Yesterday, there was a fire at a high end resort here called Charm Churee. A fair amount of damage was done, and they are blaming the fire on a wayward cigarette... Hopefully no one was hurt...
Saturday, 26 November 2011
27th November 2011
So, with a few days off, we have be generally bumming around... not doing much except catching up on Eastenders etc.
Yesterday, there was a fire at a high end resort here called Charm Churee. A fair amount of damage was done, and they are blaming the fire on a wayward cigarette... Hopefully no one was hurt...
Yesterday, there was a fire at a high end resort here called Charm Churee. A fair amount of damage was done, and they are blaming the fire on a wayward cigarette... Hopefully no one was hurt...
Thursday, 24 November 2011
25th November 2011
WOW!!
A day off to catch up..
The last few days, Jen and I have been conducted a Reef Check Course.
Day 1 is an intro for new Divemaster Trainees and then a further 3 days with people who have actually paid for the course.
We had 2 students... James who had just completed his advanced course, and Caitlin who just passed her Divemaster training.
Near the end of the course we conduct a real Reef Check and collect data that is used globally by scientists to monitor the ongoing conditions of our Reefs. The weather conditions were not great and we were helped by Mischa (an intern who is here for 1 month), and Ray (Nathans friend from Australia)
Once completed, Jen and I went home, and stayed in for the night... with Jen playing Call of Duty:Black Ops on the Xbox & me playing the new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 on my laptop.. till 1am!!!
A day off to catch up..
The last few days, Jen and I have been conducted a Reef Check Course.
Day 1 is an intro for new Divemaster Trainees and then a further 3 days with people who have actually paid for the course.
We had 2 students... James who had just completed his advanced course, and Caitlin who just passed her Divemaster training.
Near the end of the course we conduct a real Reef Check and collect data that is used globally by scientists to monitor the ongoing conditions of our Reefs. The weather conditions were not great and we were helped by Mischa (an intern who is here for 1 month), and Ray (Nathans friend from Australia)
Once completed, Jen and I went home, and stayed in for the night... with Jen playing Call of Duty:Black Ops on the Xbox & me playing the new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 on my laptop.. till 1am!!!
Tuesday, 22 November 2011
23rd November 2011
In the midst of a Reef Check course, we shall finish tomorrow.
In the meantime, here is a video showing all the projects that we have been involved with...
Thanks to Chad @ New Heaven for the vid.
x
SD
In the meantime, here is a video showing all the projects that we have been involved with...
Thanks to Chad @ New Heaven for the vid.
x
SD
Friday, 18 November 2011
18th November 2011
A Sipadan movie for you..
Its in 2 parts, and the HD version is too large to upload very easily, but I shall do my best over the next few days..
Much love.!
SD
Its in 2 parts, and the HD version is too large to upload very easily, but I shall do my best over the next few days..
Much love.!
SD
Saturday, 12 November 2011
13th November 2011
So, back to back courses as the school is low on instructors.... probably because of Monsoon season!!
But during the couple of free afternoons I have had over the last few days, while Jen was on normal Open Water Courses, a few of us went and repopulated our Coral Nursery at Twins.. The previous fragments had grown amazingly since September 2010, and we had moved them onto the Coral Ship about 4 weeks ago.
Because of our success previously, with this nursery and the one we have at Junkyard, based on past experience.... we decided to collect coral fragments and bring the up to the boat, where we could be more effective than underwater. Efficiency is critical as we want the corals too suffer as little stress as possible...
DMT Caitlin helping to put coral fragments into length of ropes for the rope sections of our nursery.
Unfortunately, it almost was a disaster...
To keep the stress levels lower, once a tray, or ropes have been populated, we tie them to the boat, and let them hang in the water until we are ready to dive. When we were nearly done, I went to the back of the boat, and all our transplants were missing. The knot that tied them all to the boat was worked loose I guess... and they had all sunk without us noticing...
So it was action stations. Caitlin and I jumped in and guessed where they would be, descending 18m to sand. At this spot, all you could see was sand... no coral... nothing... not great when you want to do a search pattern... I started a search, and thankfully a few minutes later found our hard work laying there... PHEW!!!
After that little mishap, we went back to the surface, where everybody had smiles that we had found them... and we all went down to the nurseries together...
Once completed, they look great and hopefully they bed in as brilliantly as our first attempt..
After that, I went to the Coral Ship, as I hadn't seen it in a couple of weeks...and made a little discovery.... after only 4 weeks.... the corals are starting to attach to the steel frame... Superb!!
All in all... a fantastic couple of days for eco...
But during the couple of free afternoons I have had over the last few days, while Jen was on normal Open Water Courses, a few of us went and repopulated our Coral Nursery at Twins.. The previous fragments had grown amazingly since September 2010, and we had moved them onto the Coral Ship about 4 weeks ago.
Because of our success previously, with this nursery and the one we have at Junkyard, based on past experience.... we decided to collect coral fragments and bring the up to the boat, where we could be more effective than underwater. Efficiency is critical as we want the corals too suffer as little stress as possible...
Unfortunately, it almost was a disaster...
To keep the stress levels lower, once a tray, or ropes have been populated, we tie them to the boat, and let them hang in the water until we are ready to dive. When we were nearly done, I went to the back of the boat, and all our transplants were missing. The knot that tied them all to the boat was worked loose I guess... and they had all sunk without us noticing...
So it was action stations. Caitlin and I jumped in and guessed where they would be, descending 18m to sand. At this spot, all you could see was sand... no coral... nothing... not great when you want to do a search pattern... I started a search, and thankfully a few minutes later found our hard work laying there... PHEW!!!
After that little mishap, we went back to the surface, where everybody had smiles that we had found them... and we all went down to the nurseries together...
Once completed, they look great and hopefully they bed in as brilliantly as our first attempt..
After that, I went to the Coral Ship, as I hadn't seen it in a couple of weeks...and made a little discovery.... after only 4 weeks.... the corals are starting to attach to the steel frame... Superb!!
Tuesday, 8 November 2011
9th November 2011
Wow, time goes so quick...!
First, as some of you may know, I have been having some UK business issues that I have been needing to address. So besides 5 mins break here and there.... I have been full steam ahead since our return to Koh Tao.
Anyway, I am getting ahead of myself ! Lets go back a couple of weeks and recap.!
So, lets start with the rig.... still at Sipadan and a few days left of our dive trip. We returned to Sipadan the next day, and had 3 awesome dives again. Got some more fantastic footage... below is just a taster! More will come when I have time to edit!!
But, in this beautiful place, there are problems..... We witnessed some terrible dive practices by the other divers in our groups. Jen pointed out that one diver would wear gloves when diving (there were "NO GLOVES" signs everywhere), Jen's query was dismissed as "the guy needs to grip his camera tighter". When Jen reapproached the staff the next day and complained that she had seen the diver break coral and hold on to coral, they denied it happened... even with Jen pointing out that I had filmed some of these actions. See footage below...
So, we left Sipadan with deep regret of what is happening there, and started our long journey back to Koh Tao. First, a speedboat to the mainland, then a 2 hour bus ride... after that, a plane to Kuala Lumpur.
We arrived at KL airport, and checked into a hotel for 10 hours... a sleep and then it was back onto a plane again to head for Bangkok... the usual hassle, arguing about excess baggage etc... and getting seats not sitting nest to each other.. We moved next to each other during the flight since it wasn't full...
On arrival at Bangkok, we caught a taxi to the train station, as we wanted to get out as soon as possible with the potential flood risks. We managed to get tickets for the final train leaving for the South of Thailand... but sinces the flood waters had already damaged the track ahead, we boarded a bus for a couple of hours to take us to a working rail station.
On route to the unaffected train station, we passed by some flooded areas... unfortunately it was dark by then, so no photos.
Then, it was back on the train for another sleeper trip to Chumphon. We arrived at 3:30am, and had to wait at the train station for a bus to the ferry at 6:30am. During this time, I had numerous calls from the UK, explaining what was happening with the business in the UK... Needless to say, I was not happy, but thats an issue I shall not be dealing with in public.
While I was on the phone, 6 Indian guys walked up and started chatting with Jen. Eventually, she had convinced them to go to Koh Tao, and do a Discover Scuba Diving dive...
So, eventually the ferry turned up, and we boarded with the crazy Indians...
Arriving back on Koh Tao, Jen sorted the guys out, and I jumped straight onto teaching a large Open Water Course... Its nice to be needed... the timing was not great because of all the stuff I was dealing with in the UK.... but I was not complaining!
Jen took the guys out scuba diving the next day, and they loved it so much, they spent the next 2 days buying us drinks and food.... they were so hospitable... and they left a couple of days later with tears in their eyes saying we had "made their holiday so amazing"...
So, thats it... kind of up to date now... Jen started an Open Water Course today, while I work on UK stuff.. and update this blog!!! In the meantime, I have been having a debate with the dive company in Sipadan regarding the diver actions we saw... see below: (click the pics to enlarge)
Hopefully the next update, will not be as long... again, my apologies...!
xx
SD
First, as some of you may know, I have been having some UK business issues that I have been needing to address. So besides 5 mins break here and there.... I have been full steam ahead since our return to Koh Tao.
Anyway, I am getting ahead of myself ! Lets go back a couple of weeks and recap.!
So, lets start with the rig.... still at Sipadan and a few days left of our dive trip. We returned to Sipadan the next day, and had 3 awesome dives again. Got some more fantastic footage... below is just a taster! More will come when I have time to edit!!
But, in this beautiful place, there are problems..... We witnessed some terrible dive practices by the other divers in our groups. Jen pointed out that one diver would wear gloves when diving (there were "NO GLOVES" signs everywhere), Jen's query was dismissed as "the guy needs to grip his camera tighter". When Jen reapproached the staff the next day and complained that she had seen the diver break coral and hold on to coral, they denied it happened... even with Jen pointing out that I had filmed some of these actions. See footage below...
So, we left Sipadan with deep regret of what is happening there, and started our long journey back to Koh Tao. First, a speedboat to the mainland, then a 2 hour bus ride... after that, a plane to Kuala Lumpur.
We arrived at KL airport, and checked into a hotel for 10 hours... a sleep and then it was back onto a plane again to head for Bangkok... the usual hassle, arguing about excess baggage etc... and getting seats not sitting nest to each other.. We moved next to each other during the flight since it wasn't full...
On arrival at Bangkok, we caught a taxi to the train station, as we wanted to get out as soon as possible with the potential flood risks. We managed to get tickets for the final train leaving for the South of Thailand... but sinces the flood waters had already damaged the track ahead, we boarded a bus for a couple of hours to take us to a working rail station.
On route to the unaffected train station, we passed by some flooded areas... unfortunately it was dark by then, so no photos.
Then, it was back on the train for another sleeper trip to Chumphon. We arrived at 3:30am, and had to wait at the train station for a bus to the ferry at 6:30am. During this time, I had numerous calls from the UK, explaining what was happening with the business in the UK... Needless to say, I was not happy, but thats an issue I shall not be dealing with in public.
While I was on the phone, 6 Indian guys walked up and started chatting with Jen. Eventually, she had convinced them to go to Koh Tao, and do a Discover Scuba Diving dive...
So, eventually the ferry turned up, and we boarded with the crazy Indians...
Arriving back on Koh Tao, Jen sorted the guys out, and I jumped straight onto teaching a large Open Water Course... Its nice to be needed... the timing was not great because of all the stuff I was dealing with in the UK.... but I was not complaining!
Jen took the guys out scuba diving the next day, and they loved it so much, they spent the next 2 days buying us drinks and food.... they were so hospitable... and they left a couple of days later with tears in their eyes saying we had "made their holiday so amazing"...
So, thats it... kind of up to date now... Jen started an Open Water Course today, while I work on UK stuff.. and update this blog!!! In the meantime, I have been having a debate with the dive company in Sipadan regarding the diver actions we saw... see below: (click the pics to enlarge)
Hopefully the next update, will not be as long... again, my apologies...!
xx
SD
Friday, 4 November 2011
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