Jarviz
Registered
[h=2]Thailand 10 day liveaboard report[/h]
I booked this trip going by myself very last minute, 4 days before the boat departure. It was a 10 day liveaboard featuring the best of Thailand around the Phuket area.
Unknown to any of the passengers our boat, the Oriental Siren was just finishing a refit and all the crew were new to the boat. Our first disappointment was the boat wasn't ready.
They had managed to locate a replacement boat but there was no Nitrox on board.
We found the boat to be really nice, the best feature being the Chief. We were eating the VERY freshest, flavourfull Thai food I've ever eaten, She hand made Lemon grass ice cream one night.
We sailed south to the Phi Phi islands. I've seen more coral at our shore dive in the great lakes..none.. with the same type of viz...the 4 dives we did there we really disappointing.
Next day we sailed to 2 pinnacals in the middle of no where we did 3 dives here, no macro
all wide angle. Lots of fish, 3 good dives...
The dives after this went down hill fast. What happened was last year the Andaman Sea had the highest water temps in recorded history, killing all the coral so mostly our dives over dead coral looking for small critters that were few and far between.
Does a dive where you see one new critter you've never seen before constitute a good dive??
In 60 minutes I saw this Ghost pipe fish so I don't know??
We start sailing north again where we go to a small island where we get 2 great dives in, first dive wide angle 2nd macro
Down at 90/100ft came across this soft coral garden
and a leopard shark. Turns our the Leopard shark skin became a delicacy in Japan so they have been over Fished
2nd macro, another ghost pipe fish
Real close with a large cuttle fish
Now our Original boat, the Oriental Siren is ready and meets us on the trip north
Part 2
Of course they haven't really had time to test out everything, we only and cold water for 2 days, the food went from world class on the other ship to cafeteria food at best and the Nitrox was always coming tomorrow, never did have Nitrox. Things did start to run smoother after a couple of days.
We got to the Similan Islands, Thailand's premiere dive site, a group of about 9 islands. All the beutiful reefs are in the east side of the islands BUT there dead and closed. So we dive the west side which is all huge boulders. Some if these dives we OK but some had washing machine currents where i was scared the camera was going to get smashed. Viz was usually 40 to 50ft and 84f temps. There were things to find
Stone fish
from there we sailed to the furthest point Richelieu Rock for 3 dives, if all the diving had been like this it would have been great. The only down side was there there were 6 livaboards moored there. Our guide said he'd seen 30 there once.
Leafy ghost pipe fish
We went back to the Similan Islands but now our expectations were reduced, one day I didn't take the camera and just enjoyed the fish and melloed out.
I did see sharks far away, 1big eagle ray, lots of turtles, moray eels but I'm only showing you the unusual stuff. All in all I saw quite a lot but still without the coral it brought the dives to average. I had maybe 9 good dives in the trip out of 32. One night when we were moored up, I counted 36 fishing boats around us.....
Thankfully the people I met on the boat were great, I got my dive team into fooling around a little underwater when it got boring and had some good mask floods laughing....all in all I've really enjoyed my trip. Its not Manta or whales shark season yet, that would distract from the fact there is little coral left.
I would not recommend coming here to anyone, its a long way for me to go and its just average diving.....
Unknown to any of the passengers our boat, the Oriental Siren was just finishing a refit and all the crew were new to the boat. Our first disappointment was the boat wasn't ready.
They had managed to locate a replacement boat but there was no Nitrox on board.
We found the boat to be really nice, the best feature being the Chief. We were eating the VERY freshest, flavourfull Thai food I've ever eaten, She hand made Lemon grass ice cream one night.
We sailed south to the Phi Phi islands. I've seen more coral at our shore dive in the great lakes..none.. with the same type of viz...the 4 dives we did there we really disappointing.
Next day we sailed to 2 pinnacals in the middle of no where we did 3 dives here, no macro
all wide angle. Lots of fish, 3 good dives...
The dives after this went down hill fast. What happened was last year the Andaman Sea had the highest water temps in recorded history, killing all the coral so mostly our dives over dead coral looking for small critters that were few and far between.
Does a dive where you see one new critter you've never seen before constitute a good dive??
In 60 minutes I saw this Ghost pipe fish so I don't know??
We start sailing north again where we go to a small island where we get 2 great dives in, first dive wide angle 2nd macro
Down at 90/100ft came across this soft coral garden
and a leopard shark. Turns our the Leopard shark skin became a delicacy in Japan so they have been over Fished
2nd macro, another ghost pipe fish
Real close with a large cuttle fish
Now our Original boat, the Oriental Siren is ready and meets us on the trip north
Part 2
Of course they haven't really had time to test out everything, we only and cold water for 2 days, the food went from world class on the other ship to cafeteria food at best and the Nitrox was always coming tomorrow, never did have Nitrox. Things did start to run smoother after a couple of days.
We got to the Similan Islands, Thailand's premiere dive site, a group of about 9 islands. All the beutiful reefs are in the east side of the islands BUT there dead and closed. So we dive the west side which is all huge boulders. Some if these dives we OK but some had washing machine currents where i was scared the camera was going to get smashed. Viz was usually 40 to 50ft and 84f temps. There were things to find
Stone fish
from there we sailed to the furthest point Richelieu Rock for 3 dives, if all the diving had been like this it would have been great. The only down side was there there were 6 livaboards moored there. Our guide said he'd seen 30 there once.
Leafy ghost pipe fish
We went back to the Similan Islands but now our expectations were reduced, one day I didn't take the camera and just enjoyed the fish and melloed out.
I did see sharks far away, 1big eagle ray, lots of turtles, moray eels but I'm only showing you the unusual stuff. All in all I saw quite a lot but still without the coral it brought the dives to average. I had maybe 9 good dives in the trip out of 32. One night when we were moored up, I counted 36 fishing boats around us.....
Thankfully the people I met on the boat were great, I got my dive team into fooling around a little underwater when it got boring and had some good mask floods laughing....all in all I've really enjoyed my trip. Its not Manta or whales shark season yet, that would distract from the fact there is little coral left.
I would not recommend coming here to anyone, its a long way for me to go and its just average diving.....
