October 30 - Thailand: Koh Tao
Dive Master in Training - Day #5
"A Bad Day Diving is Better than a Good Day at the Office"
This is our quote of the day. As bad as the weather was and as poor as the visibility proved to be, we were still diving. Someone else in the world was at his/her desk shuffling papers. But all we had to complain about was the strong current and silt. No worries, mate
R&R
We slept in today. Yesterday we could have signed up for the morning dive, but we decided to sleep instead. So we woke up at 8:30 and lay around reading, updating the journals, and catching up on our Knowledge Reviews. It was raining pretty hard, so we weren't in any hurry to be outside. At 12:30, we went down to the equipment room to get our gear. Then we caught the speed boat to the moored boat.
Dive #1: Fun Dive at Twin Peaks
Depth: 16 meters
Bottom Time: 40 minutes
Visibility: 10 meters
For this dive, Jon had to do his mapping skills and Kate (our DM instructor) suggested that I go with him to update my own map. Since there was only one fun diver, neither of us had any Dive Master to follow. So we swam around the three pinnacles and mapped the details. Visibility was pretty bad - only about 10-15 meters - and the current was kind of strong. But we enjoyed it because it was one of the first dives where it was just the two of us and all that water.
On the east side of the main pinnacle - in the middle of a large sand patch - there's a little circle called the "Clown Fish Circle". Here, there's a small sea anemone where 3 clown fish live. Dive Masters have put a circle of rocks around the anemone so that divers are more careful about not trampling on it. Jon was familiar with the circle because of the Open Water course he assisted over the past two days. So we swam up to it and he showed me a little trick. Apparently, the clown fish "like to keep a clean house". He moved slowly into the middle of the circle, picked up a small shell, and held it close to the anemone so the clown fish could see it. The bigger fish (which was about 4 inches long) approached the shell and took it out of Jon's fingers. Then the fish dropped the shell a few inches away from the anemone. Jon picked up another shell and the same thing happened again. So the fish don't like their sea anemone to be messy. You never know who'll drop by and then how are you going to explain a messy anemone?
We finished up the dive on a safety stop at 5 meters for 3 minutes, passing the time by writing silly notes to each other on our underwater slates.
Back on the boat, storm clouds had rolled in and the weather was getting nasty. Jon and I were going to do our 15 minute water-tread, which is one of the DMT skills we have to complete. But the water was a bit rough and their were white caps so we decided against it. It was also very cold, and none of us really wanted to go down for the second dive but we all needed to log the dives so we did.
Dive #2: Fun Dive at White Rock
Depth: 13 meters
Bottom Time: 30 minutes
Visibility: 10 meters
The one fun diver we had on the boat only wanted to do one dive. The rest of us were DMTs and Advanced Open Water Students. Jon and I went down with Lee, one of the other DMTs. We didn't feel like making a long dive because we were shivering from cold on the boat. But the dive turned out to be very nice despite our lack of initial enthusiasm. Lee, Jon and I took our time getting around the pinnacles and learning the layout of the site. Jon found a little eel hiding beneath some brain coral which was quite a nice find.
After 30 minutes, we went back up to the boat and had tea to warm ourselves up.
The boat drove back to the mooring and we caught the speed boat back to shore. And while we all complained about the cold and the bad visibility, I have to say that the quote of the day certainly applies. A Bad Day Diving is Better Than A Good Day At the Office.
Amen!
Back on shore, we helped put the equipment away and then rushed up to the room to shower and to get into warm clothes. The night was pretty quiet tonight, and there was no one around because the Full Moon Party on Koh Pan-Yan is in two days. So most of the people on Koh Tao have deserted for the "other island". We enjoyed the opportunity for quiet and rested in the room and watched "Band of Brothers" on HBO.