The usual September program

As all the last years, my diving schedule looks like this:
In late winter, that is March, April, I cannot take the grey cold in Berlin anymore and have to leave for something warmer and lighter, in Souteast Asia or any other tropics.
In September I go to Italy and Spain with my wife, in a car, because she doesn't like flying at all. Sure I have my dive gear with me, even with a 5.5 mm Semidry wetsuit for the mediterranean sea.

For the last 3 years we stayed in an area  called Liguria Ponente, the Riviera dei fiori, Flower Riviera, in a small town called Diano Marina. Hanging out on the beach, unwinding, reading, enjoying good food. I discovered a SSI Dive Center close by, in Imperia Porto Maurizio, run by Alessandro Ballaré and Chiara Soriente. Borgo Marina Diving, you can find them here on the side bar or under "recommended companies". I go diving with them every time I am in that area. I know most of the dive sites already, notably Saraghi, where there are more Barracudas every year, Frati with a giant anchor and Bell, the Secca di San Stefano (Saint Stefan shoal) and some wrecks.
Around the corner from their harbour is the site Ratthege, 6 meters deep with sandy bottom, where they do most of their skills training during courses. Given the modest depth I sometimes join them and separate under water, doing my own equipment checks, playing around with navigation, breathing patterns etc among the Posidonia meadows close by. It's nice training to be on your own and explore.
This year we went to Saraghi a couple of times, Frati again, and the last dive was right in front of my camping site in Diano Marina. The site is called Ferro da Stiro, the ironing iron. It's just a yacht sunk here some 20 years ago, and the concrete wastewater tubes coming from land. But interesting.
Last year my last dive was another wreck, a WW II bomb fighter plane, Biat BR-20, max. depth 46 meters, my deepest dive til now.
Every two years, in the even year numbers, there is an event called the Vele d'Epoca, Vintage Sails, with sailboats more than a hundred years old. We spent one afternoon out at sea on Chiara's sail boat, enjoying the vintage boats from a close perspective.
Here is the video for our Italy september:

Bella Liguria con Borgo Marina Diving from Vo Sta on Vimeo.

One of the weekends in September, I drive from Italy to northern Spain for a meeting of vintage aircooled Volkswagens in Tossa de Mar, around 90 km north of Barcelona. Have bee doing that for the fifth time in a row now. And of course I take my dive gear with me...
I tried a dive shop in Tossa, Andreas Diving, but I didn't like the shore diving too much, it is hard to get out of the water on the sandy beach with my prosthetic leg.A good hour's drive north, towards the border with France, there is another wellknown dive site, The Iles Medes, or Medas Islands, facing a town called L'Estartit. I had been diving there two years ago, and I wanted to try it again.
So I started one day early, arrived in L'Estartit on thursday evening, did all the paperwork at the dive shop, they were the first in two years to ask for my medical statement by my doctor, and checked in at the hotel for one night.
I got two dives at Iles Medes, with a group of 16 French, and during the second one I saw my first Mola Mola, very untypical for this season. Very happy I continued my trip to Tossa de Mar and the crazy VW bunch.
Here is the video for these two dives at Iles Medes:

Diving Iles Medes 21-09-18_720p from Vo Sta on Vimeo.

Now it's only three and a half months until I get back to Thailand, for the Special Manta Cruise on my favorite liveaboard with my favorite crew and dive professionals...

more dive videos here: https://vimeo.com/user55401320"

See you under water

Diving Mabul again. Umbrella underwater

Apart from Sipadan, what does staying at Scuba Junkies Mabul offer, anyway?
I return to a place, where I have been a year ago. My dive companions, or should I say, comrades; are different to last year.
Others, who I met last year, are the same.
Others, who I met last year, have developed, like Richard and Azrul.
And Mabul delivers, Dionne is as sweet as last year, among all the dive days in Mabul, this one will always be unforgotten, The Umbrella Dive:

Muckdiving with Dionne_540 from Vo Sta on Vimeo.

more dive videos here: https://vimeo.com/user55401320"

See you under water

April 6-7, 2018, Diving Sipadan with Scuba Junkie

Arrived yesterday morning at the Scuba Junkie Mabul Beach Resort (MBR) after a day of traveling from Phuket to Kuala Lumpur, then domestic flight to Tawau, Sabah, and a 65 minutes taxi ride to Semporna, where I checked in at the Scuba Junkie Divers Lodge for the night. Next morning another short boat ride to the island of Mabul, and we went diving straight away at the Jetty, before even checking in.
Camera was in my other bag, so no footage of the first day. Had my dive gear ready, though.
Very warm welcome by the staff at the jetty and the resort, it feels very much home when you return and know your way around, look into smiling, familiar faces and exchange hugs after a year of absence. My heart was jumping with joy meeting my friend Dionne again and having a long and warm hug with her. I requested her for one of my two Sipadan days. Did not get that one, but we had a hilarious muckdive from Awas to Jetty (more on that in a later post).

Next day is Sipadan day already, four dives, though not getting Dionne as guide I was happy to be diving with Richard and Azrul, had been to Sipadan with Richard last year.
Pretty tough current at Barracuda Point on the first dive, but once we got off the top reef and went down the wall, it was ok. That dive day had all you could wish for at Sipadan, and as pictures can tell more than a thousand words, here is the VDO of that dive day.


Just a Day at Sipadan... from Vo Sta on Vimeo.

See you under water

Nai Yang stopover, a week on Mabul

Back from the Junk "June Hong Chian Lee", I have a shared minivan to Nai Yang, close to the airport, because I will fly out the next day at 8:15 am.
I arrive more or less at noon, check in at the TT Nai Yang Beach Hotel and look for an express laundry, but they all need at least a day to wash and dry. So I do some laudry myself again and hang it on the roof terrace, together with my dive equipment, that I want dry for the flights tomorrow. Later in the afternoon TJ from Lofoten, Norway, arrives at a bungalow hotel next door, we meet in a beach restaurant next to my hotel and chat a while, sipping white wine on the rocks. She is on her way to a liveaboard trip in Komodo. After that we have a far better white at a pizzeria on the walking street, completed with pizza that doesn't need to shy the comparison with italian ones. Regular stone oven, you know.
After dinner I say goodbye, have to pack some stuff, and diving 6 days in a row makes me tired.
See you again, TJ, and eventually we will manage to dive together once again!

Mabul did not disappoint, Mabul delivered.
Three dives a day, with super visibility most of the time. On The Junk liveaboard, Oliver Fitch asked me, what the diving is like at Mabul. It's mostly muck diving, but on white sand, thus pretty different to the Lembeh Strait, for example. Apart from muck and many artificial structures, you can also have beautiful walls with awesome top reefs to hang around for a safety stop.
Some of the dive sites are so close to the jetty, you swim back to the resort after dropping in from the boat.



more dive videos here: https://vimeo.com/user55401320

See you under water

March 28 - April 3, a week on The Junk

Similans and Surin with the Junk

(If you don't like reading, there is a short video at the bottom of this page)

Breakfast at Hotel Khao Lak Golden Place, nothing special, then meet Mam Hugs Khao Lak across the street, she is as fresh and smiling as last year.
Took a massage at Coconuts, the Beach Bar at Suwan Palms, some lunch, and start editing the Pawara video. Pickup is supposed to be at 5, but the van is 30 minutes early, so I don’t manage to complete the upload to Vimeo.
We pick up Tasha from Canada, she just had some Yoga in India and is a vegetarian now for three weeks. Next is Tim from Australia, with asian roots obviously, and off we go to Tab Lamu Pier. Or Taplamu, or, as it is written on the road signs: Taph Lamu. Anyway, we get there at around 6, the parking lot is full of vans, a lot of dive boats wait for their passengers, it’s Embarkation time at Taph Lamu…
We wait at the Navy „Café“, other passengers from other vans join us, until we are 16 guests for the cruise.
Brian pickes us up, I didn’t meet him for two years now, happy to see him face to face again, he hasn’t changed a bit.
But oh, yes, something does have changed in the life of Brian: He is daddy now, he has a daughter, a beautiful cutie with incredible eyes.

The Zodiac takes us to the Junk itself, Marco greets us at the dive platform, then I can make out Oliver, Jerome, Tiger.
Man, this feels like coming home, very good. Next I see Bee, she had sent me a FB friend request, I introduce myself and tell her I can now accept her request.  I don’t accept anyone who I haven’t seen face to face in real life. She seems to find it funny, with her vivid eyes, a cheerful person, always good for a smile.
Same procedure as last year, after a short boat briefing you get a tank number and a cabin number, set up your equipment, then the fire drill kicks in and everybody meets at the muster station at the bow.
Dinner on the way out to the Andaman Sea, and here comes Marco’s and the Junk’s first trick: All boats go out tonight to Similan Islands, mostly Island #4 for check dives at Monuments or somewhere close (since Anita's Reef is closed by now), but we head directly to Koh Bon, thus always a day ahead of the crowd. Hehehe

Day 1, March 29, Koh Bon and Koh Tachai
We are on a far more relaxed schedule than on the other boats, start the day later and finish with real nightdives instead of sunset dives.
There is only two other boats at Koh Bon Bay, we don’t run into any other divers.
Marco put me in Brian’s group, together with four friends from Switzerland. They will show some hilarious dive skills later on...
It’s actually the first time I dive in a group guided by Brian, two years ago we were on the same boat, but I was in Marco’s group as I was the year before, on my first liveaboard trip to the Similans. I am the air hog on the group, but just 10-20 bar more than the others, so this will play out fine.


Dive 2 at Koh Bon Ridge, super chilled, going up north...

March 24-27, Diving Similans on MV Pawara

No time yet to edit many pictures, so here is a VDO instead:

Pawara 2018 from Vo Sta on Vimeo.

Now leaving for the next trip...

See you under water

March 22-23, Chill Lanta and boarding Pawara

Check dives went ok yesterday, rinsed my equipment and went to bed early.
Thursday March 23 I spent with breakfast, a massage at the resort, really good, made an appointment for tomorrow morning again, going around on Lanta on my scooter, taking a swim at the beach without name I found last year. Looks like nobody could find a name til now, this year there is even a road sign saying "The Way to Beautiful Beach",

so let's call it just that: Beautiful Beach...

Had a swim there and some water in the shade of the big tree,

then continued to ABenz's Light House Bar just 7 minutes of road down south.
Had a nice sundowner there, very chill atmosphere,

and went back to Klong Dao.

Friday March 24 I had another massage at Lanta Bee Garden, checked out, oh this is such a warm hearted family resort, and got picked up for the speed boat Lanta to Phuket.

Doo from Westcoast Divers tried to get me on the crew bus at Rassada Pier at 3pm, but something went wrong, so I just waited there until 5pm as scheduled for the regular minivan.
Used the time for a chicken kebap and a fruit shake, edited some video snippets into a short video about the dives in Koh Haa,
Check Dive Koh Haa from Vo Sta on Vimeo.

and looked forward to go diving in the Similans on the MV Pawara.
The minivan arrived at Tab Lamu Pier in heavy rain, checked in on the boat and did the paperwork for the trip: Liability waiver, Marine Park fee etc etc.
Tourleader Beto has fractured his left foot this morning, so no diving for him. I had hoped to dive with him, he knows the Similans so very well, for years. But, no worries, I will soon have the chance to go down with my favorite guide on the next boat...
The Pawara is filled to the brim, even the spare budget cabin in the captain's wheelhouse is occupied with two passengers, one of them me, I always book the spare budget...

After two hours or so the ceremony startes, at the bow one of the crew prays for a safe trip and lights incense sticks, the fireworks are lit, we leave the port, heading out west to the Andaman Sea.

See you under water

March 21, 2018 Check Dives at Koh Haa

So I wanted to make sure every piece of equipment works fine, before I go on the boats, and what better destination con there be than Koh Haa.
Pickup at my Resort at 7:30, warm welcome by the driver, we know each other from last year. Straight to the jetty behind the bridge, and off we go for a two hours ride to Koh Haa.
This gives me plenty of time to set up my gear. Our guide is Martino of Kon Tiki Lanta, my Buddy is Kim, an Asian living in Switzerland.
Two groups of divers,  two snorkeling groups and an OWD course, the boat is full but not overcrowded.
We jump at Koh Haa Yai, the big island with the caves

March 20, 2018 Here we go again...

 


After that epic 100 day trip in 2017, it felt so strange to get back into the business rat race, that I started booking again as early as August last year. Coming back into the working world in Berlin was harder than I had expected, my longing for coral, saltwater and fish made me book early again.

Starting early has pros and cons, you can

Oooops, I will do it again...

Decided to use this blog for the next and upcoming dive trips again!
Stay tuned, there will be more, starting again March 18th, 2018

See you under water