Yay!    We’re finally settled in our new place and before cluttering up the place with all our luggage, I thought I’d take some photo’s  ..so here they are.

Our first nights sleep was very interrupted but Im sure we’ll sleep tonight after a pretty tiring day.

After rising at 9am, we headed down to Mae Haad to have breakfast at ‘Zest’ coffee shop. This place sells fabulous breakfasts, bread, cakes and makes incredible sandwiches,  just what’s needed first thing in morning (sorry, no pics).  We then headed to Crystal to get our dive gear ready for the afternoon boat.

Our first dive was actually a ‘Reef Check’  ..Si & I had the job of surveying a 100m line and noting what invertebrates (Urchins, Sea Cucumbers, Starfish etc) were 5m either side.  ..after a 70min dive, we climbed back on the boat and logged our findings.  Our divers noted the Substrates (Hard, Soft coral, Sponge, Nutrient Indicator Algae etc) and of course fish.

Dive 2 was at ‘Twins’ where yet again we were able to help Nathan ‘Eco Warrior’ along with a handful of other divers move cemented bamboo structures into position for ‘Buoyancy World’     It’s great fun doing jobs like this and will be very rewarding once everything is in it’s correct place.  I can see how frustrating Nathan might find it as we can only move small amounts due to the man/dive power. Two people per structure, moving 50mtrs is pretty time/air consuming.

Back on land we washed and packed our kit away and then hit Crystal bar for a well earned beer 😀

Oh yes, ‘Save Koh Tao’ festival in on next month, charity event, bands, turtle release, underwater photography competitions etc and we’ve been coerced into taking part in a Rocky Horror Picture song  ..on stage might I add     ARGGHHH!!!    So the first meeting was tonight to agree on what song/sketch we’re going to perform  …we’ll keep you posted…

JD x

Funnily enough it’s another beautiful day here on Koh Tao! 

We’re moving out of Alan & Heidi’s today into our old apartment.  It’s been great staying with them but now we can unpack fully and relax without living out of our suitcases.

Today we were on the afternoon boat for a couple of fun dives.  The first dive was at ‘Japanese Gardens’  The visibility wasn’t great but Si & I pottered around and saw a moray eel, a bright orange flat worm which we’d not seen before and three baby nudi branches.

Our second dive, was at ‘Twins’ that’s where the buoyancy world is and we were given a task by Nath, ‘Eco Warrior’ to bolt together parts of the sunken butterfly.   The holes were already there, we just had to line the holes and put three bolts in, which was easy peasy, that was once we found the holes  😀  lol   …then we cruised around the whole dive site looking at all the structures which had been made by all the different dive schools.   It’s pretty impressive and there will be more photo’s & hopefully video to view.

We’re back on dry land now sat in the Crystal restaurant after having washed all our kit.  Simons checking his work whilst I type to you guys.

Tonight, we’ll be moving all or our gear into our appartment and having an early one 😀

JD  x

Si woke early to complete some work and I arose around 10  ..so had a lovely lie in 🙂

Today we helped out with a Reef Check course.  There’s only one chap, Matt who’s doing the course but Simon and I volunteered to assist as we wanted to see our artificial reef ‘Junk Yard’ and have a couple of easy dives.

Reef Check is where we lay down a transect linen (50m / 100m and monitor what’s 5m either side of it)  Its a brilliant course, its more than just looking a pretty fish, it shows you the damage that is being caused by the surrounding environment, namely us (humans).  The course is a 4 day course but it’s all classroom tomorrow and we’ll be going out again on Saturday.

After our dives we sat in the Crystal restaurant and chatted, reveiwing what we’d seen and the effects of climate change then proceeded to ‘Safety Stop’ for a beer and to log on & check mails.

JD x

So far it;s been a nice relaxing day.  Tonight I think we’ll be catching up with some friends to play ‘Settlers of Catan’  and having a few more beers.