I am not an experienced diver. I’m not certified. I only started to learn to swim 3 years ago; I took adult swim lessons at my local city pool when I turned 35. I love the water but I’m new at this. I’ve done a few “Discover Scuba” classes in the pool and my husband and I had a successful dive in Antigua about 3 years ago.

When planning our trip to Thailand, I knew we had to book a dive. While there are certainly other dive Meccas throughout the world, I know Thailand is pretty high up on the list. I booked our two-dive day months before the trip to make sure we would get the chance, as we had a pretty tight itinerary for our 21 days in Thailand. After some debate, we actually booked it for the first full day we were in Thailand. We knew we’d be exhausted from the 17 hours of flying, jet lag and culture shock, but I was confident I’d at least be healthy at the start of our trip, and I didn’t want to run out of time if our first week on the 7-day tour of the island area of Thailand ended up being too busy.

Even though we’d done a refresher discover scuba pool dive at home a few weeks beforehand, I was still really nervous; the ocean is a big place compared to a pool. We’d booked Aussie Divers in advance and it went perfectly from the moment the driver picked us up at our hotel to take us to the pier where we met our dive team of two and our other two fellow divers. We boarded a fairly large boat at the pier with about three other small dive groups. They supplied us with motion sickness tablets (if we needed them), served us a great Thai breakfast and our group went over the basics of hand signals and safety and gave us a general idea of what the day would look like. Afterwards, we had about an hour before reaching the Racha Yai dive site. I didn’t want to sunburn out on the top sundeck knowing I’d be in the water all day so I decided to take a few moments to myself for some relaxation and to calm my anxious nerves. The ocean is my favorite place to be, so what better place to work on myself and practice some mindfulness than during my short time at sea. I put my feet up, leaned against the wall of the booth on the boat and just took in the sounds and sensations around me:

A hint of diesel smell in the air
The dampness of the humidity on my skin
The noisy, chugging boat engine
The choppy waves
The rotating ceiling fan blowing air around the room
The blue of the sky out of the window
The vibration of the boat motor against my skull where I was leaning
The creaking noise of the boat with each wave

I began to feel the boat move with the ocean. I could feel the panels of the boat swell with each wave. I became suddenly aware it felt as if the boat was breathing with the rhythmic waves. I realized I was breathing with it. I closed my eyes and felt the boat and the ocean breathe around me. I felt so peaceful and present.

My session came to an end as we reached our first dive site and Shawn came to see if I was alright because I was alone in the cabin and not mingling on the deck. For a few moments, I had truly been alright. I hadn’t worried about the dive or heatstroke or sea sickness or any of my life worries. I just breathed. Peace.

The dives were amazing. Shawn and I each had a few moments of panic at different times, but the instructors, Darren and Craig, were both professional and helped us work through our issues. The fish were spectacular, the coral was far better than I’d been warned about due to recent storms and climate change. I’m really glad I didn’t know much about triggerfish until later… I’ll let the photos speak for themselves with only one final thought: Be kind to the ocean. Don’t litter, use biodegradable sunscreen and don’t harass the wildlife; it’s their home and we’re privileged to get to see from this view. Be kind to the Earth. We only have one home.

Fun fact: it took me weeks and weeks to research and figure out the names for all the fish we saw that day. Thanks as usual for taking the time to read and look at my photos. This was a really special day for us and I can’t thank Aussie Divers enough for an amazing trip. Stay tuned for more Thailand ramblings. Until next time, safe and happy travels!