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12th april 2022 : A world in colours between Lipe and Richelieu Rock

27/4/2022

Baby Eagle Ray, Giant Manta ray, Whale shark, turtles... : a cruise full of good surprises

It is with great excitement that we started this trip, the last one of the season where we get to dive all the best Andaman Sea dive sites from Koh Lipe to Richelieu rock.

Our awesome guests came from 11 different countries this week: Germany, England, France, Belgium, Denmark, Nederland, Portugal, Luxembourg, Austria, Singapore and Thailand, which made for a very multicultural experience :)

The trip started from Phuket on the 12th of April 2022 in the afternoon and we sailed to koh haa overnight to have our check dive there before heading South to the infamous hin Daeng and hin Muang for the other 3 dives, including the first night dive.

This week was a week of Full moon, which brought its share of current and action along!

So many trevallis hunting on top of Hun Muang!

The following day we traveled to Koh Lipe, starting with 2 dives at 8 mile rock. In order to have the best experience we modified our schedule and timed it with the tides…

What a great idea! That allowed us to enjoy the dive sites without having to fight the current.
Massive schools of barracudas and jacks in the blue and ghost pipe fish and seahorses in the reef, enough to please both scenic and macro enthusiasts.

Stonehenge and its million colours was also fantastic: Alternating vibrant solft coral with tomato clownfish in their anemone and giant barrel sponges in perfect visibility made the most beautiful coral garden ever seen!

For the last dive we had to hide from the strong currents and dived Pattaya corner, a nice sunset dive to wrap up the day with the chance to see one of my favorite fish: the Comet longfin.

Comet Longfins

On our way back to West, we stopped again at Hin Daeng, Hin Muang for 2 dives before going to the cathedral at koh Haa where a nice turtle gave us a show just in front of the caves…

We had only 3 dives this day because of the long navigation to the south of Similan the next day…

We have been trying for a while now to have an exploration blue water dive at the end of the continental shelf, where the bottom drops to several hundred meters… The conditions were perfect and everyone on board was game to try, so we finally had it and what a fun experience!

We didn’t see the sharks we were hoping for but we still had a nice Wahoo and giant barracudas visiting us and were surrounded by thousands of surreal jellyfish!

Next dive was at shark fin reef, where 2 turtles and a big school of barracuda came un front of the lense.

We carry on our route northward and had the 3rd dive at West of Eden. Even if the site is very scenic, it is a great place to hunt for the Psychedelic batwing sea slug…

For our last dive that day, everyone wanted to try again the end of the continental shelf to see what's there at night so we headed back West for our Blackwater dive…

Psychedelic batwing sea slugs

Blackwater

We jumped above 150m of waters and drifted in dark water where we spotted a juvenile flying fish, post larvae pufferfish, larvae ribbon eel, shrimps and squids but we had a squad of juvenile trevallies hunting in our lights making it very difficult to take photos without exposing the larvaes to the predators…

The next day started at elephant head rock, the regular fully grown up ribbon eels where there and the swim through always pleased our guests.

The 2nd dive at 3 trees, allowed me to take few shots of our guests and to try new photo angles on the barrel sponge ;)

3rd and 4th dive are planned to be at Koh Bon where we had the pleasure to see 1 manta on the first day and a whale shark the following morning.

As well as this exquisite baby Eagle Ray! don't you just love this cute smile?

This week was particularly busy because of Songkran holidays (Thai New year) but with the end of the week, went all the other boats! And we had it all to ourselves until the end of the cruise! That's when the whale shark paid us a visit!

The next 2 dives were at Koh Tachai Pinnacle, and we marvelled in front of the jacks, batfish and red snappers!

After the sunset dive was time for our fun-filled barbecue night! The courtesy cocktails and lamb legs got everyone in the mood for a great party night!

We finally made it to Richelieu rock for our last 2 dives… I must say, I rarely saw Richelieu rock as good as this day! We suppose that the fact that there was no boat for 2 days made the fish really friendly! They totally ignored us passing really close to us!

My highlight on this 2 dives was the finding of a robust ghost pipe fish! I haven’t seen one here in a while!

All our guests came back with sparkles in the eyes and the happy chatters lasted until our arrival in Ranong in the late afternoon. Good bye everyone and thanks for sharing this fantastic adventures with us!

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Why you should dive Nitrox on your next liveaboard?

23/4/2022

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Why you should dive Nitrox on your next liveaboard?

What’s the difference between air and Nitrox?

The air we breathe everyday is as a gas made of 21% oxygen, 78 nitrogen and 1% other gas.
Nitrox, also called enriched air, is a mix of the same gaz but in a different proportion, we enrich the air with extra oxygen so the oxygen proportion is bigger. Its name: Nitrox comes from the combination of Nitrogen and Oxygen.
We refer to Nitrox according to its oxygen percentage, for example a Nitrox 32 contains 32% oxygen and is the most commonly used.

What are the advantages of using Nitrox?

If you remember your Open Water theory class, the amount of nitrogen entering your tissues is what limits the time you can spend at a certain depth.
The more nitrogen in the body, the more we risk a decompression sickness. Using Nitrox allows the diver to have less nitrogen in his blood within a given diving time, which gives Nitrox divers many advantages:

The ability to stay longer at a certain depth before reaching the same nitrogen blood level.
For example, if you dive at 30 meters, you could spend about 20 minutes on air before a decompression stop becomes compulsory, 30 minutes with a nitrox 32 and 40 minutes with a nitrox 36!
Having less nitrogen in your body also means your surface intervals could be shorter (which is a big advantage in some situation when you want to squeeze in 2 dives in a limited time).

I’m planning to dive with my friend who dives one air, what’s the point diving nitrox? Even if you follow the same dive profile as air divers, you will be far less tired then if you were diving on air and far safer as you will be further away from a risk of decompression sickness.
The nitrogen tissues desaturation is what tires you so much after a long dive. The less you have nitrogen in your blood, the less tired you will fill.

What are the disadvantages of using Nitrox?

The “depth level” notion is the main disadvantage of Nitrox: the less nitrogen in your nitrox, the more oxygen you breathe. Oxygen becomes toxic with depth and it is important not to exceed a certain partial pressure or you risk in water-convulsions (which may lead to drowning!) These events are extremely rare and easily avoidable if you follow the brief. Nitrox is safer than air if used within its limits.

Can I dive deeper with Nitrox?

It is generally believed that Nitrox is used for very deep dives, but the reality is that it is a gas allowing longer diving time in mid-deep waters, perfect for recreational dives between 20 and 30 meters deep.
The only thing you need to know to dive using Nitrox is that beyond a specific depth, the oxygen becomes toxic. Nitrox being rich in oxygen, it becomes dangerously toxic, faster (less deep) than normal air.
But don’t get scared, after your course, you will know very well what will be your maximum depth on any given nitrox mix and plan your dive accordingly to stay safe!

Can I dive longer with Nitrox?

Nitrox will make your NDL (no deco limit) time longer but if you breath through your gas fast, you will still need to ascend before being “out of air”. So it will make your dive longer only if you are good with air consumption. While Nitrox has many advantages, reducing your breathing rate isn’t one of them and you should not see any noticeable change on your air consumption when switching to Nitrox.

Where can we dive with Nitrox?

Nitrox is used everywhere in the world, and it becomes really advantageous when doing multiple dives a day such as on dive cruises.

Do I need another certification to dive nitrox?

Yes! Because of the danger associated with diving nitrox, which are different from the dangers of diving with air (which you have learned during your open water course), you will need to learn a few more things to dive safely with Nitrox.
The Nitrox course is the most taught speciality in the diving industry, not only it is the easiest and quickest diving course, it can be done without even getting wet.
On the MV Smiling Seahorse, we teach Padi Enriched Air Nitrox for 6000 THB. It can be easily done onboard in a few hours but can also be done online before coming through PADI e-learning. Don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions!

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6th April 2022: South Andaman dive trip report

12/4/2022

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Heading back South Andaman after a month in the north Andaman. Was great!...

6th April North Andaman dive trip report

It is with 11 guests that we are setting sails. Four of them are return guests, which is for us the best review we can hope for! Among them, Pook is taking her photo skills to a new level and signed up for a full on photo coaching with Alex for the whole trip, while Nicolas is getting started with his brand new TG6 and signed up for 4 dives 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.

A great diving days ending with cocktails and barbecue

South Andaman Island

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

The first dive to be the check dive we picked the Laguna and had a nice and relaxed dive to start with allowing everyone to get back into diving mood and getting comfortable with the gear again…
We then went further south to Hin Daeng and Hin Muang for the rest of the day. Even though this is a famous dive site for manta sighting we were not lucky enough to spot one, but instead we were the happy witnesses of a big underwater ballet where the actors were trevallies, mackerels and tunas hunting into massive bait balls of glassfish moving like clouds again and again.

Divers under a boat with cool sunbeam

Lovely jelly fish and banner fish feeding on its tentacles

Tonight is the blackwater dive as well, off of hin Daeng we are very excited as the previous ones were absolutely mind-blowing…

6 guests out of 11 are game for the blackwater dive so we set up only one line and after half an hour sailing west we decide that it is deep enough, about 80 m of depth…

Lizard fish on blackwater dive, south andaman

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, lizard fish, butterflyfish and loads of jellies and plankton like organisms making for a good but average blackwater dive.

It was time to sail overnight to Koh Lipe where we planned the morning dive at 8 mile rock…
The visibility was great, allowing us to see this abundance of life and magnificent soft coral covering the entire reef.

Little shrimp on blackwater dive

blackwater diving of Hin Daeng Hin Muang

Hard coral formation with a soft coral growing in the middle

The colour on the reef are so vibrant around Koh Lipe

Huge schools of yellow tail barracuda, jacks and giant trevallies are a regular there, the very mild current let us cruise around the pinnacle freely, we had 2 dives there exploring a bit further we found 2 ghostpipe fish ;)

Everyone was particularly blown away by the beauty of Stonehenge in the afternoon were on top of the vibrant colours we found the cutest baby seahorse! It is a dome like coral garden at about 20 m for the deepest part going all the way to 6 meters.
The site is covered with corals of all sorts mixed with barrel sponges and various clown fish inhabited anemones: it is an explosion of colours! Absolutely stunning! Cruising the dive site we bumped into a massive school of chevron barracuda, it was the cherry on top making it a fantastic dive!

Diver over a school of fish

School of barracudas, Stonehenge, Lipe, South andaman

For the 4th and last dive we picked Koh Taru, a nice drift dive going with the current over the sandy patches looking for critters hiding there and in a lovely coral garden covered in yellow snappers, scorpion fish and fusiliers!

After a well deserved night's rest, we headed back East for 3 more dive at Hin Daeng / Hin Muang before having the sunset dive at Koh Haa neua, aka the chimney! Everyone had a blast there, playing in the swim-through!

Cocktails were ready upon return to start up a lovely party with great food (yummy barbecue with lamb legs, chicken wings, saussages and home made roated tomatoes, French fries and crunchy multi coloured salad).

Fun was had by all, I won't tell you more...

The end of the cruise was coming and for the last day and we start with koh haa yai, aka 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 whaleshark! 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, we have no photos to illustrate this fantastic encounter. We were really close to the reef, finding tiny nudibranch one after the other when it came right up to us to say hello!

The Smiling Seahorse at Koh Ha/ that's where we saw the whaleshark

Another wonderful sunset...

Our last dive, the 15th of the trip, was at Koh Bida Nok, a nice and easy spot inhabitted by a group of resident black tip reef sharks!
Turns out, 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 3 hours ride away, giving us plenty some time to look at the pictures of the trip and say good bye to everyone…

Happy divers with yellow seafan

Lovely reef scene, Koh lanta National Park

Thank you all for coming, we had such a great time! we hope to see you again very soon!

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North Andaman trip report 29th of March 2022

6/4/2022

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7 days to cross Surin and Similan Islands from Tap Lumu to Phuket

29th March North Andaman trip... A pleasant week with lots of discovery in incredible places!

Happy guests onboard

A week diving in the North...

After a nice overnight ride to our first dive site we started with a nice and easy check dive at Koh Chi.
This week was a new moon week, so we knew we would have to deal with a great deal of current. We could do our second dive as planned around Torinla, but we had to change the plans for dive 3 as the current was ripping at Yellow Rock, so instead we dived Ao Pragaad and everyone was stunned by the beauty of the coral reef there! We had our night dive in the same bay to see the different population coming alive after the sunset…

A clown fish ready for a nap

Beautiful reef, Similan Islands

The next day was a full day at Richelieu Rock , and even if we didn’t have the luck to see some gentle giant, we still had all the massive school of jacks and emperors hunting in the myriad of silversides coveting the colorful reef . On the macro side, ghostpipe fish are really everywhere! Some seahorse and harlequin shrimps as well.
The sunset dive, our favorite there as all the schools come into action grabing this last chance to feed before the night settle in.

Sunset on the Andaman Sea

Nice school of jacks tornadoe

We travelled overnight to Koh Tachai for our first dive and were greeted by a furtive but big school of barracuda, some nice lobsters, bannerfish, batfish having a thorough clean-up…
The day went by with 2 more dives at Koh Bon where we had great hopes for Manta encounter as we had 2 new individuals there the trip before, but unfortunately, this time none showed up however we had a very nice close encounter with the baby eagle ray and it lasted…!

Titan trigger fish in the blue

Baby eagle ray at Koh bon

As we came back from the last dive, the cocktails on board were ready for us as an prelude to our infamous barbecue night!

The trip carried on with the north of similan island. Starting with 3 trees, where the coral garden never stop to amaze me! The colors and the fish life is just perfect there! From the massive barrel sponge, the huge seafan and the bright colored soft coral it’s the perfect combination of color and shapes. The shallow part of 3 trees is also great with hard corals and wipe corals…
Even if the dive site is very exposed we were lucky to have a very mild current allowing us to explore the whole dive site with ease.

Next dive was at North point, just next to 3 trees, the particularity there is the rock formation making some channels and swim trough it can get deep and the visibility being cristal clear it is easy to see the bottom way beyond 30m!

Happy divers :)

Elephant Head was our third dive site of the day, swimm troughs, massive boulders, and good visibility is what you expect, and it was all there and more…
As we made it to the bottom, we bumped into a hawkbill sea turtle peacefully grazing, allowing us to take a few shots.
If you are familiar with this dive site you would know the little window in the wall just at the end of the channel… I found some surgeon fish, bannerfish and a parrotfish having fun going through the hole again and again, just the same as kids going up and down the slide at the kinder garden!

Staghorn coral

Hawkbill turtle

This night was the night we planned to do the blackwater dive, so I make a presentation explaining to our guests what is it all about so They can choose between having the sunset dive or the blackwater dive and everyone voted for the black water so we skipped the sunset and headed to the edge of the continental plateau where the depth drops from 8 m to 200 m, but unfortunately the storm hit us forbidding us to dive at all… everyone was bumped about it but we had great hopes for doing it the next evening…

Our next morning dive was at West of Eden, what a great coral garden, and very special place where you can easily find some psychedelic batwing sea slug on the shallow part and reef sharks on the deeper end…

Batwing sea slug

Followed by deep six and tuna wreck we are working our way down to have the sunset dive at Shark Fin Reef, but as per the previous day, everyone wanted the blackwater dive instead, so we started our journey south toward the Racha island where we were planning our next diving day and stop for the blackwater at 19h30 where the sea bottom is 200 m below the surface…
This blackwater dive was a hit, with so much life! Squids as usual, but also larvae sleeper lobster, spearing mantis shrimp, 2 male paper nautilus, a seahorse and a drift fish!

Everyone was mesmerized by it! It is such a different experience!

Baby mantis shrimp

squid on a blackwater dive

Some kind of crab on blackwater

The next day was also the last one of this trip, we started with Racha Noi south tip! Amazing dive site reminding me of the M erguy Archipelago with soooo much soft corals and huge schools of fish but the current didn’t let us stroll all over the dive site, we had to play hide and seek to make the dive last longer.

Racha Yai was our 2nd dive working our way up toward Phuket and our last dive was at Shark Point no disappointment with its fish population but once more the current was playing tricks with us, and we could witness underwater tornados as the water was swirling and sucking the sand up in it!

Donald Duck bay, Similan Islands

Butterfly fish

We had a smooth ride back to Phuket after that and used the couple of hours navigation to stamp logbooks and watch a slideshow of the pictures of this trip ;)

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12th april 2022 : A world in colours between Lipe and Richelieu Rock

Baby Eagle Ray, Giant Manta ray, Whale shark, turtles... : a cruise full of good surprises

Blackwater

Why you should dive Nitrox on your next liveaboard?

What’s the difference between air and Nitrox?

What are the advantages of using Nitrox?

What are the disadvantages of using Nitrox?

Can I dive deeper with Nitrox?

Can I dive longer with Nitrox?

Where can we dive with Nitrox?

Do I need another certification to dive nitrox?

6th April 2022: South Andaman dive trip report

Heading back South Andaman after a month in the north Andaman. Was great!...

North Andaman trip report 29th of March 2022

7 days to cross Surin and Similan Islands from Tap Lumu to Phuket

A week diving in the North...

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