We were on the afternoon boat and pretty excited as we’re taking my Nikon D70 stills camera and Simons Z1 HD camera out to film.  After dropping our kit at the boat we went back to ‘Deep Down’ videographer base to prep our camera’s for this afternoons dive.  I didn’t have a problem carrying mine but Si’s camera weighs 35 kg and is really awkward to carry  ..finally on the boat and set up we arrived at ‘Green Rock’  jumped in and the visibility was terrible.   We ended the dive after about 15 minutes as there was no point on filming anything and for some strange reason, my camera wouldn’t take any pictures  …dont know what’s going on there.
Back on the boat, we dried my camera and saw that one of the springs had come loose, surely that was the problem but on the second dive at ‘Pottery Pinnacle’ I was still unable to take any shots.   I think I’ll have to get the manual out ;-O  I can’t believe that the visibility is so bad, it’s just typical!   Oh well, at least we both know that the underwater housings are ok.

Night Dive –  This was our first night dive in over 10 months  ..I wasnt really expecting much as both dives today were pretty rubbish but fortunately it was amazing, Sting rays galore, baby moray eel, tiny crab, huge barracuda, not to mention all the stunning coral that comes alive at night.  I think because Nathan (Eco Warrior) was leading, we noticed so much more.  Coming up from a dive like this reconfirms why we dive.  I no longer cared about the previous two pants dives  ;-D

Back on land we washed & packed our kit away  and then headed to Dirty Nelly’s for a drink with Nathan, his wife Tracy and one of his students, Natalie for a beer and then headed home..

Jen
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Today we were diving with New Heaven Dive School in Chalok as Nathan sent us a  text last night saying he could do with our help to do some random quadrant surveys on the Bio-rock.(metal domes that have a low electric current running through them to promote coral growth – see older post 11/02/09)

Diving with ‘New Heaven’ was a new experience as we had to ride to the other end of the island, then wait for a taxi which had all our dive kit in, the get on the longtail with our bags to get to New heavens dive boat which was tiny compared to Crystals and then headed out.

Once moored up we all kitted up and jumped in.  Si and I took slates and a large meter square which was sectioned off with rope into 25 sections.  With this we were going to each of the metal domes to estimate the growth & type of coral within the square placed at 120,150 & 180 degrees and at 1, 2 & 3 meters from bottom.  Whilst doing this the rest of the team looked for broken living coral that could be transplanted onto the biorock, then attached it.

On the way back to the boat, Si spotted a massive puffa fish on the seabed which didnt move when we approached which is slightly odd, perhaps it was sick, not too sure.

On land, we gathered and recorded our findings whilst we grabbed lunch in at ‘KopPee’ coffee shop.
Back at Crystal we waited for our kit to be taxied back and then when it arrived, washed it and packed it away.

That evening after going home and showering, we nipped back to Crystal for a couple of beers and to watch aa open water video and then shot home after picking a takeaway at ‘Kanya’s’   There food is just delishious!

Jen
x

I think it must have been around 5am when I woke to the sound of Simon being sick. I got up to check on him but he’d locked the bathroom door and was crashed out on the floor but I heard a groan and the click of the lock, poked my head in and he was feeling very sorry for himself and returned to bed a few minutes later.  I thankfully didnt feel that bad, a heavy head and tired but that was it. 

A couple of hours of sleep and Si was still feeling sick but didnt want to be, so we kept drinking (water) with the odd cup of tea in between.  Most of the morning was spent lying down with the odd bit of sleep. We eventually surfaced around 12 and walked into Sairee for breakfast as we both needed to eat.  The only thing Si fancied was a cooked breakfast, so we went to ‘Choppers’ and ordered two big bottles of water each, a coke and a full english breakfast (one veggie of course)
I was ravenous and Si was struggling big time and only managed to eat half of his as he was still feeling sick.

After breakfast we walked along the beach, back to ‘Vibe Bar’ to collect the bike where we had sensibly left it last night.  The sun was so intense, even though it was just a couple of yards, it felt like a mile.  Finally making it to the bike we hoped on and took a slow ride home, stopping for more water on the way and straight back to bed for a couple of hours sleep.

In the evening Si felt slightly better and thankfully the sick feeling had gone.  As the thought of going out and even seeing alcohol made us both feel ill, we decided to get a pizza takeaway and watch Lost and The Apprentice in bed

Jen
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