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Schools of Trevallies on Richelieu!

28/4/2021

We set off from Ranong in the afternoon of April 19th for a 3-day dive trip in the Similans and Surin National parks. We made a stop on Koh Phayam to pick up a few guests, and then headed straight for the Surin Islands, Koh Chi specifically, for our first dive of the trip.

School of fish on richelieu rock, thailand

We woke up to a beautiful sunrise on April 20th and were in the water by 7am! The water was beautiful, and visibility was particularly good! One group spent a wonderful 10 minutes with a hungry turtle munching on some coral. If was certainly not shy and did not mind divers around it!

Divers with a friendly turtle

After our first dive, with all groups comfortable in the water, we decided to head to Richelieu for the following 3 dives of the day. There, we were greeted by schools of trevallies, and more great visibility, with only a few areas of thermocline.
We were lucky not to face any current and the water was very calm, allowing us to dedicate our time underwater to admiring the wonderful corals, schools of trevallies, barracudas, and fusiliers.

We also visited our regular friend the giant frog fish who was not in his usual spot but on a new rock this time. The harlequin shrimps were also there, and we were delighted to see that the pair had a tiny cute little baby, and we also spotted the baby seahorse which we had found on our last trip!

Giant Frog Fish Yawn

Curious Clown Fish

After this excellent day of diving, we set off for the Similan National park starting at Koh Bon, where we dove twice in the morning of April 21st. On the first dive, all groups decided on the pinnacle dive, where we marvelled at schools of glassfish as they spread and regrouped around hunting emperor fish. On the second dive, most groups set out for West Ridge in the hope to find one of the resident octopuses. No Manta today, but instead, cute baby box fish were spotted, as well as marble shrimp.

School of Trevallies

School of Fusiliers

On the following two dives, we headed to Koh Tachai, were once again, we were lucky to escape the currents and had very peaceful and pleasant dives. The schools of fish were plentiful, and the barracudas seemed to be waiting for us at the safety stop!

Ready for the sunset dive!

On the last dive of the day, some of our experienced divers decided to go diving without a wetsuit. Some say naked diving is a rite of passage for someone’s 100th dive, but who said we need an excuse for having fun? A word of advice for those wanting to try this: daytime is probably warmer than evening, and stay away from the thermocline 😊

On our last day, we dove Richelieu Rock twice before sailing back to Ranong and reached the pier around 7pm. On the way back, we were lucky to see some dolphins swimming next to us, and the captain slowed down so we could follow them for a while. It was a lovely way to end the trip .

Thank you for joining everyone and hope to see you again soon!

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Whale Sharks for Songkran!

19/4/2021

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Oupsi it looks like I have been a bit late publishing this one...

We departed in the evening of April 13th for a 4 nights / 3 days trip over the Thai Songkran holiday. Leaving in the evening allowed us to sail at night and wake up bright and early for our first dive at 7am on Koh Chi Island, Surin. This is our usual spot for the first dive, aka “check dive” of the trip.
The peanut shaped island has a slopping reef going from 5 to 18 meters, finishing on a sandy bottom, and is great for finding bentstick pipe fish, sea moths, Pikachu nudibranchs, as well as turtles, black tip reef sharks, and parrotfish.

While the visibility was not the best for Surin on our first 2 dives, (10 to 15 meters) several groups were happy to spot 2 turtles, a pipefish, a baby box fish and lots of colorful angel and butterfly fish.
On the agenda for that afternoon, a visit to a Sea gypsy village and a night dive on Surin before departing for Koh Bon in the morning…or so we thought…

Instead, we received a tip after our 2nd dive that a whale shark had been spotted on Richelieu Rock, so submitted our itinerary to a vote and a unanimous decision was reached to sail to Richelieu Rock that afternoon for 2 afternoon dives.
We were excited and had high hopes of encountering the much sought-after sea giant, and were rewarded almost instantly after jumping in the water: it took us a few minutes to realize from the sighting frequency and the trail of fish following the whale shark that is wasn’t one but two that were swimming around Richelieu Rock! How amazing!

Wave of glass fish on Koh Bon pinnacle

Whale shark on Richelieu Rock

Managing our depth for a better air consumption, we managed to spend the whole hour with the whale sharks coming and going while we watched in awe. Needless to say, that made for some very happy divers!
As we also had 2 snorkelers onboard, we used the surface interval between dive 3 and dive 4 to snorkel above Richelieu Rock, and there again, were able to spot the friendly giants.
For our sunset dive, we were pleased to spend another 60 minute dive with regular whale shark encounters while we were also admiring the barracudas and giant trevallies.

In the evening, we decided to pursue our dive schedule for the next day and sail for Koh Bon, where we dove twice in the morning, followed by Koh Tachai, for one afternoon and one sunset dive.
On Koh Bon, the highlight was diving with a very friendly octopus for a while. We were mesmerized as it moved in the water and we witnessed it change color several times. On Koh Tachai, there was a decent amount of current, ensuring a lot of action! It’s always a pleasure to admire the school of barracudas and giant trevallies hunting, as well as the peaceful batfish.

School of barracudas

Batfish on Koh Tachai

Diver with Clown Fish

After a full day of great diving, we went back to Surin for 2 morning dives, were we drifted with current on Torinla and finished the trip off with 2 dives on Richelieu Rock. There, the currents had cleaned the plankton from the water, improving the visibility considerably back to it’s normal self, and we had two great dives, visiting our regular friends, the giant frog fish, ghost pipe fish, harlequin shrimp and we even found a new baby seahorse!

Diver with Giant Frog Fish

In the evening, we celebrated our successful trip with a Barbecue and Ti Ponch cocktail and sailed back to Ranong in the morning.
What a lovely way to spend Songkran, we are glad we were so lucky to have you all with us on this trip!

Group picture onboard the Smiling seahorse so much fun

the famous barbeque night!

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New moon over Surin and Similan islands

13/4/2021

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Our most recent trip took place from April 9th to 11th; we departed Ranong in the evening 9th to wake up in Surin National park, ready for 3 full day of diving, 4 in the Surin islands, followed the next day by 2 dives on Koh Bon and 2 dives on Koh Tachai and ending with 3 dives on Richelieu Rock the following days.

8th to 12th f April 2022 diving expedition on The Smiling Seahorse in Thailand

On this trip, we had 2 advanced open water students and a majority of young divers, many who experienced night diving for the first time during this trip. We are happy to report they both graduated with honors and everyone loved night diving!

PADI advanced open water in surin and similan islands

3 newly certified Advanced Open Water - Congratulations!

When jumping in 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 3 to 4 meters and decided to follow it for a little while. It proved to be a great idea as behind the turtle, they discovered 3 baby black tip reef sharks circling around the reef. Later on during the same dive, another group spotted an eagle ray passing by. What a fantastic way to start our journey!

Divers on Koh Tachai

During the rest of the day, Surin made for incredibly lovely dives, with some coral dives mixed with a drift and muck dive, all the group saw blue spotted sting rays sleeping in the sand, some cuttlefish were spotted, a juvenile pipefish, and even a hump head parrot fish!!

The following day, we sailed to koh Bon for 2 morning dives. The visibility was great and currents allowed us to do 2 dives on the pinnacle. Some of us chose to dive the West ridge and got to hang out with one of the resident octopuses, saw lots of shrimps, nudibranches, while others dropped on the pinnacle, traversed to west ridge and spotted a black tip reef shark.

While Koh Bon had only mild to no current, koh Tachai had stronger currents bringing in a plethora of barracudas, jacks and the usual schooling batfish. On our sunset dive, we sought shelter from the current and began our search for small creatures and found plenty of nudibranchs, lobsters, box fish, baby scorpionfish and more.

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, photos are better than words sometimes! With all the young and flexible guests onboard, it made for a lot of laughs and good vibes. The cocktails might have also helped.

On our last day, we dove 3 times on Richelieu Rock before setting back to Ranong. On top of the usual harlequin shrimps, ghost pipe fish, frog fish, tiger eye coweries, we were lucky to spot another eagle ray, who came to see us off until next time. No Whaleshark this time, but we are keeping our fingers crossed for the next time.