Yesterday we sent our big dive boat across to Chumphon on the Thai mainland for it’s annual maintenance. We took advantage of the journey by doing a bit of wreck diving exploration on the way over.

We split into two dive teams. Gerry & Alex undertook the final dives of their BSAC Extended Range Diver course under the instruction of Tim. After recovering from his sunburn, Leon dived on his Buddy Exolution closed circuit rebreather pairing up with Gary.

Again, we had fantastic sea conditions as we left early from Sairee Beach, Koh Tao.

First, we headed out the the wreck dive site which we located in August [suspected WW2 schooner wreck]. Since the wooden wreck has been down for some time, it has collapsed making it very difficult to detect at 50 metres. After a period of searching we got the sonar return we wanted.

Tim’s team descended first, securing the shot line to one of the large ballast stones. Leon & Gary followed, running a longer bottom time to allow further investigation of the wreck diving site.

Visibility was low [about 1-2 metres at depth] making it difficult to get a proper impression of the wreck. Here are our key observations from our wreck dives:

Due to it’s age and wooden structure, the wreck is now very scattered and disordered.

We believe the shot was secured inside the wreck, amidships close to the port-side. On reaching the bottom at 48 metres, Tim’s team turned right, presumably towards the stern. Tim saw a large wheel which he believes to be part of the engine.

There are an enormous number of glass bottles – too many and too concentrated in one area to have been dropped from fishing boats – therefore presumably part of the cargo.

Close to the shot line we saw several large broken toilets and sinks, suggesting that the wreck must have been a decent size and quality.

Leon located a cargo hold of plates – he estimates that there are many hundreds stacked and continuing down below the silt. We recovered two of the more ornate ones to try to get more of a clue to the identity of the wreck.

We’ve now seen three different makers marks all from Japan. They are all printed in English, presumably suggesting that the Japanese cargo was intended for an English speaking market. This seems unusual, given the suspected dating of the wreck.

Leon will take the two plates back to the UK with him and will try to shed light on their origin from one of his contacts. We’ll have to wait and see what turns up.

After leaving the wreck diving site, a storm moved in and wave heights picked up. We got very wet!

During the onward journey towards the mainland we checked out two more fishermans marks hoping to discover another wreck site. Despite extensive sonar surveys at each of the locations, we didn’t get any definitive returns so decided not to dive. At one site there was a palm fisherman’s float and line descending down to the bottom, but this was most likely attached to a fish trap. Hopefully more luck next time – all part of the process of eliminating marks!

The sun set as we headed on towards the mainland, passing lots of small islands as we approached the city of Chumphon.

We drove up the river, passing lots of fishing boats and fish processing plants before finally reaching the Koh Tao night boat just before 21:00. We transferred all our tech diving gear across, then grabbed a quick bite to eat, before getting back onto the night boat and returning to Koh Tao at 5am – quite a long day!

Anyway, congratulations to Gerry & Alex on completing their BSAC Extended Range Diver course – hopefully they’ll continue to be active technical divers in the future.

After serving us well throughout summer, it’s time to send our big boat in for it’s annual maintenance. That means driving the dive boat across to Chumphon on the mainland where it can be lifted from the water, and required work can be completed.

Since we’re already paying for the diesel, we may as well make use of the journey and check out a few more potential wrecks to the north & North east of Koh Tao!

 

So tomorrow our first dive will be to revisit  the WW2 Schooner wreck, last dived when we located it in August, then continue to investigate four more fishermans marks during the journey across to Chumphon.

The most interesting is a mark which matches closely with a wreck position on one of our old shipping charts. The wreck must be a decent size to pose a potential problem [and thus be of interest] for shipping. We’ve never managed to locate this wreck – hopefully this new fisherman’s mark will help us find it. The chart was produced in 1986 – the survey data which was used to create this chart was probably collected well before that date, so we have our fingers crossed that its an old wreck, rather than a recent fishing boat. We’ll see!

The other marks are isolated but come from a reliable source, which has given us several other wrecks over the last 12 months – we’ll just have to see what turns up.

Dive expedition report will follow. . . .

[Dive Expedition Report | Dec 12th] 

Today, scuba diving conditions were fantastic. Bright sunshine & less than half metre wave heights across the Gulf of Thailand gave us the perfect opportunity for a day of wreck hunting.

During yesterday’s Unicorn Wreck dives, we got 6 – 7 metres visibility [at 50 metres depth]- pretty good for monsoon season so close to Koh Tao. So we had high expections for our day of wreck diving!

[Background on Targets] 

With weather like this our RIB becomes very effective at covering large distances quickly [and cost effectively!]. As such we planned to dive two targets – both likely to be wrecks within close range of Koh Tao, Thailand.

The first mark was based on a war report – like our WW2 schooner wreck expedition in August, we referred back to another US subamarine log. The WW2 US sub reported sinking a Japanese auxilliary vessel during 1941. The given position was south-east of Koh Tao [a little over 20 nautical miles off-shore]. Our expected bottom depth in this region is approximately 55 metres [depending on tides].

Very close to the war report position, we had two independent, coinciding marks from Thai fisherman, so felt pretty confident that something was there. Hopefully we’d get to locate & dive the WW2 Japanese Wreck!

Our backup target was a secondary mark closer to Koh Tao [approximately 13 miles off Koh Tao island]. This time we had 3 independent fishermens marks stacking up on the same spot – 2 near identical marks plus a third which was just 100 yards distant. We we’re pretty certain that there was something in the water but had no idea what? [Wreck / Rock?]. Since this mark was a little closer to shore we estimated the max depth to be a little deeper than 40 metres.

The team for this trip was supposed to consist four divers - Tim, Arne & Gary diving open circuit plus Leon using his Evolution CCR [rebreather]. Unfortunatly Leon got very badly suburned two days ago so was unable to make it – he said it tingles!! Dezer joined us a a ‘deckhand’.

[Dec 12th Dive Expedition]

An early start just after sunrise allowed us to reach the first mark on slack tide.

As we approached the dive site, we realised there was a Thai fisherman on the GPS co-ordinate. It turned out to be a fishtrap boat, which is good news – they lay big fishtraps just off pinnacles and wrecks, periodically hauling up thier traps to collect their catch.

As we reached the wreck site, the Thai fishermen were lifting a large fishtrap onto the boat, loaded with fish. They had one diver in the water, ‘hookah diving’.  They had a small air compressor on the boat [probably not strictly sufficient for producing breathing gas], with a line descending down into the water. Their diver inserts the other end of this hose into the top of his 1960s style mask, and breaths slowly through his nose.

The sonar was displaying about 53 metres. In the time it took us to make one dive, their diver had made three descents and ascents [without any deco stops] – they’re certainly brave!!

We got a decent return and dropped the weighted shot. As we descended down visibility wasn’t great – just a couple of metres at the bottom, but the shot was good, landing right next to the wreck.

She was wooden, sitting upright, approximately 5-6 metres high, but completely covered in fishing nets [with lots of fish trapped in it]. As we explored the wreck it became clear that this was a wooden wreck, probably a large Thai fishing boat, especially once we identified the ‘Buddha point’ at the bow [typical of this type of Thai boat].

So no WW2 wreck on this mark, but another set of GPS co-ordinates eliminated!

We then headed back towards Koh Tao to take a look at the second mark [which we had no idea what it was]. It’s strange how things work out!

We got a decent sonar return, rising up from the bottom at about 42 metres. By the time we entered the water for our second dive the current was starting to run and visibility had reduced to near zero.

As we descended down the line we discovered a descent sized steel wreck. It was again upright, the sides of the hull rising up 3- 4 metres above the sand. Lots of coral growth and fish, indicating that it had been down for some time, and a big cargo hold [we descended down inside the hold but vis was so bad you could barley see your hand in front of your face, so was difficult to determine anything conclusive].

In such low vibility it’s hard to build a proper impression of the wreck, but our first opinion is that it’s some kind of industrial Thai vessel, small cargo type.

We’ll return to dive this wreck at a later date, and try to construct a proper map. It’s shallow depth means we may conduct some of our ‘introduction to technical diving’ courses on this wreck.

So no big or historical wrecks today, but two more sets of marks investigated, with two more wrecks dived close to Koh Tao! Not bad for a days diving!