Trip BB2504 Similan Islands

Trip 3 of the season is back in the books—and despite some spicy forecasts, we juked the worst of the weather and still pulled off a winner, with big smiles and even bigger visibility.

We warmed up with a quick splash at Aow Pakkad, then went full throttle to the world-famous Richelieu Rock. It did not disappoint. Picture an underwater action movie: epic hunting chases, cameo appearances by an Ornate Ghost Pipefish and a few Zebra Eels, and a headliner cast of emperor fish, trevally, and rainbow runners storming the reef like it was opening night.

A short hop to Tachai brought surprisingly happy seas, and we tucked in out of the worst of it for a solid night’s rest. Morning diving at Tachai tried very hard to upstage Richelieu: Blacktip reef sharks cruising, octopus playing hide-and-seek, and schooling barracuda giving us the side-eye. The hunt was on again—half the fish were out for lunch, the other half were trying not to be on the menu.

Koh Bon showed up a little lumpy, but we stashed the mothership, zipped in by dinghy, and boom—more stellar viz and a bunch of cool critters rolling out the welcome mat. Back on board, P Ann delivered ribs so good we briefly considered proposing. Appetite satisfied, dive cravings crushed we settled at Beacon Reef for another peaceful night (against all odds).

We woke to gloomy Similan Island Number 9 and poked our noses around the corner to Christmas Point which was much more favourable under water than on the surface. Some groups had an encounter with a white tip shark and we went again to hide from the wrath of mother nature before popping back out for an adventure of a dive to North Point’s not so secret pinnacle where we saw lots more hunting action. Three Trees was glorious and we got a quick visit from Levi the Hawskbill turtle. We ate exactly one piece of cheese cake each, definitely not more (you can’t prove anything) and then dropped a weight before we jumped in for a lovely glide along Snapper Alley with one group finding a Pygmy Squid. Suspiciously, squid was on the menu for the evening along with some delicious chicken drummers.

An early morning venture up to Koh Bon turned fruitful with some epic underwater conditions over the ridge, and the pinnacle rounded up a fantastic trip of diving.

Congratulations to our two new Advanced divers, and our 4 new Nitrox divers, you guys smashed it!

Finally I’d like to say thank you to all the customers who joined on this trip it was a pleasure to lead and I enormously appreciate the patience everyone showed as we navigated the challenging surface conditions and for looking the other way while the cheesecake was being served. Well done to our wonderful crew too who we’d literally be lost without.

Please stay in touch we love to hear where you’re diving in the future and do come back and see us soon!