A small group for a big trip, this week MV Smiling Sea Horse had 7 lucky guests, coming from United States, France, Singapore and Israel. Franck, our co-owner and onboard photographer wasn't onboard this time so a big thank you to Boris Mekler for illustrating this blogpost with fantastic photos. Thanks a lot for coming back with us for the sixth trip in a year! It is always a pleasure diving with you! 

We start the trip cruising south from Lanta National Park, Hin Daeng and Hin Muang to Tarutao National Park. Harlequin shrimps were present for our first night dive in Hin Daeng, a big school of barracuda and some nice nudibranch. A Mobula rays few by us on 8 miles, next to koh lipe and a we also found a sneeky frogfish hiding in plain sight!

Blackwater this week was fantastic so most guests asked to make a second black water dives this trip. We saw so many cool and weird creatures. The first blackwater dive was loaded with baby puffer fish blowing up in front of our masks as well as a baby stargazer! The second BW dive was full of baby Moray eels with long transparent bodies and sharp/tinny tooth! All the energetic babies were quite fast moving and so hard to photograph so we can't show you unfortunately this time, you'll have to come see for yourself! 
But we can still show you flying guenard, anemone, baby squids and octopus and a sea elephant.

After the crossing overnight from south Andaman to North Andaman contouring Phuket, we spent the second part of the trip between the Similan and Surin National parks. Visibilty was great, especially around Koh Bon and koh Tachai. 

After meeting our guests in our office, we are happy to set sail from Ranong at 5 pm with half of the guests, while the other half is waiting/chilling on Koh Phayam, where we can pick them up around 7pm.
 
As soon as everyone got onboard, we went through our traditional Departure Ceremony, praising the good sea spirits with a food offering and scaring the bad ones with fire crackers...

As I did the sunset, I will write about my own experience: the massive schools of big eye and bluefin trevally bolting at the dense schools of glassfish blanketing the reef: the hunt was simply mesmerising! The enormous bait balls of juveniles where the prey of all kinds of hungry adults making them move like a flock of birds…

The usuals macro creatures were there too, Harlequin shrimps were feeding on a sea star, ornate ghost pipefish where still numerous and we even found again the more elusive robust ghost pipefish and some smiling Tigertail seahorses :)

This week was a half-moon week, making the current a lot less strong than the week before, allowing us to truly get where ever we wanted disregarding the tide phases. We then could go and stay in the blue ahead of the current where it splits… this is where there is most action, all the time, but not always easy to get to.
 
The night divers came back from their dive with sparkles in the eyes… Richelieu Rock is teaming with life, in every hole you look you will find shrimps or crabs or nudibranchs and witnessing the night creature coming out of their hole there is absolutely fantastic! Their highlight was a sponge crab!

After this phenomenal day we are going south to Koh Bon for the next 2 morning dives…
 
We slept at Koh Tachai as the sea was very calm and made it to Koh Bon early morning… we all decided to dive the west ridge first hoping for Mantas but no luck, instead we had the nice resident baby eagle ray showing off passing in the middle of us as I was shooting some portrait for our guests on top of the big bummy in the north of the ridge…
There was also the squad of long nose emperor fish, blue fin trevallies and snappers coming and going hunting frantically in the reef!
 
The second dive some went for the pinnacle while others went back to the north ridge and both were delighted about it, the abundance in life is really heartwarming!
 
We went to Koh Tachai for the second half of the day as planned and I was glad to see the resident lobsters but sad not to see the regular massive school of barracudas… It is only once back on the boat that 2 groups told us that the barracudas were at the north pinnacle… bummer! I didn’t see them, so no photo

I could have gone again for the sunset dive but I preferred to go later for the blackwater dive…
 
The barracudas were there again and the action picked up with great hunting actions as we were happy to hear when the divers came back from the sunset dive. We could then sail toward west for the blackwater and decided to stop and set up the line above 80m of water…
 
Even if we didn’t make it to the drop off it was pleasantly rich in marine life… jellies, squids, crab, octopus, squirrel fish, soapfish, pufferfish and my first larvae scorpionfish!
 
Following this we had are great bbq night and the crowed on board made it very special! Starting with some fish imitations and the famous box game it really kicked off when we pulled out the disco ball! Thank you to Tatiana for leading the Zumba dance!
 
The party went on deep into the night! My big surprise to see every one up on time for the next and last day diving, but it was back to Richelieu Rock again and no one was ready to miss out!

Indeed, the 2 dives were as expected spectacular again! Richelieu Rock is a special place, one of the 10th best dive sites in the world but from 10 years of experience in the area I can say that Richelieu Rock was on fire!
 
I had a special request on this trip from Aiara as it was her birthday, she wanted few shots of her with fish… I tried my best to make her happy ;)

Was time now to head back to Ranong without forgetting to let some guests out on Koh Phayam…
We greated eachothers good bye and I must say I was a bit sad… this trip was the best one I could dream of as a last trip of the season….
Thank you all and see you soon again for more boat, fish, stories, pictures…!

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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.
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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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North Andaman

Richelieu Rock was our spot for the whole of the second day, with a calm sea to enjoy 4 these beautiful dives; and there was so much to see! Between the Ghost Pipe Fish, Peacock Mantis Shrimp, Longnose Emperor and trevallis hunting together, it was a lovely show for all, even for the most experimented divers diving Richelieu Rock throughout the season.

The chef and his son prepared us a wonderful barbecue to end this perfect day! and to accompany this superb dinner, Franck prepared us a rhum based cocktail.
Music, good atmosphere, and fun discussions made this superb evening one we will remember.

We started the third day with 2 dives at Koh Tachai Pinnacle, large granite boulder formations on the south side and a beautiful coral garden to the north with many school of different Reef fish to keep us entertained. 

Our third dive for the day was at Koh Bon, diving the West Ridge where we spent the whole dive with a  majestic Oceanic Manta Ray and a Spotted Eagle Ray swimming a ballet around all the divers from the boat. Wow! Everyone came back on the boat with stars in their eyes, excited to share the moment and photos with the other guests.

Time to head back, but with a quick stop and dive on our way at Boonsung Wreck. There we saw Honeycomb Moray Eels, White Eyed Morays, Nudibranch with weird shapes and patterns, a school of Yellow Tail Barracuda, massive schools of rainbow runners and snappers and all the Porcupine fish you can imagine. The dive on the wreck was fantastic and concluded the this perfect week so well!

To top it all off, Franck gave us an amazing photo presentation documenting the trip and all the amazing things we have witnessed while we ate yummy burgers as we made our smooth journey back to the pier to say our goodbyes.  

Congratulation to Adrian, Laura, Jean Louis and Noelle for completing their Nitrox certifications and well done Xavier for your fantastic improvement with Franck's photographer's coaching. 

We took off from Tap Lamu around 6pm, ready to navigate a few hours toward our first dive site in Surin with 15 wonderful guests onboard. Amongst them, 3 more marine biologists from Israel who came to study the reef and Manta inhabitat.

Koh Chi in Surin National Park was a perfect check dive but we headed to the south of Surin islands for our 2nd dive, choosing to dive Torinla where we've spotted many Pickachu nudibranch this season but instead we got loads of Jenkins rays! Which was a great surprise beside the fact no one was equipped for wide-angle photography on this dive…

Nemo’s eggs, harlequin shrimp and lots of ghostpipe fish to practice Macro. 
We then headed south for the 3rd day to Koh Tachai where there was a massive school of barracudas as well as jacks for 2 consecutive dives there, it was mind-blowing!
We finished the day with a night dive at Koh Bon.

On the following day, we left Surin National park and headed into the Similan National park starting at 3 trees, for a very pretty dive before a tropical storm come from the west forcing us to get shelter on the east side, so instead of North Rock, we dived breakfast bend, which was also very nice and that's where we found batwing sea slugs, a pshychedelic little critter hiding in plain sight (1mm).
The weather calmed down as quickly as it went rough, so we could carry on with our plan to dive elephant head rock in the afternoon.
Franck carried on with Pin's photographer's coaching, and her photos are improved a lot!

We headed back to the Similan islands for the night and explored shark fin reef in the morning… what a surprise for me to see my first feather tail sting ray there…
The day went on just as planned with 1 dive at deep six playing in the swim throughs followed by 1 dive at Christmas point where we completed the photo coaching with Pin.

We were hoping to see it again at Koh Bon pinnacle for the next dive but no manta luck this time … It was still a very nice dive and a big eagle ray played its part and some schooling barracudas kept us company for a while.

Thanks to all our lovely guests for joining us on this great adventure as well as to our special guest Kirsty from Thailand Whale Shark Project.
We were a bit sad the Whale Shark didn't turn up for its appointment (these gentle giants are so unreliable) but we loved Kirsty Magson's presentation and learned so much about them and their environment.
We will run another Whale shark expedition with Kirsty in 2023 from 4th to 12th of February 2023 and will visit this time both North and South Andaman from Richelieu Rock to Koh Lipe!
Get in touch for more info!

We had, once again, a Fantastic trip on the Andaman Sea this week. Joining us from Switzerland, a lovely group of fun divers chartered the boat and brought a lot of good vibes with them! Aurélie, Eva, Yan alias Loudou, Coranda, Tanguy, Damien alias titi, Marilyn, Gilbert, Alex, André, Roxane, André, Jean Louis,Thomas et Nadia: Thanks for joining us!
The cruise started late on the 4th of January as the group just landed in Phuket in the morning and were waiting for their PCR test to clear. We visited on this cruise the best dive sites of the Andaman Sea from Richelieu Rock to Koh Lipe over 8 days of fun.
​The highlights of this trip were certainly the dolphins and whale sharks!! 

The cruise started very well with excellent visibility at Richelieu Rock. We had the chance to witness emperors, trevally and tunas hunting the glass fish covering the reef.
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Unfortunately Franck wasn't in the water this week so we have less underwater photos than usual but a lot more surface photos :)

We continued our journey in Koh Tachai the next day, where we had 2 wonderful dives on the pinacle, one in company of a Magestic Whale Shark!!! 

​The next day we visited the infamous Donald Duck bay and viewpoint! The weather was super nice and we had amazing views on the beach. 

During our surface interval we had the surprise visit of a huge green turtle checking out the boat which allowed us to swim with it for a few wonderful minutes.

In the South Andaman, we did some nice dives around Hin Daeng and Hin Muang and a cool blackwater dive; a first experience for most of our guests!!

Hin Muang was amazing with crazy visibility and no current at all: just a pure delight!

And speaking of delight, we enjoyed our special barbecue night surrounded by Koh Ha scenic islands, with our traditional "aperitif" to start what became a wild evening, some threw ourselves into the water in the middle of the night on Koh Phi Phi and others who had not asked for anything, were thrown into the water... poor people.

We ended our journey with nice dives at Bida Nok and Shark Point with amazing visibility once again and some curious Blacktip sharks. We caught a glimple of Tigertail seahorses, a perfect way to end our cruise! 

Thanks again to our amazing guests! We loved this trip and can't wait to welcome you onboard again! :) 
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Happy New Year 2022 to all ocean lovers! How did you celebrate? We hope that you had fun and that this year will be filled with happiness and marvellous diving. For us, 2022 got off to a good start with delightful encounters: not one but 2 Whale Sharks and the oh so pretty juvenile shaded batfish were the higlights this week!! 

This journey started in 2021, on the 27th of December from Tap Lamu pier with a full boat ready to visit the top dive sites in Surin and Similan National parks.  

​We started by exploring Surin Islands on the first days where we went nudi hunting, this season is particularly great to see pikachu nudibranchs which are always a hit. We caught a glimpse of a guitar fish in Torinla but unfortunately couldn't get a shot this time. ​Yellow rock was beautiful, with amazing visibility and a massive school of sweetlips. But what we loved the most on this dive was this gorgeous juvenile batfish playing model for our pleasure. 

We did the first night dives in the bay where divers could see various types of crabs, moray eals hunting and cool nudibranchs.
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But for sure the highlight of Surin National park this week, was once more on Richelieu rock, the next day, where we met 2  friendly whale sharks, it was so exciting! 

​Similan islands had perfect conditions: maybe 50 meter viz this week and mild current. 
Schols of fusilier, jacks, trevallis and barracudas were surrounding us and we went through some fun swim through making the perfect frames for our photo shooting session :)

We also did some blackwater diving and met some curious types of shrimp and a fish larveas. 

We could aslo admire a clownfish family watching its nearly hatched eggs!
This juveline angelsfish was also magnificient. Don't you think?

This cruise was special as well because we celebrated New Year's eve on the boat!
We had a lovely time and had some nice food and drinks to share with our amazing guests! 
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