The big girl of the Manta Queen fleet, the Manta Queen 3 was ready for departure for its 230th trip after 29 guests had checked in on the 15th of November 2016.
We had twin departures that evening at Khao Lak pier, smaller sister Manta Queen 6 was also departing the same day. After setting course towards the Similan Islands, the Wakey Wakey call by Joe, our trip leader at 7 am woke the guests up to the wonderful sight of island number 5 and 6.
Our first dive was at the always calm Anitas Reef and our guests on board the Manta Queen 3 were greeted by a wonderful free swimming giant moray eel. Being an easy dive, it gave our guests ample time to feel at ease in the water and get their buoyancy and confidence back.
After becoming comfortable in the water, the second dive was at our famous typical Similan dive site: Deep Six! And yeah, while our guests marvelled at the wonderful topography of the dive site, a little green sea turtle swam by to say a quick hello!
After lunch on the relaxed Day 1, we headed to Elephant Head Rock. Majestic as it always is, the dive is now a hotspot for ribbon eels! Svetlana our seasoned instructor found a wonderful pair of ribbons eels living very close to each other.
Day 1 ended with a night diver at Naam Chai bay. All our guests were given torches and a long briefing by Joe made sure that everyone was aware of the right diving procedures. A few of our guests had never done a night dive before and we're amazed at the wonderful night dive experience.
The wake-up call was at 6 am the next morning and all out guests were right in time due to the high pitched "WAKEY WAKEY" by Joe. Today was the day when most of the courses on board would be completed. 7 nitrox courses were done in the first day and today or was time to complete 3 advanced open water with Kate and 2 PADI advanced open water courses with Khon - our pro trailer.
Our first dive of day 2 was at North Point, one of my favorite dive sites with great topography and amazing marine life; both the big stuff as well as macro! The nail size pygmy pipe horse is one of our favourite subjects! The second dive of the day was at Christmas Point. The dive site with some amazing swim through and overhangs. Absolutely breath taking! Our resident giant barracuda was generous enough to hang around us at one point during the dive!
For the third dive of the day, we moved over to the limestone island Koh Bon. North ridge was buzzing with activity during our third dive of the day and the Napoleon wrasse decided to check us out for a full 10 mins.
Next, we moved to Koh Tachai Island for our Dusk Dive! Koh Tachai as always, was buzzing with activity and everything hunting everything! Yes you read it right! Everything hunting everything; The small fish eating things floating around, the eels swimming around looking for food, the octopus waiting out in the open, and the baracuda and travalies hunting everywhere!
What an amazing dive that was!
We parked at Koh Tachai for the night and would do our dawn dive here again. Being tired from 2 days of constant diving, most of the crew and guests called it a night fairly early tonight.
Day 3
The morning began with the WAKEY wakey a bit earlier than usual (6mins). After Joes briefing out group 1 jumped in. During the safety stop, one of our guests wanted to propose marriage to his GF. And so be did, using the help of Hardik, he presented her with the slates saying will you marry me and YES she said with a huge grin and the regulator still in place. The large school of barracuda felt like they were the audience paying their visit.
Immediately after the dive we left for the most awaited dive site of the trip. .. Richelieu Rock!
As expected, the dive was amazing with so many different schools of fish. Also the tiny stuff in the cracks and the wide range of Nudibranches was amazing. The cuttle fish at the top of the pinnacle was a wonderful treat for all our divers. By popular demand it was decided that we will do more dives here at Richelieu Rock.
Dive number 3 on day 3 was graced by the huge octopus, the mantis shrimp and the tiny Nudibranches all over the horseshoe shapes pinnacle.
Our fourth dive was a sunset dive and all our guests witnessed a change in shift for the fishes! The day timers find a place to sleep and the hunters trying to get them!
Soon after the dive, we left for Koh Bon, where we would stay overnight.
The next morning was an early one with the wakeup call at 5.45 am.
Our first dive was at Koh Bon Hin Luang! The sheer beauty of the yellow shaded pinnacle was breath taking! And yeah, our stone fish had company in his little home today! Looks like he's found himself a mate! Let's see what happens in the near future. We will keep you posted if we see any new stone fish babies on Hin Luang!
We did our next dive at Koh Bon West Ridge and it was one of the best dives of our trip with mind blowing visibility! As soon as we entered the water, a Neapolitan wrasse couple came around looking at us! After this dive we set course towards the mainland. Boonsung Wreck being the last dive and close by as well.
It was an good day at the Boonsung Wreck with the visiblity being about 10 mtrs. But yes. . It was the fish soup as always. Tons of scorpion fish on the wreck. Baby barracuda hung around us most of the time during the dive and so did the yellow snapper school and not to forget the mesmerising honeycomb moray eels. Soon, it was time to end the 15th (and the last) dive of the trip. Soon thr guests were packing and getting ready to depart.
A special congratulation to Alex, Peter and Kydon for finishing your advanced course with Koon!
Hui Hui, Cheryl and Perlin completed their advanced and PADI Nitrox with Instructor Kate on board! Congratulations to Tiffany on her PADI Nitrox course as well! Anja and Joe completed Nitrox courses with Perlin, Sean and Jeffrey. A special congratulations to Jessica on her PADI Open Water course with Anita!
Reaching back to the Khao Lak pier, the transport for the guests was sorted out and their drops arranged! We said our good byes with a heavy heart and wished out valued patrons good luck for the future.
The Manta Queen 3 team signing off. Until next time... take care!
The Manta Queen Fleet Team powered by Khao Lak Scuba Adventures
