Due to the high volume of experience onboard we amended our normal schedule to include some more challenging and possibly more adventurous diving. The first day bought a great days diving at dive sites which included East of Eden, West of Eden, Elephant head rock where we encountered a new small frogfish, mantis shrimp, lovely rare nudibranch and turtles. In the evening everyone was in the festive spirit with parcels of food and drink being passed all around the boat.
Day 2 started in fine fashion with Christmas songs and me realising Father Christmas did not actually arrive at my door! I must have been a bad boy at some point during the year?
For our first dive we got special permission to dive the normal closed dive site “Fantasie”. With 30metres visibility and great light it bought an amazing dive with beautiful coral and the highlight being some groups seeing a big Black Tip reef Shark and others seeing 3 White Tip reef sharks. One of the White Tip sharks had many cuts and bites over its body which would maybe down to recent mating. Hopefully more sharks in the Similans...!! After the dive we headed to Donald Duck bay for beach time and snorkelling time were turtles circled the boat looking for a Christmas breakfast.
Later we moved further north to the most northern part of the Similan 9 islands to North Point. This is normally a place where leopard sharks are spotted although Santa delivered his presents on this dive as most groups to their amazement encountered a large manta ray. It was a great moment that will be remembered by some for a very long time. Later we moved further north to the normal home of the manta rays Koh Bon. No mantas on Christmas day at Koh Bon but a great dive. We then moved further north for our night dive at Koh Tachai. Some groups encountered 3 huge barracuda which followed them like a buddy for most of the dive. The barracuda are very intelligent fish using the diver’s torches to catch the evening meal. Sorry to all the unfortunate fusiliers who crossed the diver’s path during the dive?
Day 3 started at Richelieu rock where we did 4 dives, all being different in their own special way. It was also a day of remembering the devastating day 5 years ago in Asia with the Tsunami. Some staff and customers were part of this unfortunate day and all have their own memories of the incident. At the end of the days diving and dinner Hans and Tina who celebrated their birthday on this special day provided everyone with a drink of Thai whisky to say a few words for all those who were affected by this tragic incident.
Day 4 took us to Koh Bon for our first dive which unfortunately never provided us with mantas but did provide us with a lovely dive. After Koh Bon we then headed back towards mainland to a wreck 20 minutes south of tamp lamu pier called “Prem Chai”. It is a dredger similar to the Boonsung and bought a great dives with some interesting little critters stacked around the wreck. A great way to end a great trip!
On a final note I would like to say a big congratulation’s to 3 new PADI Advanced Open Water divers. Well done and I hope you enjoy all your future diving.
