Yet another season has started and it sure has started off in style!It all started on the 14th October in the dive shop setting up everyone’s equipment and the necessary paperwork, coupled with lots of laughs along the way. A special shout to Ivo, Jitka and Milan who returned yet again for another season due to the fun and excellent diving they had in previous trips. I would also like to say a special welcome to some of our new dive team which includes Soren Egeberg, Koen Van Den Dungen and Stephanie Mutze who I wish a good season and many enjoyable trips ahead.
Once everyone arrived we set off from Khao lak to Tap Lamu Pier, where everyone got settled in there cabin, setup their equipment with all the necessary checks and with a full comprehensive boat briefing by our tour leader Gerald. After the briefing a delicious Thai style dinner was served and off we headed for the Similan islands.
The weather was more like peak season weather with flat seas, almost no wind and best of all no rain (Rainy season... Hopefully finished!!). We arrived at the Similans during the night and when we all woke up, were greeted with amazing blue skies and calm crystal clear waters off Island no. 5.
After Gerald’s very thorough general dive briefing, we embarked on 4 dives in the Similan islands for the day. Some groups encountered some amazing marine life including some rare nudibranch, blue spotted rays, cuttlefish, cowries shells, mantis shrimp and ribbon eels to name a few.
Day 2 also bought us a fantastic start to the day with nice blue skies and glass like water conditions. We then ventured further north in the Similans where we encountered some Leopard sharks, turtles and a huge school of milk fish.
On one of the dive 
sites Breakfast bend we encountered a lot of Crown of thorn which is a problem as big numbers of these can destroy a reef rather quickly cloaking the corals with its body and not allowing sunlight in, which in turn kills the corals. A big thank you to Stephan, Julie and Ulf who kindly offered to help on a search and recovery mission to collect and safely dispose of on the island. During the half hour they collect 15 which was a great effort. Well done!! In some areas in a 5m square we had 4 or 5. Further work is needed for sure and we will be working on these over the coming trips.
For the night dive we ventured away from the Similans and headed further north to Koh Bon for our night dive. What a dive!! Decorated crabs, sponge crabs, Lobsters (Lobster city as one customers said) and much more along the way.
After the night dive we took the several hour journey, to our highest point of the trip, Richelieu.JPG)
Rock, which is part of the Surin islands. We woke up on day 3 to yet another amazing sunrise and in the distance we could see the Surin islands and main land. As this is the first trip of the season we were expecting to go on a kind of discovery mission to find the small critters which Richelieu rock is famous for. We jump in and go down the mooring line and start looking in holes and investigating when all of a sudden it goes a little dark above us. Well to our amazement, The manta rays are here and in force! I heard all sorts of sounds coming from everyone’s regulators with excitement and cameras flashing everywhere as the mantas raced around the dive site feeding and being cleaned. For both dives we did at Richelieu rock the manta rays were very playful looping and racing around the dive site to everyone’s amazement. One of the things that stood out most was the size of the cobia following one of the mantas (Almost the same size).
After the second dive we moved down to Koh Tachai, where we did one dive on the Plateau on the southern side of the island. There was a lot of fish action in areas and a few groups encountered some big fishing nets that looked to have been blown on during the closed season, Not Good. A big thank you to all those that assisted in helping remove some of these.
On the last days we were greeted with some morning showers, which was a bit surreal underwater as you could hear it very clearly in the calm waters of Koh Tachai. After the first dive we then headed back down to Koh Bon for the last dive of the trip. During the dive we encountered several resident Napoleon Wrasse, several Moray eels the size of my thigh, some huge barracuda which looked rather menacing and a lovely baby sea snake.
During the trip we had several PADI courses going on with Kim completing her PADI Rescue diver course and now moving onto doing her PADI Divemaster course, Andrea and Thomas who both became PADI Advanced Open Water divers and Kare who completed his Adventure Deep dive. During the trip they did very well in completing all the necessary skills whilst also having a lot of fun along the way. Some people participated in the night and deep dives for the first time. Congratulations guys and gals, and all the very best for the future and well done.
Overall the first trip was a huge success with lots of fun and action aboard the dolphin queen. On behalf of Similan diving Safaris, we would like to say a big thank you to all our customers for a very fun and enjoyable trip, and we hope you enjoyed it and hope to see you all again in the future.
sites Breakfast bend we encountered a lot of Crown of thorn which is a problem as big numbers of these can destroy a reef rather quickly cloaking the corals with its body and not allowing sunlight in, which in turn kills the corals. A big thank you to Stephan, Julie and Ulf who kindly offered to help on a search and recovery mission to collect and safely dispose of on the island. During the half hour they collect 15 which was a great effort. Well done!! In some areas in a 5m square we had 4 or 5. Further work is needed for sure and we will be working on these over the coming trips.For the night dive we ventured away from the Similans and headed further north to Koh Bon for our night dive. What a dive!! Decorated crabs, sponge crabs, Lobsters (Lobster city as one customers said) and much more along the way.
After the night dive we took the several hour journey, to our highest point of the trip, Richelieu
.JPG)
Rock, which is part of the Surin islands. We woke up on day 3 to yet another amazing sunrise and in the distance we could see the Surin islands and main land. As this is the first trip of the season we were expecting to go on a kind of discovery mission to find the small critters which Richelieu rock is famous for. We jump in and go down the mooring line and start looking in holes and investigating when all of a sudden it goes a little dark above us. Well to our amazement, The manta rays are here and in force! I heard all sorts of sounds coming from everyone’s regulators with excitement and cameras flashing everywhere as the mantas raced around the dive site feeding and being cleaned. For both dives we did at Richelieu rock the manta rays were very playful looping and racing around the dive site to everyone’s amazement. One of the things that stood out most was the size of the cobia following one of the mantas (Almost the same size).After the second dive we moved down to Koh Tachai, where we did one dive on the Plateau on the southern side of the island. There was a lot of fish action in areas and a few groups encountered some big fishing nets that looked to have been blown on during the closed season, Not Good. A big thank you to all those that assisted in helping remove some of these.
On the last days we were greeted with some morning showers, which was a bit surreal underwater as you could hear it very clearly in the calm waters of Koh Tachai. After the first dive we then headed back down to Koh Bon for the last dive of the trip. During the dive we encountered several resident Napoleon Wrasse, several Moray eels the size of my thigh, some huge barracuda which looked rather menacing and a lovely baby sea snake.
During the trip we had several PADI courses going on with Kim completing her PADI Rescue diver course and now moving onto doing her PADI Divemaster course, Andrea and Thomas who both became PADI Advanced Open Water divers and Kare who completed his Adventure Deep dive. During the trip they did very well in completing all the necessary skills whilst also having a lot of fun along the way. Some people participated in the night and deep dives for the first time. Congratulations guys and gals, and all the very best for the future and well done.
Overall the first trip was a huge success with lots of fun and action aboard the dolphin queen. On behalf of Similan diving Safaris, we would like to say a big thank you to all our customers for a very fun and enjoyable trip, and we hope you enjoyed it and hope to see you all again in the future.
