Trip 033 Similan Islands

Trip 33 has just returned. We started off with a wicked display of Mother Nature’s power in Thap Lamu, fork lightning and heavy rain slightly delaying departure, but stunning to watch and listen to. As most people went off to bed we made our departure out to the Similans.

Waking up the following morning to a beautiful, clear and cool Similan landscape.

Day one. Diving started with hopefully a special turtle sighting at West of Eden. I have included a trip turtle summary at the end of this blog.

The day continued with some pretty decent dives, all offering something a bit different, drifting at three trees and some mighty fine macro at turtle rock.

Day two. Christmas Point woke us with a current that only Christmas Point can produce LOL, but the team navigated it well and everyone seemed to be bright eyed and bushy tailed after the dive and looking forward to the day. Koh Bon and Tachai did not disappoint either. Tachai being a challenge, but well worth it, the amount of life on the pinnacles was amazing.

Day three. Torinla Reef was a beautiful way to start the day, great viz and so much life, as we followed the reef around the islands edge, with the sun hitting the water, the reef looked great, loads of macro, juvenile life everywhere and spattering of different rays, what a start.

Richelieu was in decent form, low lying thermoclines meant the vis was somewhat reduced at depth, however it did mean that most of the rock’s fish life lay on top of it.

Dive three at Richelieu was special.

It’s always special, but this dive will live long in my memory. The thermocline had moved up slightly and the glass fish had moved slightly off the rock. The hunting action and mysterious darkness from how densely packed the glass fish were made for a truly memorising dive. That movement and sounds of the fish are so in tune, it truly is a great underwater spectacle and one we never take for granted. We sat on the roof with a beer after the dive, as the sunset, many of us just taking a quiet few moments to appreciate how lucky we are to see such sights.

Day four. We dived the ridge and south corner of Koh Bon, again with some tricky currents around, but by now the whole boat had grown used to them, so we pushed on and had a great couple of dives to finish our trip.

Last but not least a massive thank you for joining us, we look forward to seeing your photos over the coming weeks.

Keep in touch and we hope to see you all again really soon.

Boots and the Blue Dolphin Team.

Ps below is this trips turtle data… smashed it we did..

Big Blue diving Khao Lak – Similan Liveaboard 27 April – 01 May 2025

Turtle Data Summary

Trip Highlights

• 7 submissions (6 hawksbills and 1 green) from one boat in one day is a new Andaman Turtle Watch record – congrats to the Big Blue Team!
• 2 new unique individuals identified plus 5 ‘recapture’ submissions in one trip!
• A trip of firsts – Sam’s sighting at West of Eden was the first record of social interaction between sea turtles at this site and also the first social behaviour seen from 0001 Gracie who is one of our most frequently sighted turtles.
• The first record of a hawksbill eating feather stars in the ATW database.
• The observation of ‘0027 Tangmo’ is very valuable as it displays her recovery from a previous injury (minor propeller strike). We believe that this injury was a result of Tangmo frequently being fed by tourist boats – this harmful tourism practice is something that both Big Blue Khao Lak and Andaman Turtle Watch are working together to put an end to! Please see image below for Tangmo’s speedy recovery.

Links

Andaman Turtle Watch Facebook Group: facebook.com. Please share with your networks and encourage other divers to submit sightings. Historic sightings from past trips are also incredibly useful!


Andaman Turtle Watch Instagram: instagram.com. New page but stay tuned for interesting content over the low season.