At last, low season’s over, and the high season’s up and running with the first trip out on the Parinee! We headed out for a 2 day 1 night trip, to check everything’s in tip-top order for the start of the season and to get all the staff, new and old, together for an ice-breaker of a trip!
Captain Kaew’s back, and our boat boy Nuk, with a new engineer Toon, and new cooks P’Nui and P’Ooo and together hey kept the Parinee in ship-shape condition for us all.
Ricky, Tuk, Diego guided us all through everything on the boat, so everyone could get up to speed on how things run. Being back on the boat was brilliant, firecrackers were set off too bring luck to the voyage, and then it was time for lunch on the way out - thumbs up from everyone for the food, very delicious. And the cookies Sara sent along from the Wicked Café were literally inhaled, so we have it on good authority that they’ll be much welcomed on future trips!
Rick, Fanette, K, Sam, Amanda, Charlotte, Simon, Gae, Roland, Suzanne & JP were the members of staff on the trip, so we all crowded upstairs for Diego to give us the first dive briefing. Unfortunately we hadn’t decided yet which divesite to go, so Diego had to give us 4 briefings so we’d end up with the right one!
Our new Dive Con Trainees (DCTs) Maria, Scott, Joa and Mads also came along for the ride, to experience liveaboarding Wicked-style, and to see a few of the local divesites before they go out for a Similan liveaboard.
Because of the length of the trip we didn’t travel too far, choosing to head to our favourite local divesites, starting off with the Premchai wreck. It’s not a deep wreck, so we had a nice long dive, plenty to see with schools of fish all over the wreck. Next up, a muckdive off Tap Lamu, one of our favourites! Loads of weird and wonderful fish all over the place, a definite must-see for macro lovers!
Moored up in the scenic Tap Lamu harbour, it was time for a chill out evening on the boat, and also time to test out the traditional Wicked games on the new staff – bring on Werewolf!
After a quick explanation, everyone quickly got the hang of the game – and with confessions and defences from innocent people, witches and secret lovers, the game only got funnier as time went on. We even managed to draw the first game, with the werewolves and the villagers all disappearing together!
If none of that last paragraph made sense – come join us on a Similan Islands Liveaboard, and learn how to play Werewolf in between some spectacular dives! (If it did make sense and you’re desperate to reprise your role as a villager, you know where to find us!)
Second day we did 2 dives on the Boonsung Wreck. Another Khao Lak local dive site, and a fab one at that. Scorpionfish, shrimps, nudibranchs and moray eels galore make the wreck their home. The lucky DCTs spent some of their dive with a huge leopard shark, lucky things, and eagle-eyed Tuk was the first to spot a stonefish, so we all owe him a beer!
Stormy weather ahead of us as we went back to Khao Lak, made for some gorgeous rainbows along the horizon, and it was back to Tap Lamu pier to unload & wish the journey had been longer!
All in all – a very successful trip! Staff have bonded, divesites been declared awesome, boat’s running smoothly - here’s to the start of a wickedly brilliant season!
No comments:
Post a Comment