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Dive Info

Friends Trip October 2004 (Intern Reunion)

Similans Trip October 27^th 2004 - November 1st 2004...(Similan Island Diving)

Attendees: Phil, Jules, Gayle, Desiree, HMS (again – yawn!), Rose, Alex “Sharkfin”, Jase Kinch, Adam & Nicki, Stu, Simon, Aine (Anya), Lucy, Lindsay, and Dee. - A very pleasant Australian couple called Bruce and Tammy also, a real pleasure to be around.  

After finally getting organized and arriving at Don Muang (Bangkok - Thailand) airport for the off – we all assembled and boarded the www.airasia.com (cheap-skate) – sorry, …. budget airline for Phuket. Landing at just passed 16:00 hrs we met with Phil, Adam and Nicki (they're now working down south) and of course Alistair the “Really Wicked Witch” Live-aboard boat owner.

Now that the boat was to leave from Tap Lamu (the port north of Phuket) we did not stop at Tesco as planned and had a few fun and games whilst stocking up on snacks and favourite drinks for the dive trip. Finally we made it to the dive boat for approximately 19:00 hrs and boarded – Richard the divemaster (and good buddy) introduced himself to the group and explained the boat to the group - some of which were familiar with it already. Khun Aae is the head dive master on the boat and superb dive leader. We headed for our rooms, dumped our bags and headed for the upper deck – although the boat had not left it felt as if the trip had begun.

The boat set sail at approximately mid night with many already in bed and a few still up enjoying the Andaman sea breeze and the stars from the top sun (viewing) deck. I was beat by 2am and had to turn in...

...It’s not particularly unwieldy on the eyes to wake with the scenery of the Similan islands of a morning (or even between dives for that matter) – we’d moored in-between Similan islands number 4 and 5 for the shelter – ready for our first dive on island number six…

Our first dive was at The garden of Eden at the Similan island number 6. This was a fantastic sloping reef to approx 35 meters in depth. looking up at the corals above and seeing the schooling fish alerted us all to the beauty that we had ahead of us the coming days and dives. The second dive was at Bird Rock with it's large schools of Trevally, Tuna and batfish. Lunch was a superb mix of Thai and western prepared by the crew giving us much more strength for the coming dives at Anita's reef on island number 5. This was a superb dive with 3 large fields of garden eels poking from the sandy bottom. Approach slowly and you can get to a couple of meters from them - they're wonderful to watch. The corals were spectacular leading away to the sandy fields with blue spotted and sand rays laying on them. The night dive was taken within the bay of island number 5.

Friday 29^th….I HAVE TO STATE NOW!!!...This WAS optional - we took a vote on the evening before and it was unanimous... 5:45 was our wake up call for a 06:30 Sunrise dive at Elephant Head rock. This is a superb site with nearly 40 swim thru's. Passage ways and channels lay between the huge boulders creating a maze of gigantic proportions. The second dive was at North Cape or Rocky point on island number 9. The Captain had a plan and was looking forward to getting some new video footage – as the other groups sped off on their dive, Alex, the captain and I headed out to the blue yonder spotting and swimming with a leopard/zebra shark for 5 minutes, it was approx 2 meters in length and absolutely wonderful. Alex (Mr. Sharkfin :-) was a happy man. The captain proceeded to take his video shots and skillfully guided us back to the ladder of the boat via a turtle and plenty of other wonderful sights. Dive 3 was at Gorilla Rock or Breakfast Bay. We swam with another Leopard Shark. There were huge morays along the lovely long reef. A massive barracuda was spotted at the end by Phil on his surfacing. The last dive of the day was at Koh Bon. This site has a huge wall silhouetting large fish up the cliff face in the moon light. We took this as a sunset dive and it was extremely moody and enchanting.  

Saturday 30^th October...Dive number one was at Twin Peaks on Koh Tachai ( Surin Islands ). We had the pleasure of 4 Leopard Sharks dotted over the dive. Strong currents made it interesting and almost like a washing machine in places. The second dive was at "Unknown reef" – the last trip the captain made 25 guests spent their time looking for new dive sites around the Surin islands. The "Unknown reef" was discovered. The site was quite empty but we again came across a shark and a huge marble ray of approx 1.5 - 2 meters in diameter - boy did that thing move.

Dive No: 3 – Richelieu Rock - This has to be experienced as possibly one of the best sites in the Andaman. It's positively teeming with schools of barracuda, sea horses, tomato anemone fish, groups of lion-fish (by the dozen). The life here is so diverse and rich - sometimes visibility was reduced by the amount of fish about. We had the entire site to ourselves (as most of the sites) as we were the only boat in the area - truly wonderful. The night dive was taken at Richelieu Rock. Some opted for a sunset dive (Aine, Lucy, Richard). All others took the night dive...Adam and Nicki suffered simultaneous heart attacks as Nicki believed that she’d dropped Lucy’s brand new P150 camera to 40 meters and a huge Potato Grouper scared the Sh….Sh…..Suit off of Adam.  

Sunday 31^st October...Dive number one was at Koh Bon – The pinnacle. The dive was superb but strong currents made it hard to explore the entire site. The last dive of the trip was the Boonsung ship wreck – This was a tin transporter and has been down in excess of 10 years. Although there is not much coral build up the life is as rich as Richelieu Rock but with many different fish. Fish seem to gravitate toward this wreck in the middle of an estuary as there is nothing else around. Richard made a great dive briefing using a loaf of bread as a model of the wreck. Pipefish and seahorses can be seen. Literally hundreds of lionfish scatter around the edges of the wreck. What a superb dive to end this wonderful trip on. All were more than happy to take this as the final memory of a trip which I am sure many will make again.

Again, this trip we had some dolphins swimming near the boat on several occasions but unfortunately no good pics - those sneaky guys kept ducking away.

All on high spirits we headed back for Tap Lamu and the minibuses. Patong was our playground for the evening and after a pleasant meal all went out for a night on the town. Thanks for putting up with me Rose, Tammy and Bruce :-) - we had a good night didn't we? :-) (Bruce was celebrating his birthday. I am getting married this week (November 2004) and the trip gave us all a lot to be happy about).

This was another wonderful trip which I have to say was made by the diving but above all by the pleasant company on the boat. To ALL that were on board - Many thanks indeed for making this such a wonderful dive trip and great fun.

There will be more photos...and now there are - they can be seen by clicking here...

• Friends Dive Trips (Dive trips for buddies and interns).

  • Friends Trip report March 2004

  • Friends Trip October 2004

  • Friends Trip August 2004 - Puerto Gallera, Sabang - the Philippines.

  • Friends Trip March 2005

  • Friends Trip May 2005

  • Friends Trip November 2005

  • Friends Trip May 2006

  • Friends Trip November 2006

  • Friends Trip Phi Phi Thailand, Feb 2007