The Captain is not just happy, he is very happy. Even before entering his cabin, you can hear him laughing out loud, and he stills laughs louder when somebody pops into his cabin and mention the word “whaleshark” or bring the hand up to the head doing the shark sign. Although in the briefing we sometimes joke about his character, he is a really friendly guy; he is the Captain, the boss in the boat, that is his home. The Captains talk a lot through the radio, sometimes even sing; even our captain. These last days they go crazy. Once the divers of a boat see mantas or whalesharks, the captain of that boat informs the others: to update the situation in the divesites, to share the happiness and also, I would say, for Captain’s pride in front of the other boats: “My divers has seen this and that”. “My divers have seen nothing”, probably not good. Mai dee. But now his happiness is not for pride. Is the happiness of having seen the whaleshark himself, so close to the boat, through that amazingly clear water. Hahahaha. Still laughter and laughter. But not only our beloved Captain Sutin, we also laugh non stop, with the eyes wet for the emotions. The day couldn’t have been better, and seeing the captain so happy means a lot to us. Although the crew is all the time in the sea, not very often they are able to enjoy the amazing world living just under their boat, below the surface.
By the boat’s ladder, the dive guides are helping the guests to remove their fins, and with a smile from ear to ear report to the boatboys that a whaleshark has visited them during the dive, but Mr.Banana (the engineer) and Tor (one of the boatboys) are not surprised at all, because they have also seen the amazing creature from the boat. “We have seen the same than you without diving!! same same!!”. And laughter from them in the dive platform, and laugher from the divers still in the water. They are happy and excited.
Nu (another thai member of the crew) hasn’t seen the whaleshark, because he was driving around the divesite making sure that everybody was safe. No, he hasn’t seen the whaleshark; but this morning, in his dinghy rides around Koh Bon, he has seen a lot of mantas throught the crystal clear waters. And he is also very happy. He has seen mantas while the staff was checking the current, while the divers where deep down below and while Jill and Nicola where snorkelling with their husbands, the Stevenson’s brothers, that the first thing that they have done just after surfacing from the first manta madness dive has been going to grab their wives, fins and masks and bring them to snorkel with mantas. Jill says that she has identified 10 different ones from the markings in the top and the sizes,… Nobody thinks that this number is exagerated. Not even Jan and Dave, that come to dive every year with Ric, and have been in Koh Bon a lot of times over the years, and today they are also extremely excited and happy.
And what to say about Lisa, that has seen the first manta in her diving life. Well, and the second, and the third, and the fourth,… The same that most of the guys from the big chinese group. I don’t think there is a better way for them to celebrate the chinese new year. Good omen. And lots of happy people.