TIMEZONE 7 - THAILAND

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The M/V Shortcut

March 18-23

It became extremely clear as we boarded the M/V (motor-vessel) Shortcut, with 25 other divers, 13 crew members (including 3 cooks, two drivers, 2 boat men, a mechanic and 7 dive masters), that we, the three lone Americans, were the least experienced divers of the vessel's company. When everyone was asked to assemble their gear, we inquired where our rental gear (included in our price), that Oliver had faxed over a request for the previous day, could be found. We saw everyone else pulling out personal bags of fancy regulators, wetsuits, video cameras, and knives. Our gear request, and subsequently our gear, had become lost in the shuffle. A wooden long tail boat, like the one we had ridden from the beach out to the 3-decked M/V Shortcut, was sent back to the beach. The boat man relayed our size information to the driver of the 8 person rickshaw, that we had ridden from the office of High-Class Divers, the shop offering the "Whale Shark Expedition." The rickshaw went back to the office, retrieved our gear and brought it back to the beach. The driver carried it a few meters into the ocean and loaded it onto the wooden long-boat that motored it out to the Red Beast of hard steal and machinery, the M/V Shortcut, where we waited to depart. We began to get suited-up when Mike found that his flippers, sized at a glance to be European size 42, were about two sizes too small. The boat-rickshaw-office chain of events was sent into action once again!

We did, at last, get the gear, and set about the task of getting situated in our cabin. The air-conditioned cabins of the Shortcut were located on the ship's lowest level. Small but simple, the cabins consisted of four bunks, a small porthole, and two lamps. We shared our cabin with a German man named Michael, who lived in Japan, and, who was a aspiring underwater videographer. Michael slept with a bottle of Thai whiskey under his pillow, but didn't have a sip until after the final dive of the day, which usually rendered him unconscious from the combination of exhaustion and drunkenness before any real damage was ever done.

That night, we ate a large, delicious, fried-up Thai meal in the ships lounge, located with the galley on the ships middle deck, and met most of the other divers. We knew, that on this boat, we were rookies, but we assumed nothing more. We made friends with members of the Australian, Japanese, Korean, Dutch, and Singapore contingencies. The Dive-Masters and many of the divers were Swiss-German, so German was the most commonly heard language being spoken. Luckily, for us, English was the language most commonly understood, and was used for all briefings and announcements. We sailed through the night, to the Surin Islands (our first dive site, near the Similans and a frequent feeding area of the "Elusive Whale Shark"). Later, we went atop the Shortcut, to the open aired sundeck/wetdeck to look out at the Andaman Sea that was sparkling, and reflecting the sliver of a thumbnail moon. Because of the vivid circle of light surrounding the moon, it looked like there was a lunar eclipse. We eventually passed out under the canopy and stars, laying on thin pads, listening to the rhythm of the waves. We would be woken at 6:30am the next morning for our first dive briefing on the "Hunt For The Elusive Whale-Shark".

Our Schedule

06:30 - wake-up, brush teeth, coffee, and toast or cornflakes
07:15 - dive briefing
07:30 - dive #1
08:00 - Jeff makes "finis" his air and surfaces
08:30 - the others surface
09:00 - breakfast (eggs, toast, bacon, oj)
09:30 - nap, suntan, and/or coffee
10:45 - dive briefing
11:00 - dive #2
11:30 - Jeff makes "finis" his air and surfaces
12:00 - the others surface
12:30 - Lunch - thai stirfries with rice, seafood and veggies
13:00 - nap - suntan - coffee
14:15 - dive briefing
14:30 - dive #3
15:00 - we're done
15:30 - rest of boat done
15:50 - cookies and fanta

Three nights we went on night dives. On those nights we had dinner around 17:00 and dive #4 at (19:00) after the sun had set. We went in the pitch black water with large torches (flashlights). These dives were close to one hour long. On the other nights we dove from 17:00 - 18:00 and then dinner. Dinner was soups, meat dishes and rice.

19:00 - rinse off shower
20:00 - Sit on deck under stars, either sleep there, or in cabin, and began again the next day.....

Did the boys spot the elusive whale shark? Was it truly the largest fish in the sea? Did Rob's fever really reach 106 degrees and did his grey matter ooze out of his nostrils? Find out all this and more! same web-time, same web-site........ta-ta-ta-Timezone7.com!!!!!