Manta Queen 2, Similan Island North Tour, Trip Number 254
Day 1
After a smooth and seamless departure we arrived at Koh Bon Bay during the night, where we stayed for the majority of day 1. With an early woke up call we caught a beautiful sunrise and after a coffee everyone was excited and ready to jump in for first dive of the trip at Koh Bon!
We did our first 3 dives at Koh Bon West Ridge, where we were blessed with great visibility and very little current. Among the beautiful corals and limestone, some groups were lucky enough to see a Marble Ray, others came across garden eels, moray eels, trumpet fish, snappers, grouper, puffers, parrot fish, trigger fish, lion fish, bat fish, banner fish and many many more all in all great dives for all groups
We then moved on to the beautiful Koh Tachai Island for our sunset dive and 4th dive of the day at The Dome of Koh Tachai, an amazing spot for this dive with so much activity and life and such beautiful corals, we saw a huge school of barracuda which was the main highlight of the dive, amongst other many other species such as sweetlips, snapper, lots of jelly fish, butterfly fish, parrot fish, octopus, fusiliers, grouper, bat fish, and lots more ... a stunning dive and a stunning end to the day.
Day 2
During the evening and into the night we travelled towards the border of the Similan Island National Park and to the world famous dive site; Richelieu Rock. Again blessed with beautiful weather, slightly lower visibility but by no means bad visibility, and it only got better as the day went on. we did experience a bit of current here but it didn't effective our dives in a bad way at all, we just worked with the current and went with the flow. Lots of beautiful purple corals, and gorgonian sea fans, heaps of life, many groups saw a number of cuttle fish, some mating, some trying, there was also scorpion fish, lots of snapper, damsel fish, clown fish, grouper, trumpet fish, barracuda, bat fish, wrasse, cleaner shrimp and one group saw a peacock mantis shrimp, who even came out of his hole to say hello and also the beautiful juvenile angel fish along with lots more.
After 3 dives at Richelieu Rock we made our way back to Koh Tachai, our last dive of the day, 'The Dome' our sunset dive saw lots of sea traffic, we had great visibility, some groups saw a beautiful green turtle, many saw another big school of barracuda and a unicorn fish, along with lots of large grouper, snappers, parrotfish, blue back fusiliers, triggerfish, angel fish, trevally, banner fish, pufferfish.... after dive 4 of the day, dive 8 of the trip, it's now time for dinner and beer, and time to listen to Geri's bad jokes and Nick's terrible music
Day 3
Back at Koh Bon, the beautiful limestone island, another early start and another gorgeous sunrise, the first dive of the day is at Hin Luang, (yellow rock). Again we are lucky enough to be treated with perfect visibility and very little current, so we had a nice peaceful first dive among the beautiful yellow corals that grow on the limestone boulders, we saw the resident stone fish, a couple of barracuda, a Maldives sponge snail, trumpet fish, parrot fish, groupers to name a few, with the top of this pinnacle sitting at 18 meters and it being our 3rd day, for all groups the no deco time was the limiting factor of the dive, making it shorter than the others, however no less beautiful or amazing.
During the surface interval after breakfast we had a few people jumping/diving/flipping off the top of the boat which was great fun for everyone, some people took a swim to cool off, we've been so lucky with the weather all trip, we have had beautiful sunny days and barely a cloud in the sky.
Our 2nd dive of the day and last dive at Koh Bon was nothing short of fantastic, perfect conditions, beautiful soft corals, sea fans, angel fish, banner fish, grouper, snapper, Nudibranchs and a flatworm, triggerfish, scorpion fish, parrot fish clown fish, yellow back fusilier to name a few
The last dive of the day and the last dive of our 3 day trip was Boonsung Wreck, with it being much closer to the mainland we did expect much lower visibility, we had about 5-7m depending on where about we were but this didn't stop it being a great dive, so much live, big schools of fusilier, lots of puffers and lion fish, grouper, batfish, lobsters and honeycomb moray eels, with no current and lots going on it made the perfect, relaxing dive to end the trip.
Congratulations to Audra who completed her PADI Open Water Course and did her PADI Deep Adventure dive, you are now part of the PADI family. And to Dmitri who completed his PADI Advanced Open Water Course!
A great trip had by all!
Your Team of Manat Queen 2 powered by Khao Lak Scuba Adventures.
