Blue Skies and calm seas and sun bathing at the Similan Islands
In keeping with our tradition the trip started in bubbly fashion back at the dive centre in khao Lak before heading off to Tap Lamu pier. The boat was again full with a lively group of excited people eager to experience scuba diving in the Similan Islands aboard our liveaboard. Once all the necessary safety procedures and kitting up process was out of the way we headed out in calm beautiful conditions.
The first day started with some nice dives and visibility (20-30m) coupled with nice calm currents. We did our customary check dive to get every nice and comfortable at Anita’s Reef before breakfast and beach time on Island number 4. With the blues skies and amazing views from the beach it was a nice morning for some sun bathing and relaxing in the shallow water for cooling down. After beach we moved up to Island 7 for several dive where Frogfish, leaf pipefish, ghost pipefish, Ribbon eels and more rarer marine life were encountered. The night dive was then back to our starting location which also yielded some interesting marine life, like the sand nose diving Razor Wrasse, nice big lobsters and giant reef crabs.
Day 2 started in keeping with the with the previous days weather with an amazing red sky and sun rise and the first dive at Elephant head rock. For others they ventured to beacon reef to complete their PADI Open Water course and encountered Turtles. A great way to finish off your Open Water course! After more beach time on the nice quiet beach of Beacon reef we moved further north to island number 9 for some leopard sharks at North point. Some customers seeing sharks the first time and realising the not all sharks want to eat people and are actually nice relaxed creatures. We again moved further north to Koh Bon and Koh Tachai for the night dive.
Day 3 started with 2 amazing dives at Richelieu rock where the visibility was roughly 10-15m (Bad considering the normal 20-30m visibility) although it still bought us it’s special feeling and amazing variety of marine like seahorses, Ghost pipefish, Huge Barracudas, rare nudibranch and Harlequin shrimps. Later moving back south we ventured back to Koh Tachai Plateau and for the night dive at the amazing Koh Bon wall.
Day 4 started with the morning dive at Koh Bon Pinnacle with 30+m visibility and leopard sharks. It was also amazing to see the complete pinnacle in its full glory of bright yellow soft corals covering it from head to toe. After this dive we headed back in closer to mainland to do our final dive on the Boonsung Wreck which in recent trips bought us constant action with its huge fish schools (Fish Soup), stone fish, cuttlefish, baby squid, honeycomb moray eels and some of the rarer nudibranch from the Chromodoride family.
Overall I would like to say a great big thank to everyone aboard, it was a great trip with some real characters aboard which in turn bought a lovely lively atmosphere aboard the Dolphin Queen.
I would also like to say special congratulations to Louise who completed her PADI Open Water course and later moved on to complete her PADI Adventure Deep dive along with Rasmus, Julie, Rose and Aaron. I would also like to say special congratulations to Peter who complete his PADI Advanced Open Water. Well done to all of you!
