Due to severe temperatures and the rapid bleaching, Simon and I went out with our video camera’s to get some footage for Nathan, while he and the Reef Check students did a practice survey along the transect line.  Si will be putting together a short movie for you guys to watch soon.

The amount and speed that the corals are bleaching is incredible.  Most of the solitary mushroom corals are on their way to be fully bleached, whist other boulder coral seems to be bleaching from the bottom up.
Anyway, along our travels we disturbed an eagle ray which shot past us and scared the life out of me.   
After a 105 minute dive, only at 5/6 meters I hasten to add, we climbed back on the longtail and head back to Crystal.  On our way back into shore the heavens opened and at last we had some decent rain, it was a real struggling to carry tanks and  the kit from the boat whilst being battered by the rain. 

Once the rain stopped, Nath, Simon and I walked off the beach with our camera’s and snorkelling gear in hand to check out the coral nursary that we’d set up a few weeks ago and to tag 9 different corals for monitoring.  

Back at home we showered and relaxed for a bit.

Tonight, there’s a free bbq at ‘Vibe’ as 3 people are leaving Koh Tao.  We headed out around 8.30pm to say our goodbyes and to find the bbq was already finished.  They obviously underestimated about how many people were going to show.   Anyway after multiple beers, chats and laughter, we headed home just after midnight.

I spent most of the morning just pottering about whilst Si got on with some of his UK work.

Around midday, we headed to Crystal as the last of the structures were being deployed at ‘Junk Yard’. As well as the normal crew, we had a few DMT’s on the boat who were actually going to map it.

The 4 cement pillars for the Sydney Harbour bridge and pvc pipes which were cemented into biscuit tins,went in first and then we dove down with the structures.

Luckily we didn’t have to move anything too far as the drop zone was exactly where we planned.  So with the bridge tied to the pillars and the karaoke station fixed to the pvc piping our job was done.

We’ve doubled the size of Junk Yard now and with a couple of more items being deployed next week, it should be a fantastic place to take open water students.

Up early, Si started on his UK work and I slept in.

Around 2.30 we headed down into Mae Haad and got breakfast from ‘Greasy Spoon’.  Si had a healthy portion of large chips and I got an egg and bacon sandwich which we got as takeaway and ate at Deep Down, then headed to Crystal.  Nathans friends were putting the last touches onto their ‘Sydney Harbour bridge’  which looked incredible.  They’d even been out to buy a few toy cars which they attached to the netting road.  By far, this was the best structure to date.

This afternoon we were all going out on the Dusk dive at ‘Chumphon’ and the night dive at ‘Twins’

At Chumphon pinnacle we were the only boat apart from a little fishing boat moored up which made a refreshing change.  The viz was good  even with the light fading and Si and I had a great dive.  I was constantly looking out for a whale shark or two (wishful thinking) but it wasn’t to be.

After a 55 minute dive, we were back on the boat and change to a fresh tank, ready for our next dive at ‘Twins’.

The journey back was around 1/2 an hour, so we had a cuppa & a few biscuits until we had an hr surface interval then kitted up ready for our next dive.

This dive we followed Nathan, Tracy & friends around ‘Buoyancy World’ and then headed off in our own direction when we came across Kat, Deb & Carsten with his incredibly powerful light.  The strobe setting on it would certainly start you fitting if you suffered from epilepsy.

Anyway, for a laugh, both Si and I turned our torches off and swam either side of Kat for a minute or two. When Kat saw Si, it made her jump and then Si signalled her to look to her left, where I had my head as close to her as I could, she shrieked  ..it was so funny that my mask kept on filling up with water.  Moments like that are priceless.   (Obviously we wouldnt have done it on anyone that would have panicked)

Dive kit washed and packed away, we headed to the bar for a drink, caught up with a couple of friends and then made our way home..