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By Kit C. Cauw
The deckhand could be myself, ten years ago. As he shows the passengers
the correct method for donning a personal flotation device, or life
jacket, I'm taken back to my crew days in Seattle, of swallowing
my pride and fastening the orange vest about my midsection before
an audience of 300 utterly disinterested guests. I feel for these
deckhands, the way they're obliged to play flight attendant every
day. I've daydreamed off into those cruises of yesteryear when I
notice he's doing something new, something I never did. He's showing
us how to use a rebreather and everyone's paying attention-this
isn't your everyday seat belt or oxygen mask. It comes out of a
black box. Plugs for the nose, goggles for your eyes. A mouthpiece
connected to a big plastic lung. A rebreather. I thought these were
only true in James Bond movies. I want to try it. The deckhand assures
us the rebreather will keep us going for up to forty-eight hours.
Given that the longest scuba dive I've ever taken was only forty
minutes, that's a long time under water. I could probably walk half-way
to Malaysia using my rebreather.
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The deckhand puts the apparatus back where it belongs in its little
black box and informs us that we will find one under our seat once
we have transferred to the submarine. He does not say that there
has never been a death in the tourist submarine industry. He does
not tell us that Pacific Subsea Saipan, of which Phuket Submarine
Co. Ltd. is an offshoot, has over 15 years of experience with tourist
subs, nor that the industry boasts a perfect safety record, after
having served over 10 million customers-clearly outpacing the floating
tourist boat industry in this crucial regard. Despite the untainted
history, the deckhand doesn't make any promises, he doesn't want
to jinx us, turn us into statistics. There's still a slim chance
we'll get to use our rebreathers.
Phuket Submarine Co. Ltd. is located at Rassada Harbour, on Koh
Sirey, the same pier from which most boats to Phi Phi depart. The
office is set in a clean, new building that looks barely inhabited.
There's a cheap, tasty restaurant at the far end and a waiting area
for the submarine tour with views across the water of a hillside
temple and the jungle. The same crew member who showed us how to
don our PFDs and use our rebreathers earlier explained the necessity
of taking a ferry to the submarine. Unlike the subs in movies like
"The Hunt For Red October," you will be happy to learn
that Phuket Submarine is not nuclear powered. Neither is it especially
speedy, with maximum speeds of 3.2 knots/hour (5.9 km/hour). It
is much more time and cost efficient to use a plain old ferry to
bring us to the sub. The other thing is that the submarine actually
draws quite a lot of water, 2 metres, to be precise, which is a
bit much for the harbour. Even at surface, most of the boat remains
beneath the waves.
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The latest greatest in the submarine tourist industry, Phuket's
sub is a Deep Star 48, equipped with twenty-four seventy-five centimetre
view ports, seats for forty-eight passengers, LCD displays mounted
between the portals showing footage from external cameras. Its overall
length is 60 feet (20.73 m), and it can dive safely to 75 metres.
The craft is fully air conditioned as well. Phuket Submarine is
a joint venture between Thai investors and Pacific Subsea Saipan,
Inc., a US-based company that provides tours around Saipan Island,
off Japan. After its soft launch on December 1, 2003, Phuket Submarine
has increased its dives, currently operating five a day, each for
about 45 minutes and to depths of thirty metres.
At Koh Maiton, the ferry docks alongside the sub, which is tied
to a small safety boat. We climb into the hatch, down the ladder,
and into the depths. The ferry's rudders and propellers are at eye-level
when I sit down and look out the window. An LCD monitor shows our
current depth: 2 metres. Outside, small fish feed on particles that
look like dust in greenish air. Shafts of sunlight undulate through
the water. In a burst of bubbles, the submarine begins its descent,
the accompanying traditional Thai music appropriately eerie for
the otherworldly feel. As a diver, it is strange for me to find
myself ten metres down yet never feeling the need to equalize pressure
in my ears or sinuses. Before I know it, we're down at the bottom,
at 23 metres. The water is fairly clear, the coral retains some
of its colour. Incredibly, the reef fish seem oblivious to our presence
as they feed ferociously along the reef.
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The deckhand points out two lionfish, those freakily pretty creatures
with the puffed out feather-like "manes." "You don't
see these every day," he says. Indeed, they are fairly uncommon,
the kind of fish that divers take note of in their logbooks. In
addition to the lionfish, the parrotfish and angel fish, we're treated
to a live viewing of a leopard-printed moray eel. Tiny incandescent
blue fish with yellow tails dart by. The sub glides slowly along
the reef, then turns around and cruises back, so each side of the
craft can have a turn with each view. The other view looks out away
from the reef. It's less interesting, but also a better vantage
point for seeing spotted stingrays and sharks. Sadly, I see neither.
I do, however, get to see a larger lionfish swim past, fully inflated,
its mane fluttering in the current. I should have brought my camera,
this is the perfect venue for easy underwater photography.
Phuket Submarine Co. Ltd. asks that guests make reservations at
least one day in advance, at least 7 days prior for group/incentive
of 24 or more passengers. Fares are 2500 baht for adults and 1800
baht for children, including transfer to and from the pier and submarine.
Souvenirs are for sale at the gift shop located in the main building
at Rassada Harbour. This is the first tourist submarine in Thailand,
"The Adventure of a Lifetime."
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