November 7 - Thailand: Koh Tao
Dive Master (no longer in training!) - Day #13
I was attacked by two trigger fish today!!
Today was a serious dive day for me. And I'll explain about the trigger fish on the way.
Dive #1: Fun Dive at Green Rock
Depth: 19 meters
Bottom Time: 32 minutes
Visibility: 20 meters
This was Dive #60 for both of us. We are officially Dive Masters!
I led this dive, which really wasn't that difficult because it was just one guy named Aaron. We swam around Green Rock, which is a really nice dive site I'd never been to. We found a few swim-throughs that we cruised through. We saw a few trigger fish and Jon found a few eels beneath some coral. He's really good at finding them.
We spent our safety stop around a shallow pinnacle that was conveniently located at 5 meters. So we had a scenic safety stop for once.
Trigger Fish Attack #1: During the surface interval, Jon and Aaron told me that a trigger fish had charged me after I'd past it. I hadn't seen it because it came swimming out of rocks behind me. It bit at my fins and then swam away. I vaguely remember feeling something at my fins, but just assumed it was some coral or another diver.
Dive #2: Fun Dive at Hin Daeng Cave
Depth: 17 meters
Bottom Time: 31 minutes
Visibility: 20 meters
Jon led the dive this time, and we joked before going under whether he would actually be able to find the cave or not. I know that I would never be able to find it. We set our compasses for 240° and headed west to the cave. We ended up hitting the reef a little north, so we swam around for a while looking at the coral. Then Jon found the cave with no problem at all. It was a great dive. On the way out of the cave, Jon also found an eel at the base of the cave.
After we swam through the cave, it was time to head back to the boat. So Jon navigated our way through the water so that we ended up just beneath the boat for our safety stop. It was very cool.
Back on land, Cristophe found me and asked if I could assist with the afternoon's Rescue Course. I said I would, but was disappointed because it meant that I couldn't do the night dive tonight. He said it wouldn't be a problem unless we did a lot of ascents as part of the afternoon's training.
So Jon an I went for a quick lunch at AC's and I got suited up for the afternoon boat.
Dive #3: Rescue Assist at Twin Peaks
Depth: 16 meters
Bottom Time: 45 minutes
Visibility: 10 meters
So I was responsible for assisting an instructor named Zoe. The class only had 2 people, so it was going to be pretty easy to assist.
Trigger Fish Attack #2: At Twins, the visibility was pretty bad. We couldn't see the pinnacles from the surface, but descended near the western buoy line. As I descended, I looked down to see if I could spot the pinnacle or the bottom. And suddenly - out of nowhere - this trigger fish came at my fins. AGAIN! Trigger fish are very territorial and have a V-shaped turf that they guard. Obviously, I had come in just within the territory. So we all stuck our fins out to try and ward off the fish. He went after Zoe's fins and so the rest of us gave him a wide berth.
Then we swam away from him and into the shallower water where we could do the skills. I had to be the victim for Luis and Rick for the following skills: Tired swimmer underwater. Passive Panicked swimmer underwater. Active Panicked swimmer underwater. Unconscious diver underwater. Then we went to the surface and did some surface skills including tired diver on surface, panicked diver on the surface, and unconscious diver on the surface. The funny thing is that Zoe really wanted me to go nuts with the panicked diver act. So I was exhausted by the end of the dive.
During the surface interval, I also had to be a panicked diver on the surface and the guys had to find a way to save me from the boat. I yelled "Pizza! Pizza!" and splashed water all around and tried to grab them when they came to "save me".
Dive #4: Rescue Assist at Japanese Gardens
Depth: 0 meters
Bottom Time: 0 minutes
At Japanese Gardens, I was the unconscious diver on the surface. So the guys had to mimic rescuing me and towing me back to the boat. After about 1/2 hour of that, the guys went and did their navigation dives while Zoe and I sat on the boat having tea.
Since I didn't do much diving in the afternoon, I decided to do the night dive with Jon. This would be our last night dive since we leave on Saturday and we were both looking forward to it. Back at Ban's, I rushed up to the room to get a quick peanut butter and jelly sandwich and then we went out for the night dive.
Dive #5: Night Dive at White Rock
Depth: 12 meters
Bottom Time: 29 minutes
Visibility: 10 meters
This was a fun dive just with Jon and me. We'd arranged ahead of time not to have any fun divers to lead around so we could just hang out the two of us. We were the first ones into the water and had the entire pinnacle to ourselves for a while. It was a really nice dive. We saw a weird-looking fish which we couldn't identify, a crab, and a huge jellyfish. No stingrays, though, which is disappointing. When it was time for a safety stop, we went up to five meters to wait out the 3 minutes. There, we turned off our flashlights and watched the phosphorescents light up each time we moved. It was such a cool experience.
We went AC's for dinner, where they were showing some movie with Pierce Brosnan and Geoffrey Rush. We missed the beginning of and so didn't stay to see the end.
I was so tired from my day of diving that I was asleep at 10:30.