With wind blowing in from the north west, most of the Surin dive sites was too wavey to dive, so we decided to head south to Koh Bon where we knew we could find shelter in the bay. This was good news for me on two points.
First, I love Koh Bon. I am always blown away by large formations of hard coral and the west ridge, north ridge and bay area boast some of the most spectacular hard coral reefs in the region. Since 2010 when a dramatic rise in sea temperature, caused by La Nina, brought about a destructive bleaching event across the Similans, I have had the privilege to watch the reefs in this area regenerate and Koh Bon has regrown in spectacular fashion.
Second, I was teaching Rescue Diver course and having a nice long surface interval between dives one and two in the shelter of Koh Bon Bay, allowed me to teach a lot of rescue skills both on the surface and underwater. It also provided much entertainment for our guests on board to see Divemaster trainees and other instructors fall into the water, pretending not to be able to swim and requiring a rescue.
As the wind and waves started to calm in the afternoon, we headed south to the Similan Islands for our third dive and beach visit. The following day brought more wind and waves, requiring us to rethink our dive site schedule and update our plans once again – dive two at Elephant Head needed to be substituted for Eagle Rock and Three Rocks gave us shelter for dive three, after all, we didn’t want to have to rescue anybody for real!
A secluded mooring away from wind, waves and other boats in the late afternoon provided the perfect opportunity to finish the rescue diver course. April gave a top notch performance of an expanding square search pattern to recover her “missing” diver and to the backing track of heart breaking sobbing from a stand out supporting cast she recovered the seemingly lifeless body to the deck of the Mariner. A few (simulated) chest compressions later and Eddie seemed fully recovered!
So big congratulations to April for becoming a rescue diver. The Oscar for best supporting actress in a surface role goes to Jen, for her crying, sobbing and general “getting in the way” role. A big thanks to all the “victims” for throwing themselves onto the sea at short notice and well done to all who managed not to get seasick. We sincerely hope that this is the last of the bad weather for the season. However, the first rule in diving is “Never hold your breath”…
/Alex
