20 October 2019

End of another week.   It's been pretty good diving but the weather hasn't been the best.  Heavy storms over night and then drying up by late morning and then heavy rain in the afternoon.  Can't really complain as I've not got soaked on the way home yet :-D

I still have my Eco intern for another week.  He's a lovely chap from Hong Kong and is pretty funny.  Even though he only started diving in the last month, he's a pretty good diver.  Still needs learn about spacial awareness but he's good.

We've been out collecting coral eating 'Crown of Thorns' which has tested Darren.  Not only does he have to measure, note the depth and count how many arms these starfish have (research purposes) I pick them up with some large long tongs and then put them in a sack which he has to dive about with :-D  So all n all, he's been put through his paces LOL

The underside of a Crown of Thorns

Earlier on in the year, we had a couple of groups from India that made bottle nurseries, well we finally got around to putting them on the long tail and deploying them at Junkyard.  We've not put any corals in them yet, as we are still waiting on approval from the DMCR to do anything. 
Moving these small but very heavy cement nurseries was hard work but we've now made a path from Junkyard to the natural reef, so hopefully, people shouldn't get lost ;-D 

Bottle nursery that we will plant corals onto eventually

Darren struggling to move this one.  Only another 30mtrs LOL

New Giant Clam Cage 

We also deployed a new clam cage and moved some of our giant clams.  Our old cages were very tired and had lots of holes in them which Mr Trigger fish loved as he was able to get in and eat some of the clams.  Annoying when we've been been looking after the clams for over 18 months.

12 October 2019

Hi everyone, we hope you are all well and enjoying life.
Well, we are back in Koh Tao after spending an amazing month with Rosie and the gang on the farm, in the UK.  Our month's break was well needed as both Simon and I were going a bit island crazy.  You all might think it's wonderful living and working on a tropical island, diving most days, sunshine all year round but believe me, it can wear you down ;-D  The last month or so on the island we were going through vigorous training, justifying our work, submitting proposals to the DMCR (Department of Coastal Resources) in order to get approval of all our reef restoration efforts of which we're still waiting for the OK ..

Si, briefing the DMCR

Funnily enough, it's a running joke that whenever we come back to visit, it always seems to be my Birthday no matter what time of the year it is :-D  This time was and I was thoroughly spoilt by everyone.  Big Sis and husband Rob drove up from Sussex for the day which was brilliant and brought me the superb scuba cake as well as some of the best shortbread she's ever made  :-D   I adore Jans shortbread!

Best Birthday cake ever!

Out with Roger & Kate at the Little Bay Croydon 

This picture was from the Little Bay Restaurant in Croydon when we visited Si's Dad.  Live opera while you eat.  A very funny and enjoyable evening!

out in the big smoke

One my prezzies from Si was a trip to London to:

'Jeff Wayne’s The War of The Worlds: The Immersive Experience.  A combination  of immersive theatre, virtual reality, augmented reality, holograms and other cutting-edge technology; giving audiences the chance to live through the Martian invasion of 1898

A superb day out, which we shared with Roy, Simon's brother as it was his belated birthday prezzie

Geocaching in Devon

We were also lucky enough to spend a week in Devon with Si's family in Croyde.  A stunning part of the country where we walked for miles along the coast geocaching along the way.  The weather the week we went was supposed to be horrible but anytime we'd go out walking the sun was shining down, so we were so so lucky.  We even got aunty Pat on a 3.5 mile hike, not bad going for a 78yr old ..that sounds old but she's about 28 at heart

While Simon went to see his friends in Welling, I drove down to Sussex with my sisters Rosie and Fi to visit Jan and spend the day catching up.  What a giggle and thoroughly enjoyable day. A bit of a white knuckle ride for my sisters though as I've not driven a car in 7 odd years LOL

Out with the sisters

Back on Koh Tao, First day diving for Si.  Great conditions

Back in the water now.  We've only missed diving the last few days we were in the UK.  It certainly is good to have a break.  I'm sure our ears are grateful.  It is good to be diving again, water is warm, visibility is so good.  Nothing worse than coming back to horrible diving.

It was so lovely see everyone.  Thank you to Rosie & Fiona for ferrying me around, Iona for the amazing cooking lessons and to everyone else for just being lovely :-D

Rosie, Charles, Rob, Tom & Mupps, we don't quite know what we'd do if we couldn't come home to the farm, so Thank You for putting up with us.

MISS YOU ALL!

XXXX

26th August 2019

Simon and I have been married 13 years and boy have they been long years.  If anyone out there is contemplating getting married to the one they love, don't do it!   ONLY joking!!!

HAPPY 13th 
WEDDING ANNIVERSARY 
SIMON

The boy of my dreams :-D

Wedding Day Cup Cake cut!

The day after!!  ;-D

So many special times

Loved up!

What a man!!!

Happy times

My Hero!

 

It would have been a total different story without you!!   

LOVE YOU MR D!!

X X X

05 August 2019

Dear Fiona & Chris,

Happy Anniversary!!!

Have a lovely romantic day! ;-D

Sending lots of love,

Jenny & Simon

XOX

July 28th 2019

Hi everyone!
We are missing everyone and we are both looking forward to catching up with you all in September!   YAY!!! 

It's been pretty busy.  I have got 3 Eco Interns at the moment which I've been trying to keep busy.  They're all older (30-60) which has been refreshing as we tend to all be on the same wave length  ..if that's at all possible ;-D    We've been doing the mandatory clean up dives and Crown of Thorns (big star fish that eat coral) collections and have been out cleaning, measuring and re-tagging all of the Adopt Corals, so that's been a great help.  We've also been helping out to survey and replace damaged buoy lines around the island which has been great fun.  Tying knots with thick rope underwater is a little different than on land, just a little more difficult so we also attended the workshops :-D

Buoy line replace/deployment island effort

This coming week, I'm getting them to construct/build a metal fish, which will be used for recycling plastic bottles.

It'll be interesting as to how this will turn out.  I've got my friend Dorothy to teach them how to weld ..and then I'm just going to leave them to it :-D  ...to a fashion.

Simon is good, he's busy as ever, especially with social media for Eco and updating the website with the 150+ coral adoption updates  ..a nightmare of a job that he does every quarter.

It's Sunday today, the weather is slightly cooler, the wind has picked up and I think it'll rain as some point.   I'm thinking of going for a cycle when the wind calms down but for now, we're both relaxing after our tasty poached egg & beans on toast :-D     Simon will probably go into the office in the next hour or so, so I'll be left to potter, thinking of tidying the garden and maybe splitting some of our Aloe vera plants ...I'll see if the wind dies down. 

Formula 1 is on tonight so Si will be back later as he and the boys (Tim, Kiwi, Steve & Big Rich) will watch the race at Crystal on the big screen whilst drinking beer, munching on French baguette, cheese, onions and pickle ;-D

LOVE TO ALL!

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

14 July 2019

It's been a really busy time.

We've had Nathan over from Oz with his whole family.   He was over for a little holiday and then we assisted him out with 10 students teaching a 'Reef Restoration Masterclass' showing different methods of coral propagation, observational dives, coral reef ecology etc   it's all a bit awkward as we are still not allowed law to touch coral, living or dead until the Department of Marine & Coastal Resources have approved dive school proposals and been out to assess individuals.  All a pain in the butt but it's good that it's stopping every tom dick & harry doing their own thing without a clue.
So that was a 4 day course which I could only attend 2 days as had a Greenfins training session to attend.  Poor ole Si, had to the whole session with a very inexperienced group of kids.  He loved it!!

This one is all to do with good diving/snorkeling practices and how to do a reef survey, nothing new for me but compulsory.  Then after that, both Simon and I had to attend the first 'Dive Controller Training Course for Tourism and Coral Reef Ecosystem Sustainability'   which every dive leader or dive pro has to attend and pass an examination which I think isn't a bad thing but they're going to be charging for later down the line.  So lots of new laws coming in and I just wonder whether anyone will be around to enforce them.

Simon is awake in this picture :-D  ...just!!!

Group shot  YAY!

Then finally after all of that pa-lava we we back to our normal office schedule but I volunteer to go out to check all the moorings around Koh Tao to see what state they were in and whether any need replacing, so that was a nice day out, a lot of dives but something different which I enjoyed.  There are over 101 mooring lines that need to be maintained and I think with 15 of us, we managed to check out just over 40.  It's a huge job.  Photo's, depth, state of lines, whether they're missing buoys, condition of buoys, pick up lines, position blah blah blah

Checking mooring lines around the island

Then straight after all of that that we've just come back from doing a visa run/bounce to Burma.  We left yesterday at 10 am and got back this morning at 3.15am   ..so I caught up with sleep and now catching up with mails etc, Simon's down at the office, mails, social media and also trying to replace the propeller on the boat, as Crystal's longtail had broken it in the rough weather that we had a week or so ago   GGRRRRRRR

Hope all is well, have to go and pref for a Reef Check course that I'm teaching tomorrow ;-D

LOVE TO ALL

05 July 2019

I feel awful about the lack of posts.  Sorry!!!!

It's been very quiet on Koh Tao but Simon and I have been really busy.

   

I've just said goodbye to a group of 10 Indian kids and a group leader.  They booked through Eco to do their PADI Open Water Course and then 3 days of Marine conservation.   It was a little challenging but with the help of Simon and an old Eco intern, we survived.    This is only the 2nd group that we have catered for.  The first, 3 girls and a tour leader were all very nice but they're not the best in the water and they were pretty demanding at times  (LOL  ..now I know what all of you go through having to put up with me)   This last group of 10 were lovely but it took ages to get everyone going.   They were all really polite and very smiley :-D

After their snorkel clean up

We've got lots of meeting this week and courses to attend.  In the last month or so the DMCR Department of Marine Coastal Resources have put their foot down and have demanded that all the dive schools doing any coral restoration send in a proposal highlighting exactly what they have been doing in the name of 'restoration'.  We've already attended one training session which was a bit a farce and a bit of a kick in the teeth as we've been working with them for years.   It's only as so many dive schools have jumped on the band wagon with 'ECO' that they want to ensure that things are done in the correct way, not that their diving skills or experience is the best but it's better than nothing and hopefully it will eliminate some of the cowboys out there! 

Nathan, Aussie dude, founder of Eco Koh Tao is back for a week or two with his family. We are running a Reef Restoration Masterclass here on the island.   People have flown in from all over.  It should be interesting as we're not allowed to do any coral work. 

I hope everyone is well and that you're all missing us!

Sending our love

Jenny & Si

XXXX