KO NANGYUAN, Thailand - Our boat had two new occupants for our brief trip back around the head wall and our beachfront hotel on Ko Tao. Both were German, and one held an expensive camera pointed at the coral-lightened waters.
Zach, sitting behind me in the middle of the boat, suggested that he might want to store the camera in the captain's dry bag. Stiff winds and an approaching thunderstorm meant we'd been hastily removed from the islet of Ko Nangyuan before the rain came.
The German rebuffed Zach's advice.
"It will stay dry," he said. "You will see."
We set off in a Thai Longtail Boat, which is about 20 feet long, and made of thick wooden planks. One plank extends over the front end, this is the "tail." The boats are low and designed to work with the current of the ocean, not go against it.
Our fate lay in the hands of our captain. He was a product of Ko Tao's diving scene: long, curly hair and gap in his smile where two front teeth used to be. He drove well: taking the smaller waves head on and then pausing the motor so we could avoid the occasional large swells. We weren't in "The Perfect Storm," but the coming cold front kicked up swells several feet high, enough to make me nervous sitting just 18 inches off the surface of the water.
Fifteen minutes later I was on Ko Tao's beach with a cold bottle of water. Our new friends the Germans were nowhere to be found. Several waves crested the front of the boat during the trip, and his fancy camera was soaked.
