Thailand Reopens: Our First Surin and Similan Liveaboard Cruise of the Season
“Welcome on board for the 1st trip of the season.” This is how Franck’s briefing started.
We could feel the relaxed atmosphere on the Smiling Seahorse and everybody was happy and excited to be there, among the first divers to witness Thailand’s best dive sites again after their closure for six months!
This trip started from Ranong on 14 October 2022. After eating and lighting the traditional firecrackers, we started cruising overnight towards Koh Surin, ready to begin our fantastic diving trip.
The First Dives of the Season at Koh Surin
The next day, everybody was impatient to start diving! Our first dive of the season was at Koh Chi. Visibility was pretty good and the current really mild.
Despite the rain and waves, everybody enjoyed the dive and came back to the boat smiling after the check dive, happy to be the first ones to dive in the Surin Islands this season!
During the second dive, we spotted a green turtle at Ao Packard, while some divers spotted an eagle ray at Yellow Rock. Pretty nice surprise!
The third dive at Torinla was pretty good too. We saw two Pikachu nudibranchs and a huge lobster.
Fourth dive: let’s go for the night dive! We sheltered in a lovely bay where the conditions were really nice for a quiet nocturnal exploration. The reef is covered in hard corals, which was pretty cool to explore with our UV torches. We saw a classic moray eel hunting, along with many types of colourful shrimps.
In the evening, we all enjoyed the delicious meal made by our amazing chef, Choui, while listening to Tommy and Ploy, two insightful marine biologists, giving us an introduction to marine ecology at night.
Koh Bon and Koh Tachai: Sharks and Barracuda
On the second day, we headed towards the Similan Islands, diving at Koh Bon and Koh Tachai.
Unfortunately, the waves were quite rough at Koh Bon, making it impossible to have a nice dive on the usual dive sites. To keep things safe and fun for everyone, we tried the north side of Koh Bon, which was better than expected.
Following their dive leaders, the divers split up underwater. Some went east and enjoyed the macro life on the sand, while others headed southwest, following a nice coral reef filled with tropical fish.
For the second dive, we headed to Koh Tachai Pinnacle. It was still raining above water, but conditions were perfect once underwater: no current at all, clear visibility and not one other boat in sight!
One group jumped in right in the middle of a barracuda storm! Everybody loved this dive: batfish, lobsters, huge groupers and nudibranchs… so much to see!
On the third dive, the stars of the show were surely shaaarkkks!!! A family of six blacktip reef sharks came close enough for some nice photos. So lucky!
A Manta Ray Presentation and a Crystal-Clear Richelieu Rock
For the last dive of the day, weather conditions deteriorated, so we decided to skip the blackwater dive and do either a sunset dive or a night dive on the Koh Tachai reef instead.
We enjoyed another excellent meal and listened to a talk given by Jamie, our Manta Specialist, about manta rays.
She explained how to dive with them with minimal disturbance, how to take an ID photo for the database, how to recognise a male from a female, how to recognise certain behaviours and more. It was all very instructive and helped everyone understand how every single diver can contribute to scientific efforts that protect these gentle giants.
After sleeping at Koh Surin, we went back north towards Surin National Park to dive its jewel: Richelieu Rock.
This dive site is just so beautiful! Macro life everywhere, schooling fish, barracuda, batfish, many tomato clownfish in their bright anemones, moray eels… Some of us could even spot four massive cobias, giving us hope that something bigger might come out of the blue.
The water was clear as crystal. But once onboard, the surface conditions were still pretty wavy, so we decided to head back to the Surin Islands for two more nice, sheltered dives.
This afternoon, Ploy and Tommy gave an insightful presentation about the living world of corals and nudibranchs. It was fascinating!
The third dive was at a site we rarely visit because of the lack of time, but oh so stunning: we called it Sunset Wall. A huge coral wall starts at 5 metres and drops down to 30 metres. We even found a pair of tiger-tail seahorses.
A Barbecue, Celebrations and a Special Cruise
To end this day perfectly, we enjoyed a wonderful barbecue made of lamb, chicken, sausages and vegan options, as we had quite a few vegan and vegetarian guests onboard this week. There were tomatoes à la Provençale, mixed salad, hand-cut French fries, potatoes with homemade garlic butter… it was sooo tasty!
Franck offered a round of drinks to everyone to start what became a great night. We cruised back leisurely towards Ranong and woke up at our own pace the next morning with the smell of coffee and bacon!
A special mention for Bruce for his 100th dive and Claude for his 200th. Congratulations to Apple for her AOW course, and to Carmen and Jorge, who celebrated their honeymoon onboard. Wishing you guys many years of fun diving together!!!
Thanks again to the Thai Ocean Academy for putting together this special Marine Ecology programme. The marine biology presentations were really cool!
Goodbye everyone, and thanks for sharing this fantastic adventure with us!! We are looking forward to diving with you again very soon!
