After having a cup of tea, we headed down to Crystal ….Today we have 15 or so volunteers to help move the last of the bamboo structures at Buoyancy World.  Equipped with 8 lift bags, 2 spare tanks it should be a breeze.

Si & I were again the first in the water to deploy a large metal basket which Nathan had made.
The guys on the boat gently lowered the metal frame into the water whilst we quickly attached our airbags at either end and filled them so the airbags were taking all the strain.  Luckily today the visibility was great, from the surface we could easily see the other positioned bambo so we swam above it, released some of the air from the lift bags and slowly began to descend.  Once at the bottom, we positioned the basket and emptied the lift bags.   First job acomplished.    We then ran a tape measure from the basket to the remaining bamboo that had to be moved.    Two divers were already at the bamboo with spare tanks and regs to fill the liftbags.
After we attached and filled the bags, to the bamboo, we waited  …and waited   …where was everyone else?  Finally divers appeared with spare liftbags, which we took and then sent them back with the structures.  It didnt take long before we were on the final piece. As we were both low on air, we made our way back to the boat and did our 3 minutes, 5 metre safety stop and ascended.  Moving structures is pretty exhausting!

Back on the boat we grabbed some biscuits, had a coffee and relaxed.
On our second dive, we had to move another swim through structure only 20 meters or so and then our job was complete.  Only 8 of us went down whilst others went for a fun dive.   Firstly we had to move two concrete slabs 20 meters or so these  holding the structure in place and then two of us stayed with them, whilst the rest lifted the swim through ….it was pretty heavy and took some time to shift but eventually they made it, moved everything into position and Buoyancy World is complete    HOORAY!!!!!!!

As we still had time and air on our side we decided to go and potter around the pinnacle where we were lucky enough to see a huge Porcupine fish and two Scribbled File Fish …these guys are incredible by the way they change their colour.

On dry land,  we washed and packed our kit away and then grabbed a beer or two at Crystal.  Later we headed off to Steve & Laura’s (Instructors) for a BBQ where most of the Crystal crew were.
Their house was lovely, nice living area, big kitchen & pool   .Im so jealous!

Unfortunately for Si, there was no veggie stuff so he ended up not eating at all today.

Jen
x

Today we were on the long tail boat helping Nathan out with Reef Check Course.  Hopefully all of the Crystal staff will be steered to take this course.  Today we had 2 instructors & one dive master.

After our survey we washed, stored out kit and headed to one of the classrooms to enter the data that we had just taken.  If you remember from last year, Reef Check is where we’d put down a 100meter line and survey a total of 2.5m either side (invertibrates, fish and substrates) and then log the data and send it to Reef Check.

It was really good to hear that each of students found it very rewarding and totally refreshing from instructing all the time.  Its funny how we are blinkered to coral damage, disease especially when you’re not looking for it.

Dirty Nelly’s was tonights venue as a friends Open water video was being shown.  Not that I watched any of it as Nathan’s wife Tracy turned up with her friend Nelly and we got chatting and ended up laughing uncontrollably about the silliest of things   …boy, it’s good to laugh.

I think we retired around 11pm for a good nights sleep.

This morning woke to find a few Burmese guys climbing the coconut trees in front of our house like monkeys, chopping down the coconuts nuts & palms down. Safety is totally out the window. For each tree they did, they’d get around 300baht ..and that apparently is a good rate. Rather them than me ;-D

In the meantime, Si had spotted a odd looking leaf insect on the inside of the window of our living room ..check it out!

We left the boys with their coconuts and went to the boat for a couple of fun dives… Just us 2…. The first dive was “Twins”, visibility was beautiful and we spent most of the time looking for small stuff.

Next dive was “The Pottery”. Being a shallow, small dive site it can get a bit tiresome. But today we dive it differently. We jumped off the boat and headed directly south of the dive site. After 10 mins of seeing not very much, we came across “Three Rocks” a little dived site. With a very nice swim through and lots of life such as Puffers, Triggers etc. It added a new element to “The Pottery” Very nice.

We arrived back, washed our gear as per usual. Couple of drinks at the Crystal Bar while Simon did work stuff, and then back home for Eastenders and another takeaway from Kanya, which is fast becoming my favourite Thai food place on the island.