Day 1, Similan Islands Log

The "kids" listening to Ivan's briefing

Our first day with Similan Diving Safaris, with the crew of the M/V Dolphin Queen crew, started with a bang: a loud "ka-kaaw!" followed by "Wake up, time!" outside our door announced the early-rising call of our first day of diving. It was 6 am, and our first dive was at 7:15 am. Ivan led the briefing for the dive on Annita's Reef. A no current dive (meaning we wouldn't be pushed around by the ocean) - a good spot for everyone's intro dive off the boat.

Attentive listeners to the briefing

The experienced divers went first: our group, led by Mayumi, and Kate's group. Our gear was separated onto two sides of the boat: our group was on the right, Kate's on the left - this kept things from getting too chaotic, as it was a pretty tight spot with 10 divers trying to get on gear. The back platform was about 2' above the surface of the water (on a calm day), and had ladders for us to climb back on.
 

Here was the process: we each had a station where our tank was always placed, held steady by a bungee cord around the top. We would pull on our wetsuit and boots, then turn on tanks, then check air and dive computers. Next, we would remove the bungee cord around the top of the tank, sometimes with help from the three Thai "boat boys": Puh (pron. pooh), Chen, and Eee.

The right side of the boat, my tank is second from the left.

After tightening the straps on our BCDs, we would walk down onto the back platform, where one of the Thai guys (I can't call them boys), would strap on our fins. Then we'd wait for the airhorn blast from the captain signaling the "Ok!" to jump in.

With one leg outstretched, we would take a "giant stride" off the back and into the water, holding our regulator and mask in place.

And thus the dive would begin! The general schedule for the day was:

6-6:10 am: Wake-up Call; maybe eat a little something (banana and water), and listen to the morning dive briefing
7:15 am: Dive #1 (the first two days, our group and Kate's group went first, which meant we really were down and getting ready by 7 am)
9 am: Back on the boat, gear put away and tank off; then upstairs for breakfast. Western style breakfast, which meant our choice of fried eggs, scrambled eggs, or omelette; sausage and ham; and pancakes/french toast. We would order the breakfast the night before on a clip board, as the Thai cooks would get up by 4:30 am to start the prep.

11 am: Dive #2, briefings 20 min. before
12:30 pm: Thai style lunch, buffet style, and always fantastic
3 pm: Dive #3
6 pm: Thai style dinner
7:15 pm: Dive #4, sunset or  night dive
8:30 pm to 9:30 pm: Bedtime

And rinse and repeat the next two days. Day #4 would have only 2 dives in the morning before we began our return to Khao Lak. A grand total of 14 dives in 3.5 days!

The rest of the dive team were: Sofie, leading two brand new divers; Ivan, leading two younger Thai kids on their first certification dives, as well as the daughter of Similan Diving Safari's owner, Joe; and photographer Tom, who took pictures of all the divers and fish throughout the trip.

Dive site locations!

The Thai crew also included: Captain Ik (pron. "eek"), and head cook Ya, and prep cook Ling. The Thai crew worked like crazy all day; someone always seemed to be washing dishes or chopping food. The boat boys/guys did a great number of tasks all day: they took our fins from us at the end of the dives so we could climb back up the ladders, and then they would be filling the tanks for our next dive; then washing dishes; or manning the motor boat to take us to local beaches.

They did get some down time too: among the guests, we had five Thai teenagers, and they and the boat guys would play around with the kayak, or diving off the boat, or hanging out in the Captain's quarters playing loud American pop music. (I still have one or two of those songs stuck in my head! Fun addictive music.)

Here's where we dove on Day 1:
Dive #1: Annita's Reef
Dive #2: Stonehenge

That's me, pretending to be Indiana Jones

Dive #3: West of Eden
Dive #4: Night dive, around Island 4

We also got to visit a beautiful beach between Dive #1 and #2, and a big group of us decided to walk up to the viewpoint on the island. It was quite a trek, and all the divers except me were barefoot and mostly wearing swimsuits. There were a lot of mosquitoes, too!! It became an Indian Jones-like endeavor at the end, complete with rickety-looking ladders over a small crevasse, ropes to pull us up slippery wet slopes, and at least four very steep and sketchy ladders. The view was pretty good, too - but the climb was really the adventure!

Sea Life Log: 

Fish:
One giant solo Tuna
Coral Rock Cod (many)
Humpback Unicornfish (2)
Moorish Idol (lots)
Picasso Triggerfish (3-ish)
Western Clownfish (2 groups)
Singapore shrimp goby (many)
Parrotfish, a bunch of different types, all cool colors (see Day 2)
Wrasses: Yellow Moon, Adult Napoleon (big!), others
and many, many, many others

Eels:
Giant Moray Eel (2)
Spot-face Moray (night dive)

Lionfish:
Pacific Lionfish (4)
Spotfin? lionfish (dark and silvery banded, on night dive)

Puffer & related fish:
Seal Faced Puffer (lots)
Giant Pufferfish (1)
Spotted Boxfish (1)

Surgeonfish:
Horseshoe surgeonfish
Powderblue surgeonfish (sometimes a pair would circle around each other and spiral up for a while, like a little dance)

Sea Slugs:
Ocellated Wart slug (1)
Pineapple Sea Cucumber (1, so big!)
Marbled Sea Cucumber (many big ones)

Shrimp & Crustaceans:
Coral Banded Cleaner Shrimp (tons, on night dive - you see their pink eyes glow)
Painted Spiny Lobster (1 that was wedged under a rock, with long white antennae)
Harlequin Shrimp (night dive)
Peacock Mantis Shrimp (night dive)
Durban Dancing Shrimp (night dive)
Magnificent Partner Shrimp (night dive)

Other Creatures:
Green Turtle (Devlin saw it before it swam away, on dive 3)
Blue Sea Star (1 on night dive)
Black Diadema Sea Urchin (many on night dive)
Christmas Tree Worm (tons)
One unidentified big red crab (on night dive)
Octopus (one white-ish one, Dev saw at end of night dive)

Corals:
Gorgorian Fan Coral (lots)
Long Arm Feather Star
Orange Straight Sea Whip
Hard Coral (lots)
Magnificent Anemones
Compact Coral
Octocoral
Maze Coral
Fine Table Coral
and many, many others