Dive Right In
I have been hoarding underwater photographs that I have been taking for the last five months to give you a tour of what we see as we dive “our islands”. When the weather permits, we dive at least once a week. “How can they afford that?” you say; scuba diving isn’t exactly a cheap sport. To put it succinctly, the boat club. A fellow expat, Nigel, owns a Thai long-tail boat which was sunk some time ago. The cost of pulling it out of the water, repairs, then ongoing maintenance was too much for one man and so the idea for a club was born. Eight of us, three couples and two singles, jumped at the chance to have a boat at our beck and call. Five of the eight are divers. Nigel and his wife make an even ten members. We each put in a chunk of money, had meetings about how we would operate, worked on the boat in dry dock, and Nigel named the boat and club ‘The Blue Lagoon’. Nigel found a Thai captain who not only takes us out, but in exchange for using the boat himself (probably squid fishing), takes care of the boat. Kai moors it in the Saplee River which is about a 4 minute drive from our house. We really like Kai and I know he finds us amusing. He speaks no English, but we’ve learned enough Thai and hand gestures to get along just fine. This is truly an international enterprise; our members hail from Britain, Germany, Norway, Thailand, and of course America. We primarily dive two islands off of our beach (Ngam Yai and Ngam Noi) and the navy boat wreck that was sunk specifically for divers about a year and a half ago. A third island, Crocodile, is too shallow for good diving but makes a terrific snorkeling area. I will narrate the photos as they go along. Have fun.
- The islands as seen from our beach facing East. Far left, Crocodile; on the right, Ngam Yai then Ngam Noi.
- A map I made of the dive sites with help from Google Earth.
- Our boat on the left. The larger, more colorful ones are fishing boats.
- Kai coming to pick us up at rivers edge.
- Our boat as seen from the surface.
- Loaded up and heading out.
- Our boat as seen from underwater.
- Thung Wua Luan “our beach” as seen from about half way to the islands.
- On the wreck, in the pilot house.
- After only 1 1/2 years there is a tremendous amount of life on the wreck.
- Ships are sunk to become artificial reefs.
- This ship is now home to untold number of species and a way-station for many more.
- Batfish, one of my favorites.
- This lion fish is a rare find, we have next to none in this area.
- The wreck even has anemones and their “Nemo” friends.
- Huge school of barracuda swam by.
- Now to the islands. This is Pagoda Point of Ngam Yai.
- Both of islands have precarious dwellings on them. They belong to the collectors of swiftlet bird’s nests. A very valuable commodity.
- The nests are used to make bird’s nest soup. Google it. Very interesting.
- These are not homes. Collectors stay here when working and protectors stay when on guard duty.
- We call this dive site “the city”.
- These three are the same type of fish, they can change color in the blink of an eye.
- Jennifer communing with blackcap butterflyfish.
- The blue is a spong, the white is a nudibranch; amazing little animals. They come in every color and combination immaginable and then some.
- Huge boulders around the islands make for interesting scenery.
- We see the occational eel peeking out from between rocks where they rest during the day. They usually hunt at night.
- Longfin bannerfish
- an anglefish
- Honeycomb grouper
- Parrotfish are responsible for making most of the sand beaches in the world.
- We have lots of giant clams; each with different coloration and markings.
- We have lots of magnificent anemones. That is their name, “magnificent”. Their “Nemos” are actually called pink anemonefish.
- The undersides of the magnificents are often beautiful, intense colors. I’ve seen blues, purples, greens, and even white.
- I haven’t figured out why or when they close up because there is no consistency.
- We have many wonderful corals both hard and soft.
- I love to take closeup photos of the corals.
- I haven’t found a good coral identification book yet.
- Sitting on this coral is a little blenny.
- This “tower” of coral is about four feet high.
- This is a closeup of it.
- This is a rare find – a cowrey out hunting. They usually bring out their “mantle” only at night; we usually see just the shell.
- Another rare sighting, we don’t have many turtles here. The fish cleaning this large turtle are remoras.
- Time to head back.
- Another great day on and in the water.
I love that you have shared ownership of a dive boat. I do enjoy your posts and the photos. Will send you an email. Cheers, Kathy
Kathy
October 18, 2012 at 7:36 am