An Island Interlude: Advanced Adventurer

I left off last time having explained which dives we had decided to do (deep water, navigation, buoyancy  night, and wreck).  Our first two dives took place that same afternoon (Day 6) and we started with our buoyancy and navigation dives.  Our buoyancy dive was first and took place at Japanese Gardens.  The entire dive (49 minutes) we just worked on controlling our breathing and skills.  It took me a while to find my buoyancy (the point where I was just floating - not moving my arms or legs to stay in one basic position).  Part of the problem was that I resisted inflating my BC even a little bit because of how buoyant I am naturally but eventually I remembered that that is the point of wearing a weight belt with 6 - 1 Kg weights.  Eventually we all got it (more or less) but it definitely took patience.  The time really flew by and we didn't really see anything because we were concentrating so hard on just floating.  All that being said the dive was still fun and definitely left me feeling like I was a better diver.

Frankie, before we leave - giving the "all OK"

the other AA group after our first dive

complimentary picture of Thai flag and some divers

Our next dive was our navigation dive.  For this dive we went back to Twins.  For this dive we were each given a computer and a compass which we wore on our wrists.

Diver compass  Source

Diver computer Source

First we practiced using our compass underwater.  In buddy pairs we went 10 kicks (I forget the official term) in a straight line and then turned around and came back.  One buddy was in charge of direction (reading the compass) and the other buddy was responsible for counting our kicks.  Then we switched responsibilities and went in a square.  After successfully completing both skills we were allowed to go off in buddy pairs.  Ant had drawn a map of twins for us and he pointed us in the direction of the boat before he left us to our own devices!  It was incredibly cool.  Frankie and I were a buddy team and we essentially just went slowly in the direction of the boat.  At one point we saw Ant, got momentarily distracted, and nearly ran into a school of barracuda!  It was incredibly awesome.  When we started our ascent we made sure to stop for our 3 minute safety stop at 5 meters during which I was supposed to raise a buoy thing letting boats and other divers know that there were ascending divers below.  

Diver buoy  Source

To inflate the buoy you simply add a little air from your back up regulator and it floats to the top.  Ant warned us ahead of time not to fill it up all the way because as it ascended it would expand (different level of pressure).  Unfortunately I took this a little too far - or maybe not far enough.  Anyway, I put a little air in but not enough for it to be standing upright when it reached the surface.  For a few seconds I left it but then decided I wanted it to have some more air and we had some time left in our safety stop so I started pulling at the lanyard attached to it.  I'm sure some of you see where this is going...  So as I pulled on the lanyard I started pulling myself up instead of pulling the buoy down.  Now, with the computers, they calculate the safety stop and will count down the three minutes as long as you are in a 3-6 meter range from the surface.  If you go out of range they stop counting and have to start over when you get back into range.  So I'm pulling on the lanyard, completely unaware that I am slowly pulling myself up to the surface (I really thought it just wasn't moving).  Eventually Frankie is able to get my attention and alert me to the fact that I have been slowly pulling myself up.  Of course at this point I'm at 2.7 meters (or something like that) and so my computer has stopped calculating my safety stop.  Frankie's computer says she still has 30 seconds left so I go back down to where she is for the last 30 seconds and we both make our final ascension.

The lesson to be learned from this?  Diver buoys are brightly colored so even if they aren't standing upright, if they've made it to the surface stop worrying about it.  Don't try pulling it down because you will only end up pulling yourself up.

That said, the navigation dives was definitely one of my favorite dives.  I loved the independence of just being in a buddy team and when we surfaced (right next to our boat, I might add) it felt like a huge accomplishment.  Having the computer was really interesting.  It was fun to watch the depth go down as well as surprising to see what our actual depths were sometimes.  Underwater, depth perception is completely off so having an instrument that told you how far you actually were from the surface was really enlightening.  Also, seeing the huge school of barracuda was pretty spectacular.

school of barracuda

After the dive we got back on the boat and headed back to Big Blue.  We only had about an hour and a half before we had to leave again for the night dive.  Happily we didn't have to rinse any of our equipment because we were able to leave it on the big boat.  So we had a light dinner and then just hung out till it was time for the night dive.

The night dive was definitely one of the dives I was most excited for.  Before we jumped off the boat one of the dive instructors gave us a mini fish lesson talking about all the different fishes you see at night.  She definitely had an impressive depth of knowledge and it was cool to get a little more detail about the fishes we had been seeing in the day and what we might see at night.  We were then all given a mini torch and Ant showed us how to use hand signals underwater.

Diving torch  Source

Once we got underwater I was kind of terrified.  It was pitch black in the water and the only things that were visible were the things you aimed your torch at.  Since our torches were aimed in front of us the whole time this left the majority of your body in darkness and of course you couldn't see the things swimming beside or under or above you.  So basically it was fear of the unknown.  Now, I didn't ever panic but we were kind of on top of each other trying to stay within view of Ant and each other.  It would be only too easy to get lost or separated from your group on a night dive but luckily that didn't happen for any of us.  On the plus side, we did get to see a few cool things - a blue spotted ribbontail ray, spot-fin porcupine fish, and red squirrel fish were the special ones I wrote down.

blue spotted ribbontail ray  

red squirrel fish

spotfin porcupine fish

I was relieved when we got to the surface and full of adrenaline from the experience.  Of course by the time we got back to Big Blue I was ready to crash.  Three dives in one day after partying the night before is a recipe for exhaustion.  So we cleaned our equipment and then I went back to my room and fell asleep reading.

The next morning we were up for our 6:30 am dives.  I pretty much slept like a log the night before so I felt well-rested and excited about the deep water dive and wreck dive.  For our deep dive we went back to Chumpon which I was very happy about.  You may remember that last time we dove at Chumpon I had wanted to go deeper and here was our chance!  Another thing I was excited about was the possibility of feeling nitrogen narcosis.  Deeper than about 25 m you are experiencing being "narced" whether you are aware of it or not.  Ant told us some really great stories about people who were narced and said it was a very light, happy feeling.  He also said people tend to get kind of giggly.  To prove that we were narced we played a little game both on the surface and then again when we were at the bottom (about 30 m).  Ant gave us a clipboard with the numbers 1-20, some written in a triangle and some written in a square.  We were supposed to count consecutively, touching our nose if the number was in a triangle and touching our mouth if the number was in a square.  While we were doing this he timed us and then at the end of the dive we could compare our two times.  So we took the test on the boat and then jumped in and started descending to the sand.  When we got to the bottom I wasn't really feeling the narcosis in the way he had described but it was still fun being down there.  Then Ant passed out the clipboard and each of us took a turn playing the game while he timed us.  When it was my turn, I was ready.  I started looking for the numbers and touching my nose and mouth but I'm was having trouble concentrating because I kept floating around and was also trying to concentrate on controlling my breathing.  All of a sudden Ant grabs me by the arm and pulls me upwards! I looked down and there is a spiny sea urchin that I was about to crash into!

Ouch!

 At this point I'm not even half-way through the game but I look at Ant and since he's still keeping a hold of my arm I decide to continue.  Eventually I finish and I motion to Ant that I'm done and we all move over a little.  I make sure I am far away from any spiny sea urchins and then pay attention to where he is motioning.  Behind E there is a huge school of yellowtail fusiliers and Ant keeps motioning for her to turn around and swim right through them.  Its almost too late by the time we all understand what he wants but suddenly it clicks and we're all rushing towards the fish and letting them completely surround us.  It was magical.  As you move they move around you so it feels like an envelope of beauty surrounding you.

school of yellowtail fusiliers  

close-up   Source

As the fish moved off we started swimming up towards the coral just looking for cool fish to point out to each other.  At one point Frankie points towards a fish and as I go to look closer I see an eel!  Frankie and Ant have started swimming away so I get Ant's attention and make the hand signal for an eel.  It seems to take a while for him to find it (which made me think I might have imagined the whole thing) but then he gets H and E's attention and points it out to them so I know I found something cool.  After we've all seen the eel we keep swimming, eyes peeled for other fish.  We see a harlequin sweetlips which is cool because it looks like a completely different fish in its youth and then as an adult.  See?

adult harlequin sweetlips  Source

juvenile harlequin sweetlips  Source

Those are some "Sweet lips!"  Source

Unfortunately, going to deeper depths also means a shorter dive time.  So before we knew it we doing our 5 m safety stop and then breaking the surface.  Even though the dive was only 30 minutes, it was probably the most exciting dive I did.  Between the sea urchin, the school of fish, and then spotting the eel I felt like there would be stories to tell!

Now, I need to back up for a quick minute to say that all of the dives I went on to this point had been done from Banzi - Big Blue's big boat.  However, on this morning we were on a smaller boat because we wanted to do the wreck dive and the OWD course doesn't do that dive (they were on Banzi).  So we all climb up onto the smaller boat (it was just the two AA courses and two fun divers - 11 people total) and the boat won't start!

picture of the smaller boat

We try and we try (and by we, I mean the boat captain and one other guy) but the engine seems to have died.  Luckily Banzi is also at the Chumpon dive site so we call them over and throw a rope.  No sooner do we start to get a tow than the engine starts!  So we have them toss back the rope and we start going towards the wreck.  We gone for about 5 minutes when the engine gives a little sputter and dies again. Poop.  If our engine is dead then we can't do the wreck dive and all of us really want to do the wreck dive.  So we call up Banzi again and this time as they get closer our engine starts and keeps going!  Happily we make it to the wreck!

the ship!  before it was sunk...

The wreck we went to was sunk in the 1970s.  Unfortunately that's the extent of the history I remember and my notes aren't that detailed.  The ship was named Sattakut #742.  As we went down there was very little visibility and we couldn't really see the ship when suddenly there was a cannon right in front of my face.  That was kind of the cool thing about low visibility was that the wreck kind of snuck up on you.  The bad thing about visibility was that, well, it was hard to see.  There weren't a lot of fish and you couldn't really see inside the wreck.  Ant said we had probably about 2m of visibility which really meant we were right up next to the boat for the whole dive.  That all being said, it was still a cool dive and a little surreal to be diving at a shipwreck.  Its the kind of thing you read about in books or see in movies - not the kind of thing you actually get to do!

When we finished we all climbed back onto the boat and thankfully it started and we were able to get back to Big Blue.  We cleaned our equipment, updated our Dive Logs and then I went to shower and pack because I had only about 2 hours until my taxi was to take me to the pier.  After I checked out and had lunch and said goodbye to everyone, I started making my way over to the taxi.  Leaving Big Blue I felt totally miserable.  I was headed to Ko Samui but I had no idea what I was going to do there and I knew there wasn't going to be a hostel situation (its more family oriented and there weren't any hostels listed in Lonely Planet).  Before I had even gotten off Big Blue's property I was feeling lonely and wondering what the heck I was doing.  I knew Lieke and Kimsha were going to Ko Samui in 2 days and I kept thinking how much more fun it would be to travel with them.  I make it to the travel agency and they tell me the taxi is going to meet me at the end of the road.  So I start walking towards the end of the road and about half way there I just stop.  Lieke and Kimsha are probably two of the friendliest people I know - they would probably let me travel with them.  Why am I leaving?  But I have a ticket.  So?  You changed it once, maybe you can change it again.  Turn around.

So I turned around.  As I passed the travel agency again the woman stuck out her head and told me the taxi was the other way.  I asked if I could change my ticket again.  She said no.  At this point, I started walking towards the taxi again but then decided that it was totally worth losing the money (about 20 bucks) to have travelling companions for the next 2 weeks.  So I turned around again.  Actually, I kept changing my mind and essentially pacing in the street.  I am sure I looked like a crazy person.  I finally decide that I'm not ready to leave and I start walking back towards Big Blue.  The travel agent sees me again and asks if I'm going to leave and I tell her that I know she can't change my ticket but I'm just going to take the loss.  At that, she gives a big sigh and tells me to come into the office and she'll change my ticket.  I thank her profusely and switch my ticket to Saturday afternoon. After that I practically skip back to Big Blue, ask if I can have my bed back (a hesitant yes - which in retrospect I don't really understand.  Its not like I wasn't paying for the bed...), and go to ask Lieke and Kimsha if I could travel with them. They said yes (!) and so I settled down to celebrate with Frankie, E, and H who were still sitting at the restaurant, happy as a clam.

Yup.  I just inserted a picture of a "happy clam" haha

There is a moral to this story - when backpacking, don't buy local travel tickets in advanced if there is even the slightest possibility of changing your mind (if you have the time and freedom to do so).  There are many adventures to be had and friends to be made and really, the best stories come from adventures unplanned. ;)