Saturday, October 22, 2016

Woke up in the middle of the night suffocatingly hot from the mesh curtain and no air flow. I had to go outside to cool off, Mat woke a little later with the same issue and joined me outside. Once we cooled down enough we laid back down but without the bug screen and were able to sleep until a hard rain woke us around 6 AM. We relaxed in the morning coolness before heading up to the cafe for breakfast. We checked out and walked over to Saracen Bay for our final day of scuba training.

Last day of scuba training

We caught the boat, two other groups of day divers were coming along. We were setting up our kits when Mat's O2 tank fell onto the floor and knocked the BCD inflator hose off the regulator, whoops! Stephan was going to guide our dive with Hannah but he gave up his regulator for Mat to use instead which was very nice of him. Our first site was Koh Kon South - the southernmost tip of Koh Kon Island. We did some skills then went on a nice, 55 minute long dive. Saw a sea slug called Spanish Dancer that was really pretty, and lots of corals including spiny ones. A clown fish got territorial on me and bumped me in the head. More of the large rose style coral as well as spiny ones. I saw a large sea urchin that was black and white striped and moving along but I couldn't get Hannah's attention for identification so I'm not sure what it was. 

Koh Kon Island: we did most of our diving off this island

We surfaced, motored behind Koh Kon, did our water tread and ate lunch, then motored to the last site, Last Tree on the north side of Koh Kon island. The swell was massive but we were able to complete the last of our skills, including the CESA. When we first descended, visibility was terrible, about one meter. But as we came upon the non-sandy coral the visibility improved. We saw three Scorpions fish as well as lots of schools of smaller fish.

Celebratory beer and soda for the ride back to the mainland

The coral consisted of mostly big round domes. We surfaced, got on the boat, and motored back to Saracen Bay to drop off the Scuba stuff and a few divers. Hannah went to shore to settle her tab and buy some beers for the trip back. We were her last students with the Dive Shop, in Cambodia, and with PADI. On Thursday, she and her Boyfriend will be moving to the Cook Islands to manage Buccaneer Adventures, a SSI diving shop on the Cook Islands. She was very excited. We had some celebratory drinks on the ferry back to the mainland. We checked into the Coolabah hotel again and, after a shower, headed out for pizza at Olive & Olive.

Motoring back to Sihanoukville

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