Wednesday April 14th 2021

With the borders still closed We are grateful to be able to continue our season with local guests A full charter of Thai guests make their way from Bangkok to join us and experience the beautiful sights of the Similan Islands.  Our guests arrive to Thailand Aggressor at Thaplamu Pier at 7:30pm and are greeted by our smiling crew.  The Chefs prepare a three course Thai cuisine dinner and we gather in the salon for a general boat briefing, There is time to settle in and set up dive gear. then we are off to the Similan Islands.

Thursday April 15th 2021

Guests wake up too fresh brewed coffee and a light breakfast, before our dive safety briefing.  After a thorough safety briefing we then gear up and jump in to the beautiful under water world of the Similan Islands at a site we know as Honeymoon Bay which is a nice shallow reef on Island number four, this site is perfect for our check dive.  There are 9 Islands in the Similan Archipelago.  Our trip will start on Island number four with the shallow reef it is perfect as we go no more than 18 meter’s for that first dive as to allow everyone to get comfortable in the water on their first dive of our cruise’s.  We found a giant moray, bluefin trevally’s hunting amongst the glass fish, and a plethora of our more general reef life.  Visibility was a good 25 meters or so which made for some really awesome sights underwater and a very nice temperature of around 29 deg Celsius or around 81 deg Fahrenheit.   After our Morning dive guests come back to the mother ship and “Breakfast Your Way” is served.  Guests can order any style eggs, pancakes, waffles, French toast, egg’s Benedict, also served with bacon, hash browns, ham, sausages, and Thai Noodles.  All of our guest’s thoroughly enjoyed their breakfast and are ready for their second dive of the day at a site called Sharkfin Reef.  Decending into the Andaman waters we quickly spotted a hawksbill turtle cruising along the reef, after some good video and photo’s of the turtle, we found a juvenile white tip reef shark sleeping under a coral head, it did not swim off and all of our guests had a really nice encounter with the baby shark, was a really nice dive for our guest’s.  We then headed to Boulder City which lies in open water just north of Islands 1 and 2.  This site Is known for its huge gorgonian fan’s, some of which are around 2-3 meters across, along with huge granite boulders making up 3 distinct pinnacles around 14-18 meters below the surface.   Making our way along the site we come across a very shy andaman jaw fish hiding in it’s burrow, along with 2 spotted porcelain crabs, large schools of fusiliers, a couple of golden trevally’s, and some beautiful false clowns anemone fish in white bulbed anemone’s.  Was a very great dive and an amazing way to start out our cruise.  Guest’s came back to the yacht and it was time for a full buffet lunch.  For our forth dive of the day we head to Stonehenge which is just north of Island 4, the hard and soft corals on this site have exploded in growth over the last 2 years which make for amazing colorful pictures for our guests.  A highlight for this dive was two hawksbill turtles courting each other on the reef, all of our groups were able to see the 5 Large painted spiny lobsters as well.  Our night dive was again here at Stonehenge as it is a great reef for a nice shallow safe night dive.

Friday April 16th 2021  

Guests wake up to a light breakfast today and our first dive at one of our favourite Similan dive sites known as Elephant Head Rock, this site is named so as there are very large granite boulders protruding out of the water that look like an Elephant bathing in the ocean.  Elephant Head is situated between Islands 7 and 8.  We dropped in to awesome visibility and we almost immediately came across across a very well hidden reef octopus burrowed under a rock, also found a very small anker’s whip coral shrimp, very large trevally’s hunting amongst the schools of blue back fusiliers, a Great barracuda and an abundance of our general reef life, the highlight was a pretty skittish white tip reef shark cruising over the top of the large boulders.  Guests had a really great dive and headed back to the yacht for a tasty “eggs your way” breakfast.

Our second dive of the day is at a dive site called Deep Six, we came across a resident spearing mantis shrimp hiding in its burrow, which made for some really nice photos, also large schools of fusiliers, giant trevally’s, a few large dog tooth tuna, and a few really cool swim throughs filled with gorgonians fans, soft corals, and teaming with marine life.

Third dive of the day is at a really beautiful site called west of Eden, we found a few psychedelic batwing slugs, a couple of Batfish, a really cool Nudi called the Mira Mira Sinuatom, a couple of Painted Spiny Lobsters and a plethora of our more common reef live. 

Three trees at Island 9 with its picturesque coral gardens in the deep and the huge barrel sponge over 2 metres high where we stop as our guests pose and take hundreds of pictures, with the beautiful coral gardens backdropping a very beautiful site.  A couple of our groups came across a Very large Napoleon Wrasse, and a big school of Chevron Barracuda.  Back to the Yacht for Dinner and more tasty Thai food.  We will be sleeping in the protection of the islands before making our way up to koh bon island tomorrow morning.

Saturday April 17th 2021

The day starts off again with morning beverage service and a light breakfast, followed by our first dive of the day here at Koh Bon This limestone islet features a huge ridge which begins at about 50 meters above sea levels and slopes downward into the sea to a sandy bottom of about 50 meters, the ridge is well known for the larger marine life and we jump in excitedly as we have heard there was big stuff around in the previous week.  An how lucky we were as towards the end of the dive one of our groups spotted the Oceanic Manta gliding over the cleaning station and the west ridge, we decided to do 2 more dives here to give all of our groups a chance to see this beautiful creature, we also saw dog tooth tuna, blue Fin Trevally’s, Maldivian Sponge Snails, Giant Moray’s just to name a few.   After the dives at Koh Bon We head to Koh Tachai Pinnacle for our 3rd dive of the day, the pinnacle lies to the South East of Koh Tachai island and  we approach the site using a mooring line in case of current, the coral gardens around the pinnacle are covered in soft corals and sea fans, As we jump in a huge school of long fin batfish hang around the mooring line, We find an octopus hiding on the reef and big brown marble groupers hide in the hard corals, We encounter huge dogtooth tunas passing over the top of the pinnacle and schools of fusiliers light up the blue water with color as they play in the current, 5 or 6 very large painted spiny lobsters, along with several nudi’s.  Back to the yacht for dinner and a nice sunset cruise to the surin islands where we will over night before making our way to Richelieu Rock tomorrow morning.

Sunday April 18th 2021

We made our way to Richelieu rock for a full day diving, covered in lush soft corals and carpets of anemones this site is the jewel of the Andaman sea,  large schools of fusiliers, a huge school of snapper inside the bay,  a school of pickhandle barracuda are out in the current front,  We find a   Harlequin Shrimp sitting on top of a small sea star, tomato anemone fish, a special find was a Large Green Frogfish resting on a Sea Fan  and an endless list of critters during the day. Commonly on the list as one of the top 10 dive sites in the world for marine Biodiversity, it is truly a site to see and experience for yourself.  What an amazingly awesome day’s diving here at Richelieu Rock!!!  On our way back to Tablamu now where we will have our BBQ Party and Final Briefing this evening.

Monday April 19th 2021

We had a great week of diving this week with many laughs along the way,

Our guests were great fun and everyone made new friends, we had our evening of BBQ and our weekly movie night.

Our guests were heading home to Bangkok today, we wish them a safe journey and thanks to them for getting us back out in the water again!!