It’s been an enoyable but tiring couple of days. We’ve both been teaching  Advanced Open Water.

Si started on Monday and as I didnt have much to do, tagged along for the first of 5 adventure dives.

Fortunately, as the group had chosen different dives, I was able to help out and take one of the students on the 2nd dive for their PPB (Peak Performance Buoyancy) which worked out really well as the other two were doing Fish ID.

After what seemed a never ending day and back on dry land we packed away our dive kit and Si met the students to complete log books. They had a 7am start so headed off home. 
Si and I on the other hand grabbed a refreshing beer before headed to Vibe with Carsten & Tina for a game of Settlers of Catan and food.   

Tuesday morning, Si left early, I managed to sneak an extra hours sleep in as I didnt have to meet and greet my students at Crystal until 9am.  Academics completed, we broke for lunch before packing bags and heading out on the afternoon boat for their Navigation and PBB dives

On our return we had an hour or so break before going on a Night dive which was brilliant.  We saw stingrays, cuttle fish, ocotpus and an indian walkman.  The students loved it and I think it was one of the best night dives I’ve done in a long time.  After a choppy journey back we headed straight home as I had an early start the next day.

 I left Simon in bed asleep early and walked to Crystal.  Todays dives were at Chumphon & Red rock which were both amazing.  Visibility was perfect and both students said they couldnt have wished for a better finish to their course, which is nice to hear.  They’d done so well and for me it was brilliant to see how much they’d improved and learnt.

Yesterday, we were privileged enough to be allowed on board the 1st boat to go find the wreck..

One of the guys took a camera, and got the first view of the ship underwater…

Here it is.. ( 1st 45 secs are the same as previous post!)

xx

SD

This was a big day….

The Navy were in town to bury one of their ships under the ocean, for us to play with…

A mini concert and fireworks were held the night before, with various dignitaries giving speeches (in Thai, so I have no clue what was said)

I had spent a few day preparing and organising with Deep Down Productions, to send video guys out on New Heaven, Crystal Dive, and Planet Scuba’s boats. Also we arranged to have one video shot from high up on the island to get a wide shot. There was also some communication with BBC Asia dept, that they may be interested in a report. Nice!

So, up at 4:30am cos I couldn’t sleep… I did some UK work, before waking Jen at 7am.

7am was the 1st event of the day (Buddhist Ceremony), and I had asked a video intern from DDP to film it… unfortunately he went to the wrong location and then had camera issues.

Jen and I arrived at Deep Down’s offices at 8am, with Jon (video intern) waiting to tell us his problems. 5 minutes later I had the camera fixed, and sent him running to the correct location. The ceremony was going on till 9ish, so I still anticipated some footage.

We all packed and prepared our cameras, then nipped next door for coffee. At 9am, Jace (videographer) and Cormack (video intern) walked to Planet Scuba to join their boat. Jen, James (another videographer) and I walked to Crystal.

New Heaven were meant to leave around 10am with Jen on board. We called Nathan at 9.15am to confirm that he was coming down. He then apologised as he had forgotten to tell us that the times and location of the boat had changed. Bugger!

Jen, now with no options, ran to Planet Scuba and managed to get a space on theirs (YAY!)

That left James and I waiting for our ride. The owner of Crystal had a boat for press that we were allowed to go on. It was supposed to leave at 10:30.

The schedule for the boat sinking was 11:30am. James and I was still on shore waiting for the boat to go with me cursing and moaning into my phone at various people who I spoken to about the event. Eventually the boat left at 11:45am… luckily the wreck had not sunk yet.

The boat zoomed over to the HMS Sattakut, and we got some shots for about 30 mins before being told that due to the weather it was not being sunk today… AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!

All that stress, and then to hear the news that it wouldn’t be sunk….. oh well… so we returned to the shore, I picked up a motorbike that I have rented while my bike is having an engine rebuild (another story!) and then Jen and I headed home while a huge rainstorm came in.

1 hour later, I look out from our balcony to see that the ship had dissapeared! NOOOOO!

The ship either sank in the rain, or the Navy sank it deliberately misleading boats to remove them from the site. Who knows…

That was our day… a long one, with no happy outcome. Everyone was very cheesed off about missing the sinking.

It turns out that the one boat that was there to see it…. was New Heaven, who Jen was originally supposed to be with… hey ho…

Here are some shots of the HMS Sattakut…