Day 25-26 / Tag 25-26 Thu April 6 - Fri April 7 Getting better. Prepare to leave

DAY 25, Thu April 6
I feel a lot better after that night's sleep
tried a French Toast with honey for breakfast, could eat only half
Took all my stuff from the dive center, trying to dry it before the flight. Had 23.5 kg on the flight here, dont want to leave with 28.5 and extra luggage fees...;-)
Built a wind chamber to dry my stuff:
Engine 1: Check

Day 23-24 / Tag 23-24 Tue April 4- Wed April 5 Leo Advanced! Sick on Koh Tao

DAY 23, Tuesday April 4

Diving day, today on the menu: Specialty Perfect Buoyancy.
As always, no camera on educational dives, so no pics, sorry

Packed my dive bag after a yoghurt muesli with warm coffee (I'll get them educated before I leave here, what I mean by "hot coffee, hot"! Even if I have to walk down the street to 7 eleven, get a coffee there, carry it back, and show them: that's a hot coffee..., it will still be hotter after 5 minutes walk than anything I got served there)

Finished the e-Learning and went to the class. One other participant, Tina, with 13 or 15 dives under her belt. Actually she is more interested in going deep, she wants to see the 40...
(For a short moment Dan and PJ flash through my mind with our running gag    4️⃣0️⃣🤢🚀😂, but this is a serious class, you clown, Stop it!)

Sabrina does a great job, secretly stopping me two times from answering,

Day 21-22 / Tag 21-22, Sun April 2nd - Mon April 3rd. Leo OWD now! Diving with Poo

DAY 21, Sunday April 2nd.
I booked the morning boat to have good odds for Chumpon Pinnacle.
Leo is on the same boat, doing his last two dives for Open Water Diver

Father and Son on the same boat. Last two dives for Leo, then he is OWD!

Day 19-20 / Tag 19-20, Koh Tao Fr.31.3-1.4. Decisions have to be made.

DAY 19 Friday March 31

Leo continues his Open Water course, he seems to be doing fine and seems happy with it. I am so glad it plays out so well with him.
I have a dive day today, afternoon boat.The weather is a bit better than the last days, sun is out and you have a chance to warm up between dives on the boat. I have never had that much rain on Koh Tao, this is my fourth time here.

From the dive log:
Air, not Nitrox. Young Divemaster Nora and a DMT Franz are my team, both in their mid-twenties.
We jump between Green rock and Buoancy world, on the small western cape of Nang Yuan, want to dive down the coast, rocks left side, and then head westsouthwest at the snorkel line or when we see Buoyancy World. I have my compass with me, getting used to it again. Finally we made the new course SWS at Buoancy World.
Different style of guiding, no looking back where is the customer, especially in and against current. Safety stop everybody by himself, no grouping at 5 m, at least once
I was pumping air quite a bit just to keep pace with them

Second dive that day. We want to explore No Name, off the beaten track, some 100 meters west of Twins. The site is new to all of us, mostly, I have been there two years ago. We jump and swim west to the mooring lines.
DMT Franz takes the guide, I follow the course thoroughly on compass (after  longer time not using it).  It's fun to see how the dive plays out, when you know where you are goin.
On the buoyline a bearded filefish, deeper Glass Anemone shrims.
No gathering for Safety stop again, but the DMT takes more care of his Team than the Pro Nora
I came up with the same Air as the DMT. So it's clear: Nice and easy consumption ok, working hard consumption rockets up.
The visibility was not good, I will find the pics later and update
First dive was a bit demanding, left ear gets worse.

Decisions
After coming back from the dives, I had an interesting talk with one of my best trusted instructors here, about my plans to do the Stress and Rescue Specialty and my worries of not being fit enough for the physical exercises and stamina tests at the moment.
Snorkeling 400 meters, ok, but tow a diver 100 meters at the surface, probably against the current (given my luck in these things) and then get him up  the 6 steps on the swinging ladder of that dive boat here, no way at the moment.
"I don't like all this rescue stuff anyway" the instructor lowered his voice, "talking against the business interest of this dive center, I recommend you to enjoy your diving, and leave the Rescue course alone. What's your certification level?"
"Advanced Adventurer, Nitrox, 122 dives in 3 years."
"Do one or two more specialties, like navigation, which is a very useful skill and makes sense, that will make you a better diver than that Rescue course." said the instructor , I thank him for his advice, we shake hands and he goes home.

I stay a bit longer, evaluating the odds and the situation: a 59 year old man, tenacious but not really trained, not the best stamina, missing right foot, with a prosthesis on the right leg, at the moment left ear slightly deaf with problems down to equilibrium issues...
No. On that friday afternoon I decide to skip the "demanding and rewarding"(Agencies advertisement speak) Rescue course and go diving only every second day on Koh Tao, until my ear gets better. That feels right.
Listen to my intuition, stay within my limits, stop-breathe-think-act. Don't let myself be carried away with cert-cards galore, I am not a collector, I want to dive.
I'd rather become a chilled, confident and better diver than a bad rescue diver at the end of his powers...

I start taking Ibuprofen to fight the inflammation I obviously have.
Have some kind of fever attack in the evening, sweating a lot. This does not feel ok, not at all.😷

DAY 20 / Tag 20 Saturday, April 1st

I am very happy with my decision to skip Rescue after one night sleeping over it.
The three specialties I plan to do instead will cost me more. But I don't care. I'm here for learning and gathering experice, I'm not here to save money.
If I want to save money, I stay at home and eat cold Ravioli from the can...

Sent a Thank-you-Email to my boss, for making this trip possible I am really grateful. She answered her only real concern is, that I come back as planned.
I wrote back I swear by the Boy Scouts' honor and the Big Indian Chief that I'll do so.

Slow day, finally get my first laundry back, aaah, that smells so good. Could not wash out anything on the two liveaboards, the crazy korean and chinese chicks used up all the water for taking showers fifteen times a day...
Finish the day with a shot of Fireball Whisky at Fishbowl Beach Bar (Huhu, Yvonne, thank you for the recommendation🤠)

See you under water

Day 17-18 / Tag 17-18 First days Diving Koh Tao.

DAY 17 Wednesday, March 29
Yesterday evening I had applied for the Specialty course Deep Diving.
I never take a camera when doing educational dives, so no pics, sorry
Read the book, but could not make the e-Learning work. Will have to do it after the dives.
Took the morning boat, meet at the dive center at 7:30, pickup truck to the pier, get everybody on the boat, and off we go.
We are heading for Chumpon Pinnacle, one of my favorites here, but the Captain says the sea is too choppy, and strong currents at the surface and underwater.
The boat Captains communicate via Radio, he heard only bad news from a dive boat already at Chumpon Pinnacle. So, where to go, we are bound for 40 Meters deep

(do the safety stop at 40 m and inflate the BCD ... 🤢 🚀  hahaha, Dan and PJ, hint, hint, elbow, elbow)

We decide for the dive site Satakut Wreck, between Nang Yuan and Koh Tao. This is the next deepest, if you swim to the stern and lie flat on the sand you can reach 31.3, dig a hole and put your computer there to make it 31.5 meters. So we did, without the hole in the sand...
I was shocked by the visibility, after diving in the Similans, but we found the Satakut, I almost banged my head into it. Our instructor seemed pretty interested in the wreck, it felt more like a wreck dive, we played a bit with buoyancy in the turret, penetrated in the bow and some sort of cargo room on the deck. Had to swim back to the boat at the surface some 50 to 70 meters against the current. I can do some surface swimming, ask Dan, but this one exhausted me quite a bit.

Second dive is White Rock, bad visibility in the deep around 24 meters, my instructor decides to go into the shallows around 14 meters after 15 minutes, with much better light and less snow in the water. I see 5 or 6 blue spotted stingrays, some coral bommys look like christmas tree farms, so many of these colorful and fancy worms live there. Average depth after 60 minutes dive is 13.4 meters

Christmastree worms

The blue spotted Stingray

Later on land we do the final exam in the restaurant, both passed with 100% rate.
I am a certified Deep Diver now and may go down to 40 meters.
If I want to and my ear allows. The left ear gets hard to equalize, obviously the Eustachian tube is full of mucus. I drink a lot of water and keep cleaning my nose with selfmade NaCl solution (Freshwater and salt) to dissolve that.



I book a two-tank fun dive for friday and set my name on the list for the courses Navigation and also Buoyancy, clean my nose, hang out at my bungalow, transfer my logged dives from paper to the digital database at mySSI, charge batteries, lubricate O-rings, do some laundry, stuff like that.
Always finishing off the days at Fishbowl Beach Bar for the Live Music.

Leo has started his Open Water Course today, paperwork, introduction video, snorkeling on the house reef. He feels fine after snorkeling, that's good, he is comfortable in the water, the first requirement for learning to dive

DAY 18 Thursday, March 30


Leo has his first scuba dive, shallow confined on the house reef. No pool here, only ocean. I got my certifications here as well, and I have never dived in a pool in three years.

First time with a SCUBA tank

First time with a SCUBA tank

I keep transfering dives to the database, it's 32 all together, this takes some time.

Office work, bookkeeping, ya know

at the office until late

One of the few beautiful sunsets this time

Also transfer photos from the cards to the laptop, the Canon and the GoPro work fine, but some of the iPhone pictures don't show up on the laptop. I e-mail some of the more important ones to myself from iPhone to laptop. Nice user experience, Apple...
I will take the Canon with me more often

Leo comes from his his first regulator breathing experience, happy. now does homework with the two girls in his group, Rebecca and Annika. good boy. I am so happy he likes it

See you under water

Day 16 / Tag 16 Going to Ko Tao

Taxi to airport at 8 am, Leo is late, we have breakfast at Phuket Airport, flight to Samui, minivan to Seatran pier in Bangrak for only 200 Baht for the two of us. We hang out in the shade on the pier with Mango Shakes from a food stall nearby.
Short before embarkation I notice I am missing my wallet with passport, vaccination book, 10 thousand Baht and some 1 thousand Euros! Adrenaline! Not even on Ko Tao, and already without passport!
I rush to the Family Mart and the food stall where I last had it, no wallet. Search the entire pier, no wallet.
Finally go to the ticket counter, where I ask the ladyboy behind the counter. He/she asks me questions to identify me, ask how old I am, and I answer in fluent Thai: Haa Sib Kao.
Grinning all over his face he hands me my wallet, saying I should have come to him/her first, he/she has 60 ladies and only one husband, whatever that is supposed to mean.
My circulation and adrenaline level return to normal...
Now that's time for my favorite Cigarette:

Leo brought them for me from the Duty Free in Zurich

Pretty rough ride in heavy rain on the small ferryboat to Ko Tao directly, no stop in Ko Phangan

Course set to Koh Tao

Rastaman taxi driver brings us to Sairee Beach, drops us close to Phoenix Divers, and we enter the office at Rainbowfish Divers. Pooh comes running out from behind the counter, big hugs and kisses, I introduce my son and Pooh.

We take rooms in Flower Resort, just on the opposite side of the small walking street, drop bags and take to the restaurant. The boy is hungry, and eager to try all dishes during his stay of 12 days here.
He goes for Chicken Satay and No Name with vegetables and eats it all up

Leo having his fiirst real meal at Flowers Restaurant on Ko Tao

Leo goes to bed early, I take a last beer at the Fishbowl Beach Bar, always Live Music, always different.
Finally reached our spot for the next 12 days. Leo's Open Water Diver course starts tomorrow. I will take it a bit easy, my sinusses are not ok, my ears are slightly deaf, and after every boat ride it feels like the world is shaking and moving. Have I got the bends, am I narced?

 Let's see tomorrow, and let's go diving

See you under water

My son will join me for some portion of the trip

My Son Leo, now 23 years old, wants to join me on a portion of my trip and take the OWD course.
Since I will be back from the Pawara trip on Monday, March 27th, I decided to go to Koh Tao with him and let him do the course at Rainbowfish Divers, where I got my first certifications with Julia.

Julia instructing the OWD, Koh Tao, March 2014

She doesn't work there anymore, which is a pity, would have loved to have her as instructor for my son.
But in my opinion Koh Tao is a good choice for a 23-year-old who wants to become a scuba diver.

High tide at Sairee Beach, Koh Tao, Thailand

Thus, no possible Divemaster internship with Wicked Diving, I prefer to get my son to scuba dive, and learn it in a school I know and where they speak his language.