Jim and Tavin's Scuba Dive Log: 2008

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Dive 43 - Hood Canal Washington

Dive 43
Sund Rock - Hood Canal Washington
Max Depth: 64 feet
Time: 26 minutes
Water Temp: 50 degrees
Visibility: 15-25 feet

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Dive 41 & 42 Hood Canal Washington

View from our room at The Waterfront at Potlatch

Dive 41
Sunrise Motel - Hood Canal Washington
Max Depth: 41 feet
Time: 23 minutes
Water Temp: 50 degrees
Visibility: 15-25 feet
Notes: Drysuit checkout dive! Love the drysuit!

Dive 42
Sunrise Motel - Hood Canal Washington
Max Depth: 45 feet
Time: 28 minutes
Water Temp: 50 degrees
Visibility: 15-25 feet

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Dive 39 & 40 - Hood Canal Washington

Dive 39
Octopus Hole - Hood Canal Washington
Max Depth: 63 feet
Time: 44 minutes
Water Temp: 50 degrees
Visibility: 10-20 feet
Notes: First Pacific Octopus! A couple of them just hanging out.
They were huge!

Dive 40
Sund Rock - Hood Canal Washington
Max Depth: 54 feet
Time: 47 minutes
Water Temp: 50 degrees
Visibility: 10-25 feet
Notes: Used Nitrox for the first time 38.8%. Using a LP95.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Dive 37 & 38 - Honeymoon - Koh Tao

Dive 37
Chumphon Pinnacle - Koh Tao Thailand
Max Depth: 94 feet
Time: 40 minutes
Water Temp: 84 degrees
Visibility: 60 feet

Dive 38
Hin Pee Vee - Koh Tao Thailand
Max Depth: 66 feet
Time: 55 minutes
Water Temp: 84 degrees
Visibility: 40 feet

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Dive 35 & 36 - Honeymoon - Koh Tao

Dive 35
Nang Yuan Pinnacle - Koh Tao Thailand
Max Depth: 63 feet
Time: 45 minutes
Water Temp: 84 degrees
Visibility: 50 feet

Dive 36
White Rock - Koh Tao Thailand
Max Depth: 61 feet
Time: 48 minutes
Water Temp: 84 degrees
Visibility: 40 feet

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Honeymoon - Bangkok - Day 1

We arrive at the airport to meet our pickup, which we find out, will be our guide while here in Bangkok. A very tall, thin (aren't they all thin here in Asia??) but big personality guide named Andy. It's not his real name, but apparently there are many guides that have the same name, so some past tourist gave him the name Andy and it has since stuck. The agenda for the next 2 days is to see several of the thousands of temples, a boat ride and the afternoons free for shopping...yahoo!

Friday, September 19, 2008

Honeymoon - Rest of Bali

As our week in Bali ends, I have to say that it's one of the best places I've ever been and I would come back in a heartbeat.

While the area's in which we have visited are not rich areas by any means, as a matter of fact, Tumlaben was very poor, but the people are so nice, appreciate their lives and families and enjoy talking with foreigners. They are also so happy to have jobs and do them with the upmost pride, something that most have lost especially in America.

They take a job whether it's taking care of the property, hauling scuba gear or cleaning knowing that if they work hard they can possibly move up to being front desk, bartender, assistant dive master.

They take classes sponsored by the government to learn English and the different trades and work hard in doing it well.

Even if they can't get a job at a resort, they will take any job to make money as most live with their whole families. Even though Bali is a small island, the people don't make much money and can't afford to even go to a nearby town to vacation. Even after they get married there is no honeymoon, although they all know what a honeymoon is, they don't take one themselves.

In Bali, when you tip a taxi driver or someone who carried your luggage, they are so appreciative and thank-you and their "god" for the kindness you have shown. Often I would bargain down the price, say from 50,000 Rp to 40,000 Rp just so I could give them the 50,000 Rp, just to see the smiles.

Our time has ended here in Bali and now we're off to the second part of our journey, Bangkok Thailand for a couple of days then to Koh Tao for a week of diving.

Dives 32 & 33 & 34 - Honeymoon Day 9

Dive 32
USS Liberty - Bali
Max Depth: 71 feet
Time: 49 minutes
Water Temp: 82 degrees
Visibility: 100 feet +

Dive 33
Noisy Reef - Bali
Max Depth: 79 feet
Time: 54 minutes
Water Temp: 82 degrees
Visibility: 100 feet +

Dive 34
Seraya Beach - Bali
Max Depth: 73 feet
Time: 54 minutes
Water Temp: 82 degrees
Visibility: 100 feet +

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Dives 30 & 31 - Honeymoon Day 8

Dive 30
Alam Amda - Bali
Max Depth: 101 feet
Time: 41 minutes
Water Temp: 81 degrees
Visibility: 100 feet +

Dive 31
Bitsi - Bali
Max Depth: 88 feet
Time: 48 minutes
Water Temp: 82 degrees
Visibility: 100 feet +

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Dives 27 & 28 & 29 - Honeymoon Day 7

Dive 27
USS Liberty - Bali
Max Depth: 80 feet
Time: 40 minutes
Water Temp: 82 degrees
Visibility: 100 feet +

Dive 28
Emerald Point - Bali
Max Depth: 75 feet
Time: 50 minutes
Water Temp: 82 degrees
Visibility: 100 feet +

Dive 29
Seraya Beach - Bali
Max Depth: 64 feet
Time: 35 minutes
Water Temp: 82 degrees
Visibility: Night Dive

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Dives 25 & 26 - Honeymoon Day 6

Dive 25
Alam Amda - Bali
Max Depth: 81 feet
Time: 43 minutes
Water Temp: 81 degrees
Visibility: 100 feet +

Dive 26
Batsi - Bali
Max Depth: 85 feet
Time: 44 minutes
Water Temp: 82 degrees
Visibility: 100 feet +

Monday, September 15, 2008

Dives 23 & 24 - Honeymoon Day 5

Up at 7 to get a yummy breakfast of plain yogurt w/honey and banana pancake. The banana's here are so much sweeter than we have back home. Here in Tulamben it looks similar to our pancakes, in Ubud, it was very thin, almost looking like a crepe but open face with sliced banana's on top. There's not syrup here so you use honey...just as good. Also in Ubud there was a breakfast item called a Jaffle. What a treat that was. Similar to stuffed french toast but it had brown sugar, toasted coconut & bananas...yum!

After breakfast we're off to our first dive, the USS Liberty. A large ship that during the war was torpedoed and sank by a Japanese submarine. During a large storm it was pushed on shore where it sat for many years. Finally the Balinese government decided to push it back into the water to make a reef. Now it barely resembles a ship as it is all broken up but is home to large number of fish, large and small, soft and hard coral. There was a very large fish that we saw called a bump head. He was around 4' long 3' wide, white body and black face and seemingly large white teeth with a big bump for a forehead. The water is so clear and beautiful with visibility being around 100+ ft. So much fun to see all the beautiful colorful fish. The water temp is around 82 degrees (nice bath!) and we go to a depth of 70' or so.

The amazing thing is the USS Liberty is only a 5 min boat ride from our resort and only 300 - 500 ft off shore. It's a very popular site for divers, photographers and snorkelers alike. We're able to dive for about 40 min then back to the resort for a little rest before our 2nd dive.

For the 2nd dive we head over near the Liberty to the "drop off wall" . A sloping hill with large boulders and again, tons of sea life.

We come back, have lunch and just relax and read the rest of the day. Perhaps a little dip in the pool that afternoon. Thankfully it's not quite as warm as Ubud and we have a wonderful breeze.

Dive 23
USS Liberty - Bali
Max Depth: 66 feet

Time: 33 minutes

Water Temp: 82 degrees

Visibility: 100 feet +

Dive 24
Drop Off - Bali
Max Depth: 84 feet

Time: 40 minutes

Water Temp: 82 degrees

Visibility: 100 feet +

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Honeymoon Day 4

Up early today to get breakfast and head to the spa for 1 last treatment. Today it will be a 60 min back, shoulder, neck massage then 30 min foot/leg reflexology & just for a little decadence we're getting our hair washed & dried.

Then we're off on a 2 hour drive to Tumlaben on the eastern coast of Bali where we will stay 6 nights. Everyone here is so nice and just waits on us hand & foot (something I can SO get used to!) our driver is a freelance driver named I Wayan Badas. Here first names, for men, are always the same depending on the order you were born. So because he is the 1st born, his name is I Wayan (I being pronounced as E). What a nice fellow, we had great conversation the whole way.

The Balinese are always too happy to practice their English (which is great for us!) but I am getting real good at only speaking in very short sentences...is good or 2 Coca Cola, please. Amazing how Coca Cola is widely known, been around since the war, so it's always easy to get...that and bottled water. To save on plastic, they have you bring your bottle up to the front to get refilled from the large water jugs just like we have back in the states.

We just relax today to gear up for a great week of diving. Just like in Ubud, our room here is wonderful. Although instead of looking out over the jungle, we have a fabulous view of the Bali Sea. It's a little cottage (thankfully with air conditioning) with a connecting door for the bathroom which is outside. Not really outside as in everyone can see you, but open air. Each cottage has its own courtyard consisting of 2 little huts, 1 being a bar w/little fridge and the other a covered daybed looking out at the water. In between there is a large deep marble bathtub with candles around it and grass and stone steps. The courtyard is closed in by 2 wooden doors...one leading to the back patio/ water and the other to the path to the pool (which we just happen to be next to) and the other cottages. There's only 12 cottages total.

Our first night here, there's a group from Austria and 2 Asian couples, but they are all leaving the next day. So we have the whole resort to ourselves for 3 days until a large group from Singapore come. So nice and quiet being here all alone...we're getting awfully spoiled. Even having the divemaster to ourselves and arranging our own times for diving.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Honeymoon Day 3

To market, to market, to market we go... We decided to walk, thinking it wasn't much further than where we had stopped the day before. Maybe had it been not so hot and humid, it wouldn't have been so bad, but at least it gave me a chance to go into a few more little shops along the way. Once we arrived at the market, it was just this mass of people selling their wares one after the other. Funny thing was that they all sold primarily the same stuff. If you bought a t-shirt from one vendor the next one would try and sell you a couple more at a better price. Every one that we walked by they would point to their "store" and say please, you look. Some had nice silks, some just little trinkets, wood boxes & kids toys. It's all so crammed together that we had to step outside for a break. That's where we met a funny young man who was a taxi driver. Tourism is slow this time of year and it being afternoon he still had not had a fare. After convincing him we didn't want a taxi yet he finally relented and just talked to us. We did a little more shopping then sat at a great restaurant for lunch, afterward, we went back to the taxi and bargained a price for a ride. He initially wanted 50,000 Rp, I said 40,000 and he agreed (that's $4 US..heehee). He kept us laughing the whole way back. The reason I said 40,000 was so when we arrived I would give him 50,000 to include a tip. He was so happy and thankful to have such nice people in his taxi and to make a little money for his family.

To cool off, we took a lovely dip in the pool which overlooks the jungle.

Then back into town to see the traditional dance, just like what we saw at restaurant Laka Leke, but this night was done by a professional troupe. The music they play during the dance is so hypnotic and soothing I was having a hard time staying awake. Back to the resort for a little ice cream (amazing how good ice cream is when it's so hot) and off to bed.

Friday, September 12, 2008

Honeymoon Day 2

After a great nights sleep (I always wanted to sleep with the nets over the bed...how romantic!) we're off through the Monkey Forest to the town of Ubud for a day of shopping. But first we stop at the Alam Wangi Spa to make appts for our spa treatments later that day. In one of the clothing stores, in Ubud, I happened upon an English lady who complained of being tired of shopping (blasphmy!) and bargaining. Bargaining?? I'm so glad I ran into her as I had her teach me how to bargain. It was an art that I was soon to master. Think they are charging too much? They tell you how much it is, you give a price you are willing to pay, they will counter, and so on. Sometimes just walking away saying it's too much and they will come chasing you down the street (or yell from one vender to the other) to get you to come back and buy it at your price. Ahh, this is working!

The Monkey Forest - exactly what the name implies - is in between our resort and the town of Ubud. The monkeys are called Balinese Macaques. The forest is their sanctuary and they ask that you not feed them although at one entrance they sell bananas just for that reason. Right now, there are only 300 but as you can see from our pictures there are a lot of babies this year.

After a hard day of shopping we're off to the spa for the Javanese Lulur treatments. Side by side we get traditional deep tissue massage followed by a body scrub and rub down with yogurt then to a flower bath. Life here is so hard .

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Honeymoon Day 1

Our first stop was LAX, now that was scary. Not because it was LA but because the terminal they dumped us at was as deserted as a ghost town. No signs, no employees and not a single escalator worked. Of course we had to find the international terminal, so after some wrong turns and a long walk we finally made it. Looks like they are redoing the airport, we can only hope....

whoever said that flying international gave you more room, wasn't on the airline we were on. We were just as squished as a domestic flight yet, we had to sit there for 14 hours. But it was nice that we could watch any top release movie at our pleasure on our individual screen, I choose Iron Man. If you haven't seen it, I would highly recommend it.

Our 2nd stop was in Hong Kong. Now that's a beautiful airport, albeit a little confusing how to get up to the 2nd floor where the shops and the terminals are, but luckily everything is in English and people were helpful. Now remember, I've never been overseas before, so this is all new to me...but watch out, I'm quickly becoming a world traveler! So now, we're on the next and final leg of our trip, our 4.5 hour trip to Denspar.

We made it...hooray! Boy does my butt hurt. Nothing cures that better than standing in the Visa line for 1.5 hours...hot, sticky and crammed in like a whole bunch of cattle. Are they going through everyone's luggage? Are they interrogating everyone? Maybe they can let in only certain amount of people per hour. Nope, they are just very, very slow....

We get our luggage and find our driver to take us to Ubud, an hour drive away. Now, I had been told that there might be "toilets" that you just put your feet on each side of a porcelain whole, but I never thought I would have to experience it so soon. All I can say is ewww.

The drive was definitely one that you see in the movies...you know, the good guy out running the bad guys, zooming in and out of traffic, some in cars, some on motor bikes. Yeah, it's just like that except we weren't being chased. Using the horn at home, is a matter of telling someone to piss off...they cut you off, or merging into your lane while you are still there, etc. Here, it's a form of communication...on your right, on your left, coming through...and motor bikes and scooters zipping in and out even in the narrowest of margins. Lines in the road? Those are apparently only suggestions. A 2 lane street can become 3 to 4 going in either direction...zoom, zip, slow, speed up fast, go around, stop.

We arrive at our resort, Alam Indah and what a beautiful place it is. Surrounded by jungle with only the sound of the river, birds and the insects. We are greeted with a refreshing welcome drink and then whisked off to our room, beautifully sculpted stone and wood with thatched roofs.

For dinner we go to the Leke Laka, where we have a wonderful Asain buffet dinner and front row seats to the Joged and Children Dance performance. Joged is a traditional dance accompanied by bamboo musical instruments. I wish we hadn't forgotten the camera as I would have loved to show you how beautiful these young girls were in their dress and makeup. A perfect way to end the first day.