The start of November also marked the start of another 6 day combination trip to the Similan and Surin Islands. A cosmopolitan group of guests was welcomed on board to drink from coconuts and enjoy some traditional Thai food while the boat crew took care of getting everyone to the Similans ready for the first day diving.
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| Mantis Shrimp |
A checkout dive at Anitas Reef wowed guests and dive staff alike with stunning visibility and a rich variety of critters. Eagle eyed Albert had success uncovering both a Meyers dragonet and a juvenile peacock flounder, with matis shrimp, octopus, rockmover wrasse and much more being found. After a hearty bacon and egg based breakfast, the boat moved onto West of Eden, with a relaxing dive shared with clown triggerfish, turtles, more octopus and passing dogtooth tuna. A hard workout eating breakfast left everyone hungry for a fantastic lunch, produced by everyone’s favourite ladies P’Da and Tik. Stonehenge was next up for diving, where gentle drift and surge made for a wonderful dive amongst huge granite boulders. Luckily divers didn’t only see granite with schools of hunting giant trevally and more huge tuna took advantage of the current. A quick snack then a beach visit to Princess Bay rounded off the first day with Wicked staff and customers making a difference by cleaning up 2 bags of litter!
Day 2 began with a splash into Elephant Head Rock – a favourite site for dive staff, an opinion often shared by customers! Pushing deep for the first dive uncovered a cheeky mantis shrimp, giant barracuda, groups of giant trevally, and the highlight of a pair of white tip reef shark relaxing made for an excellent start to the day. After breakfast, the boat moved to North Point the 3 Trees, where excellent visibility was enjoyed by turtles, several octopus, marbled shrimp, giant morays, clown triggerfish, sharks spotted by the snorkelers and much more. Captain Wit moved us onto Koh Bon to relax before a night dive in the bay, swiftly followed by yet more food and some drooping eyelids as guests discovered some interesting facts about pandas and dolphins.
The last day of the first half of the trip was completed with a pair of great dives on Koh Bon overseen by a pair of napoleon wrasse, mating octopus, banded sea kraits and giant trevally. Thoughts of leaving the fantastic Similans were too much for Gareth from England, who decided to extend his stay on board Mariner for the second half of the trip. Touching base back on the mainland, we bid farewell to some guests, while several stayed put, having already taken Gareth’s wise decision to visit the Surin Islands.
New guests were welcomed on board to share in more coconuts and listen to stories of the trip so far from guests that stayed on as we headed back out to Koh Bon.
The morning started with another great dive, as love was in the water (again) with mating octopus, cruising white tips, enormous sea snakes and our friends the napoleons were still hanging out on the ridge. After another great breakfast, we headed towards Koh Tachai for dives on the pinnacle, reef and a night dive in the bay. Giant trevally, comet longfins, blue dragon nudis, ghost boxer shrimp, marbled groupers, slipper lobsters and of course the seemingly ever present octopus were all enjoyed before the highlight of the day arriving at the start of the night dive with a 15cm Spanish dancer to put smiles on faces. The night was spent at Tachai for the deep dive of the day at the pinnacle. Several guests were certified brand new adventure deep divers as the depths uncovered a school of barracuda, octopus, lots of cleaner shrimp and a wandering dogtooth tuna.
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| Busy Day at Richelieu Rock |
Dive of the trip was had when we hit the Surins with a fantastic drift at Torinla. Hopping in led to 2 large whiprays dwarfing a kuhl’s ray in the first 5 minutes. A wonderfully paced current moved divers past a busy reef full of fish and turtles onto deeper rocks with schools of barracuda and a marvelous leopard shark. Smiles all round were only interrupted by lunch. Aow Packad made for the last dive of the day before a beach trip and a visit from sea gypsies. An early night was taken as guests enjoyed a calm bay before heading to Richelieu Rock.
2 dives were made at one of Jacques Cousteaus favourite sites, letting us spot several interesting nudis and flatworms, barracuda, a pair of bent stick pipefish, tuna, more octopus and mantis shrimp. Guests somehow managed more food while the boat travelled back to port. For those who thought it was impossible to park a boat into a space exactly the same length as a the boat, they clearly didn’t see an amazing display by Captain Wit and the crew to get us safely moored up. Powernaps were taken by all on the taxi ride back, and an important lesson in divemaster training was learnt by Tim, who now knows to go to the toilet before getting into the taxi! A fantastic trip with a great group of people left everyone wishing we could all do it again!-Wicked Diving Thailand
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