16th March 2019

Another Reef Check course has finished and 3 students can go out and survey reefs and contribute to citizen science.    It took a little long than usually but we got there in the end :-D     I managed to get all three students to last over an hour underwater, halving their air consumption.  So I'm pretty pleased with that.   They were good little divers and now I only have 1 remaining student who's going to do a 2 week Eco Internship with me, so it should be a productive couple of weeks :-D

Simon has yet again been teaching Self Reliant course, which has been nice as we've both been on the same boat :-D   The visibility is improving slowly and it's very hot!   A

Simon playing with my camera :-D

Dive Site Clean. Rope was the general debris

Creating a rope nursery

Rope Nursery in position

It's Birthday week!!! 

A lot of very special family members with Birthday in March, including my handsome Simone :-D    We wish we could celebrate with you all.  We will be thinking of you and raising our glasses :-D

February 2019

February has gone in a flash! 

I've been teaching a few specialties like Fish Identification, Dive Against Debris, been on a UV (ultra violet) night dive and have transplanted a few 'Adopt A Corals' for customer.   Amongst that, I've been running ecobrick workshops, beach and dive site clean ups to name but a few.   Also, what's been fun is that we've recently been doing step by step guides as to how to make recycle things  ..check out our Eco Koh Tao facebook page.  It was Simon's fun idea but it's been fun recycling and trying to come up with new idea's :-D

UV Night Dive

Adopt a Coral

Eco Brick Workshop

Dive Against Debris

Land Clean Up

Step by step guide

Cleaning our coral nurseries

Simon's been teaching a lot of 'Self Reliant' certifications which has kept him busy and out of trouble.
We've also been out on Cuthbert a few times using the sonar to try and find new dives sites but as the visibility hasn't been the best, it's been a little difficult and as we can't moor up as there are no mooring lines, we've been using the sonar to look at depth, volume of fish and I've been jumping in to see if I could see anything snorkeling, no joy as of yet.  All very exciting though.

Today Simon's gone off on a fishing boat with a couple of the boys to try and salvage a very expensive anchor which has been snagged, halfway between here and the mainland.  It belongs to one of the influential Thai families and they want to salvage the anchor which is very valuable and its at around 30/40 mtrs, ..so I hope all goes well.  This is day 2.  He's taken his go pro, so we should have some footage at some stage :-D

14th February 2019

Wishing everyone a very Happy Valentines Day!!

Sending lots of love, anonymously to everyone ;-D

&

Happy Wedding Anniversary Mum & Dad

Thinking of you!

xxx

January 2019

Thank you again Rosie, Charles and the boys for putting up with us.  We are very lucky to be able to such a loving family,  so THANK YOU!   

It was hard to leave, luckily we had a really early start and I was half asleep so didn't turn into a blubbering mess when saying goodbye to Rosie, who was up at 04:45am to make us cuppa.  THANK YOU Rosie!!!

Our return journey was with Qatar Airways with a stop over at Oman and then onto Bangkok.  The first leg was great, we managed to move seats and I was able to spread out and catch up on a few Zzzzz's ..the 2nd leg, Simon was sat next to a very odd chap, who battled for leg space, spilt his water all over Simon's leg and was just a pain, so we didn't get any sleep ..ho hum

Cuthbert paying full attention to the safety briefing

Me, snoozing :-D

We find that it getting harder to recover from the jet lag the older you get.  So far it's taken 5 days to sort of get back into a normalish sleeping routine.   Age, don't you just love it!!  :-D
What has been good though, is the weather. It's only been in the mid to late 20's, so no too hot.  Very pleasant compared to the UK :-D  ...Sending lots of sunshine your way!! 

Since being back we've only dived a couple of times and at Junkyard our artificial reef.  Where we've been transplanting corals and assessing the storm damage.  Surprisingly there has been very little, which is fortunate.

Tim & I transplanting coral

Nice healthy corals

Finally cycled up to the resevoir

I've been out on the bike for a couple of cycles now.  We've both been out on the paddle boards.  Boy is it difficult.  Balance is key and mine is not that great!  LOL   It's a good workout and we're both enjoying doing it together.   I'll have to get pictures to post.  We've also been in the garden, sweeping up the leaves ready for a bonfire, cutting back the greenery which grows like crazy, cleaned the house from top to bottom and have done a shop...so feeling a lot more settled.

Our lovely family!  Happy Birthday Rob!!

 A belated HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Rob.  We both hope you had a marvelous day!!

December 2018

I have been very lapse with the blog ..time goes far too quickly   SO SORRY!!!



At the end of November, beginning of December I was out of the water due to an infection in my thigh.  I think I may have picked something or it could have been an ingrown hair, I'm not sure.

During that time, I was supposed to be teaching ECO courses but as I was unable to dive. I could do all the academics but Simon had to come to my rescue and do all the water work for me.   It was a real headache for Simon but it worked out well in the end.   I don't know what I'd do without him.

Picture update of our adventures in December!

Just landed and at the hire car place  TIRED!

Christmas prezzie from Roy ..The Predator

An early Christmas with Roy and his family 

Heckfield Church Xmas Kiddies service BEFORE

Heckfield Church children's Christmas service

STAR ROLE  ..Cuthbert as baby Jesus

Christmas Day

Christmas eve making a gingerbread house with Iona

Boys night in with a small selection of hot sauces

Escape Room with big sis

Walk around the farm

Out with the sisters on a walk around the farm

Belated Birthday cake :-D

Dinner & Movie night with Fi and Chris

30th November 2018

It's been an action packed November teaching, taking DMC's out on ECO dives and then doing lots of land work as I've been out of the water with an deep infection in my leg.  I don't know how I got it, maybe I might picked something but I don't remember but now I'm paying and Simon is paying for it as I'm out of the water for another week, poor ole Si has to do ALL my water work for my courses Small but deep but now it's itchy, so it's on the mend. 

This is what we've been up to in pictures.

I've had a lovely girl called Michaell doing some ECO courses with me and now it's at the stage where she's organising the DMC's (Dive Master Candidates) to do eco activites and dives which as I am out of the water has been brilliant.  We've/she's been making cement bottle nurseries which will be deployed at our artificial reef Junkyard and then at a later date filled with coral fragments.  A fun job but hard work mixing cement by hand in the heat.
 

Dive Against Debris Team

I taught a couple of students the 'Dive Against Debris Specialty' in which they organize, brief a dive, collected marine debris and come back and record /report it helping to improve waste management by helping convince individuals, governments and businesses to act on marine debris

Si's trying to fix his laptop

So with Simon running about, filming, sorting everything for our new eco boat, doing the waterworks of my courses, fixing other peoples laptops, Self Reliant teaching, he's been dealing with major issues with his laptop as it's stopped charging ..for the 2nd time ..not having the greatest of times ...we are both looking forward to coming home for a break :-D 

Deployment of old speedboat at Junkyard

Final resting place for speedboat

When this old speedboat was first deployed, it was so buoyant that Simon had to pull it down.    Now that it's been in the water for a week or so, it's a little heavier and Simon and a team were able to move it with the use of lift bags to it's final resting place.  All that's needed now is for it to be populated with coral :-D

Taking our eco boat for a spin

This is my maiden voyage in the ECO speedboat.  We had a little cruise around Maehaad before dropping a  couple divers off at Junkyard and then we powered back to shore.  I was the deckhand, responsible for hooking up and tying off :-D     The boats coming out of the water today as it needs to be equipped with lights, tank rack, new name, anti-fouling paint  etc  ..but once done and we're back in January, it's going to be amazing to be able to go out when we want, do what we want and not have to rely on anyone.  The boat will be named 'Cuthbert' ..after our ECO mascot :-D

Intern doing some water testing

Another land activity which students can go for a 'water testing' fun dive and then I can do testing with them on their return :-D 

We are missing you all and send lots of love

XOXOX

08 November 2018

Hi everyone!    We hope that everyone is very well and that you're slowly getting used to the cold weather.   You'll be glad to know that it's not all sun sea and sand here.  We've had stupid amounts of rain, wind and it's got rather chilly.  Im still walking around in shorts and tshirs ..oh and a rain jacket but everything is damp ;-(   It's a tough life LOL

We have some exciting news.  We've got a boat for ECO!!!  It's 23ft and 140 hp ..it'll will seat about 10 people but after we've made some adjustments, so it can hold scuba tanks, it should be comfortable for 4-6 people.  Two friends kindly donated the money for the boat who are passionate about ECO.  I think Simon and I are still in shock :-D   

The ECO boat

It arrived a couple of days ago and one of the first jobs Simon did was to is to install a bilge pump.  Thank goodness he did as we've had torrential rain ever since.  The bilge pump is manual, so with it being the new boat and not knowing how much waters has been taken on, poor Simon, acting our captain has been constantly getting wet, having swim out, board, turn the bilge pump on and empty the water.    The wind has also been horrendous, so that hasn't helped.

Captain Simon checking on the water levels as stupid o'clock 

Lots of rain means lots of run off  ..as you can see