New moon over Surin and Similan islands

A Young Divers’ Adventure Through Surin, Koh Bon, Koh Tachai and Richelieu Rock

On this trip, we had two Advanced Open Water students and a majority of young divers onboard. For many of them, it was also their first experience of night diving, making the cruise an exciting mix of learning, exploration and plenty of new underwater experiences.

We are happy to report that both of our Advanced Open Water students graduated with flying colours, and everyone ended up loving night diving! 🙂

A fantastic start at the Surin Islands

When jumping into the water on the morning of our very first dive of the trip, the first group spotted a turtle swimming at a very shallow depth of just 3 to 4 metres. They decided to follow it for a little while, and it proved to be a great idea.

Behind the turtle, they discovered three baby blacktip reef sharks circling around the reef. Later during the same dive, another group spotted an eagle ray passing by. What a fantastic way to start our journey!

During the rest of the day, the Surin Islands provided some incredibly lovely dives. We enjoyed a mixture of coral reefs, a drift dive and a muck dive, giving everyone plenty of opportunities to practise their skills while looking for marine life.

Across the different dives, the group encountered bluespotted stingrays sleeping in the sand, cuttlefish, a juvenile pipefish and even a humphead parrotfish. It was a great introduction to the variety of diving that can be found around the Surin Islands, with something interesting waiting around almost every corner.

Exploring Koh Bon and its West Ridge

The following day, we sailed to Koh Bon for two morning dives. Visibility was great, and the currents allowed us to make both dives around the famous pinnacle.

Some of us chose to explore the West Ridge, where we got to hang out with one of the resident octopuses and search among the reef for plenty of smaller creatures, including shrimps and nudibranchs. Meanwhile, another group dropped onto the pinnacle, traversed towards the West Ridge and was rewarded with a sighting of a blacktip reef shark.

Koh Bon had only mild current, or sometimes almost none at all, but things became quite different when we reached Koh Tachai.

Strong currents and schooling fish at Koh Tachai

The stronger currents at Koh Tachai brought in a plethora of barracudas, jacks and schooling batfish. It was a completely different kind of diving from the calmer conditions we had enjoyed at Koh Bon, with large schools of fish moving through the blue and the current adding plenty of excitement to the dives.

For our sunset dive, we sought shelter from the current and changed our focus to the smaller inhabitants of the reef. The search quickly paid off, with plenty of nudibranchs, lobsters, boxfish, baby scorpionfish and other fascinating creatures appearing among the rocks.

Barbecue, cocktails and the famous box game

In the evening, we feasted on our usual barbecue and played a really fun game called the box game. We’ll let you figure out the rules for yourself – sometimes photos are better than words!

With all the young and flexible guests onboard, it made for plenty of laughs and good vibes. The cocktails might have helped a little too…

Three dives at Richelieu Rock

On our last day, we headed to Richelieu Rock for three dives before setting back towards Ranong.

As usual, Richelieu Rock had plenty to keep us busy. Among the highlights were harlequin shrimp, ghost pipefish, frogfish and tiger eye cowries, with lots of smaller marine life hiding among the rocks and corals. It was a fitting final dive site for a trip that had already delivered such a great variety of encounters.

We were also lucky enough to spot another eagle ray, which came to see us off until next time.

No whale shark this time, but we are keeping our fingers crossed for the next visit!

Thanks everyone for making this trip such a great one! We hope to see you back onboard soon. And once again, congratulations to our new Advanced Open Water divers!