MV Smiling Seahorse, our brand new steel boat is being built in the mangrove forest, near Ranong for the last 6 months or so. It is taking shape nicely and nearly ready for the coming season! While it is not yet all done, we wanted to send you a little update!
​Let me introduce her to you...

From the front, the 2 massives windows on the main deck are the master cabins, so you can have a great seaview while cruising...  :)

Wow! a new word guiness record in diving today!
Ahmed Gabr went to 332 metres in Egypt today! crazy!!!!
Congratulation courageous man!

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Woww! I haven't written a blog post since January!!! Incredible how fast the season went. I must say we have been quite busy lately. It is now low season, the boat is parked, equipment stored or sent for servicing and we are getting a much deserved break!
Don't be mistaken we already miss diving and look forward to the new season.
In the mean time, I though about a little project, something I have wanted to do during the high season but really didn't have time to do...
I've decided to post our log book on this blog so you guys can see what we see on a regular basis on our dive cruises.
Sadly I don't have pictures of every creature we see but I'll try to post what I have and use some pictures taken by others.
I hope this will inspire you and that we'll see you soon!
Check out our calendar for next season's liveaboard schedule and book now!

After months of expectations, the boat is finally ready for more dive cruises and looking better than ever.

Many improvements have been made both above and below the surface:

We enlarged the wings for acute stability of the boat, installed a brand new, bigger propeller, installed battery operated fans in order to be less pollutant and noisy during the nights.

The cabins also have seen a major make-do, we have new silk curtains, cotton bed sheets, battery operated fans and decoration.

We also added some foam around the engine room to reduce further the noise during the cruising.

On the diving equipment side:

Our compressor,tanks and regulators were thoroughly tested by the number one dive equipment shop in Thailand, dive supply and repairs were made wherever was needed. We have now 9 new nitrox compatible tanks and 2 bigger tanks for the heavy-breathers. We are very proud by our security standards and you can see onboard our certificates of inspections.

We bought 5 brand new kits for rental (Scuba Pro and Mares), new 220 Lumen torches for comfortable night dives.

We are also proud about our facebook page and the support of our fans, now over 200 in only a few months of operation. What we like even better is to see familiar faces from last season coming back onboard MV Thai Sea for more fantastic diving holidays.

Our program remained pretty much unchanged with 4 types of cruises from 4 to 8 days. Our 8 days cruise is so popular this year that we had to add 3 more departures than expected, book your space early if you want space on this special cruise going all around the archipelago.

8 divers were lost during their dive off Nusa Lembongan a little island a few kilometers away from Bali in July 2012.  The weather was not at its best with reported waves of 3 meters and it would have been safer to report the dive for the following days but divers and the operator didn’t exert prudence this time!

Thankfully, a fisherman boat had decided to change its route that day and found the eight divers floating between the waves some 6 hours later! All of them were safe if not shaken by the experience. They can consider themselves VERY lucky!

Safe diving everyone!

Your turn: Have you ever been lost during a dive? How did you deal with the situation?

Cam took her PADI open water course with us, because her holidays were time limited, she first learned about the theory through PADI e-learning, she then practice her skills in Ranong in the safety of a pool and could enjoy all of the dives of our “best of Thailand” cruise to the Surin islands, Koh Bon, Koh Tachai and Richelieu Rock.

Elmar also took advantage of one of our 3 days/ 3 nights “Best of Thailand” cruise to improve his skills through PADI advanced course. He booked his course and boarded the MV Thai sea from Koh Payam and got his Advanced Book in German waiting for him onboard. He particularly enjoyed the Manta flying over him during his deep dive exercises!!! 

Olivier is doing his dive master course over a 3 weeks period with The Smiling Seahorse, onboard our cruises and on the land he discovers the skills and knowledge to start his carrier as a dive professional. 

Take a PADI Dive course with us!The Smiling Seahorse offers you the opportunity to do any training course staying on our live aboard and dive the marine Parks of Similan and Surin Ilands in Thailand for 5 days trip or discover the Mergui Archipelago in Myanmar (Burma) for 6 or 8 days trip or both on our combo package.

Combine the trip of a life time with dive training in perfect conditions, tropical waters (around 30°C all year long), crystal clear visibility and get the experience of a real diving expedition.

You might have heard the news of a new tsunami coming into Thailand. An earthquake off the coast  of Sumatra, around the same place than in 2004 and some were expecting a tsunami of the same dimension to touch Thailand.
We heard the news over the radio, Pong came to tell us the news and we immediately cancelled the following dives for the day and left the island side for a deeper sea.
We immediately felt quite safe, knowing a wave doesn’t break until it reaches shallower grounds but we felt quite worried about what we would find back on the land.
Our phones didn’t have much connection but just enough to reassure the family members which needed it most.
News were slow to come over the radio, in Thai and then in English. We first heard of the earthquake, followed by a rumor of a 18 meters wave, 30 minutes later we listened in silence the news of the wave reaching Phuket and Koh Lanta and only 20 minutes later were we reassured of minimal damage. We were waiting to see the wave pass us by but to no avail. After two hours of stress, we set the cap to Richelieu Rock and celebrated onboard the good news: No Tsunami, we are the Tsunami survivors!!!