Shark Point and Koh Dok Mai, Phuket

Today I had a diving day here in Phuket again. First dive on Shark Point and second one at Koh Dok Mai.

Dive #: 182
Date: 19.2.2011
Place: Thailand, Phuket, Shark Point
Depth: 19,2m Average depth: 13,1m
Bottom time: 60min
Visibility: 10-15m
Sea Temperature: +29C

Equipment
Bottle: 12L/200bar (air) Wetsuit: short 3mm Weight: 4,8Kg

Dive Center: Sea Bees Diving
Price: 3750THB/91,50€ + Equipment rental 500THB/12,20€

Total: 4200THB/103,40€ (2 dives)

Beginning of the dive we saw zebra moray eel. First time for me.

DM Barry with fishes.

More fishes.

In the end of dive we saw two cuttlefishes. I went very close and they didn't go anywhere. Amazing creatures!

I have dived here few times before, but didn't remember how good place this is. So much fishes. Durban dancing shrimp, clownfishes, moray eel, a lot of very big fan corals, nudibranches, titan triggers, very much reef fishes. Very good dive.

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Dive #: 183

Date: 19.2.2011
Place: Thailand, Phuket, Koh Dok Mai
Depth: 20,4m Average depth: 12,5m
Bottom time: 51min
Visibility: 6-10m
Sea Temperature: +29C

Equipment
Bottle: 12L/200bar (air) Wetsuit: short 3mm Weight: 4,8Kg

Koh Doc Mai is uninhabited island and the dives there are always wall dives.

White eye moray eel.

Diver with the fan corals.

Durban dancing shrimps.

Today visibility was quite bad at Koh Dok Mai. There is anyway quite much marine life. Moray eels, nudibranches, Fan corals, banded boxer shrimp, Durban dancing shrimps, reef fishes. Today was also first time when I dived with Sea Bees Diving. Everything worked very well. Also nice and big boat.

Turtles at Similan Islands

Old story. Best place for diving in Thailand is Similan Islands. It's about 100km from Phuket to north west on Andaman Sea. Dive trips to Similan Islands are usually liveaboard. Typical is five nights on the boat and four diving days. Four dives a day so 16 dives on the trip. I have been on this kind of diving safari twice. Feb 2006 and Feb 2007.

Similan Islands is not good only for diving. It's also superp for snorkeling. One of the most beautiful place there is Donald Duck Bay. There you can climb up to the hill where opens great view to the bay. I visited there in 2006.

After view point we had still time to wait for the next dive. Our boat was on the bay and we saw turtle very near of our boat. People threw bananas to the turtle and turtle ate it. Some of us jumped to the water snorkeling with the turtle. Of course me too. Turtle wasn't shy at all. It just swam around us.

Maybe temptation of banana was too much and it came to eat it also from the hand. Turtles really like bananas. Here you can see little bit banana it's mouth.

It came many times very close. I didn't need to use zoom at all.

There was also smaller turtle, but it didn't come to close.

Great snorkeling session!

Mika

Racha Yai, Phuket

Today on Wednesday I had a diving day at Racha Yai near Phuket, Thailand.

Dive #: 175
Date: 9.2.2011
Place: Thailand, Phuket, Racha Yai, Bay 5 to south
Depth: 18,9m Average depth: 12,5m
Bottom time: 49min
Visibility: 25-30m

Equipment
Bottle: 12L/200bar (air) Wetsuit: short 3mm Weight: 5,5Kg

Dive Center: Chalong Sea Sport
Price: 2900THB/70€ + Equipment rental 500THB/12,20€
Total: 3400THB/82,90€ (2 dives)

There was only little bit current and it was relax to dive with the current. Here some old fish cage.

Porcupine fish hiding.

This remora wanted to have a joy ride with a diver.

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Second dive was also on Racha Yai, but in different bay.

Dive #: 176
Date: 9.2.2011
Place: Thailand, Phuket, Racha Yai, Bay 3 to bay 4
Depth: 28,9m Average depth: 12,8m
Bottom time: 52min
Visibility: 20m

Equipment

Bottle: 12L/200bar (air) Wetsuit: short 3mm Weight: 5,5Kg

There are lot of concrete cubics somewhere in 28-29m which divers can swim through.

Bluespotted stingray.

Visibility today was very good especially on the first dive. There was quite much small reef fishes in some places and some hard corals. Also some titan triggers, red tooth triggers, lot of small boxfishes, clown fish, moray eels. Anyway nothing so special. Weather was also perfect, so it was nice diving day. Only problems was my mask (Mares Demon), which has started to leak. Also my dive computer (Suunto Mosquito) shows way too early deco times. This problem has started already in Philippines end of last year. Maybe I have to update both mask and computer.

Last time I wrote about compressor diving in Palawan, Philippines. Today we saw also compressor diving on this trip here in Thailand. Two hoses went from boat to under the surface, so maybe there was also two divers.

Phuket,
Mika

Compressor diving at Palawan

Old story. Last year 2010 in March I was in a small city of Raxas in Palawan Philippines. There I met in karaoke place one local man Chito and he invited me to visit their own private island on the front of Roxas. Sound interested so why not.

Two days later I went to visit on the island with the Chito's brother Cassius. Place name is Stanlake Island. Near the island Cassius said there is still one more thing to do before we can go to land. Boat man should first dive to feed the fishes on the fish cage. Cage was about 100m from the island and depth was about 10-15m. That's nothing new if you use normal diving equipment like BCD, regulator, weightbelt, diving computer and so on. This guy had little bit different kind of equipment. He did it as a compressor dive!

Before I have heard about it, but I never seen it in real life. First boat man removed propeller shaft from the engine, then connected very long hose to the engine and then just started the engine. So engine is pushing air all the time to the hose. Hose around the body, mask to face and self-made fins to feet and hose to other side of the mouth and ready to dive. There was no mouth piece on the hose. Hose just between the teeth tightly to other side of the mounth where diver get the air for breathing. Breathing out just on the other side of the mouth. Not the safest way to dive. You can only imagine what can happen when depth is something about 20-40m and engine stop. I asked from Cassius have ever they had any probles. So far no problems. Hopefully never...

Here boat man has just came back to the boat. Compressor diving is very common in Palawan area.

Cheers,

Mika