PADI Advanced Course - Day 2

1st Feb.

Early start today to get the morning boat (leaving at 7.30 am) - got 3 dives today which should be cool and I can't wait to get in the water to get started. It is a bit choppy on the water which makes life a bit tricky getting your gear all set up but I seem to be improving in my ability to handle the seas.

Dive 1 - Deep Dive (30 metres). Dived at Chumporn Pinnacles which is 12km north west of Koh Toa. We did a 'Narc Test' on the boat which is a test of hand-eye and mental co-ordination which is timed. Diving to 30metres can result in nitrogen narcosis which leaves you basically feeling drunk. It is harmless and to cure it you ascend a metre or too and it goes immediately. It was cool sitting on the bottom 30metres down - we were hoping to see sharks but none were around. I was a bit gutted not to feel narcked at all - one of the girls in the group got the giggles. Saw some Moray eels, a scorpian fish and lots of others as well.

Dive 2 - Multi level - One of the skills required which we passed OK. Saw lots of fishes - we dived at White Rock which is where we will dive in the evening.

Went back for lunch and an afternoon snooze, got the evening boat which left at about 18:30

Dive 3 - Night Dive - Bit nervous about this but it was amazing - we all had a torch each and the underwater worlds at night is vastly different. Most of the fish were settling down for the night and getting ready for a snooze. We saw several barracuda which was fantastic and one of them was chasing after a small fish for supper. We did some underwater navigation as well which went ok - it is so beautiful underwater as you could look up and see the moonlight reflected on the surface.

Now I am an Advanced Open water PADI diver!! - had a few beers and dinner to celebrate.