7-6 Koh Tao - Day 4

I got a knock on my door at 6:45am. It was G; I had just five minutes to get my gear and get in the last shuttle truck to the port. Luckily, I had packed up the night before. I inhaled two croissants stuffed with ham and cheese (I think), then jumped in the back of one of the two overloaded pickups. Both trucks were loaded with gear bags, air tanks, and people, We had to load into the dive boat at the main port today due to the extremely low tides caused by the nearing full moon. There's basically just one main pier in the port of Koh Tao, and it's completely clogged with people and cars. Our boat was tied up not at the dock, but to a boat tied to a boat at the dock. For all our gear, we formed a chain, passing through and over the other two boats. Our first site was a series of pinnacles to the Northwest 45 minutes. We loaded up early because unlike everone else, we were using Nirtrox, which allows us to stay down longer. The second the boat stopped, G and I were over the side. I looked underwater below me and saw nothing but blue ocean. As I looked off to the left, I was able to make out something huge and stationary through about 35m of blue haze. It was part of the pinnacle, shooting up out of the coean. While diving, it's safe to descend up to 70 feet per minute and the bottom here ranges from 70-150 feet before dropping off to deep water. We let the air out of tour vests, much more than usual, and began a rapid dive down 25m to a sloped bottom of sand, boulders, ledges, and corals. The numbers and variety of life was more than I ever imagined. As I sat there in the sand looking up, my entire field of view was filled with schools of fish. Barracuda, squid, grouper, and countless species I can't name schooled overhead and around me, each numbering in the dozens or even thousands. We spent an hour cruising around the pinnacles. There was an incredible amount to see both around us and overhead, but both of us kept looking out to open water, hoping a whale shark would show up.
Our second dive was back towards Koh Tao, called White Rock. We cruised for a bit on the sand flats in deeper water. There was nothing in sight but a sandy bottom until we came across a lone lionfish resting in a crater. G went nuts with his camera. It was a beautiful fish of a different variety than I'd seen before. G told me later that it was the first lion fish he'd seen on Koh Tao in three years. Even at 75 feet, the water is 70-75*F. As a result, we only wear shorty wetsuits. If you are going through shallow coral areas and you have any cuts on you, it's only a matter of time until you pass by a 'cleaning station'. Fish and turtles with parasites or cuts will stop in these areas, that are inhabited by a handful of 3" long bright blue fish. I have several cuts on my feet and legs from rock climbing so every so foten, I'll feel those little blue fish nipping at me, cleaning the wound, As a result, I think my cuts are healing a bit faster than normal.
That eventing I hung out in the office of Good Times Adventures with Tim, Charlie, a few girls from Israel, and a guy named Dave who was taking some climbing lessons. Tim and Charlie spent a month in Nepal last December so ther're going to help me with my trip planning to Nepal next month. They showed me some amazing pictures, especially at the base camp of Annapurna. They also showed pictures of a Thai festival held each April called Sonkram. It's a week long festival that's a nationwide water war. There's not enough water on Koh Tao to provide for a week of water fights, so they contain it to just one day. Drinking starts at 8:30am and water wars start soon after. It looks like so much fun! I got some great Thai from a small locals-only place afterwards and called it an early night again. Tomorrow is another early day.