We woke early and excited. Margreet was going to do her first open water dive and Fredde was finally going to snorkel again (it’s been 3 years…). We got a nice surprise when we saw the boat. It was quite big and looked very nice 🙂
We had a nice breakfast on the boat while we made our way to Koh Haa. Koh Haa means five islands in Thai, although it should be called six islands as they actually missed one ;-). It was a two hour ride and we recognized the islands as being a cluster of islands we had seen from our beach.
We met our underwater photographer Nic. He was a very nice and funny guy that happily showed Fredde all his nice gear. It was very cool to see all the gear required to take good pictures. The camera itself was quite ordinary but the underwater case and especially the huge flashes (yes, plural) made all the difference. Fredde wants to become an underwater photographer when he grows up (read: when he learns how to dive, which he thinks is just a minor detail 😉 )…
Carl showed Margreet how to set up the scuba diving gear on a boat.
When we arrived at the dive site (The Lagoon, Koh Haa) it was time for Margreet’s first dive down to 12 m and she was very excited. It went very well and even better than in the pool. It was actually easier in open water than in the pool. There were no problems going through some skills with Carl and they mostly swam around and looked at all the beautiful fishes. The water was very clear and calm and kept a nice thirty degrees Celsius 🙂
For Fredde the snorkeling was excellent. He was the only snorkeler on board and hence had his own instructor. His private instructor was Janine who was very knowledgable and passionate about all the marine life.
The snorkeling was amazing he saw a lot of fishes and other marine life. Once in a while we both got Nic in our faces as a contrast to the marine life.
After almost an hour, which felt like 10 minutes, we got up and had some lunch. Since Fredde’s snorkel and fins are quite easy to take off he had the first pick to the lunch :-). It was an excellent lunch that probably tasted even better since we are out in the open and had exercised a lot. The best was the spicy alternative (Margreet strongly disagrees).
