Trip 005 Similan Islands

Trip Five

of the season was an absolute pleasure with some epic conditions, very special sightings, wonderful company on the boat and as always the food a-plenty and the beer a-flowing this was definitely a trip to remember.

With weather conditions settling down we had 4 days of calm seas, quite lucky considering the previous trips.

Day one gave us a nice gentle introduction to the shape of things to come with some sea snakes, a turtle and a very rare sighting of a stone fish at three trees, our beach visit, although a little busy, was fun and followed by a relaxing night dive spent seeking out all kinds of crustaceans.

On the morning of day two we dropped on Christmas Point and found surprisingly gentle conditions, and an epic sighting of a hungry moray-eel literally biting off more than he could chew by getting a pufferfish stuck in its mouth.

After the dramatic scenery at Koh Bon ridge we approached Tachai with an air of anticipation and little did we know that we were about to drop onto 3 Manta Rays, playing around the south-west side of the dome. One of the individuals appeared to have some netting caught on its cephalic lobe. This was an epic dive with may Manta sightings and we prepared for the last dive of the day with a plan to try remove the net.

Alas the rays had made an exit from the site and we didn’t see them again but hopefully someone else had managed to help it out. We did see an absolutely monstrous barracuda however which definitely didn’t find its way in to my nightmares, not even a little bit.

Moving in to day three and it would have been hard to beat the events of the previous day. Step in Richelieu Rock. After a chill but eventful dive at Turtle Ledge, yielding a Napoleon Wrasse, a Hawksbill Turtle and a Shovelnose Ray… Richelieu wielded its usual magic treating us to incredible scenes of fish, eels, shrimps, crabs including a Frogfish. The most notable achievement for the day however was learning the name of the illusive Fimbriated Eel. A skill I’ve put in to practice many times since. I’d like to thank all those involved for their part in this wondrous feat. There were also banana fritters which are definitely worth a mention.

And our final day (awww) two dives on Koh Bon were both very enjoyable with a quick visit to the Pinnacle which had baracuda, and many many fuseliers and scad, followed by a relaxing final dive on the ridge with one group seeing a marble ray, and another group seeing a Manta Ray around the north side.

Thanks to all the guests who joined us on this trip. With such lovely people and such a wonderful crew it really is a pleasure to lead trips like this. Congratulations to those who completed their Nitrox and/or advanced courses, we hope you’ll continue to dive and we hope to see you all again soon for more adventures :)