6th April 2022: South Andaman dive trip report

Whale Sharks, Blackwater Diving and a Colourful South Andaman Adventure

It is with 11 guests that we are setting sail. Four of them are return guests, which is for us the best review we can hope for! Among them, Pook is taking her photography skills to a new level and signed up for full-on photo coaching with Alex for the whole trip, while Nicolas is getting started with his brand-new TG-6 and signed up for four dives of photo coaching with Franck.

After about one month spent in the northern part of the Andaman Sea, this week we are taking you back to the southern Andaman, going all the way to Koh Lipe, near the Malaysian border.

The Smiling Seahorse cruising through the South Andaman Sea — The Smiling Seahorse heading towards the southern Andaman

Cocktails and barbecue at the end of a great diving day — A great diving day ending with cocktails and barbecue

South Andaman island scenery South Andaman Island

From Phuket to Hin Daeng and Hin Muang

The trip started from Phuket and, after everyone checked in, we enjoyed our first shared dinner and started cruising towards Koh Haa, where we planned to have our first dive the next morning.

For the check dive, we picked the Laguna and had a nice and relaxed dive to start with, allowing everyone to get back into diving mode and get comfortable with their gear again.

We then went further south to Hin Daeng and Hin Muang for the rest of the day. Even though these famous dive sites are well known for manta sightings, we were not lucky enough to spot one. Instead, we were the happy witnesses of a big underwater ballet, with trevallies, mackerels and tunas hunting massive bait balls of glassfish that moved like clouds again and again.

Divers under the boat with beautiful sunbeams in the South Andaman Sea — Divers under the boat with beautiful sunbeams

Jellyfish with bannerfish feeding around its tentacles — A lovely jellyfish with bannerfish feeding around its tentacles

Blackwater Diving Off Hin Daeng

Tonight was blackwater dive night as well. Off Hin Daeng, we were very excited, as the previous blackwater dives had been absolutely mind-blowing…
Six guests out of 11 were game for the blackwater dive, so we set up only one line. After half an hour of sailing west, we decided that it was deep enough, with about 80 metres of depth beneath us.

Setting up a blackwater dive in the South Andaman Sea — Preparing for blackwater diving off Hin Daeng

Lizardfish spotted during a blackwater dive in the South Andaman Sea

A lizardfish during the blackwater dive

One hour later everyone was back on board. The dive conditions were good, but the visibility made it challenging to spot critters…

We still met some baby octopus, lizardfish, butterflyfish and loads of jellies and plankton-like organisms, making for a good, if fairly average, blackwater dive.

Koh Lipe and the Amazing Reefs of 8 Mile Rock

It was time to sail overnight to Koh Lipe, where we planned our morning dive at 8 Mile Rock.

The visibility was great, allowing us to appreciate the abundance of life and magnificent soft corals covering the entire reef.

Small shrimp encountered during a blackwater dive — A tiny shrimp from a blackwater dive

Blackwater diving off Hin Daeng and Hin Muang in the South Andaman Sea — Blackwater diving off Hin Daeng and Hin Muang

Huge schools of yellowtail barracuda, jacks and giant trevallies are regular visitors there. The very mild current let us cruise around the pinnacle freely. We had two dives there, exploring a little further, and found two ghost pipefish 😉

Everyone was particularly blown away by the beauty of Stonehenge in the afternoon. On top of the vibrant colours, we found the cutest baby seahorse!

Stonehenge is a dome-like coral garden, reaching about 20 metres at its deepest point and going all the way up to 6 metres. The site is covered with corals of all sorts, mixed with barrel sponges and various clownfish-inhabited anemones: it is an explosion of colours! Absolutely stunning!

Cruising around the dive site, we bumped into a massive school of chevron barracuda. It was the cherry on top, making it a fantastic dive!

Diver swimming above a school of fish in the South Andaman Sea — A diver above a school of fish

School of chevron barracuda at Stonehenge near Koh Lipe — A school of barracuda at Stonehenge, Koh Lipe

Koh Taru and the Return to Hin Daeng and Hin Muang

For the fourth and last dive, we picked Koh Taru, a nice drift dive going with the current over sandy patches, looking for critters hiding there and in a lovely coral garden covered in yellow snappers, scorpionfish and fusiliers.

After a well-deserved night’s rest, we headed back east for three more dives at Hin Daeng and Hin Muang before having the sunset dive at Koh Haa Neua, also known as The Chimney.

Everyone had a blast there, playing in the swim-through!

Cocktails and barbecue dinner aboard the Smiling Seahorse — Cocktails, barbecue and a well-earned evening on board

Cocktails were ready upon return to start up a lovely party with great food: yummy barbecue with lamb legs, chicken wings, sausages and homemade roasted tomatoes, French fries and crunchy multi-coloured salad.

Fun was had by all. I won’t tell you more…

A Surprise Whale Shark at Koh Haa

The end of the cruise was coming, and for the last day we started with Koh Haa Yai, also known as The Cathedral, a very scenic dive with a massive cave in front of a rich coral garden.

The last group got lucky seeing a curious whale shark! But as not everyone had seen it, we decided to stay for one more dive, giving us another chance…

Unfortunately, that whale shark must have been in a rush because it did not hang around. And Franck, not being part of the lucky divers, means we have no photos to illustrate this fantastic encounter.

We were really close to the reef, finding tiny nudibranchs one after the other, when the whale shark came right up to us to say hello!

The Smiling Seahorse at Koh Haa, where we spotted the whale shark

Sunset over the Andaman Sea from the Smiling Seahorse

Blacktip Reef Sharks at Koh Bida Nok

Our last dive, the 15th of the trip, was at Koh Bida Nok, a nice and easy spot inhabited by a group of resident blacktip reef sharks.

It turns out that every guest got to see them! Some of us were lucky enough to have a good look at them while they were cruising in front of us; others only got a furtive glance as they were running away from the bubbles…

Phuket was only a three-hour ride away, giving us plenty of time to look at the pictures from the trip and say goodbye to everyone…