Wow! A Great Day!

The blog is back!  Sorry for the off day... my laptop works on and off now.  Hli worked some tech-magic on it and it's usable now.  I'm loading photos from our first and third day in Phi Phi.  You know what rain looks like, so Day 2 photos aren't necessary.

Today (Day 3) we woke up to dead calm weather and broken clouds, which eventually gave way to blue skies.  The monsoon conditions are over... at least for now... and my laptop is functioning intermittently.  We were able to go out on the dive boat today and we got in four dives.  Since we lost a day of diving, it was quite important in for the students to get some badly needed practice with buoyancy control.  When we work on the reefs, we can't have anyone crashing onto the corals.  So buoyancy control is a critically important skill.

I tried to identify the students underwater, but undoubtedly I got one or two wrong.  I'll correct them when the students tell me about it... and they will.

DAY 1 - DURING THE MONSOON

We had a break in the nasty weather on the first day, so we went out for our first dive.  Getting their gear on are Sera and Rachael

Ashley, Alyssa, and Emily.

Instructor Liam works with Hli, Taylor, sand Kaylee to complete their open water certification.

Rachael and Elliott.  Buoyancy control takes practice.

Ajarn Wayne giving the signal to go up.

Ashley and Alyssa.

Ashley.

Emily.

Kaylee and Hli.

Hard corals and damselfish.

Anemone with its symbiotic clownfish.  Remember Saving Nemo?  Here he is.

Moorish idols.

Table coral and damselfish.

DAY 3 -  POST MONSOON

Today the rain has stopped and we're going out.  The bow of the boat is in full sun, so that's where we are... soaking up the weather we had expected in Phi Phi.

The starboard half of the bow.

This is the dive crew (L-R): Paul, Dani, Liam, Facu, Andrew, with Jaey giving the boat briefing.

The dive crew is made up of four instructors and a videographer.  Each of the instructors has 3-4 students in their respective group.  So the diving teams are small, which enables close personal attention during the dives.

Leaving Phi Phi Don for the dive site at Bida Nok.

The whiteboard on the dive deck has the names of each diver organized by dive teams.  All names are checked off as being on board before we leave the dive site.

We've arrived at the dive site.  Not bad, huh?  We're going to dive right along the base of the limestone cliffs.  The cliff face continues underwater to around 12–15 meters (~40 feet).  So, these are pretty shallow dives.

Sarah.

Sydney.

Sarah.

Instructor Liam leading Hli, Taylor, and Kaylee.

Hli, Taylor, Kaylee.

Underwater scenery:  Brain coral and blue sea star.

What do you call a group of sea urchins?

Between the 2nd and 3rd dives, we brushed up on our knowledge of fish and invertebrates.  

Elliott and Rachael trying to identify what they saw on their first two dives today.

Rachael.

Brandon needs to work on eliminating arm movements.  

Sera.

Lots of beautiful soft corals

I'll bet you've never heard of bubble coral.

Cave sweepers and other fish like to hide under overhangs.

Notice the grouper hiding inside the barrel sponge.

Yellow damselfish.

A feather star on a sea fan.

This hawksbill turtle was eating an anemone while we all watched.

Lu and Zoe watching the turtle.