinnacle ..the visibility was great on the first dive, apparently there was suppose to be a wreck which we didnt find but came across an old motorbike, which was cool. The 2nd dive visibility was much better, 10-15 mtrs, lots of fish and at the end of the dive I think we'd all collected rubbish of some kind which felt pretty rewarding.
DAY 6 - FUN DIVES - SAIL ROCK
3 pm return and started our Enriched Air Diving course (Nitrox)
DAY 7 - NITROX DIVING \ COURSE
7am start. 2 Nitrox dives, first at EAN 32% (32% Oxygen content) & 2nd EAN 36% (36% Oxygen content)- Did a dive plan before setting off for our first dive at Chumpon Pinnacle, to work our EAD (equivalent Air Depth) Oxygen exposure & reset our dive computers to Nitrox. Dive 1 - Medium current to start and visibility not all that good, but improved as we came up.
Dive 2 - White rock -Other chaps in group had to do navigation so Si and I mooched around ..20mts or so visibility was bad but when we rejoined the group near the reef, visisibility was a lot clearer ...one of the girls had panic attack ..so Nathan our instructor had to surface and Tom (a divemaster trainee) took charge of the group.
And thats the end of Week 1, see you in 7 days for another weeks round up...!!
Coming next week.... "The Hill" , Rescue Diver (tough course) and the long Divemaster Trainee course!!.
Thursday, 29 January 2009
Sunday, 25 January 2009
Monday, 19 January 2009
Sunday, 18 January 2009
Sunday, 11 January 2009
Now that Christmas & New Year is over, realisation has finally sunk in that we're off in only 10 days! :-D We've spent the weekend gathering all of our old kit from the loft (wet suits, rash vest, boots, fins, fin bags) which have now been washed & dried, deboxed all our new kit (BCD's, Octopuss's, Regulators) and have laid everything out in the spare room ready to tick off as we pack it. Seeing everything out makes our trip more realistic and I know my emotions are building day by day as our departure date fast approaches. As well as the diving kit we've purchased I have a special addition ..Simon bought me a Nikon D70 Camera with 2 lenses ..one a normal the other a fish eye (wide) ...AND a underwater housing ...It's my baby and I'm going to take some magnificent shots with it for you all to see 8-) ...my baby is only a little fish compared to Simons SONY Z1 HD camera with GATES underwater housing. Is size that important I wonder?! ;-)
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