2001: THAILAND
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In September 2001 I took off on my lonesome to the island of Phuket, Thailand for 10 days diving off a liveaboard.
As part of the celebration for the Derby BSAC 40 anniversary year, a mass trip to Phuket, Thailand was organised. Having some spare annual leave, I decided to go back and explore more of the diving around the Phuket.
First time round the club spent 14 days in Phuket, sightseeing, drinking, and shopping, but only three days diving. This time I was going get onto a liveaboard and head out into the Andamam Sea to dive in and round the Simian Islands. The plan was to fly to Phuket via Bangkok and send a night in Patong before joining the boat.
Unfortunately world events got in the way and of all the people booked on the boat only I turned up in Patong. Rather that have the whole boat to myself, I opted to join up with a second liveaboard departing a day later with a day trip to the Kingcruser to fill in. While I was on the day trip a small group of Brits passed through Patong looking for a diving holiday. So back to 'Plan A' and we spent some of that evening sat in the bar waiting for the last preparations to be done before we set off on the overnight sail to the Simian Islands.
The diving out of Phuket is much like the Red Sea with lots of coral and tropical fish to see and swim round. The biggest difference is that the sea is about 10' C warmer i.e. most of the diving for the brave can be done without any wetsuits!
The boat on this trip, was a trimaran, with the sleeping quarters in the outer hulls, with the galley and lounge in the larger middle hull. The three hulls were joined by the deck, which formed a large area for sun bathing and kitting up. The liveaboard was a sailing boat with a mast and sails, but the crew like using the boat's engine (I suppose it is hell of lot easier and the wind if any, was usually blowing in the wrong direction.
What's life like on a liveaboard? Well, life usually falls into a well-known pattern of diving, eating, and sleeping and occasionally drinking at the end of the day. As the liveaboard will leave for more distant dive sites there is usually only diving and crew to keep you company. There is little or no time to get bored, as normally there would be three or four dives a day, with one or more night dives undertaken during the early evening to see what comes out as the sun goes down.
I enjoyed two weeks of diving in the sun, unfortunately the only stain on the holiday was when the liveaboard's engine broke down on the way back to Patong. Like the way life is in these parts the crew of the liveaboard flagged down a passing dive boat on the way back to Patong and in exchange for a crate of beer, arranged for a tow back to land.
GR