With blue skies and the Andaman Ocean calm and still as a lake, the high season has officially started. As November draws to a close it is time to start getting excited about the upcoming delights from now until May. Lets see what the Similans have in store for us this season..
Similan Islands
As usual our first six dives were in the Similan Islands. We started with an unexpected drift dive at Anita’s reef. With the super moon long past we were expecting mild currents on the trip. In general this was true, but our check dive at Anita’s turned out to be a whistle-stop tour of islands 5 and 6 as we flew over the reef at a good few knots.
After this dive things calmed down and the rest of our dives in the Similans were calm, relaxing and perfect conditions for exploring the dive sites.
Koh Bon
When we arrived at Koh Bon we were one of the only boats there and jumped while other divers were on their surface intervals. This allowed us a private dive on one of Thailand’s most popular dive sites. As some of the groups ventured out to the plateau at 26m just to the South of the ridge, we were greeted by a huge school of neon blue fusiliers appearing to rise from the depths below. In the great visibility, this enormous splash of color was a definite highlight.
Koh Tachai
Koh Tachai, famous for its strong currents, was utterly still. We were given the freedom to explore more restricted areas of the dive site including the coral gardens and sea fans to the far North of the secret pinnacle.
It was a great dive, but it is worth mentioning the Jellyfish. After diving here for 6 years, this is by far the most amount of Jellyfish I have ever seen on a single dive.
Undeniably beautiful, but also a reminder that with over-fishing, rising water temperatures and a generally more hostile marine environment that allows jellyfish to thrive, this could become a more regular sight in the future. On our sunset dive at Tachai pinnacle, if you looked all around you from the surface to the bottom, you were able to see 15-20 at one time. Then by the following morning, on our first dive of the day, they had gone. This gave us time to swim among the barracuda.
Richelieu Rock
The visibility at Richelieu Rock appears to be improving, now at a constant 15-20m. This is good news as the better visibility is starting to show off all the wonderful colors of Richelieu’s soft corals, anemones and schools of snapper and fusilier. The Sunset dive is regularly the best dive of the day and this trip was no exception.
In the slightly lower light many of the schools of fish are drawn closer in to the pinnacle. This is not a dive to look for macro things. This is a dive to swim 10-20m away from the rock and surround yourself with fish. This is a fantastic experience and a real highlight on the final evening of the trip.
Thank you to all of our wonderful guests. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. Please leave a comment below if you were diving with us and we hope to see you again.
