7 days to cross Surin and Similan Islands from Tap Lumu to Phuket
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…
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.
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…!
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!
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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.
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!
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!
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 Merguy 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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