Trip 011 Similan Islands

Day One

West of Eden continued in good form with hunting trevallies over the boulders providing a nice start to our day. We noticed the water was a bit greener and a few degrees cooler than previous weeks, not to everyone’s liking but its certainly isn’t bad for the reefs and the underwater world.

Day Two

We changed the schedule from our usual start at Christmas Point and moved into Three Trees, what a start it turned out to be, tornados of barracuda, gentle currents and plenty of giant groupers and rays in the sand. A couple of groups had a white tip in the shallows too.

Then we headed up to Koh Bon and then Koh Tachai, both offering some proper Similan high season visibility, and less waves and wind as they both dropped off.

Our last dive at Koh Tachai was packed with life and plenty of action on the main pinnacle, hunting and mating trevally, great barracuda and a pack of bluefin trevally made a spectacular show. The visibility over the pinnacle was very clear. You could see the trevally at the edge of the dive site rounding up the fusiliers and bait balling, before rushing the tightly packed balls of fish. One of my favourite underwater actions. When Tacahai is like this it’s easy to see why so many people love it so much, and return year after year in anticipation of what it can deliver.

The dive however was marred a little by the big boats above us. The noise and vibrations of multiple drop offs and pickups right above the dive site affect both the marine life but especially divers. We will inform the marine park in the hope that they will take the situation seriously and issue some warnings to these operators and to improve the safety and welfare for divers in the water.

Day Three

Aow Pakkad was in fine form,Kuhls Rays in the sand, a few dogtooth tuna cruising around and even a few African pomperos swimming around is a rare sighting at Surin. The Reef is in beautiful condition towards the north of the bay, and large schools of scads in the shallows ended the dive in what was a very gentle bimble along the reef. We are keeping an eye on the crown of thorns numbers on the reef, along with the DMCR of thailand. We will keep you informed of any actions taken.

Richelieu was in a challenging mood, swell, currents and cooler waters make it sometimes difficult to get around the site, however the abundance of life is always clear to see. These colder plankton full blooms of water are great for the reef, bringing in much needed nutrients and food. The highlight for me being the 2 juvenile cobias rolling and twisting in the sand. Playful behaviour like this is always a pleasure to see.

Day Four

Koh bon was beautiful for both dives and was a really nice way to end our trip. Great viz lots of life and a shark or two around the dive site, perfect.

I would just like to say once again thank you for joining us on this trip, and would like to wish you a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We hope to see you all again in the not too distant future, and a big shout out to Ys, Iris, Fabio and Fabienne on completing their EANx diver course. Keep in touch guys and if you ever have any questions you know where we are.

Boots and the Blue Dolphin Crew.