No more photos

This is not a happy blog entry. It should have been; Emily and I have been having a fantastic time in Thailand, a country that has been far more exciting, varied and interesting than I had ever expected.

I had been taking lots of photos (as usual). Now, however, they are gone, about 300 of them: I lost my camera, off the side of a boat. It was in its waterproof housing, but would have sank without a trace since it was negatively buoyant.

Gone are my photos of:

• Golden Buddhas in Bangkok
• Assorted street scenes in Bangkok and Chiang Mai
• Images of Thailand's interesting train service
  
• Photos and video of elephants playing harmonica, throwing darts at balloons and placing a hat on my head, patting it into place
• And many, many more...

It looks like the travel insurance will cover the cost of replacing the camera, which is nice.

This was the first thing of value that I have lost in years. In ten years of diving I have never lost more than a cheap torch, and that was in 1998. I have always, always been fussy about clips and lanyards. The o-ring on the camera housing was lovingly cleaned and greased regularly to guard against leaks. The camera itself was normally housed in a nice protective cover so that if dropped (which it never was) it would hopefully survive.

On this occasion, however, I found myself at the bow of the boat, with the camera stuffed down the front of my wetsuit. I'd been going to clip it to my dive gear but the boat was busy and I could not get to it. Returning to the deck of the boat, I slipped and felt the camera pop out of my wetsuit. I did not even see it go over the side, just felt it.

This happened two days ago, and I am still so unmentionably mad at myself for not being more careful with the camera, and more significantly for now having burnt the photos on to CD before going on the boat.