Our diving adventure took us to Similan National park and Racha Noi next one our way back to Phuket and what a dream come true. We saw everything from Kuhl's stingray, big schools of barracuda, nudibranch, and even wipe coral shrimp. 

The Similan Islands have been made famous for the wealth of their coral reefs teeming with wildlife and usually great diving conditions it is rare to have bad visibility here and both divers and snorkelers can see a number of marine species and brids more diverse than anywhere else. The beach stop are not to shabby either!

Our guests this week came from France, Austria, Germany and switzerland to dive with us, and we had a blast!

First day of diving, we were at Surin National Park and it was incredible! We saw some reef sharks and a lot of school of fishes.
​The Surin Islands (Thai: หมู่เกาะสุรินทร์, Thai pronunciation: [mùː kɔ̀ʔ sùrin]) is an archipelago of five islands in the Andaman Sea, 60 km from the Thai mainland. Administratively, the islands are part of Tambon Ko Phra Thong, Khura Buri District, in Phang Nga Province, Thailand.

The following days we were at Similan National Park. The visibility was good about 20 meters +.
The Similan Islands (Thai: หมู่เกาะสิมิลัน, RTGS: Mu Ko Similan, Thai pronunciation: [mùː kɔ̀ʔ si.mi.lan]) is an archipelago in the Andaman Sea off the coast of, and part of, Phang Nga Province in southern Thailand. It was established as Mu Ko Similan National Park in 1982 by the forestry department.

​We saw a group of long nose emperors, group of blue fin trevally, big eye trevally, fusiliers, glass fish everywhere, a group of banner fish, and much more.

For the first dive and the sunset dive, there always have a lot of action. It's the time that all the fishes come out and feed themselves and the dive will always make you think that you are in the heaven (surrounded by tons of fish).

This trip was amazing, the diving itself, the food, and we’re trying our best to take an excellent service to make our guests have the most wonderful vacation with us… MV The Smiling Seahorse.

Thank you for choosing us.

Hope you all had a good one.

Cheers!!

This week marked our third collaboration with Thai Whale Sharks, as we welcomed Marine Biologist and the founder of the project, Kirsty Magson onboard for 8 days of diving as we explored the north and south Andaman on the lookout for the world’s biggest fish. Kirsty delivered daily lectures on all things' shark as she educated guests on Whale Shark Ecology, Shark Biology, Threats to Sharks, Ecotourism, Whale Shark Conservation, Whale Shark Feeding and the Process behind Whale Shark ID. The trip was built around dive sites that offered the best chance to spot some of these gentle giants, so a lot of time was spent looking in the blue, but how did we get on?

Departing from Phuket the first stop on the agenda was Koh Haa and Lanta National Park to dive Hin Muang and Hin Daeng. Theses dive sites famous for the Dendronepthya soft corals which give these sites their names offered a lot of very fishy encounters as we were surrounded by schooling jacks, emperor fish and some were lucky enough to find 2 stone fish relaxing on the reef. Unfortunately, no signs of anything big in the blue this day but we did encounter some very large sea hares (Dolabella auricularia).

Day 2 and 3, we headed to Tarutao National Park, for dives sites such as steps, 8 miles Rock and of course Stonehenge. These 2 days provided us with Frogfish, seahorses, cat sharks, sea slugs, a wide array of hard and soft coral diversity and even a quick hello from another of the gentle giants, the Manta Ray (unfortunately not in front of Franck's lense so no photo...)

Day 5 and we headed North to the Similans to explore Shark Fin Reef, Elephant Head and Three Trees. Octopus and Ribbon Eels were high on everyone’s list of must-see animals. The Similans also provided an opportunity to jump off the boat and feel sand between our toes as we headed to the beach at…….. and the chance of an encounter with the Nicobar Pigeon. We ended the day with a sunset dive at Koh Bon and a blackwater dive, the first for many aboard (and most certainly not the last) with snake blennies, paper nautilus and so much more being seen.
The next day brought us to Koh Taa Chai, encounters with Black Tip and White Tip Reef Sharks as well as Eagle Rays and the school of Barracuda made for some amazing diving.

Day 7 and it was off to Richelieu Rock for 4 dives, and what a day we picked. Conditions were incredible with amazing visibility, low currents and of course some of the best diving in Thailand. The schools of jacks, glass fish, rainbow runners and emperor fish meant there was activity all through the water column and closer to the ground, we found Harlequin Shrimp, Seahorses, Sea Slugs, Peacock Mantis Shrimp and more.

To round off the trip, we ended with 2 dives on the Boonsung Wreck ahead of landing in Khao Lak. The wreck was destroyed in the tsunami, but offers a wide array of marine life living in all the nooks and crannies that can be found. Cat sharks, sea slugs, cuttlefish, and the honeycomb moray eel were favorites of the day and a great way to round off the trip.
Whilst we weren’t lucky enough to encounter any whale sharks on this trip, we were fortunate to enjoy some incredible diving with some amazing marine life. So, until our next adventure, thanks for reading. 

Wanna learn something new from Kistry on our next Whale shark and marine bio expedition?! 
​Save the date for the next edition!

Special trip for special guests coming from Israel, Malaysia, Canada, China, Hong Kong and Thailand. Diving with us and conduct some research on the reef, to understand more about the cleaning stations and the different coral species interactions.

One of the main goal of this trip was to locate a cleaning station, we settled down some cameras where we found loads of cleaner wrasse, and leave them during our surface interval, hoping to capture some pelagic images when no divers are diving on the site.

Amazing day in Richelieu, dive site is always full of life and specials encounters.
Franck managed to capture on a picture the egg of the clown fish around the anemone, Ghostpipefish, seahorse and the most wanted harlequin shrimps.

Diving in the Similan National Park for the next 4 days, Koh Tachai, Koh Bon and the Similan islands number 7 to 9 were our research field. While the divers examine the reef, we were lucky to see some sharks and rays in the blue and some beautiful Nudibranchia on the reef.

It has been a fascinating trip, the surface interval was busy with some presentation on the different species of coral, their threats and some ecological solution to save our reef !

Dedication for the special shrimp we found and were so happy to discover for the first time in the archipelago..... the..... hairy..... shrimp ! Well done Camille !

Another great trip diving in the Andaman Sea in Thailand. 14 guests from all around the world embark with a big smile on the boat in Phuket and happy to start cruising South. 

Congratulations to Sari from Finland and Blake from Australia, our two students from this trip, started straight away to study and managed to be certified Advanced Open Water Diver and Nitrox Diver after few days only !

Thank you to Koh Lipe and its beautiful dive sites and their beautiful creatures.
We were lucky to discover a stone fish, two frog fish, plenty of coral catsharks, seahorses, razor fish and some colorful Nudibranchia.

Time to cruise North and look on and in between the big granite boulders of the Similan National Park. Another frog fish, a ribbon eel, a curious eagle ray and some black tip reef sharks were spotted in the middle of millions of fishes swimming above the reef. 

The Blackwater dive from this trip was great, and we spotted many tiny and strange critters.

Back to the limestone type of rock with the famous Richelieu Rock and its school of barracudas, trevallies, emperor for four dives. You don't know where to look, in the blue for the dancing fishes, on the reef, covered by thousands of glass fish, for the beautiful peacock mantis shrimp, ghost pipefish and seahorse. 

Thank you for this amazing trip and looking forward for the next one already.

We had the pleasure to welcome this group, all the way from the United States to dive with us in the beautiful Andaman Sea of Thailand. Checking in on the MV The Smiling Seahorse and starting this trip in Ranong, we cruised to the South of the country and dove the best dive sites of the Andaman Sea from Myanmar's border all the way to the Malaysian border.

bAfter our check dive on the north of Surin, we headed to the famous and beautiful Richelieu Rock for the rest of the day! Loads of glass fishes, trevallies, barracudas and bat fishes were swimming around us and the purple rock.
When we looked closer on the reef, we found a seahorse, two baby ghosts pipes fish and the first pair of harlequin shrimps of the season!

Time to head for the Similan National Park and dive there for a couple of days. Colorful Nudibranchia and their eggs were found on the big boulders of granite. A huge and old green turtle came to visit us during our surface interval, and some guests were happy to swim with it for a while.

After those two great days of diving, it was time to navigate south overnight to Hin Daeng and Hin Muaeng: two dives sites of Lanta National Park. Time to change the types of rocks we are diving on and explore a pinnacle made of limestone and basalt with a full mix of soft and hard corals.

We celebrate the full moon and witnessed the lunar eclipse from the boat, while some of the guests were trying to blackwater dive for their first time and loved it.

Next day we went close to the Malaysian border and dive the underwater pinnacle of 8 Mile Rock and around Koh Lipe at the famous soft coral garden of Stonehenge. We found a frog fish, indian walkman and some cute cuttlefish.

After this great day of diving, we headed back toward Koh Lanta National park to dive on Koh Haa and ended the trip with Phi Phi for the last day of the trip.

Thanks again to 72 Aquatics Tucson for joining us on this amazing trip. We are looking forward to diving with you again very soon!

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.

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.

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. 

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!

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!

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! 

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…

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

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