Category Archive
The following is a list of all entries from the Scuba diving abroad category. Noteworthy entries are filed topmost.
Technical Diving in Phuket
It may not sound like a technical diving location, but around Thailand there is some very deep water. Mark Ellyatt did his 313m world record dive in the waters off Phuket. Continue reading this entry »
Dealing with DCI, the Turkish Way.
I was recently talking to a couple who had come back from a holiday diving in Turkey, they had been out, enjoying the sun and some warmer water diving. One particular day, they were on a small boat that belonged to an oyster diver. They were taken to the dive site, which I presume was the ships captains choice, they then kitted up and jumped in. The maximum depth they achieved was about thirty metres and they remained there until they ran out of no-deco time and then came up slowly, they did their safety stop at 6m, then got back onto the boat. After they had removed their kit, the captain, who spoke enough English asked them “What are you doing? I though you were going diving?” to which they looked puzzled. The captain then put on his antiquated diving kit and jumped in. Quite a bit later, probably around forty minutes he came up, quickly, with no stops!
I made it back!
After 20 days in Thailand I have had to come back.
The trip is always a bit of a drag, it goes like :-
- 07:30 - get up
- 08:00 - catch taxi to airport
- 09:00 - arrive airport
- 09:55 - fly from Phuket to Bangkok
- 11:20 - arrive Bangkok
- 13:30 - depart Bangkok
- 19:35 - arrive London (Thai time 02:35)
- 21:00 - depart carpark (Thai time 04:00)
- 01:30 - arrive home (Thai time 08:30)
Thats a complete travelling time of 25 hours!
The trip out was just as long, so thats 2 days of the holiday missing. I did my first dive the day after I arrived, Tuesday 7th, and my last diving was on Tuesday 21st, I managed a total of 31 dives in the 2 weeks. I took over 2 gb of photos and 1.5 hours of video. As with all underwater photography, there are a few exceptional photos, a large number of good photos and a lot of ok ones. I had already binned the out of focus & full of backscatter photos.
The video is another story, there was so much ambient light that the lights I have make little impact, which meant that the picture was totally blue. The camera does not help this either, I bought the cheapest Sony camera I could find, its great above water, but underwater it seems to overexpose most of the video. I have copied it all to my PC and started editing it, I have used the PC’s colour correction and also turned down the brightness. This has greatly improved the video, the only problem is when the colours change quickly, it gives some interesting colour changes.
I did enjoy the videoing a lot, the setup I have was cheap, I will have to look at a more professional rig, HID lights and either a 3 CCD camera or a HDV camera. This is going to be expensive!
One more week, then the water temperature will drop 20 degrees!
One more week, then the water temperature will drop 20 degrees. I’ll be back from Thailand and diving in the UK.
I returned from the Similan Islands trip 2 days ago, I think I have now stopped swaying, 6 nights on a boat does have its toll. Once again I used the Jonathan Cruiser as my choice of boat to dive from, the Thai divemaster “Yay’, almost pronounced “Jay”, loves to dive and loves the coral reefs and its life. He knows where to find everything, that doesn’t move to far, and is good on air. The food on the Jonathan cruiser is always very good, varied, and plenty of it. My last 2 trips was with a dive guide called Patrik, but he has moved on. The new dive guide had an ear infection and couldn’t dive, luckily, Patrik predecessor was on holiday and booked in to do the same trip, so they collared him into leading the trip.
The diving was very similar to before, with a couple of different sites, including Beacon Reef and the remains of a dive boat that didn’t return a few years ago. Not so many large things this time, and also not so many nudibranchs, but dive sites change all the time.
4 dives a day for 4 days and 3 dives on the last day is intense and tiring, combine that with plenty of food and no exercise, this is not a good recipe for healthy living, I will have to make up for it when I return to the UK.
Before the Similan trip I did 3 local dives, and I have another 9 dives planned, including 2 tomorrow to Shark Point and Anemone Reef. Mondays diving should be interesting, they call it saturation Monday, 4 dives in 8 hours, taking every dive to the edge of no-deco limits. I going to cheat and blag some Nitrox to wind everyone else up.
I’ve not looked at doing any ‘tech’ diving this trip, but there are more tech diving establishments opening up. I’ve had a chat with a couple of the new tech shops, and they seem quite knowledgeable.
I will write-up full reports on my diving activities for http://www.travel-dive.com when I return.
One more week, then the water temperature will drop 20 degrees.
Thai Holiday, the first few days.
I have now been in Phuket for three days. I have been here many times before, but every year it changes, here are my impression of the changes since my last visit.
Firstly, everything has become more expensive. On my last visit, I rented accomodation for 600 baht a night, the same accomodation this time is 1100 baht, and that was after negotiating heavily. Most restaurants have new menus, which means they have gone up. Phuket is currently very busy, people are paying the prices asked, so the prices go up.
Secondly, a Tsunami warning system seems to be in place, we don’t know if it works or not, there are also signs warning you that you are entering a Tsunami Danger Zone, there are also towers with sirens and a Tannoy system to warn people. But, this is Thailand and whether it is actually connected to anything, your guess is a good as mine.
Thirdly, once again, there are less fish in the sea, not a surpise, it gets worse every year.
I have done 3 dives so far, just local ones from a longtail boat, which were as expected. I had done them many times before, but as I said before, less fish again.
Tomorrow, Thursday Feb 09, I am off to dive the Similans on a liveaboard for 6 nights and 19 dives. I will only set foot on land for 2 hours in the next 6 days, so you’ll have to wait for my next installment.
Travelling to thailand
I have been to Thailand seven times now. I have friends from the Uk who live and work there, one works in the dive industry, the other repairs tractors, as he calls Harley Davidson Motorcycles, a trained Harley mechanic, he still doesn’t like them.
I have flown there with Gulf Air, Garuda, Thai, BA/Quantas, but my favourite is EVA. I prefer to travel direct, and their economy deluxe class has an extra 5″ legroom and 5kg luggage which I need as a 6′3 diver, and it is the same price as economy on Thai or BA at around £630. As soon as I land I go straight to the domestic terminal and head out. I have stayed in bangkok twice, and never liked it either time. I use to fly to Koh Samui first, dive, then onto Phuket, but since the Tsunami, it has all the people that give the English a bad name abroad staying there, instead of being spread all over, they are concentrated in a small area. I won’t be visiting there again.
I first went to Thailand in 1999 to visit my friends, about 12 months after they had moved there. I liked it so much, I return there every year, a combinations of the diving, food, friendly people and cheap clothes make it a must.
I have logged over 200 dives there, all the usual dive sites, mainly :-
- Chumphon Pinnacle
- White Rock
- Sail Rock
- Twins
- Karon Rock
- Koh Pu
- Kata Noi Point
- Racha Yai
- Racha Noi
- Anemone Reef
- Shark Point
- King Cruiser Wreck
- Koh Doc Mai
- Phi Phi Lae
- Phi Phi Don
- Koh Bida Nok
- Koh Bida Nai
- Similans 1 to 9
- Koh Bon
- Koh Tachai
- Koh Surin
- Richelieu Rock
- Hin Daeng Hin Muang
There are many other dive sites, especially on the east side i.e. Pattaya, Samui,Tao, Phangnan side, but whenever I dive there the vis is not as good as the western side.
I am travelling out there again on Saturday February 4,for 20 days. I have 30 dives planned.
As mentioned in a previous blog, these will be written up, with photos and video and published on
Travel-dive
I have recently been writing my diving exploits on a dive site called travel-dive http://www.travel-dive.com I will also be writing up any future interesting dives, including all my dives in Thailand, they will be featured as a destination report, well 3 reports actually. One based on some local dive from Phuket, one on Phi Phi and one on the Similan Islandsm which will incorporate Koh Bon, Koh Tachai, Surin & Richelieu Rock. It is all excellent diving, and my reports will also feature photos and video footage.
Keep your eye out for them when I return.