| Operator | Site | Dive | Depth | Bottom Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trang Pro Dive | South Tip | 64 | 48.4 | 51 minutes |
| Au Nang Bay | 65 | 35.2 | 50 minutes |
Six days into our Thailand trip, Josh and I had scheduled a single day dive, partially to finish up his AOW cert we started in Cancun, partially for me to check out my gear before the liveaboard, but mostly because we had a free day and our resort, the Sivilai Beach Resort in Koh Muk, has a dive shop on site.
We chatted with them the day before, and I asked about where we were diving, how far the boat ride, etc, as I wanted to bring the right gear (the shop is literally 50 feet from my room). I mentioned wearing my wetsuit out to the boat, and they laughed. Wetsuit? Apparently, the outside temperature is 83F, and the water temperature is also 83F. Fortunately, I had picked up a 1.5mm swim top on the REI clearance rack, so this and shorts became my dive gear.
We went out to Koh Kradan, about a 20 minute ride on a longtail boat, with just one DM (from Mexico!), one instructor, Josh and me. When we got down, visibility was awful, maybe five feet at best. Fortunately, this is a site that our shop goes to almost daily, so we did get to see stuff that they “knew where it was”, generally speaking.
Highlights of the two sites: several clownfish in their own reef, a trio of seahorses pipefish, a trio of cuddlefish, one large and one very small black and white eel, a very interesting and large clam, some coral life quite different than what I’ve seen elsewhere, lionfish, and some nudibranch.
The lowlight of this dive was, distracted by my camera and lacking any visibility, I did slice my palm wide open, and my shin slightly too. As well, the GoPro does not focus well in camera mode in low viz, though the videos do fine. Guess it’s video stills for the liveaboard: glad to know that ahead of time!
Some key learnings for myself: the GoPro does a poor job focusing on camera shots in low visibility, I should stick to video mode and grabbing stills. My mouthpiece may have been a leading cause of my at-depth panic in March, I’ve swapped it now, but found some mini unwarranted freakouts on these dives, and it seemed to be tied to the mouthpiece (weird). And Newskin should be in my travel kit.