Thailand Diving - Koh Rin and North Rock

Monday 7th January, 2008

After our wonderful trip to Japan for our winter vacation (See story and photos here.) I was excited to get a day of diving here in Pattaya.  Since it was a Monday, the normal destination for Aquanuts was the near islands (Koh Larn, Koh Sak) which aren't known as the best diving in the area.  But since I hadn't been in the water since October I wasn't going to complain.  When I got to the dive shop, I was happy to find out we'd be heading to the far islands, and the better vis they offer.  Woohoo!

Koh Rin is a small island that's about 75 minutes by boat from Pattaya.  Because it is so far away, it tends to have better visibility and a healthier reef.  While getting suited up, one of the guys on the boat spotted a sea turtle on the surface.  Very beautiful!  But alas, the dive itself was fairly uneventful (I guess that's a good thing), as I didn't see any of the "big" creatures in the area (Blue-spotted ray or the sea turtle, for example).  But it was a nice relaxing dive.  I was with a group of two Aquanuts students as dive masters with one other "paying" diver.  (Makes me miss my usual dive buddy, Tim, from back home.)  Of course, as a photographer and critter nerd, I always go really slow, holding everybody back a bit.  But I warned them ahead of time that I'd be slow while I explored.  I saw a few porcupine fish and various other typical life.  My critter ID skills aren't nearly as good here as they are for Puget Sound, so I'm still working on IDing a lot of the things I see.  But I'll get there.  On the way back to the boat, in the shallows I  spotted another piece of unexploded ordinance.  This area is owned by the Thai Navy, so there are some explosives around.  But I kept my distance and didn't have any trouble.  Maximum depth on the dive was 47 fsw, with an average of 20 fsw.  Total dive time:  56 minutes.

We had a nice lunch of spaghetti and chicken wings followed by a nice hour-long rest to extend the surface interval a bit.  I have to say there aren't many better ways to spend a surface interval than on a dive boat in the tropics.  Tough life.

The second dive was North Rock.  It's a smaller island, with the goal to circumnavigate the island.  There wasn't much current today, so I thought I'd make it all the way.  Last time I was here there was significant current, preventing me from making it all the way around.  But my photography and critter watching kept me from going fast enough and we had to surface about 3/4 of the way around.  Next time I need to remember that the best reef here is right about where we surfaced.  I did spot two more porcupine fish and a juvenile Moray eel.  One of my favorite creatures in this area is the Giant Clam.  I spotted one on the second dive.  They are HUGE!  Maximum depth:  37 fsw.  Average depth:  25 fsw.  Total dive time:  44 minutes.

Some pictures are below.  Click on the image to see a larger version.  They are not spectacular, as I'm still not all that great in warm water.  I am using Manual White Balance, so the colors can either be really good or really bad.  I have hesitated to ever do any "Photoshopping" of my pictures.  Not quite sure why.  I guess I'm trying to get good pictures with just the camera.  Oh well.  To each his own. 
 

    Koh Rin