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Published: September 15th 2014
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The breakfast buffet put on by Pinnacle was excellent and the made-to-order omelette hit the spot nicely with the superb view from the deck of the restaurant making things just about perfect.
We were due to go on our first two dives in the early afternoon and had some time to spare so we headed into Sairee Beach for a look around and a shop. I needed some sort of device to hold the GoPro while I was diving and found just the thing.
Kho Tao is a very small island - certainly no more than seven or eight kilometres end to end. We figured that we may as well take a look at the northern side given that we were most of the way there already and were rewarded with a pretty view of Koh Nang Yuan, an island with two peaks just off the coast of Kho Tao that are linked by a ribbon of sand. I had become quite a fan of lemon iced tea during our time in Thailand and enjoyed a couple of cans as we marvelled at the scenery.
We rested up back at Pinnacle and were collected by a taxi-ute at
1330 as promised. Marco was our dive master and he met us on the sand at Ban Mae Hat. He signalled to a modern looking large boat out on the water and it headed right up to the beach. We were the only customers for the day - Dive Wishes & More specialised in small groups and just Jo and I diving was perfect! We boarded straight from the sand and had barely turned around to head out to sea when Marco told us we'd better gear up. We were almost there!
Dive 1 - HTMS Sattakut & Hin Pee Wee Max Depth 26.2 metres
Dive Time 33 minutes
Water Temp 30c
Our first dive was without a doubt one of the best dives either Jo or I had ever been on. We started on the wreck of the HTMS Sattakut. Originally a US Navy infantry landing craft, she was commissioned into the Thai Navy in 1946 and was deliberately sunk for divers in 2011. Several species of fish had made their home there and we spent nearly 20 minutes there checking out all the nooks and crannies. Hin Pee Wee, a separate dive site, is located just
25 metres away and we started our ascent checking out the coral and marine life there before surfacing.
Dive 2 - White Rock
Max Depth 17.4 metres
Dive Time 46 minutes
Water Temp 30c
The boat didn't have to go far to get to the next dive site - White Rock. This was a typical, fairly shallow tropical dive site with an abundance of fish and coral. We were surrounded by triggerfish, angelfish and barracuda. I'm usually pretty heavy on my air but we managed 46 minutes under the surface. I was pretty happy with that but Jo came up with nearly 100 bar left in her tank... she could have been down there all day!
We returned to the beach where our taxi driver was waiting and were hitting the shower at 1630. Three hours door to door... now that's service!
With the salt water cleaned out we got back on the bikes and rode to Sairee Beach, about half way up the west coast of Kho Tao, where we found Chopper's Sports Bar. The All Blacks were playing the Wallabies the following day and we wanted to make sure that we had a place
to watch the game. The beer was cheap at 2 for NZ$3 and at those prices it would have been rude not to have a few.
Dinner was back at Gambero Rosso but I struggled through it. It wasn't that the food was no good - it was half decent in fact, but I was shattered from the diving...
... and there was more to come the following day.
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