Archives: 4th December 2001

Scuba Cat’s mini bus collected us on the dot of 7.30am for our day’s diving.

At first we were mildly concerned about over-crowding, as we waited for two additional van loads of passengers to arrive, but our fears were unfounded. The 40’ boat was easily roomy enough for all of us. There was no need for us to have bothered with breakfast, as fruit, sandwiches, and coffee, were provided all day.

It took a while to sail out to the dive site at Koh Racha Noi, but the day was already hot, and it was nice to be at sea. Underwater, John spotted an enormous moray eel, poking its head out from its lair under the coral. He signalled to the divemaster, who came over for a closer look – a bit too close for comfort, perhaps, bearing in mind that this particular specimen had the girth of a small football, and a head full of razor-sharp teeth! One can only guess at the length of a moray that size … Luckily, he decided to stay in his hole.

During the surface interval, one of the divemasters (a rather shapely American lass) decided to go for a swim, and dived from the top sundeck of the boat. Deciding she looked cold in the water, John leapt in after her … eh, hum … hurting his right ear in the process (served him right)! Luckily no lasting harm was done, and he was fit by the time he had to don his scuba gear again.

Both dives had 20m+ visibility and the water was almost too warm for our 3mm suits. But Brigid, at least, was glad to have been wearing hers. She was caught in the face by a small, harmless, jellyfish (a strange tingling sensation). Jordan, our divemaster, however, was wearing only minimal protection, and was stung all down her legs.

We were back at the hotel by 7pm in order to receive our finished suits from the Phuket tailor shop. Brigid quickly washed and rinsed all our diving gear in a tub of clean water. The evening was warm, and we had every expectation that, if we hung our wetsuits over the balcony, they would be dry by morning.

After carefully arranging the wet gloves, swimming costumes, and fins, where they would dry, Brigid draped the first dripping wetsuit over the balcony rail. As she looked over, she suddenly realised that the hotel’s restaurant had positioned a satay barbeque directly below!!

What a disappointment. Both John’s suits, while being beautifully made, were far too big, and Brigid’s outfit made her look like Margaret Thatcher! John rang the tailor, and he agreed to come straight back to the hotel to re-fit the suits.

Meanwhile we ate quickly at The Port restaurant below our room. Amazingly, the singer from the band immediately recognised the eccentric couple who had danced on their balcony the night before.

The tailor duly arrived, and admitted that John’s suits looked as if “there is a person missing”! He spent some time tucking and pinning, and took them back to the shop for alteration.

Cheered by the tailor’s attitude, we took ourselves out for a Haagen Daz ice cream.