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*NEWS* Photos Must See! | Friends Trip March 2004 (Intern Reunion)
We set sail at approximately 10pm on the night of the 27th March 2004 ready to be at the first dive site for the following morning - EARLY!!! Many had been so excited about the trip and diving that a few beers were consumed and there were a few, "Man I wish I was still in bed" faces in the morning. One look over the side of the boat at the crystal clear waters soon cured those looks! March 28th - Dive No#1 - The Garden of Eden. This was a great dive. Not too deep and superb to get adjusted to the 30 meter visibility and the beautiful colors on the coral surrounding us. If we had not been trained to keep our scuba regulators in our mouths (for safety's sake) I swear that many would have fallen out as the jaws on everyone seemed to drop in awe. I'll never forget the comment from HMS (Dave A) on surfacing..."Well, if the trip ends now it's already paid for itself". Does that tell you something about how good the diving is here? Dive No#2 - Elephant Head Rock. With swim through after swim through and Moray eels that make Pythons look like garden worms in comparison of size another great site. - Jeremiah - there was no holding you back on the, "Let's see the smallest holes that I can get through" front :-) Dive No#3 Island Number 9 was the first taste of diving with sharks. Morays and Leopard shark experiences left everyone nattering on board after. We moored in Donald Buck bay for a surface interval where Lee, Tucker, Dave and Chef (Patrick) snorkeled with turtles until they could stand it no more and threw on their scuba equipment to get some better photos and video. I must say that I have never seen a broader smile on Lee's face. "Official" dive No#4 was the night dive held in Donald Duck bay. All that dove said it was nice and relaxing - some opted to chill out and play cards on the boat - hey it's a holiday! March 29th - Dive No#1 - Koh Bon Pinnacle - For many of us divers this was the first sighting of something so huge underwater - a Manta ray, in fact a couple of them. With a couple of fairly friendly Leopard sharks also this made the dive incredible. Oooh, that and sea snakes, lionfish, parrot fish, batfish, butterfly fish, Angelfish....need I go on? Dive No#2 - Koh Bon (main Island) - After Chef had spotted a black tip reef shark whilst snorkeling during the surface interval most were keen to get in ASAP. I don't think that this dive disappointed a sole with 2 mantas and leopard and nurse sharks to be seen. Again Lee managed to get some great video footage. Dive No#3 - Koh Tachai South Pinnacle - huge schools of Tuna, Batfish and Trevalli left most in awe...although most were still thinking of the last dive I suspect :-) the night Dive, No#4 was The East Coast Bay of Koh Tachai - Again a very pleasant dive described by all that participated. March 30th - Dive No#1 - the infamous Richelieu Rock - We had spoken with "Ae" the chief divemaster to get us there early to do the first dive at 7:00am to beat the other dive boats. The plan worked and we were in the water early but due to the sun being low in the sky the visibility was not as good as it could have been. Still we managed to see spot the indigenous Tomato Clown Fish, turtles, octopus and huge barracuda amongst too many other highlights to mention. The Tomato clown fish is a cheeky little bugger and specific to that area sop well worth seeing. Dive no#2 - Richelieu Rock again but with NO complaints. Now everyone saw it for it's true colors quite literally. Now that the visibility was back to a respectable 25 metres all could see why it is such an acclaimed dive site. The rock really is just that. At high tide you would not know it is there but in low tide it breaks the surface only by a foot or two, only in the distance can you struggle to see land - the Surin islands. Dive No#4 was at Koh Tachai North Pinnacle followed by our "sunset dive" at Koh Bon. The sunset dive was superb with Glen and Tucker lucky enough to see a Manta again whilst the rest of us just cruised for an hour taking in all of the breath taking colors and fish. We surfaced to a lot of excited gossip and a great feast. March 31st - Dive No#1- Shark Fin Rock - presumably named as you could not turn a corner without coming face to face with a leopard shark either free swimming or relaxing on the bottom. The final dive was at Boulder City - where Holmes and a few others spotted a white tip and had a great dive. Once back on-board the beers were cracked open and toasts made. I must thank all of the crew members and divers. Tucker - thanks for all of the support and organization. Holmes - I take it you'll be booking your next flight for the next trip within 24 hours of retuning to the UK again - these trips wouldn't be the same without you buddy :-) Lee, Dave W & Chef - there's no way that we would have over 700 photos if it was not for you guys. Anna, Desiree and Kerri - I must say that you put up with us guys' bad habits extremely well although Desiree being married to Chef I am sure that you are used to it all anyway. HMS - cheers for being a great dive buddy and an absolute blast on the boat. Btw - that Carpenters CD is growing on me. Jeremiah - Not one time on the boat did I not see both the top and bottom rows of your teeth in a beaming smile - even at "lights out" everyone could tell where you were! Alan and Glen for being most pleasant company on the boat. Danny - You'll probably never get to read this (the only man I know in existence with no email or internet) I must thank you for your hilarious stories and dry wit. Seeing that you'll probably never read this I shall blame my "feeding of the fish" entirely on you and know that I can get away with it :-) Jules - Thanks for just being you! We all knew that if we got stranded we'd have your mosquito nets, freshwater maker, wind proof lighter and the entire survival package at our disposal - and YES!...that includes your hammock! Btw: if any of your dive equipment smells or tastes of fresh oranges - look in HMS's direction :-) I am waiting on more underwater shots photos but for the time being here are some of the guys and gals hanging out on the boat and in Phuket. CLICK HERE!!! It goes without saying that we all thanks Alister and his crew for a wonderfully organized trip.
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Work?
How can we call scuba diving the clear blue seas work? Having said that it's
nice to get away from the swimming pool sessions and the learner divers
sometimes and take a trip. The "Friends Trips" as I call them are my
personal holidays where I get to scuba dive in beautiful places such as the
Similan Islands just 85 nautical miles north of Phuket, Thailand. The diving was
superb but the guys and gals on the live-aboard boat made the trip complete.
Many are interns with