Diving in Thailand: King Cruiser wreck

Thailand, 12^th November, 2013

I just recently got back from a marveillous dive trip to Ao Nang in Thailand. This is the first account of the dives that I did on that trip. It is about an awsome wreck dive at what may be the most famous wreck in Thailand.

Icebreaker Ship Urho

This time I'm writing about the visit that I made to the icebreaker ship Urho in Helsinki. Cold, cold winter is on its way, and icebreakers are getting ready for their season of action. Now, I know this blog post has absolutely nothing to do with diving, but I'm writing it all the same. Simply because visiting the ship was so cool.

Icebreaker ship Urho

Vertical Underwater Current

Sometimes unpredictable forces of nature can turn a pleasant day of diving with a friend into a scary, even dangerous experience. This blog post is an account of a dive that I did quite a few years ago, a dive that did not go as well as it should have.

It was a beautiful sunny day in early August, and my dive buddy and I were planning an easy dive from a rocky shore in Porkkala in Southern Finland, not too far from where I live. It is a popular dive spot because it is usually an easy site to dive and it is easily accessible.

Salema porgy (sarpa salpa)

Salema porgy is a species of bream that is relatively common in the subtropical area of Eastern Atlantic (coasts of Northern Africa and Spain) and in the Mediterranean. It is also found in the Indian Ocean, in the coastal waters of South Africa and Mozambique. It is a shoaling fish, which means that it swims in large schools to avoid predators. Its size is 20 to 50 centimetres long.

This is a school of salema porgys that I spotted when I was doing some cave diving near Kalithea in Rhodes. A couple of saddled seabreams swimming in the same school also made the right hand corner of the picture.

Moorish Idol (Zanclus cornutus)

Here's a nice little fish I spotted while diving in the Similan Islands in Thailand some years back and managed to get a photo of . I encountered it near North Point, close to island number nine. Very dramatic scenery there, by the way, marvelous canyons and huge magnificent boulders of underwater rock!

The Moorish Idol (Zanclus cornutus)

Pike, the Great Freshwater Predator

Pike (Esox Lucius)

The pike is a relatively large carnivorous fish found in fresh waters all over the World in the northern hemisphere. It lives in fresh water, but can also be found in brackish water of the Baltic Sea.

Photo:Wikipedia

Pike are olive green or brownish in colour, with a white belly. The flank is marked with yellow spots contrasted by dark spots on the fins. The pike can grow to well over twenty kilograms in weight and 150 centimetres in length. They can live for more then twenty years. The largest and oldest pikes are always female.

Bladder Wrack (fucus vesiculosus)

Finally, after a long wait, I have the time to write again! I'll start this autumn by writing about the bladder wrack. So why write about a simple sea weed? The bladder wrack is an important part of its eco-system, it has commercial implications, and it has medicinal qualities. So it is not simply a plant growing on the bottom of the sea.

Bladder Wrack, reaching for sun light

THREE GREAT 18th CENTURY WRECKS

The Finnish coast of the Baltic Sea is truly a wreck diver's paradise. For centuries, trade ships have sailed along the coastal waters on route between Russia and central Europe, despite the Gulf of Finland being a dangerous, stormy sea filled with treacherous, often uncharted rocks that are hidden just under the surface.

Along the centuries, storms in the rocky, unpredictable waters of the Baltic have sent literally hundreds, if not thousands of ships to the bottom of the sea. In the 18^th century alone, dozens of ships were claimed by the sea near the Finnish coast. Many of the wrecks have already been found, and even more still lie at the bottom of the sea, waiting to be discovered.

Beginner's Guide to Diving, part 3: Dealing With Problems Underwater

I started writing this Beginner's Guide to Diving series to those who are interested in scuba diving, but are not divers yet. It has been some time since I wrote the first and second parts of this ”guide”, but here, at long last, is the third part.

In part one I wrote about how to get started with scuba diving, and in part two, some thougths about what it takes to be a diver, as well as some information about basic equipment needed. In this third part, I'll try to give some ideas about dealing with possible problems underwater once you actually get to go diving.

Drift Diving - a Rollercoaster Ride Underwater

Speed. It has to be one of the most typical ways adrenaline junkies get their thrills, and really get their juices pumping. It could be motor racing on a track, flying a plane, or driving a speed boat, or it could be base jumping or hang gliding. What speed is not usually associated with, is scuba diving.

Scuba diving is a slow-paced, relaxing activity where you have plenty of time to take in the underwater scenery and enjoy the weightlessness of your body as you calmly glide along, mentally listening to whatever music it is that Buddha would listen to on his quieter moments. And that's good. That's how it's supposed to be. But theres' also another way to dive...

Leech (Hirudo medicinalis)

Last summer, on a family trip to the lakeside, I spotted a leech near the waterline where we were snorkeling. I was startled and disgusted. The last thing I'd want was a leech hanging on my skin, sucking blood. That was the end of

Big Fish at the Abandoned Quarry

Just the other day, being that it was particularly warm and sunny that morning, some friends and I got together to go for a swim at an abandoned quarry nearby. The quarry had filled up with ground water ages ago, when digging for stone ended there. The place is perfect for swimming because the water is clear and warm, and hardly anyone ever goes there, so we have the pond all to ourselves most of the time.

Springtime Baltic Sea

Snorkeling in the freezing cold Baltic Sea, trying out underwater macro-photography

Bladder wrack

I took my first dip of this year in the Baltic Sea a few days ago. Spring has arrived, and beginning new life is blooming underwater, too. I packed my underwater camera and wetsuit on the boat and headed out to the Finnish archipelago. The idea was to experiment with underwater macro-photography in shallow water.

Angel shark (Squatina squatina)

Spotting a Mediterranean angel shark was, for me, a case of seeing something spectacular and not even realizing it. It was only later that I found out that the thing is actually quite rare, critically endangered in fact. And I thought it was just kind-of-a-shark! Well, the latin name of the species, squatina, does actually mean "a kind of shark", so I guess I was half right.

Diving in Alanya

Planning a family holiday to Alanya in Southern Turkey, I was not entirely sure I would get to dive at all on this trip. While being a popular tourist destination, Alanya is not exactly on the "top ten places to dive"-list. Anyway, that's where we had decided we were going, so I'd have to make the most of it. I'd dive there no matter what!

View from Cleopatra Beach. If you look closely, you can see a dive boat parked in front of Phosphorus Cave.

Changing the battery on my dive computer

Battery change, Suunto Vyper

I was packing my dive gear, getting ready for the next dive trip. As always, I checked my Suunto Vyper dive computer. Only this time it signaled that the battery was low. It would have to be changed before diving. I was in a bit of a hurry to get the battery changed; I was leaving for my dive destination the next day. So I called my local dive centre to get the job done. Unfortunately, they were already closed for the day.

Turtles in Turkey

A sea turtle calmly gliding into view through the clear blue Mediterranean water is an awe-inspiring sight.

A turtle in the distance

I recently went diving with Scuba Turtle Diving School in Incekum in southern Turkey. They are situated within the Pegasos Club Hotel, right on a beach that turtles come to nest on every year. The eggs buried in the sand are carefully protected. The area of the beach where turtle eggs are laid is closed from use as long as the eggs are there.

Beginners Guide to Diving, Part 2

Learning to Dive

So you decide to learn how to dive. Are there any reasons that could prevent you from diving? Your age is not likely to be an issue. It is possible to start as young as eight years of age and dive for as long as your health allows. Most disabilities won't prevent you from diving. In fact, moving in the weightlessness underwater may even be less of an effort to some. Nor is where you live likely to be a problem. 80 percent of the world's surface is covered by water. You can dive practically everywhere on Earth. I myself live just south of the Arctic circle and there are certainly no colourful coral reefs here, and the water gets pretty cold at times. Yet, I have done some of my most memorable dives right here in the murky, cold waters of the Baltic Sea.

A beginner's guide to diving, part 1

Introduction

This article is to those of you who are not divers yet. Don't worry: since you're reading this, you probably want to be, and you'll see there's no reason you couldn't be. Reading this article could well be your first step to a whole new exhilarating life of adventures underwater.

Diving in Rhodes, Greece

I visited Rhodes in September 2011. It was already a little bit off season, so I got Anna, the dive guide, all to myself on the first day.

The wreck of Kronprins Gustaf Adolf

You know the comic strips and cartoons: Treasure hunters find well-preserved wooden pirate ships lying on the bottom, and dive down to explore them. You'll also probably be aware of the sad fact that the kind of wrecks you see in comics are all long since gone, eaten up by the ship worm until all you have left are some scattered metal parts buried in centuries of sand. And they're too deep for divers anyway. Right?

Panic underwater!

This post is a bit more personal, I'm writing about a panic situation that I myself experienced. As all divers propably know, panic underwater is one of the most dangerous problems a diver is likely to come across.

Diving in Tenerife 2012

I have to admit that the beauty of the underwater world around the island of Tenerife came as a bit of a surprise to me. The volcanic rock bottom of the Atlantic ocean around the island is in itself a sight worth seeing. There are some exellent dive sites just off the beaches of the popular Playa de las Americas, only a short boat-trip away. It is possible to see masses of different species of fish and other marine life, from octopusses and tortoises to dolphins and even whales.

My dive-trip to Aqaba, Jordan 2012

I visited Jordan with my family last November. What a beautiful country, what friendly people! Jordan was really worth the visit. Great diving too, warm clear waters and colourful reefs right at the northern end of the Red Sea.