13th July 2018

I don't know whether jet lag affects you more as you get older but we both really struggled the first few days we were back on Koh Tao.  We arrived back on the Tuesday afternoon and I took the next day off as I was shattered and also wanted to clean the house from ghekko poo, cobwebs and dust.    Poor ole Simon, was straight back into filming Open Water students as the video team were short on bodies.  I really don't know how he managed as he had hardly any sleep and swollen ankles which were really painful to walk with.   He is such a trooper!!


Since we've been back, most days have been overcast with the wind picking up late afternoon bringing the odd heavy shower.  The UK was hotter LOL

We've had friends visiting from San Francisco, Garth, Alissa and Jamie.  It's been 10 years or so since I last saw Alissa but only a couple of years since Garth & Jamie popped into the farm for a surprise visit.   While they were here, Jamie did his Junior Open Water, Garth & Alissa did a refresher course and came out with Simon and I on a few fun dives and they even joined in with our beach clean up with the DMC's.  After that, everyday they used to walk up to Crystal along the beach from the Regal resort with a handfuls of rubbish.  It was great to see!

All the gear and no idea :-D

Beach Clean up with the gang

Night watching the footy  ..Come on England!!

Jamie's first family fun dive with Garth & Alissa

Today was a sad day as they left the island on the next leg of their journey.  They are now off to Borneo to the Orangutan rehabilitation center which Simon and I visited on our honeymoon.   Arghhh  ..amazing memories :-D

03 July 2018

Spending the majority of June in the UK has been bliss.  We've had gorgeous weather in fact the weather has been better than Thailand.  Since we left, the weather has been really windy and wet :-D

As always it's been fantastic to spend time with the family and friends and to have holidays within a holiday.   Spending a week with 16 family members might sound like a nightmare for some people but we all had an amazing time.

Jans 60th surprise in Tuscany

After arriving back at the farm with Rosie and Charles, it was only a couple of days before we were off again.  This time to visit Simon's family, staying a night at his dads...

Dinner with Kate & Roger

...his mum's for a meal and then on to a 40th Birthday party and then his brothers before driving onto Skipsea Sands holiday park for a little mini break with his mum, Del, Roy, auntie Pat and uncle Ken which was a giggle.

Out with Si's family before a 

The drive to Skipsea. Cuthbert at the wheel

Add caption

Boat trip on the river Ouse, York 

Auntie Pat, Ken & Si's mum chilling in the caravan

Whats at the end of your garden?

Coastal road has been reclaimed

It's lovely coming back to the UK.  Simon and I are especially lucky to be able to stay with Rosie and Charles on the farm.  Coming back and staying elsewhere would just not be the same. We are so fortunate that we have such an amazing family  :-D

7th June 2018

Our trip back to the UK went pretty smoothly.  We arrived back at Rosies 'the farm' around 10.30pm. It felt a little odd as it was still light outside.   We do miss the long English summer evenings.

Our trip back was for my sisters 60th surprise Birthday holiday in Tuscany.    We managed to keep it quiet for just under a year.  Elaine her eldest did all the organisation which was quite a feat as there were 16 of us :-D   

She knew that Rob her husband was taking her away but didn't know where.  Speaking to her a few days before she was excited but was a little down as she'd be missing out on seeing Joel & Aime were over from Turkey and Simon & I were over from Thailand.    Little did she know :-D 

The farmhouse was fantastic.  Within the grounds there was a pool, volley ball & football pitch, gym, table tennis, swings, bbq area  ..you name it, it was there.   

Add caption

Casa La Quiete

The surrounding area was mostly farmland with vineyards dotted around the place and on top of the hill behind us was a gorgeous little town of Civitella in Val Di Chiana 

It was lovely to spend quality time with all the family and to have a good ole laugh.  We had table tennis tournaments, pool volley ball matches, fun and games with Florence (giant inflatable flamingo) gym workouts, so much fun!   We'd venture out, get lost a little on the odd occasion but it's was good to explore the tiny country roads, seeing the odd wild boar on our travels.  The weather couldn't have been better.   Oh to be on holiday with the family :-D

'Check out' picture 

The best birthday surprise ever!!!  :-D

24th May 2018

It's Mums Birthday today!

Happy Birthday!!!

Miss you!

11th May 2018

Simon and I are both well.  

We've both been working and we're still trying to finish off the Junkyard expansion which has taken slightly longer than expected.  The center piece of the expansion which was created by 'The Art Rising' has been a real headache due to the shear size & weight of it.  This group first contacted me back in Feb 2018  where at that time they were building a playground in a Burmese refugee camp which I though was cool and thought it would be great to have them build an underwater structure that we could work in with all of our pyramids.  

We did ask multiple times for a modular structure, something that would be easy to deploy, we talked about what materials would be best to use and that our deployment resources would be limited to lift bags, barrels and a longtail boat  ..and this is what they made :-D   

Small and modular please

It's just growing in size!!!

2 days & lots of attempts to move this mountain

Thats only some of the barrels

It's incredible and once it's down we'll be able to breath again but it's been and still is a complete logistical nightmare  ..I'd say it's got to be one and a quater tons .  Si has been a superstar.  Poles attached to the base for support , it took 90 flotation devices hand tied by Simon and a slightly higher tide to get this monster to float and then when we finally towed her to Junkyard and tried slowly to sink her,  removing barrels 1 at a time, she flipped over and sank onto her chest and now we have to go out again and maneuver her onto her back.  It's been a headache to be honest, especially for Simon.  He's been so patient.  I LOVE SIMON!!

This is just the head

26th April 2018 - Expansion of Junkyard

So we've finally finished all of the coral pyramids for our 'Artificial Coral Reef Expansion' and have deployed them by means of longtail, lift bags ..by which was no mean feat.  

Next coral transplants and lots of them!  :-D

Recap – Junkyard is our artificial reef which is about 400 meters from Crystal Dive

In 2009, Eco Koh Tao created an artificial dive site from trash that was intended for landfill. Instead of metal and other substances ending up dumped, burnt or buried, we recycled it, make it ocean friendly and created structures for coral transplants and fish aggregation.

9 years later, an incredible amount of divers enjoying the marine life and the coral nurseries that we have developed and maintained since its inception.

However, since the dive site has become so popular, we needed to expand by creating new coral transplant structures.  To raise the necessary funds, Simon set up a fund-raising campaign on Generosity back in January. Our target was 3000 USD which we’ve now passed as well as getting donations from various dive schools that use Junkyard on a regular basis.

5 months down the line, we have only just finished (by the way it was mostly Simon that did most of the work) the immense job of building, welding cutting and deploying all or our 36 Coral Pyramids, each one holding minimum of 80 coral transplants! That doesn't include the hundreds that we will be able to transplant on the connecting beams.

These structures will serve many uses, such as research of coral growth, attracting marine life to them for protection also provide an entertaining and educational experience for scuba divers. Taking pressure from divers on the natural reef enabling it to grow easier with less diver impacts and help in the fight against climate change and coral bleaching.

One of the first pyramids

Deployment 

 

Birdseye view of what it will look like.  The center piece is being done by The Art Rising who contacted me months ago wanting to make a underwater structure in exchange for their Open Water Course, so we thought, why not?!

Artificial Coral Reef Expansion