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CORALREPUBLIC Thailand
2002 |
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Trip
dates: |
28 December 2002 – 8 January 2003 |
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Boat
/ resort: |
Cruise on board MV Le Mahe to the |
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Dive
centre: |
Cruise arranged with Siam Dive n’Sail. They do
not seem to sell this boat any more (might as well). |
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Photo-friendly?: |
Not really. Thank God for my handy Olympus C-4040Z with its
internal strobe. |
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Number
of dives: |
17 over 5 days of diving. |
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Diving
conditions: |
Cloudy and rainy most of the time, but not very choppy.
Visibility variable depending on sites. In Richelieu Rock we had a
disappointing 10 m only, about the same in the manta sites around Koh Bon. Water temperature ranging from 26 to 29°C. |
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Comments: |
We wanted a cheap option for a 5-day cruise and we got exactly
that. Facilities on board can only be described as basic. We did not mind
much and had a group of 4 Austrians and another of 4 Japanese with us (12 divers
in total, 2 divemasters), with whom we had a lot of
fun. The three groups dove separately
and that made for non-crowded dive sites. We found a very strong surface current on Richelieu Rock and the
Austrians drifted off helplessly. Our group threw lines to the mooring and
made it safely to very calm waters at depth, but no whale sharks. We went for
a night dive on new year’s eve under pouring rain (that was a laugh!) then
came back to the worst new year’s eve dinner one could ever imagine (unless you
like refried chicken and vinegary wine). On the last day, Carmen lost her balance when the boat rocked at
quay and fell through a trap on the floor of the boat that the crew had kept
open while re-supplying the boat. She
was in a lot of pain, got bruises all over and probably a fissured rib. We spent a night in a nice enough resort in Phuket and headed
for three lovely days in |
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