Underwater at Similan

45 Shares

Cambodia and Thailand - February 2011

Dear English-speaking readers, this page is an automatic Google translation from a post originally written in French. My apologies for the weird sentences and the funny mistakes that could have been generated during the process. If you can read French, click on the French flag below to access the original text:

Français

Hop! At the water ! We go back under the surface. On the program: a small cruise to the Similan Islands, with Richelieu Rock, Koh Bon and Koh Tachaï on the course. These are the most famous dive sites in Thailand ...

Sea of Fantasy

When I embark, in February, on the Sea of Fantasy from Eden Divers, I know what to expect: it was with this boat that I had already dived in 2009 (see → The cruise makes bubbles and other links at the end of this post).

Update : the story you read here is a cruise made in February 2011. Do not try to book at Eden Divers today, the company no longer exists... She went bankrupt in the hands of a German, sued in Austria for fraud, who was arrested in Thailand in May 2014, if I believe the articles published in ThePhuketNews and ChiangRaiTimes [in English].

In the crazy Thai armada that embarks daily divers on the Andaman Sea, this is one of the few boats to offer individual cabins, which suits me well (I do not like paying the exorbitant supplements singlenor sacrifice my sleep for snoring or snoring in a shared cabin).

Three years ago, I really enjoyed the comfort and the supervision, the Nitrox free, international atmosphere with divers of all ages and all walks of life ... so I decided to go back home.

Coup de bol: for this cruise, we are only 5 customers on the boat, made to accommodate 13. What to spread without jostling! I am glad.

The Thai crew is very caring, as always. Dinner is ready when you arrive, just step on the table.

The program is simple: eat, sleep, dive. Eat, sleep, dive.

My four diving companions are all German. Thirties, open and nice. We will have a good time during these three days. The staff who supervises this cruise is German too. Essen, Schlaffen, Tauchen

Good atmosphere, again, but... more Germanic than international this time! 😛

Bad luck: engine failure at the start. And since there is also a spare diaphragm for the compressor Nitroxit will therefore be necessary to dive "normally" in the air.

Good. All this is not too serious, it will not affect the cruise, fortunately. We will leave after all the other boats, much later, at night. Two Thai mechanics will spend long hours trimming and sweating, in the suffocating atmosphere of the hold, to repair the engine.

Ploufs!

I wondered, before diving, what state would be the coral, which suffered the bleaching due to warming water. And now that I've seen for myself, it's hard for me to judge, actually.

It was my 3rd dive cruise at the Similan, but with three years between each. My memories are not so precise and I do not know the sites by heart.

I think it's near the surface, where there were real 'coral gardens', that the damage is most important. But frankly, deeper, on all the sites where we dive, I feasted.

The highlight of the show being (as in previous times), in the archipelago of Surin, the sumptuous Richelieu Rock, teeming with life, covered with a profusion of purple corals, waving under the current. Magnificent !

Life abounds above the corals ... Richelieu Rock. Thailand, February 2011.

Richelieu Rock. Thailand, February 2011.

We often hear that it would be Cousteau (still him!) Who would have given his name to Richelieu Rock, the color of soft corals lining the reef having evoked the purple of the dress of Cardinal Richelieu ...

In fact, this version would be a beautiful legend (more). Charlie, from the diving center Seafarer Divers, in Phuket, explains to me that it is not possible:

That's wrong, Cousteau's "Calypso" was never at Richelieu Rock, because I was the dive guide for this expedition during the shooting of the film "The Convicts of the Sea".

In 1988, no dive center had dipped in Richelieu Rock and nobody in the area knew this superb site.

The English probably gave this name because Cardinal Richelieu had made them drool in the seventeenth century with his navy, and as this rock is treacherous to navigation, they could compare it ... the cardinal from Richelieu.

But in fact, the real explanation would be the following (thanks to Ludovic to put me on the track, via an article from Bangkok Post, including on the Wicked Diving blog): Richelieu Rock would not take its name from any reference to the famous Cardinal Richelieu (1585-1642), but of a certain Andreas Plessis de Richelieu (1852-1932), which marked the history of Thailand.

This Dane, as his name does not indicate, was sent to Siam where he distinguished himself in several naval battles at the end of the nineteenth century. He was the first foreign commander to join the Siamese navy, which promoted him to the rank of vice-admiral in 1902.

Photos under the water

Contrary to predictions of doomed birds, I managed not to drown my 7D! ????

I know that it thrills more than one, the idea of taking a camera like this under the water ... For my part, it does not worry me too much. I always prepare very carefully my box, without precipitation, the day before, preferably. Anyway, I can not imagine diving without my camera!

But I still need several dives to regain my marks and succeed in making the images that I want. Small disappointment during these three days of cruising: the weather rather gray, which did not help me much for the photos of atmosphere under water ...

And my main dilemma, from one dive site to another: the choice of the goal. Macro or wide angle? Small animals or big beasts?

Yes I know. I have big problems in life ... ???? The proof in pictures below.

But where are the mantas?

At Koh Bon, obviously, no dilemma for choosing the goal. Wide angle, necessarily. This is the site of the mantas rays.

Alas, we did not cross them. It's not for lack of insistence. We plunged and returned to Koh Bon, even attempting an incursion into the blue, away from the reef. In vain. However, they should not be far ... (But I'll have a little luck a few days later, after this cruise, returning diving to Koh Bon the day, from Khao Lak ...)

Finally, in the category "big beast", we were hoping, too, cross the road of a whale shark. But no. Not the tail of one. It was not our day. Neither that day nor the others.

I can see how lucky I was, five years ago: manta rays, and one whale shark for my very first dive cruise at Similan!

Good. No mantas, no whale sharks this time. But there was "fat", anyway. Piles of very impressive schools of jacks and pigeon similar. Our tour-leader, Karin, saw two swordfish, me an eagle-ray, the Germans a black-tip shark.

That said, the obsession of the "big" would almost forget the rest: the "usual tropical fauna", as I write now in my dive book to go fast. Scorpion fish, moray eels, groupers, blue-hooked rays, clownfish, butterflyfish, parrot fish, angelfish, balloon fish, trumpetfish, scorpion fish ...

They are still here!

My previous cruises

I put here links to posts and photos that I posted online, after my previous cruises-dives at Similan.

My stay of 2006

It was with Sea Dragon. I liked the atmosphere at the time, rather young and "backpackers", very good option for small budgets.

My stay of 2009

It was, as in this year, with Eden Divers. Good comfort, one of the rare boats offering individual cabins, Nitrox gratos, good organization.

Update : the story you read here is a cruise made in February 2011. Do not try to book at Eden Divers today, the company no longer exists... She went bankrupt in the hands of a German, sued in Austria for fraud, who was arrested in Thailand in May 2014, if I believe the articles published in ThePhuketNews and ChiangRaiTimes [in English].