Manta Ray Madness at Koh Bon.

SDS 24 left Tap Lamu pier in blistering heat and sun which was a great relief for all to get off land and onto the ocean. With its customary blistering red sunset, clear skies and another full boat of great people, the trip was destined for big things.
Day 1 started with a nice relaxing check dive at Anita’s Reef before moving south to Island number 3. This was a nice relaxing drift dive where some dive groups encountered Leopards sharks, White Tip Reef Sharks, Eagle Ray, and turtles along with its normal smaller creatures hiding away. After a great feast and beach time we moved back up north to East of Eden. The dive here was its normal colourful beautiful self with lots to see. During the dive we encountered an area on the dive site that looked like a big anchor had been dragged and pulled away a nice area of coral which was home of some very nice small creatures. After this dive we went back for some more beach time to watch the sunset and then get ready for our night dive in Princess Bay.
Day 2 started off with a nice morning dive at Elephant Head Rock where several White Tip Reef sharks, a big Jenkins Whip ray, ghost pipe fish and many other rarer marine lives were encountered. We then went for more beach therapy at Donald Duck Bay before our second dive at Breakfast Bend/Snapper Alley where divers come across turtles, Leopards sharks, nudibranch, sea snakes, barracuda and a nice school of Rainbow Runners.
After this dive we left the Similan 9 islands and moved north to Koh Bon. With reports from other divers and dive boats of Manta Ray action we were heading up in anticipation of a manta show. Wow! was this some dive with reports of 5 or more mantas they decided to put on a show for our guests. Looping around, coming in close to divers and sniffing bubbles they were in a full playing mood and just like our guests seemed to enjoying being around cleaning and feeding. During the dive we encountered a lovely thermo cline of cold, green, plankton rich water which came in half way through the dive, with some computer clocking 24-25 degrees. This was a big shock to the body considering the normal temperature of between 28-29 degrees.
Several videos were taken one of which was rather entertaining as the camera man got a little scared of how close the manta actually came (No worries though as manta Rays are Plankton eaters only). Another interesting site was when 1 manta decided to empty his stomach and leave the contents drifting towards the diver (Nice!!).
After this amazing dive we headed further north for our night dive at Koh Tachai Plateau, where we experienced some strong currents although an amazing night dive, some groups encountering one of the most beautiful and most elusive nudibranch of all, the Spanish Dancer.
Day 3 started with our normal 2 dives at Richelieu which delivered some amazing visibility for the first dive before the green thermo cline came in for the second dive. Here we had 2 amazing dives as usual with seahorses, ghost pipe fish, harlequin shrimps, moray eels and nudibranch galore to keep us entertained. After the 2 dives we headed down back to Koh Tachai North for our 3rd dive of the day where we encountered the smaller critters and sharks. For the night dive we headed back to Koh Bon for its amazing array of colour which stands out in full glory at night. We also moored up at Koh Bon for the night ready for the morning dive and were treated to an amazing display of stars which most people came up to the sun deck to admire.
Day 4’s morning dive at Koh Bon was one where we were all excited in anticipation of mantas but it seemed the were off for breakfast somewhere else L Then we came to the final dive closer into land at the Boonsung wreck. This dive was a entertaining dive with many thing see as normal with its huge amounts of small critters and resident schools of Baby Barracuda, Snapper, Trevallies, Pufferfish, morish idols and also including the smaller things like stonefish, ghost pipe fish, rare nudibranch and baby morays. A great way to end a great trip.
During the trip we had several birthdays and birthday cakes on board with Karen and our cook celebrating their 21st birthday. A big happy birthday to you both and I hope you enjoyed your special day. Also we had Curtis and Karen celebrating their honeymoon on the boat. Another big congratulations to you both and I hope you have a good future together.
I would like to say a big congratulation’s to 4 new PADI Advanced Open Water divers Janine, Sebastian, Heike and David. Also Stephan and Heike again completed their PADI Enriched air diver course with 2 awesome dives at Richelieu Rock.
I hope you enjoy your future diving and we hope to see you all back again one day.