Our last long range tech diving trip of 2009 was to HTMS Pangan, then further north to the deeper wrecks of 'Pornsri' and Vlado.

Some of the divers were finishing their DSAT Tec Deep training and then continuing to Tec Trimix. A couple more were working towards their Tec Instructor rating, plus there were a few divers joining the tech trip to simply enjoy some great wreck diving.

All of us were instructors with lots of diving experience, including 3 PADI course directors, so along with a good weather forecast I was  looking forward to a good trip.

Our technical diving trip left at sunset in great weather and we arrived at the HTMS Pangan well before dawn. The shot went in as day broke and we tied on amidships. The Pangan is a Thai military vessel, built in Japan in 1937, lost in a storm in 1961. She lies on her port side in 60m.

Tim and Ivan successfully completed their DSAT Tec Deep Course of the first day - the diving was easy compared to their previous training dives on the Unicorn wreck near Koh Tao, and we enjoyed excellent visibility and no current. The next day we dived the Pangan again, the two student tech divers on a Normoxic Trimix blend.

We then traveled overnight to the wreck we've nick-named the Pornsri.

This is a huge postwar freighter, at least 130m long and 5000 tons. She's a recent wreck, lots of fish but no coral yet. Today the visibility was excellent, clear water all the way to the bottom at 70m. We still haven't got a positive ID so the mission was to find a name. The divers went off to the bow, Andy, deep air diving thought he saw a name but that was easily spotted as a few welds by the trimix divers. We stayed another day and the superstructure was explored for the first time time, but still no positive identification.

Our third and final dive site on the expedition was the wreck of the Vlado, another very big wreck, superstructures amidships and aft. She 's an old vessel which sunk post war. A real ship wreck, one of my favorites. She lies on her starboard side in 68m, and less than 50m to the top. We've been here a few times before but still have a lot to explore.

The weather stayed good all through the trip, with a slightly bumpy 14hr run back into Koh Tao, arriving in time for a Safety Stop breakfast. Tim D started his journey back to his glamorous job teaching diving on a cruise ship in the Caribbean, Tim K to continue his retirement on Koh Samui, Andy back to Bangkok to make even more millions on the stock market. And the rest of us, back to work on Koh Tao!

The next long range trip will be in late Feb, suggestions welcome