Following tradition, Dominic completed his 100th dive yesterday. Its a "special" dive you have to do to ensure good luck in your future diving.!
Many congrats Dom!
Monday, 31 May 2010
Philinopsis Pilsbryi
Thats the latin name for this little Sea Slug. Apparently never seen on Koh Tao before.... Jenny managed to grab some footage of the little fella zooming across some sea grass... very cute... Will we ever find him again? If so, I want some super close up shots with the big boy camera.. Well done Jenny!
SD
SD
Sunday, 30 May 2010
Day 115 - 30th May 2010
Happy Birthday Janet & Happy Anniversary Rosie & Charles
Up & raring to go we were at Crystal around 9.30 to meet Kiwi. Back in classroom we started looking at BCD's and were given the challenge of threading the tank strap back up in 2 minutes. As I only remember doing this once I think in my DMT days, neither of us did it correctly or in the time DOH! Oh well, after being shown, it just took seconds, at least now we will never forget ;-D
The next thing we looked at was the inflator hose buttons which we disassembled, checked, cleaned and reassembled. Then we looked at dump valves, all in all very basic and straight forward to repair.
We then moved onto tanks. All we could do with these was to service the actual tank valve by emptying the tank of air and then unscrewing the valve itself from the tank and disassembling the components inside, replacing all the Orings and giving each part a thorough clean before putting anything back together.
I'd like to spend a couple of days working on faulty dive equipment to make myself more familiar with all of the components as I found it really interesting.
Tonight is a group of DMT's snorkel test, so we'll pop down to watch that and then head home for another early night as we've signed up for the 7am boat
Up & raring to go we were at Crystal around 9.30 to meet Kiwi. Back in classroom we started looking at BCD's and were given the challenge of threading the tank strap back up in 2 minutes. As I only remember doing this once I think in my DMT days, neither of us did it correctly or in the time DOH! Oh well, after being shown, it just took seconds, at least now we will never forget ;-D
The next thing we looked at was the inflator hose buttons which we disassembled, checked, cleaned and reassembled. Then we looked at dump valves, all in all very basic and straight forward to repair.
We then moved onto tanks. All we could do with these was to service the actual tank valve by emptying the tank of air and then unscrewing the valve itself from the tank and disassembling the components inside, replacing all the Orings and giving each part a thorough clean before putting anything back together.
I'd like to spend a couple of days working on faulty dive equipment to make myself more familiar with all of the components as I found it really interesting.
Tonight is a group of DMT's snorkel test, so we'll pop down to watch that and then head home for another early night as we've signed up for the 7am boat
Saturday, 29 May 2010
Day 114 - 29th May 2010
Last nights celebrations were brilliant. Luca has no idea about his surprise party and the newly qualified instructors were on great form. It wasn't our intention to stay out late but I think we left around midnight rather drunk whilst others went on elsewere.
I didnt feel too bad this morning surprisingly ..by the time I got up it was 9ish, Si had already been out and bought provisions for breakfast, made tea and put Eastenders on for me. How spoilt am I?! After egg and soldiers we showered, dressed and rode to Crystal. Today we were doing an equipment spec and servicing our regulators which was great fun. Kiwi (Instructor from NZ) showed us how to disassemble, clean and replace parts in them and then we had to put them back
together. Our Cressi regs we later found out are supposed to be serviced after every 50 dives, no wonder they've been acting up.
After playing around and cleaning the individual parts both of our regs were serviced so then we started on the faulty Crystal ones. I got a reg that had a leaky depth guage which was only a matter of replacing a couple of O rings and Si got to take apart an Aqualung first stage which didn't look as complicated as our Cressi's but complicated enough ...the next regulator I looked had a broken hose which just a matter of unscrewing and replacing and both mouth pieces were wet breathing, basically letting in water as you breath, so we broke those down and replaced the rubber
All in all it was a great afternoon. It's great to know how exactly everything works and how to fix it.
Tomorrow we'll be looking at BCD's and tanks
Early night for us tonight!!
I didnt feel too bad this morning surprisingly ..by the time I got up it was 9ish, Si had already been out and bought provisions for breakfast, made tea and put Eastenders on for me. How spoilt am I?! After egg and soldiers we showered, dressed and rode to Crystal. Today we were doing an equipment spec and servicing our regulators which was great fun. Kiwi (Instructor from NZ) showed us how to disassemble, clean and replace parts in them and then we had to put them back
together. Our Cressi regs we later found out are supposed to be serviced after every 50 dives, no wonder they've been acting up.
After playing around and cleaning the individual parts both of our regs were serviced so then we started on the faulty Crystal ones. I got a reg that had a leaky depth guage which was only a matter of replacing a couple of O rings and Si got to take apart an Aqualung first stage which didn't look as complicated as our Cressi's but complicated enough ...the next regulator I looked had a broken hose which just a matter of unscrewing and replacing and both mouth pieces were wet breathing, basically letting in water as you breath, so we broke those down and replaced the rubber
All in all it was a great afternoon. It's great to know how exactly everything works and how to fix it.
Tomorrow we'll be looking at BCD's and tanks
Early night for us tonight!!
Friday, 28 May 2010
Day 111-13 - 26 -28th May 2010
Apologies for the lack of daily updates.
The last few days have been pretty quiet so not much to write home about, plus the internet has been very flakey which is driving Simon crazy. He's trying to do his UK work and the connection keeps dropping out, so everything is taking twice as long ....how frustrating is that?!
In the last few days we've had rain. It's been slightly overcast and has drizzled on the odd occasion but the other evening when we were at the Crystal bar waiting to watch the Open Water movie the wind came from nowhere, lightning tore up the sky and the heavens opened. It was incredible. The Crystal bar area is big and undercover but the wind was just driving the rain in and everyone ended up huddled in the most sheltered corner watching the movie on a tv, as everything was getting soaked and blown away. A few people just went out and sat in the sea, sipping their beers watching the lightshow ..nutters! Maybe next time though ;-)
Anyway, we've had a couple of dives at 'Junk Yard' and found the smallest sweetlips ever. It was so small that I thought it was plankton at first, how crazy is that?!
Today when we went out, the longtail brokedown a hundred meters or so off the beach, so we all put our dive gear on and surface swam to 'JunkYard' while we left Nathan on the longtail, moored to a buoy.
At Junk Yard, quite a few of the structures had come apart/fallen down due to the storm the other day, so we spent most of our time assembling them and moving the structures we'd dropped the day of the 'Dive Clean Up'. It was a productive dive and a long swim back.
Back at Crystal, Nath was sat down in pain as he had towed the longtail back on his own and put his back out, even for two people, that would have been a real struggle. ..I think we'll call him 'Super Nath' from now :-)
Tonight it's the newly qualified instructors celebration party as well as instructor Luca's surprise birthday party.
The last few days have been pretty quiet so not much to write home about, plus the internet has been very flakey which is driving Simon crazy. He's trying to do his UK work and the connection keeps dropping out, so everything is taking twice as long ....how frustrating is that?!
In the last few days we've had rain. It's been slightly overcast and has drizzled on the odd occasion but the other evening when we were at the Crystal bar waiting to watch the Open Water movie the wind came from nowhere, lightning tore up the sky and the heavens opened. It was incredible. The Crystal bar area is big and undercover but the wind was just driving the rain in and everyone ended up huddled in the most sheltered corner watching the movie on a tv, as everything was getting soaked and blown away. A few people just went out and sat in the sea, sipping their beers watching the lightshow ..nutters! Maybe next time though ;-)
Anyway, we've had a couple of dives at 'Junk Yard' and found the smallest sweetlips ever. It was so small that I thought it was plankton at first, how crazy is that?!
Today when we went out, the longtail brokedown a hundred meters or so off the beach, so we all put our dive gear on and surface swam to 'JunkYard' while we left Nathan on the longtail, moored to a buoy.
At Junk Yard, quite a few of the structures had come apart/fallen down due to the storm the other day, so we spent most of our time assembling them and moving the structures we'd dropped the day of the 'Dive Clean Up'. It was a productive dive and a long swim back.
Back at Crystal, Nath was sat down in pain as he had towed the longtail back on his own and put his back out, even for two people, that would have been a real struggle. ..I think we'll call him 'Super Nath' from now :-)
Tonight it's the newly qualified instructors celebration party as well as instructor Luca's surprise birthday party.
Tuesday, 25 May 2010
Day 110 - 25th May 2010
Not much to report today.
What I have made is a quick video clip of stuff that Jen has filmed on the last 4 dives..
Quite the budding videographer eh?!
What I have made is a quick video clip of stuff that Jen has filmed on the last 4 dives..
Quite the budding videographer eh?!
Day 109 - 24th May 2010
We arrived at Crystal around 10.15 ..Nathan was already there talking to Carsten and the DMT team as to what needed to be done for the beach clean up.
Teams were sent off with gloves and bin bags down the beach to collect rubbish and then groups started to sift the sand at the side of the decking as it was full of polystyrene balls which had escaped from the tired old bean bags used in the bar. I personally think they should bin them and replace them with some environmentally friendly seating.
Whilst this was going on, Nathan, Si and I gathered all left over gear that was going to be deployed at Junk Yard (weights system, cross trainer, pvc coral garden etc) and put that to one side, ready to be put on the long tail, then stored all the left over pvc piping, rope and did a general tidy up.
A couple of hours had passed and the sifting had stopped, rubbish had been collected and before breaking for lunch, everyone helped to load all the gear up onto the longtail.
We had an hour or so for lunch, so Simon & I rode up to 'Deep Down' to see what was going on and had a coffee whilst ordering lunch from 'Zest'
Back at Crystal and before the dive site clean up began, Nath, Si & I jumped on the longtail and dropped off all the equipment at Junk Yard. We'll be arranging it and assembling items in the next few days and then finally, Junk Yard should be complete.
Back on land, everyone gathered, dive kits assemble and after a briefing by Nathan we headed out equipped with rubbish bags (nets) and scissors. Some got dropped off from the longtail whist some of us just swam out.
It didnt take that long to fill our bags, we'd found nets, plastic bags, sacks, piping, drink cans and clothes to name a few. The longtail was coasting about, so on surfacing, we'd call it over and empty out the contents and then carry on collecting.
Our dive was just over an hour and we'd collected 693kg worth of rubbish between us which was sorted into categories and then disposed of.
In the evening, 'Vibe' were having a fundraising bbq for 'Save Koh Tao'. There was tug of war, which Crystal won :-D, a limbo competition and more but as we arrived late, I think we must have missed a few.
A very good night was had by all..
Teams were sent off with gloves and bin bags down the beach to collect rubbish and then groups started to sift the sand at the side of the decking as it was full of polystyrene balls which had escaped from the tired old bean bags used in the bar. I personally think they should bin them and replace them with some environmentally friendly seating.
Whilst this was going on, Nathan, Si and I gathered all left over gear that was going to be deployed at Junk Yard (weights system, cross trainer, pvc coral garden etc) and put that to one side, ready to be put on the long tail, then stored all the left over pvc piping, rope and did a general tidy up.
A couple of hours had passed and the sifting had stopped, rubbish had been collected and before breaking for lunch, everyone helped to load all the gear up onto the longtail.
We had an hour or so for lunch, so Simon & I rode up to 'Deep Down' to see what was going on and had a coffee whilst ordering lunch from 'Zest'
Back at Crystal and before the dive site clean up began, Nath, Si & I jumped on the longtail and dropped off all the equipment at Junk Yard. We'll be arranging it and assembling items in the next few days and then finally, Junk Yard should be complete.
Back on land, everyone gathered, dive kits assemble and after a briefing by Nathan we headed out equipped with rubbish bags (nets) and scissors. Some got dropped off from the longtail whist some of us just swam out.
It didnt take that long to fill our bags, we'd found nets, plastic bags, sacks, piping, drink cans and clothes to name a few. The longtail was coasting about, so on surfacing, we'd call it over and empty out the contents and then carry on collecting.
Our dive was just over an hour and we'd collected 693kg worth of rubbish between us which was sorted into categories and then disposed of.
In the evening, 'Vibe' were having a fundraising bbq for 'Save Koh Tao'. There was tug of war, which Crystal won :-D, a limbo competition and more but as we arrived late, I think we must have missed a few.
A very good night was had by all..
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