Tim Reber
- Tim Reber's trip Thailand 2018
2018-12-16 - Hideaway Bay, Similan Islands, Thailand
30.9m - 52 min - Dived with Mark
First dive of trip. Check dive. Nice. Some scorpionfish, a moray, a few clownfish, 2 spotted rays, etc. Also swam over the Tuna wreck.
Dive 2 of trip. Mask was fogging relentlessly! Argh!! Still decent. Couple of cool swim-throughs. Saw a pair of trevallys (mom + child)? Also saw like a dozen lobster under a rock. Another big moray.
Dive three of the trip. Cool scenery. Piles of boulders, lits of swim-throughs. Saw a huge barracuda (1+ m long).
Dope.
Wild dive. Saw a GIANT manta about 2 minutes into the dive. We saw him periodically throughout the dive. That part was amazing. He had a couple of remoras or big wrasse on him. Not so cool: about 10 minutes in Jeff got confused and started panicking and heading for the surface. At first I thought he was low air but not, then maybe having mask issues. Tried to calm him and after about 30 seconds he calmed and we continued the dive. There was a LOT of current - had to hang on to the ridge to keep from being swept away. Saw the manta again. Then looked around and Jeff and Mark (DM) surfaced to low air while we continued with another group. All in all a very cool and also scary/wierd dive!
2018-12-17 - Koh Tachai Pinnacle (The Dome), Similan Islands, Thailand
21.8m - 47 min
Koh Tachai - The Dome Last dive of the day. Huge school of barracuda swarming above. Very cool! Pretty chill. Nice sunset afterwards.
Surin islands. Koh Torinla. Nice chill dive to start the day. Nothing too crazy, but a good variety of small macro stuff. Spotted rays. Cool sea snake. Etc.
1st dive at Richelieu Rock. Practically jumped in on top of a whale shark! Ahhh! Soo feaking sweet. Probably about 6 meters? Had a school of jacks(?) swimming all and it. So amazing. Rest of dive was awesome too. Pair of ghost pipefish. Octopus. Bunch of barracuda, trevally's, etc. Shrimp. All sorts of fun stuff. Basically diving in a nature documentary or living aquarium. Best dive ever.
2nd dive at Richelieu Rock. Jeff had to sit out since he was not feeling well. Another awesome dive. Cool shit and giant schools of fish everywhere. Another octopus, shrimp, barracuda, trevallies, etc. At one point we swam up over a narrow pass between two larger rocks against STRONG current. Ahmed was sucking so I had to push his tank to get him over. Afterwards I was really breathing and heart was beating. Had a moment of panic but managed to stop, calm myself and get my heart rate down to continue the dive. My shitty knockoff action camera flooded immediately upon entry. Lesson learned. Buy quality. Rest of the trip without a camera from here.
3rd and final dive at Richelieu Rock. Sunset dive. Went with different DM Dimon(?). Strong current. Turned into a bit of a wall drift dive unexpectedly but still nice. Found a couple of boxer shrimp, some box fish. Highlight was during safety stop when a school of fish (jacks? sliver something?) passed and enveloped us on both sides. Very cool.
HTMS Prathong (formerly USS Dodge County) wreck. Purpose sunk. Former WWII landing transport used in Normandy. Given to Thai Navy and sunk in 2014. Now listing to starboar. Went right in through hole cut in port side and in to hold. Very cool. Saw schools of fish(?) and TONS of lionfish. Also found a small marbled eel/moray near the end all to myself. A bit murky but very atmospheric. Generally chill and relaxing dive.
Boonsung Wreck. First dive on the Boonsung. Pretty sweet area. Lots of schools of fish, tons of moray, some boxer shrimp, other shrimp. Generally just a fun dive and messing around.
Second dive on the Boonsung. Chill and fun. Some goofing off. Saw a moray actually hunting - that was pretty cool! Took a picture on a submerged toilet.
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