Interesting post found in Patong
This time it was with GF from Vancouver and IG from Malaga, met in Kapalai. A mere 3 days on the South Siam 3 boat, elbowing the day-trippers, and the same playful mantas as in January in Koh Bon. Actually, there was even a whale shark which we must have missed by about 2 minutes. The managing team of the boat seemed to enjoy producing decibels and ordering about. Thankfully we got N, a Thai divemaster who was like Buddha in the water - he would come back from the dives at 100 bars while GF and I were at 50 bars!
The boat manager J recounted us his experience with the tsunami in 2004. It was rather interesting. They were diving off Breakfast Bend, one of the famous dive sites, and because of strange currents the dive had been cut short. They were doing their 5 m surface interval when the tsunami arrived. Breakfast Bend was literally falling apart: reefs were torn away, and fish and sea snakes were dying in front of them. The water became dark and all of a sudden the computers indicated 40 m depth when they had been at 5 m seconds previous. J grabbed the least experienced diver, who had saucer-size eyes by that time, and took control of his buoyancy. He indicated to everybody that they were to fin as strong as possible to surface, which they all did. They had to fight some serious currents as it happened, and from the surface, they could see the boats fighting strange vortexes and doing roundabouts. Finally after 20 min the boat picked them up and still, nobody knew what was going on. Only when the boat got closer to shore did they hear from the Thai navy, and even then, they thought that there would be another wave, not that they had already gone through it. The liveaboard continued its trip onto other undamaged reefs in the Similans. Paradoxically there was minimal damage to the dive sites (except for Breakfast Bend which had been thoroughly destroyed) but the season was ruined as everybody cancelled their trip afterwards.
On South Siam 3, there was also T from Germany who was a divemaster on South Siam when the tsunami hit. The boat was on Koh Bon when it happened and they were on surface interval. T was turning his back to the Koh Bon opening when one of his guests said 'Look! The hole has disappeared!'. He didn't believe it. But indeed the hole was sunk under 8 m of water, upon successive waves. Not much else happened - no vortex here, just higher water than usual. It also took them a while to realize what had happened. This is T's first time coming back since the tsunami. Thankfully he was greeted in Koh Bon by a whale shark, his first sighting!
The hole in Koh Bon
Elephant Head Rock, Similan no. 7 - Hin Pusa
Where's that boat picking us up?
IG checking out the manta
In Fiji in 2002, I learned that this little critter is quite skittish. Finally I managed to capture one on digital film:
Long-nose Hawkfish
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