Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Tuesday 23rd: Shark Point Marine Sanctuary


Dive: 3
Dive Site: King Cruiser Wreck (*)

Max Depth: 31.4
Bottom time: 44 min.
Water Temp: 28C
Visibility: 10-15m
Activities: Wreck Instructor Specialty Course, with Mikael.
comments: superb condition today, no current and good visibility. I can see the wreck 3m into the descent. We were rewarded with a 1m Leopard Shark, resting peacfully on top of the car deck, 17m deep. Features: bamboo shark in the same tire in the sand at the stern, school of Bigeye snappers, glass fish, rainbow runners, jack trevallies, and a beautiful bright yellow Chromodoris sp. slug crossing through a black sea urchin.

Dive: 4
Dive Site: Hin Musang (Shark Point) (*)

Max Depth: 17.3
Bottom time: 51 min.
Water Temp: 28C
Visibility: 10-20m
Activities: Navigation specialty Instructor course
comments: moderate current moving South from pinnacle 1 toward 3. Pinnacle 1: feeding blue spotted stingray, white eye moray eels rock is spectacular, 20-30 eels feeding, swimming through school of glass fish covering the rock. Common lionfish hung out in group of 6-8 hiding behind giant gorgonian sea fans. Pinnacle 2: a leopard shark at shark point :-), walking devil scorpionfish in the sand between the pinnacles, extremely healthy field of giant gorgonian sea fans (spanning 2-4m wide). Pinnacle 3: haven't been here in months, covered in soft anemone corals, almost gotten ran over by a school of black trevallies (50+cm) cruising through the channel between pinnacle 2 & 3.

Dive: 5
Dive Site: Ko Doc Mai

Max Depth: 16.4
Bottom time: 51 min.
Water Temp: 28C
Visibility: 10-15m
Activities: wall dive
comments: the living wall rewarded us with non-stop feeding action, covering in school of glass fish. Full of phyllidia sp. wart slugs, banded boxing cleaner shrimp came out in full view. Calmer sea in the afternoon ride home.

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Friday, 11th: Phi Phi Islands

Dive: 1
Dive Site: Ko Bida Nok

Max Depth: 9.6m
Bottom time: 35 min.
Water Temp: 28C
Visibility: 10-15m
Activities: DSD Experience
comments: Perfect weather day for diving, clear blue skies, calm sea, and half empty MV Dive Asia II boat. Dive stared from the bay with my 2 DSD guests from Paraguay, Diego & Violeta.
Thermalcline under water caused the color to be green instead of brilliant blue. In shallow water, we saw bumphead parrot fish (aprox. 40cm), multiple giant clams (30-40cm), school of glassfish, neon fusiliers, crocodile needle fish, a pack of common lion fish (6 together), and our usual damsel fishes of western clownfish (aka Nemo), clark's anemone, tomato anemone, pink anemone fishes.

Dive: 2
Dive Site: Ko Bida Nai (*)

Max Depth: 9.8m
Bottom time: 36 min.
Water Temp: 28C
Visibility: 10-20m
Activities: DSD Experience
comments: Current pick-up and the dive became a nice little drift experience for our DSD divers :-) Similar marine life as the the first, except we saw more golden & giant morrays, groupers, butterfly fish, and one beautiful Green Turtle (almost 1m in length). Corals are more spectacular here than Bida Nok, especially the north side of the island, near the canyon & swim through, between the islands.

* all photos are of the actual dive site, taken by my DSD divers on the day of the dives. Other photos: