Blog about diving in Burma and Thailand

Our latest newsletter: update on our new boat

30/9/2018

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Our schedule for 2018 / 2019

I guess the big news is the launch of our new boat!

A warm welcome to MV SMILING SEAHORSE

As planned, she will go on her first cruise at the end of October. We are so excited!!!

The boat is still at the shipyard now and we are working hard on the last details:
- 5 star hotel cotton beddings and nice curtains are being stitched
- photos to decorate the photographer's room being printed
- air con units thoroughly tested...
enough to keep us busy until the season starts!

Let me introduce you to MV Smiling Seahorse.
25 x 6.4m, 4 decks: a lot of space for only 16 divers!!!

Now lets take a tour, one deck at a time...

Roof top
On the top, you'll find the giant sundeck with it's nice shaded area to welcome hamacs and sunbeds soon...

Upper Deck:

The upper deck will host the dinning area as well as the standard cabins for guests and dive guides.
In the saloon you can see at the back a large sofa area which will soon be covered with plenty of cushions to make it THE spot for a lovely nap!
The 4 large tables to dine, play cards or study your dive courses...a bar on each side and a large buffet. As you can see there is still plenty of room to dance or play some box games...

Here is a photo of the Superior cabin.
We have though about a smart bedding system so they can either be set up as double bed for couples (giving a large shelve on top for your luggages) ...

... or as 2 bunk beds giving a lot of room on the floor for your bags and such, and because we know you like space there are also 2 big shelves for your personal belongings.

Main Deck:

Deluxe cabins on the main deck are identical to the Standard cabin but have an ensuite bathroom.

And the master cabins, at the front have a double bed, an ensuite bathroom and a giant panoramic window forward.
Sorry I don't have pictures of the finished cabin just yet but here are the windows!

The main deck will also be the place you'll find our infamous chef in the kitchen (below right of the stairs), next to the photo room (left of the stairs).

Our dear photographers will find plenty of charging sockets, a large rinsing tank just for them and their toys, large desk to work their tools and individual storage baskets for all their photo gear.

It's also from the back of the main deck that we will go diving!!!
Here is the latest photo of our dive deck, the rack in the middle will accommodate plenty of oxygen for nitrox blending and emergencies management.
We just installed the two Bauer Mariner compressors in the engine room and are currently setting up the filling system.

We will have a platform and a davit for our brand new, larger dinghy and some fins-friendly ladders...

Lower Deck

The lower deck will be the kingdom of our super crew with large, comfy quarters at the front and modern engine room at the back. We will take along with us up to 16,000L of water, 6,000L of fuel, enough power from our 2 generators to power all Air con units, hot water showers and two compressors at the same time. Wow!

Season 2017 / 2018 was a season of Mantas!!!

We had so many mantas at Black Rock this year, it was incredible
Out of all the times we went to Black Rock, mantas were missing only twice! Quite an incredible year!!!

We started uploading our photos to the Marine Mega Fauna database and Myanmar has now 191 individuals referenced. According to the foundation's representatives, despite the fact that there are a lot fewer boats and divers, Myanmar has had a lot more referenced sighting this year then the whole of Thailand.
If you have any photos to share for the database, please forward them to me with the date and place of the sighting. I'll make sure to add them to the database.

While mantas where everywhere, we also had a few whale-shark-lucky dives :)