Day 124 - 8th June 2010

Si had to be up bright and early to catch the a.m. boat as he was doing the deep & naturalist ..I decided not to accompany him today as Heidi was coming at 11.30am to give me ride down to Crystal so she could borrow my dive computer and compass.

Down at Crystal, I got a coffee and water and caught up with some mails.   Half an hour later, the morning boat was back and Si, Nath & students.  Their first dive was a 'Chumphon' which apparently was stunning and the 2nd dive at Green Rock where Simon got badly triggered for around 10 minutes on his 29 minute dive, wearing his brand new fins, which he'd only picked up this morning.  There were holes and various bite marks all over them. Check out the pics I've never heard of a Trigger being so persistent.   Si was not happy and on top of that, had a splitting headache.
 
Simon's account: " I took 2 students down to 20m and headed towards the coral, delicately avoiding the notorious Trigger Pits (their nest). Once past and along the coral, we started noting down different kinds of sea life as part of their course. In the distance, I noticed a big Titan Triggerfish swimming... no problem, plenty of space between us, but for safety's sake I warned my 2 students and we backed slowly away. All of a sudden, the "Trigger fin" went up and the battle was on. He belted through the water and I knew immediately he meant business. I put my fins up and started swimming away slowly at first, trying to keep myself in between my students and this bad boy. He got a couple of hard bites to my fins before circling back round to get a attack position on my body, but every time he went for me, I pushed my fins in the way. 10 minutes of swimming backwards, with the Triggerfish attacking me, and keeping an eye on my students who were sh"tting themselves (like me!).... it got the heart pumping. I used half my air!!!

Finally he left, and after checking that my 2 students were okay, I looked around to see him coming yet again for another go...and then eventually he left. Then I examined my fins.... my brand new fins.... destroyed!

My new fins!

 Damage from bites!

My finger through a hole!

The rest of the dive was an attempt to get back to the coast but after being surrounded by 5 other Triggerfish, I ended the dive after 30 minutes, and had a long surface swim to the boat. Not a great dive, but what an experience!"

What an exciting morning, mine seemed rather dull as I'd just started trying to enter some of the Coral Watch Data for Nathan.  All was going well until I tried entering the lattitude and longtitude of dive sites.  For some reason it wasnt accepting the data that I'd been given by Nathan so I'll have to put that on hold for the moment. 

My afternoon was spent painting, making signs out of odd bits of wood for 'Junk Yard' with a few others while Simon kept an eye on his students whilst they completed all their knowledge reviews for their Advanced Open Water.

This evening we're meeting friends at 'Hippo' for a meal. It won't be a late one as we're on the 7am boat.

Day 123 - 7th June 2010

Si was assisting Nathan today on a Advanced course and met down at Crystal at 9am and I was meeting Kiwi at the Crystal Market to help out with equipment repairs.  After finishing my coffee I walked over to 'Market' but Kiwi wasn't there, so I popped back to Crystal (2mins walk) and sat for a bit, expecting him to turn up late as usual  ...then after about half an hour, he'd still not surfaced.  Slightly annoyed as I hate waiting around, I found out that he had to do surface cover on the a.m. boat.  He could have at least text me.

As Si, Nath and students were out on the afternoon boat doing Peak Performace Buoyancy and Navigation dives, I decided to go along for the ride to catch some rays.
Both dives were at Aow Leuk and the visibility apparantly was pretty rubbish at 3 or 4 meters so I was smiling inside.  I hadn't missed out on to much ;-)

We returned to Crystal around 5.30pm and had a 1/2 break before Si and the gang had to be back on the boat for the night dive.  I'd earlier bumped into Katti who wasn't doing anything, so agreed to come on the night boat with me for company to watch the sunset and have a little picnic.  So Si and I popped to 7eleven and got some coke, crisps and cookies and Katti popped off to buy some fruit.

Once at 'WhiteRock' and everyone was in the water, Nath who was surface cover for the evening, Katti and I, gathered and feasted  :-)   Lovely!!

Simon had a pleasant dive, guiding the students around on their 1st ever Night dive... seeing a couple of big Sting Rays and a lovely cuttlefish.

After the dive we gathered at the bar, had a drink and then went to Dirty Nelly's for food.

Day 123 - 6th June 2010

Today we popped down to Deep Down and ordered breakfast frm 'Greasy Spoon'  Si got his usual portion of large chips, bread roll with salt, vinegar and tomato sause and i had a egg and sausage sandwich.  Very health eh!

As I'm out of the water and Si's not assisting on any courses we pottered about at Deep Down for a few hours, I chatted and played with my DS whilst Si helped a couple of students our with their show reels and looked up pricing of computing equipment.

After a period of time, we headed home and watched the motorbike racing.  First the 125cc and then the Moto2 (600cc)  all very exciting.   I was in and out of consciousness for most of it.

We had planned to meet some friends later at 'Dirty Nellys' to watch the MotoGP when we arrived there was no sign of the MotoGp and we asked a few of the staff and they were unsure as to whether they were showing it as boring ole football was on.  So with that, someone suggested that it might be on at 'Cafe Corner' so Si took a quick walk to check.  Luckily it was and with commentary, so we headed down and took our seats, ordered drinks in perfect time for the start.  

Unfortunately Rossi was out of the race due to crashing and breaking his leg in the practice rounds but it was still a pretty exciting race for 2nd.

After the race was finished, we walked back to 'Choppers' to meet Alan & Heidi who were having a Sunday roast.  As either of us hadnt eaten, we ordered food too.  Si being the veggie that he is, the menu was rather lacking veggie food, so he ordered a cheese plate and I ordered the roast chicken.  Si's food or should i say snack, turned up and half of the cheese was too sweaty for him, so ended up putting most of it in Heidi's doggy bag for the dogs.    Fifteen or so minutes later, i got my roast and tucked in but felt guilty as this was the 2nd night that Si hadn't eaten properly.

Food finished, we headed back home, stopping for water on the way.

Day 121-123 4th, 5th and 6th June 2010

This post was accidentally deleted by Jen!

Basically I was writing about the Coral Bleaching, and for more info read www.ecokohtao.com or join the facebook page "EcoKohTao".

Ta

SD

Day 120 - 3rd June 2010

I woke around 9.30 to find Si working on his laptop.  He'd been up since around 7am

I was feeling much better, the swelling had almost gone and I found walking semi comfortable.

So after a shower we went out for breakfast to 'Cafe Corner' in Sairee for poached eggs on toast and a smoothy.   The ride down wasnt too bad as I supported most of my weight on the footpegs and right hand on the back of the bike to take most of the impact from bumps & holes in road.

Back at home, I finished off all the Reef Check slates for Nathan that needed re-marking as they'd become pretty faint over time and an hour or so into doing that I turned around and Si was snoozing on the bed.

It's pretty boring when you're not diving and can't go swimmng so I think Im going to find the next week a real struggle.  I think I might see if I can sit on some academics, equipment specs or see if there's anything on the Eco side that I can help out with.  I dont think I can stand another lazy day watching tv...

In the evening, we decided to pop down to Crystal to catch up with people and watch a couple of Open Water movies.  I'm so glad we did as it was great to see everyone and so many people asked how I was feeling which I really appreciated.  I know we've only been away for 48hrs but it felt much longer.  When Carsten & Nathans movies came on I felt guilty as we were supposed to be team teaching and starring in them.  Oh well, I'm sure there be lots of other opportunities.

On the way home we got a takeaway and then watched the Survivor finale.

Day 119 - 2nd June 2010 - Samui Hospital

Today we were up early and I was supposed to be starting team teaching with Nathan and Si was finishing off academics and then confined water but instead of that I ended up going to the clinic.

As a few weeks ago I had either been bitten or had a spot that got infected in my lower region which obviously being me, I had picked and picked and had resisted in the last few days as it had become very swollen and uncomfortable.  When I woke this morning it had doubled in size, the tenderness had spread up into my groin region and walking was painful, so before heading to Crystal, we popped into the clinic to have it checked out.

After being examined, which really hurt, the Dr said I'd had to go to Samui to have it cut/cleaned etc as it was badly infected and they couldn't deal with it.   Si was adamant that we'd go to Samui straight away and thinking about it now, I'm glad we did.

We shot home to collect insurance docs & passports, rode to Crystal to let Nathan & Carsten know before catching the  9.30am boat to Samui. 

Once in Samui a couple of hours later, we caught a taxi bus to Bangkok Hospital where we checked in and I was seen pretty much immediately.  First my blood pressure & temperature were taken and then I was taken through to see the Dr. who assessed my lump, saying 'Oh, absess, very very bad, lots of pus, will have to open"  My immediate reaction was to ask 'will it hurt?'   she replied "In beginning only" she then promptly asked if I wanted a anaesthetic, which I said "YES!!!!!"

Boy, when that needle went in, my eyes just streamed  ..then again  ...ARGH!!   but after a few seconds I could hardly feel anything thankfully.   After she made her incision and squeezed a little , she says 'lot and lot of pus'  and then show me a blood/pus soaked gause  ..Hmm, how lovely!!
1/2 hr and 4 stitches later, she had finished.    Thank goodness for that.   I dressed, met Si in the waiting room, arranged another appointment and then then collected my prescription.   Standing and walking felt fine until the anaesthetic wore off and then I looked like a little old lady hobbling along at a snails pace.

As we'd missed the last boat back to Koh Tao, we caught a taxi to a hotel next to the ferry port.  I spent most of the time laid down as I was very sore whilst Si went out to get provisions. We laid in the hotel room all afternoon trying to keep cool, and slept very well at night..

Day 118 - 1st June 2010

Si was up working early this morning as usual and I watched Eastenders whilst drinking tea.

Today, Si started team teaching Open Water with Carsten and I went diving with Tina and has a couple of incredibly chilled dives.  We searched for the sea horses at Mango Bay but to no avail but came across a couple of crabs fighting of which one of them only had one claw, slightly unfair, so we split them up and sent them on their way.  Then Tina spotted a flat worm, only the 2nd I've seen in Koh Tao since last year.  Our 2nd dive was at Twins, so we thought we'd hang around the shallow pinnacle to spot the Eagle Rays but didnt see one, so just pottered about and ended up watching a blue spotted ray for ages which didnt seem bothered by us in the slightest.

Back on land, Si was still in the classroom teaching and I hung out at the bar with the Deep Down girls
Ten or so minutes later, Si came down as the students had just started watching Chapter 3, so had 45mins or so to waste, we grabbed a drink and then I decided to sit in on his class whilst he went through Chapter 3 knowledge reviews.  He did a great job and I felt very proud.

Tonight, we're watching the finale of 'LOST' which is going to play on the big screen in the Crystal bar.