Private Outing

What could be better than going to sea on Captain Tawan's longtail boat with your diving buddies for a couple of pleasant dives with no-one else around? Perfect. Here we are on our way out from Rawai to Coral Island which is about 3 miles offshore. We have, L to R, the always smiling Mike, the Bemused Jai and the statesmanlike Heath with Captain Tawan in the background hanging on to his engine!

 

 

Further out to sea now and you can see Mike starting to wonder about all this diving lark....it's the first time he's ever done any and he's come on in leaps and bounds...and these are well chosen words to indivcate his unique approach to diving. The entertaining thing about our Mike is that you NEVER know what he's gonna do next..............

And here we go....with Mike exhibiting a fine dive profile

We were diving just off Coral Island....I mean, just look at it! Unfortunately it was too windy to land at the little resturant you might just see on the beach.

And here we have our ever graceful Jai striking a pose. Th eThai's just love to have photographs taken of them...they are a very obliging people!

Heath on the left with Jai well into tucked arm position as all good divers should be.

Below, we have a the mantis shrimp...a pretty lively critter and of a size of a small lobster. Known to be very aggressive, these are the little buggars known to smash divers' masks if they get too close. They certainly pack a swift and powerful head butt!!

 

Below is a giant clam but it was the white nudibrach just above it that interested me...don't see many of them about.

And no dive in Thailand is complete without a giant puffer fish...

We found this fish trap which we think is abandoned...but who knows. This method of fishing is extremely effective and we often come across them stuffed full of fish. The more fish that enter the trap's one way system the more fish seems to attract...I've seen these literally jammed with hundreds of fish inside.

That's the end of Heath and Mike's diving adventures for the time being....no doubt they'll miss the pleasures of warm sea and good viz....as for me; can't wait to go on my next dive whenever that might be...soon!!!