Last week I went up to the Similans on board MV Giamani for an overnight trip. The first day we did 3 dives on Koh Bon. Just as we were about to jump in, we got news that there was a manta ray on the site. We jumped in as quick as we could and after about 5 minutes I heard someone bang their tank. I looked up....mantaaaaaa!! We saw 2 of these magnificent creatures, and they hung around for pretty much all of the dive. Next dive, same thing, we ended up doing a 75 minute dive because a huge 5 metre manta decided it wanted to hang out with us on the safety stop :)



The Similans National Park is now closed for the season, but there is still plenty of great diving to be done around Phuket. However the water temperature is a cause for concern at the moment. It's currently 32 degrees, 2 degrees higher than is normal here. This is causing some coral bleaching. If the water temperature doesn't drop soon, the corals may be permanently damaged. We are hoping for the monsoon rains to come soon as this should help to lower the temperature.

•Phi-Phi Overnight special 14-15 May - Trip is confirmed and we still have space available!
•On your way to Phuket but worried about the protests in Bangkok? Phuket is all clear at the moment. No problems. We recommend that you fly direct to Phuket or via Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong etc.
•Special 10% discount on our 4-day / 9-dive Open Water Diver course + Phi-Phi Overnight combination!!!

Due to the recent unrest in Bangkok, lot of people may have concerns about travelling to Phuket...don't worry, it's all clear here at the moment, if you are flying here, we recommend you fly direct to Phuket, or via Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Hong Kong, etc. We look forward to seeing you here!

As for the diving, it continues to be good with lots to see...seahorses, frogfish, ornate ghost pipefish, turtles and there was a whale shark spotted in the area less than a week ago :)

A double congratulations to Riann and Kara from South Africa who recently passed their PADI Open Water course while in Phuket on their honeymoon!

•Phi-Phi Overnight special 16-17 April - We still have space available!
•Special 10% discount on our 4-day / 9-dive Open Water Diver course + Phi-Phi Overnight combination!!!

Recent News

It's been a pretty busy month with a lot of great trips out to Phi Phi. Conditions remain good, the visibility at Shark Point was the best we have seen it for a long time - around 25-30metres :) Unfortunately the leopard sharks have not made their return to the reef yet but there are plenty of black tips and other things to see.

A big congratulations to Stephen McCullough who passed his open water course with instructor Joe Blasey this week...here's Stephen on one of his dives.



•Phi-Phi Overnight special 2-3 April - Trip is confirmed and we still have space available!
•M/V Nautica - 30% Season Closing discount for selected cabins on selected trips during April 2010!!! Contact us for more information.
•Special 10% discount on our 4-day / 9-dive Open Water Diver course + Phi-Phi Overnight combination!!!
•Black Manta - Fully booked for the rest of this season! Sorry!!! :-)
•White Manta - Fully booked for the rest of this season! Sorry!!! :-)

Recent Phi Phi Trips

The last few overnight trips to Phi Phi have been really good. The visibility around Bida Nok and Bida Nai was around 20m, lots of black tip reef sharks, turtles, some huge schools of barracuda as well as some great macro life - seahorses, ornate ghost pipefish, and nudibrancs. We haven't seen a lot of leopard sharks recently, but I have been told that it is their breeding season and they like to do this in private without us divers looking on! Hopefully they will make a return to the reef soon :) This picture is one member of a family of three bendstick pipefish at Bida Nok.



•Black Manta - 23-27 Feb Still have a few Deluxe cabins available at a last minute 10% discount!!!
•Phi-Phi Overnight special - 26-27 Feb - The trip is confirmed and we still have space available.
•White Manta - Currently fully booked for the rest of this season (until end April)! Sorry! :-)
•Peak Season Special 10% discount on our 4-day / 9-dive Open Water Diver course + Phi-Phi Overnight combination!!!

Singapore American School Phi Phi Trip

During Chinese New Year, we had our annual visit from the Singapore American School kids. Every year they come to Phuket to complete their open water course. One of their teachers, PADI Course Director William Ong, finished their academics and confined sessions in Singapore so we just had the fun part of the open water dives :) There were 12 kids in total and we went on a 3 day trip to Phi Phi. We saw lots of turtles, leopard sharks, black tip reef sharks and of course all the kids wanted to 'find nemo'! Congratulations to all on passing the open water course.



Also a big congratulations to Clinton who recently passed his Divemaster course with flying colours! Here's Clinton after conducting a confined Discover Scuba Diving program with our Driver, Boon.

This week, we persuaded our office manager Tjaart to get back in the water after 4 years of not diving (!). Clinton, our divemaster trainee conducted a scuba review for him on the north reef of Kata beach. Conditions were good and we saw a lot of interesting things like the maldives sponge snail, 2 families of coral shrimp fish, barracuda and a few jellyfish.



Conditions on the Phi Phi overnight trip have been good although the visiblilty on the last trip was a little less than normal, but we still saw plenty of sharks, banded sea snakes, sea horses and plenty of ornate ghost pipefish. However on the previous trip we had great vis and as usual, lots of fish to see. Here's a shot of one of the frogfish on Koh Doc Mai...

Last week, Burkhard Lisson took his Advanced Open Water course with me. We had some amazing dives, especially at Bay 3 on Racha Yai where we were being circled by a big school of barracuda! Here is Burkhard on his safety stop at Shark Point.

We had another great Phi Phi overnighter on Monday/Tuesday...lots of Leopard sharks at Koh Bida Nok, Black Tip Reef sharks on Koh Bida Nai, and we managed to find 2 new seahorses at Koh Doc Mai, both of which appear to be carrying eggs sacks :) We also spotted 2 frogfish, longfin comet and some cleaner pipefish. Can't wait for tomorrows trip!