more diving, beach dogs, and a lost buddy

At 6am, it’s still dark here, and even the beach dogs are still sleeping. By 6:30, the sun is rising, and with 20 people, 40 tanks, and all of our gear packed into a 20 foot dingy shaped like a bathtub (with the stability of one), we motor out a couple hundred yards to the dive boat and climb aboard.

bathtub boat

open water dive students

the dive boat

Dive #5 was at a place called Chumphon Pinnacle, and was high in anticipation as one of the best dive spots in Koh Tao. It was also a good warm up for my trip out to the Similans in that it was both a deep dive and a dive with some strong currents. Currents are good, in that they bring nutrients in that attract fish to the site, but between the depth and the current, I knew I’d be air challenged and that it would likely be a short dive.

When we first got down to the pinnacle, we were greeted by massive schools of fish. Really spectacular to watch these bait balls move in unison.

big school of fish, Champhon Pinnacle

Down deeper at ~95 feet, I encountered a huge grouper. I swam close to get a good picture or two, and my fellow divers said that the grouper was roughly the same size as me - big boy! My computer told me I was down to about 7 minutes of no-decompression time, so I came up to a shallower depth and saw another big grouper & shot some video. Overall, a really nice dive.



We motored over to a place called “Shipwreck” for my dive #6. I’m not generally a fan of diving wrecks unless they’ve been down long enough to create a true artificial reef, attracting sealife. This boat had only been down for a few months, and as we dropped down, it was clear that this wasn’t going to be a very interesting dive. I was wrong, but not in a good way…

As we worked through some very murky waters, people stopped to take pictures and the dive master – our young 22 y/o Swedish girl took a head count and came up one short. After (IMO) way too long looking around in visibility that was no more than a few feet, we all (minus one) slowly ascended to the surface, which is standard practice for a missing diver situation. We looked on the surface for 15-20 minutes before the Dive Master and another diver went back down to search the wreck. No one was thinking the worst, but after 40 minutes since we first went under, if he was still down, his air would be getting low.

posing on the wreck

When the search party finished looking through the wrek and came up empty, the assumption was that the missing guy either encountered another group and followed them by mistake (easy to do with crowded dive spots), or was bobbing on the surface someplace and we needed to get in the boat and go find him.

By the time we got back to the boat, the Thai crew said that they had seen the missing diver surface, and then go back down to join another group – unbelievable! In the end, it turned out that he had a very nice dive, while the other 7 of us bobbed on the surface with almost full tanks for air. Diving with newbies (including newbie dive masters) has really impressed on me the difference experience makes.

The afternoon dives, #7 and #8 were both very pleasant dives in garden-like settings of boulders covered with coral, swim-throughs, walls, and ledges that hide sting rays and moray eels. With fewer divers and a more experienced Dive Master (Milla from Finland), it was a very nice change.

Big blue-lipped clam

> Think I'll catch the next one...


Back on land, I cleaned up and went in to town to book my travels to Phuket. 800 baht (~$27) for a nine hour journey by boat and bus to Phuket Town where I’ll transfer to my boat to the Similan Islands. I took a walk down Sairee Beach, and I quickly saw why my brother suggested the Coral Grand to me, which is at the far north end of this very long beach. The further south I walked, the younger the crowd got - I was truly in “gap year” land. Lots of Scandinavian blondes, tattoo’d guys twirling things on the beach that looked like they were meant to be lit on fire in the evenings, dive shops offering open water certifications for next to nothing…Makes me wonder what the hell I was doing being hard working and responsible in my 20’s. I guess that's why I get to come back here in my...later years (I'll keep telling myself that anyway)

shooting pool on the beach

Panang curry with shrimp and squid

After a nice dinner, I stopped in the local mini mart to pick up a couple of necessities (Chang), and decided to buy some treats for the local beach dogs. I purchased a package of bologna-like meat, and quickly made a new friend when I got back to my bungalow. My new pal – known as Gizmo – never left the porch for the rest of the evening.

Gizmo with bologna breath

I’ve been sleeping from 9pm to 4am every day since I got here – in part because that’s what my body wants to do, and in part because the first dive of the day departs at 6am-ish. Last night was no exception, and by 9:00, I was out. Sometime around 11, I woke up hearing someone on my porch. The scuffling got louder and louder, and I got out of bed ready to confront whoever was out there. Just as I was about to turn on the porch light and open the door, someone started banging and scratching on the door. I opened the door – and there he was! Gizmo wanted more lunch meat, and was not being shy about asking. I shoo’d him away and went back to sleep. Since I was skipping the 6am dive in the morning, I really didn’t mind the late night visit. Good boy - no bologna.