Thailand Diving - The Wreck of the HMS Krahm

Sunday  27th January, 2008

I was lucky enough to get out for a day of diving with Aquanauts.  The typical Sunday schedule is a visit to the wreck of the HMS Krahm.  This ship is a landing craft, so a full "wreck" dive is possible without any penetration.  There are some ports below the landing deck that divers can drop down into, but I'm not wreck-certified, so I avoid those areas.  I prefer to stay on the top and sides to observe the life.  The ship was sunk about four or five years ago, and it is now completely covered in soft and hard corals.  The abundance of fish is amazing. The first dive, we dropped down the anchor line and felt a bit of current, so we got within the sides and wandered around the landing deck.  We also spent some time going "up the stairs" towards the tower.  Life everywhere.  Dive stats:  Maximum depth, 26.1 meters, dive time 30 minutes.  (Yep...I'm a convert to the metric system now.  For you "metrically challenged individuals, that's 86 fsw for 30 minutes.)  The second dive we dropped over the side and "touched bottom" at a maximum of 28.9 meters (95 fsw).  The outside of the wreck is also covered in life.  Underneath the Krahm my dive buddy spotted what has to be the biggest bluespotted ray I've ever seen.  It was very beautiful.  Of course, I didn't take any pictures of it.  Diving an Al80, I didn't have much bottom time before running low on air, so we went up over the side and spent some time on the wreck before ascending the line.  While on our safety stop, I photographed two very interesting creatures going by.  Not great photos by any stretch, but interesting anyway.

This was a fun day of diving, although I prefer the shallower coral dives.  I tend to get more bottom time on those dives, which I prefer.  I'm used to 60-90 minute dives in Puget Sound with my dive buddy Tim, so these shorter dives aren't quite the same.  But the life is spectacular.

Below are some pictures from the day of diving.  A few of them turned out alright.  Click on the image to see a larger version.

A view towards the front of the wreck, so show you the abundance and diversity of fish life around the wreck.	A soft coral.	A close-up on a soft coral.	A sponge clinging to the wreck.
A feather star.	An anemone (or close relative) that I have yet to identify.	A goat fish on the sandy bottom looking for a meal.	Another sponge.
Not a great shot, but this gives you an idea of the fish life.	Same here...looking towards the railing of the wreck.  Fish everywhere.	A feather duster.	Juvenile barracuda schooling by the wreck.  Very beautiful.
Not sure what this is (and not the greatest picture) but it floated by me during my safety stop.	I think this is a jelly of some sort.  It floated by on my safety stop.