Team tech says "Richelieu Rocks" 17th to 21st of Feb 2021!

25/2/2021

This week was something new for us as we welcomed 8 tech divers + 3 tech guides onboard going on 2 hours long dives on Thailand's best dive sites. Our itinerary changed slightly this week and we started on the stunning Richelieu Rock for a days, spent a second day at Koh Bon, a full day at Koh Tachai and a dive at Richelieu before heading back.

What was neither new, nor a surprise was the quality of the dives. Diving conditions are at their best this time of the year and over 30 m viz is becoming the norm!

Visibility in koh bon thailand in February 2021

Koh Bon pinnacle from afar...

Richelieu was the highlight for macro life seekers, there are many ghost pipe fish and tiger egg cowries to be found on the seafans at the moment, the harlequin shrimps were posing for us and we met a new baby seahorse, isn't he sooo cute!

We were also delighted to find again the Giant frog fish which lives at the bottom of Thailand's best dive site since the beginning of the season. Let's hope he stay there until the end!
We also found 3 red Freckled Frogfishes camouflaging so well in the crack they hide in!

Freckled Frogfish richelieu rock thailand dive site

Koh Tachai was the highlight for those loving big schools of fishes. In particular the baraccudas who formed a giant tornado around us!

baracudas school in koh tachai thailand 2021

We had 2 rebreather onboard, 10 divers in side mounts and 12 divers in single tanks. With 4 tech and 4 recreational drop of and pick up per day, we kept well busy!

emperor fish in Richelieu rock thailand andaman sea

Time onboard was also well appreciated: we dived, we ate (4 delicious meals per day!) and we slept! And that's the recipe for a fantastic long diving gateway!
And on the way back we were welcomed back into Ranong province by a great pod of dolphin!

food onboard mv smiling seahorse thailand liveaboard

spare ribs on the BBQ

sleeping in the hamac on mv smiling seahorse

Nap time on the roof top :)

Thank you all for coming from Bangkok, Koh Tao and Lipe and we look forward to seeing you again very soon!
You can find all the photos from this trip in this facebook album.

Built by and for divers in 2018, MV Smiling Seahorse is the newest dive boat around. Join us for an unforgettable diving adventure in Thailand's top dive sites!
6D Thailand Manta and wale sharks expedition:
Thailand's best Dive weekend: Surin islands and Richelieu Rock
4D Thailand:
Best of Thailand Dive Cruise: Surin, Koh Tachai, Koh Bon and Richelieu Rock
5D Thailand:
Best of Thailand Dive Cruise: Surin, Similan and Richelieu Rock
7D Thailand:
DIVE ALL OF Surin, Similan and Richelieu Rock

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Surin, Koh Bon, Tachai and Richelieu on the 12th of Feb 2021

25/2/2021

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Wow, what a trip!
Thailand has experienced a new covid wave this last month so we had to cancel all our cruises. But we were able to return to the sea last week to superb conditions in the Surin and Similan Islands. We also had to the pleasure to welcome back 6 return guests and made 9 new friends which made it even more exciting to go back to these beautiful sites with a bunch of fun people for an amazing trip!
And we were so lucky! Mother Nature provided wonderful gifts to us on this cruise.

Surin, Koh bon, Tachai and Richelieu on the 17th of Feb 2021

On our very first dive we were welcomed to Surin Islands National Park by a majestic giant guitar fish swimming towards us and giving us a good show before departing. It stayed around us long enough to take in all the details of this interesting creature and it was certainly the highlight of the dive.

Our second dive was special as we spotted a wonderpus octopus poking out of its sand burrow. We didn't think these cute creatures lived in Thailand so it was a great surprise!
PS: we unfortunately didn't get the photo of the rare critter and the bellow is a photo of the less rare but always charming reef octopus we encountered in Koh Bon :)

octopus in koh bon dive site in thailand

Can you spot the Octopus!

Our third dive was highlighted by a huge Napoleon Fish at Kitten City. In the large sand patches we also found many rays, including some blue spotted ribbon tail rays and the larger Jenkins rays. When we cruised over to the rocky area, we encountered quite a number of shy brown marbled groupers who snuck into the cracks as we got closer.
As we were taking a break on the boat between dives, we got to see another sea life show as a marlin jumped dozens of times around the boat. The Surin Islands delivered a truly fantastic day this week!

A super fishy week of diving.

At Ko Bon we were all hoping for something big in the blue and kept our eyes peeled. You see, there had been a big bull shark sighted there last week and that was quite an exciting prospect. One diver was lucky enough to spot a giant manta ray at Koh Bon ridge but the rest of the group missed it - bummer!

Some of us found luck later when we saw a black tip reef shark cruising along the ridge, along with a Maldive sponge snail on the pinnacle, and plenty of chevron barracuda and tunas hunting in the blue. A sea snake came by us as it was surfacing for a breath of air, and most of us got to see two mating octopus performing their Valentine dance. I swear I heard dolphin songs at the safety stop but never saw them.

We were surprised by a group of free divers at Koh Bon which made for nice photos :)

This week's visit to Ko Tachai was out of this world! We dived into 40 meter visibility and massive amounts of fish. We loved the giant trevallies most of all - they were absolutely huge! They had loads of friends around with schools of blue trevallies, jacks, emperor fish, and surgeon fish all hunting together in balls of glass fish. Impressive big lobsters were showing off on the sea floor and porcelain crabs delighted us in anemones.

A big hunting party wasn't shy to come close and give us a show.

Our barbecue night was again loads of fun and Simon gave us a scuba diving celebratory dance... I'll just leave those moves to your imagination haha!

Dance, dance, dance!

Always a big delicious meal on the barbecue!

We were so lucky to be alone underwater at the famous Richelieu Rock! Only one other boat was on site with us so we could get some diving away from the others and had the site to ourselves.

Thailand's number one dive site was not as fishy as Ko Tachai this week but was still exquisite. A school of chevron barracudas mingled with their cousins the yellowtail barracudas. We saw schools of batfish with a zebra murray at the safety stop. Hermit crabs were playing hide and seek at every crevace. We saw many colorful tiger egg cowries hanging out in sea fans, mantis shrimps, thazard fish tomato anemone fish, immaculate ghost pipefish, and frogfish all while being surrounded by trevallies. Some big tunas also passed by to gran up the smaller fish nearby.

A spooky ghost pipefish hiding in the rocks.

What a huge school of shiny batfish!

These bright tiger cowries always amaze!

We had an amazing trip with new and return friends!
A big thank you to Chris, Pook, Andrew, Mike and Gabriela for coming back!
A special congratulations to four new Open Water and Adventure Deep Diver students David, Gerard, Laura, and Arnaud.
And Congratulations as well to Lena on becoming an Enriched Air Diver and to Nikita and Rianne for their Adventure Deep Dive Certifications.

We hope to see you all again soon for new underwater adventures!

Thanks for coming everyone! What a great trip!

Are you crazy about Manta and whale sharks?
We have this cruise for you!

6D Thailand: Manta and whale shark expedition
2021 Manta and Whale Shark Diving expedition in Thailand
A special 6 days/ 5 nights cruise to learn more about Manta and whale sharks in Thailand from 25th to 30th of March 2021

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The Smiling Seahorse Diving Blog

A blog about our diving adventures in Burma and Thailand. Diving trip reports, guest reviews, fishy stories, wildlife fun facts and much more...

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The Smiling Seahorse has been running dive cruises from Ranong since 2012.
Our team of instructors are reporting with a short blogpost after every trip.
Camille, Franck and some guest writers also contribute during the off season writing on various topics.
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Team tech says "Richelieu Rocks" 17th to 21st of Feb 2021!

Surin, Koh Bon, Tachai and Richelieu on the 12th of Feb 2021

Are you crazy about Manta and whale sharks?
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