Just another Lazy Afternoon in Paradise
August 9th 2009
Big Blue Tech found itself with a complete day off with the end of one course and another series of courses scheduled to begin. The Tech Crew used this say to service equipment, order new gear and plan for the series of incoming students and events.
Some of the activities included working more on one of our project rebreathers slated to be dived on next month. We’ve taken a old Drager Dolphin SCR and converting it to a side by side tank system with a mounting unit for a backplate and wing. Currently being engineered is a flexible manifold found already on the Halcyon rebreather. On this day we sorted out the scrubber and checked all the major features like possitive and negative pressure, flow rate and bubble check before taking it diving. The advantage of this little breather is for shallow caves and recreational diving. The film Sharkwater was created using one of these rebreathers so we’re hoping to integrate this unit into our future technical videography courses.
In addition to getting the rebreather organized was boosting pure oxygen to 200 bar for our remote technical diving expedition in Khao Sok where getting oxygen fills on the dive site will be difficult. This was also a chance for crew to show our intern how these systems work and how to operate them.
And much like any normal day at Big Blue Tech the local staff and divers came by for a coffee and a chat in our relaxed atmosphere.
Tomorrow will be very different with the start of an Advanced Nitrox and Decompression Procedures Course.
Phuket’s ‘Coral Reef Squadron’ 90% destroyed
Phuket’s ‘Coral Reef Squadron’ sunk off Bang Tao Bay last November is 90 percent missing or destroyed, the Thai Dive Association admitted today.
Rainer Gottwald, head of the Thai Dive Association (TDA) technical committee, said TDA divers visited the site on Wednesday and were only able to find one of the 10 aircraft that formed the artificial reef.
Storms and heavy monsoon season currents were to blame, Mr Gottwald said.
Failure to follow instructions by some members of the team who chained the aircraft to large concrete blocks, and subsequent damage by trawlers,may also have played a role, he said.
The destruction of the site was ‘very upsetting’, given all the work and expense put into the project by the TDA and the numerous other agencies and organizations involved, he said.
The project was initiated by the Bangkok-based For Sea Foundation and funded to the tune of 4 million baht by the Cherng Talay Tambon Administration Organization, which hoped the reef would boost tourism in the area.
The project also received a great deal of private-sector sponsorship.
Mr Gottwald said the TDA would have to learn from its mistakes and would probably use train wagons instead of aircraft in future projects.
The ‘Coral Reef Squadron’ consisted of four Douglas C-47 Dakota Skytrain military transport aircraft and six Sikorsky S-58T helicopters.
The TDA divers were only able to find one Dakota during the dive on Wednesday, which followed a series of heavy storms, he said.
TDA divers will survey the area to try and learn more about the fate of the aircraft when sea conditions improve, he said.
Mr Gottwald said he did not think currents would carry the aircraft to the shore, because if that were going to happen it probably would have done so already.
The missing aircraft were probably buried beneath the sand, he said.
