| Operator | Site | Dive | Depth | Bottom Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loma Diving - MV Bavaria | Similan #8, Turtle Shaped Rock | 66 | 77.0 | 43 minutes |
| Similan #9, Three Trees | 67 | 71.0 | 56 minutes | |
| Koh Bon, Bay | 68 | 50.8 | 43 minutes |
First Dive off the Boat
I’m going to try and stick to one or two topics per dive. This time, I’ll focus on gear. I’ve never dove without a wetsuit; however, this dive, and most of the following, I chose to dive in just shorts and a 1.5mm rash guard. I picked up an O’Neill rashguard off the clearance rack at REI just a couple weeks prior to the trip, and thought it might be perfect. With 83F water temps (the same as the air!), there wasn’t a particular need for a full wetsuit. The ease of getting the protection gear on in just a few seconds, and 4kg of weights being too much, was wonderfully pleasant.
Three Trees
Dive two of the day was to a fairly wide-open area, with amazing visibility and a moderate amount of life. The 30m+ visibility was refreshing, the water beautiful and nice, and this was a great way to begin my first day of diving.
Not having to setup my gear, but jump right in just a few minutes after hitting the deck was fantastic.
Night Dive at Koh Bon
Our first night dive was fantastic. I’m used to finding interesting fish, larger predators hunting. This dive did not disappoint. The highlight of the dive was ten or more moray eels out hunting. I’ve experienced barracuda taking advantage of highlighted prey from the flashlights, for this dive I got to see many eels do the same: follow the light and catch a meal.
One interesting learning I had was around my camera: I have had “white out” conditions while diving with two large floods. I learned that, using my normal dive flashlight did very little for night photography, but I could turn the two larger floods out to create two lightly overlapping circles of light, creating a nice area of visibility.