Posts Tagged ‘Shark Point’

Hin Deang/Hin Muang Dive Trip Summer 2011 on MV Scuba Adventure- Vincent Moy Tour Leader

Posted on January 21st, 2012 by admin-scubacat-dw  |  Comments Off on Hin Deang/Hin Muang Dive Trip Summer 2011 on MV Scuba Adventure- Vincent Moy Tour Leader

I was very excited to take this trip out during the “summer season” as tour leader on MV Scuba Adventure. All season the local sites from Phuket had been performing so well, with lots of great visibility dives and an abundance of marine life both (very) big and small. I also knew that during the high season the dive sites of Hin Deang and Hin Maung are awesome, but I didn’t know what to expect from a trip this time of year?

Scuba Cat Diving, Phuket, Thailand MV Scuba Adventure

Scuba Adventure

… It was not a disappointment!

So here we go:

Day 1:

Shark Point – Great visibility to enjoy all the lovely soft corals, fans, sponges and tons of marine life including the odd leopard shark. Hi-light of the dive: a large marble patterned tiger tail seahorse.

Scuba Cat Diving, Phuket, Thailand  5 * CDC

Shark Point

Koh Bida Nok – Again tons of marine life, especially the trevally and schools of fusiliers, and a nice big hawksbill turtle at the start. Hi-light of the dive: absolutely the 10-20 black-tip sharks seen during the dive, especially getting up real close to 5-10 of them in the bay, before they finally torpedoed passed us.

Scuba Cat Diving, Phuket, Thailand  5 * CDC

Koh Bida Nok

Koh Ha Yai – A beautiful late afternoon dive to enjoy the caverns (known as the Cathedral) and swim-through’s. Hi-light of the dive: the view looking out at the silhouetted divers the from the back of the Cathedral.

Scuba Cat Diving Phuket Thailand  5 * CDC

"The Cathedral"

Koh Ha Lagoon – A comfortable night dive in the protected lagoon between islands 2 and 4. Our group explored the east side wall of island 2 and the sloping reef between. Hi-light: For me the macro life amongst the vivid soft corals on the wall, for others the giant barracuda following us!

Day 2:

Hin Muang – Oh my God! The visibility! We could see the bottom… and which ever side you are on, it goes down a very long way! Lot’s of life; and the soft corals looking bigger and more colourful than ever. Hi-light of the dive: All of it, in stunning visability. It was like a scene from the movie The Abyss but with the lights on! Diving – the best reason in the world to get up with the sun.

Scuba Cat Diving, Phuket, Thailand Hin Mueng

"Stunning Visibility"

Hin Deang – Awesome vis continued, we could even see the outer pinnacle from the main rock! Whichever way you looked there was marine activity and mild currents meant an easy swim to appreciate it all. Hi-light of the dive: Did I mention the large manta ray that made it’s way around the rock to the outer pinnacle!

Scuba Cat Diving, Phuket, Thailand  5 * CDC

"Manta Ray"

Koh Ha Neua – An early afternoon dive made the best of the huge purple soft corals on the southern side of this site. The shallow hard coral reef at the end of the dive was full of fish, whilst weaving in and out of the soft-coral coated rock channels rewarded us with nice nudi’s and a brilliant yellow tigertail seahorse. Hi-Light of the dive: A spotted eagle ray hovering over the purple soft coral field.

Scuba Cat Diving Phuket Thailand  5 * CDC

"Sea Horse"

Koh Bida Nok – With the currents reversed and an exciting dive the day before, we chose to go again from the other side of the island. This dusk dive showed us some more big fish (black-tip sharks), kuhl’s rays, mantis shrimps, morays, nudibranchs. Hi-light of the dive: I guess taking the time to see all the things we hadn’t noticed on the other dives – Bida Nok is one of the richest and most varied dive sites. Oh, and it being a dusk dive so some of us could visit Phi Phi Don and enjoy an evening on land.

Day 3:

Koh Bida Nai – Yet another sunny day, this early morning dive provided more sharks and a small school of big pick-handled barracuda. Hi-light of the dive: Swimming through the hundreds of fusiliers and trevally that hang out in the sunshine over the beds of stag horn coral, then back up the reef to the glittering chevron barracudas.

Scuba Cat Diving, Phuket, Thailand  5 * CDC

Koh Bida Nai

Anemone Reef – Of course anemones but also lots of colorful soft corals make this a beautiful pinnacle in good visibility… and it was! A turtle, lot’s of fish, little current, nudi’s and a few bamboo shark made it even better. Hi-light: A pale-yellow seahorse out in the sand (I like seahorses!)

Scuba Cat Diving, Phuket, Thailand  5 * CDC

Anemone Reef

Koh Doc Mai – A nice surprise… an extra dive thrown on to the end of the trip! This wall dive is awesome for macro – wonderful nudibranchs, ornate ghost pipefish, more bamboo sharks, all sorts of morays, this site can have it all. Hi-light: We got to dive again, ha!

Scuba Cat Diving, Phuket, Thailand  5 * CDC

Koh Doc Mai

Apart from the great visibility and relaxed diving (with it’s heart racing moments – sharks, manta, eagle ray), for me it was the wonderful variety of dive sites and marine life that made the trip one of the best. Also helping to make the diving awesome was that, during most of the trip, we were the only boat diving the sites… well, we were on the Scuba Adventure!

Liveaboards – MV Scuba Adventure

Posted on August 25th, 2011 by admin-scubacat-dw  |  Comments Off on Liveaboards – MV Scuba Adventure

When divers think of Thailand the first place that often they mention is Similans. But there are many more dive sites accessible in the South Andaman, which also offer the same diversity and topography as the North Andaman.

Some of these dive sites also have the advantage of being open for diving all year around as they have shelter and protection from the mainland.

South Andaman Dive sites can include:

Hin Daeng (Red Rock) and Hin Muang (Purple Rock):

Both of these sites are about 70 km south of Koh Lanta and offer the best of the South diving experiences. Here the visibility can be good, but the water is plankton rich so it attracts some of the larger marine life.

Scuba Cat Diving Phuket Thailand Whaleshark

"Whaleshark"

Hin Daeng is the deepest drop of in Thailand, with a wall descending to 70m+ on the south side of the site. It is visible from the surface in the form a three pinnacles that break the surface, these descend underwater to red soft coral covered walls and reef.

Hin Muang is a series of submerged pinnacles dropping down to 60m+, it is 200m in length and covered in purple colored soft corals.

The diversity of marine life on both sites ranges from the big palegics such as Manta and devil rays, Whale sharks and reef sharks, to small ornate ghost pipe fish, long nose hawkfish and nudibranchs.

Both sites are exposed during the monsoon season so are sometime inaccessible due to weather conditions.

Koh Haa:

This is a group of five islands about 25 km west of Koh Lanta. There are three dive sites here and it offers dramatic and colorful scenery. The reefs are hard coral which has soft corals and sea fans, the area has many swim throughs and caves.

Koh Haa Lagoon is a shallow, protected area that lies between 3 of the Islands, The central lagoon area is suitable for beginner divers and snorkellers and provides a safe, nursery-area for many juvenile fish species. You may see Porcupine Puffer Fish, Ghost Pipefish, Octopus and Hawksbill Turtles swimming amongst the corals

Scuba Cat Diving Phuket Thailand Koh Haa

"The Cathedral"

Koh Haa Cathedral is a series of large and spectacular, interconnected caverns and swimthroughs. The largest cavern has three chambers and is known as ‘The Cathedral’. The first two chambers are connected by a shallow swim through at about 9 metres. It is possible to surface inside the Cathedral and see the limestone stalactites looming from the high ceilings. Light floods in through the two large entrances and offers great photographic opportunities. The shallow area in front of the beach is packed with coral and is suitable for beginner divers. Look out for the coral formations that are several metres high.

Koh Haa Chimney at Ko Haa Neung is a tall, vertical chimney, often filled with small glassfish or sweeperfish, starting at 5m and going down to around 16m. Explore the arm that branches out to the east, bringing you out into a beautiful shallow chamber with several large exits. You can find banded sea snakes, lionfish, nudibranchs, frogfish, harlequin shrimps, many other crustaceans and beautiful cowries. Look for large schools of snapper and barracuda.

Phi Phi :

Phi Phi islands have many dive sites, but the most famous and rewarding are at the south and are two rock islands called the Bida’s, Nok and Nai.

Scuba Cat Diving Phuket Thailand Phi Phi

"Phi Phi"

There is also a wall near to Maya beach, made famous by the movie the Beach with Leonardo De Caprio, which offers good diving.

The diving offers walls and sloping reefs, with hard and soft coral, many large sea fans and anemones. Schools of jack fish, barracuda, snappers can be seen on all sites, with sea horses, ghost pipe fish and nudibranchs. Look out for leopard sharks in the sandy areas with stingrays, and in the shallow look for hunting black tip reef sharks.

Turtles both green and hawksbills can often be found at all sites but many are seen on Maya wall.

Shark Point and Anemone reef :

Located around 26km from Chalong bay these two dive sites are less than a km away from each other. Anenome reef is one submerged pinnacle and Shark Point is two pinnacles, with one slightly above the water line.

Both sites are covered in soft corals with gorgonian sea fans, barrel sponges and anemones, and they attract a large amount of marine life.

Scuba Cat Diving Phuket Thailand Turtle

"Turtle"

Leopard and bamboo sharks can be sighted here, along with tigertail sea horses, hawksbill turtles and cuttlefish. Schooling snapper, travalie and fusileers are common, with many lion fish, scorpion fish and different types of moray eels.

Koh Doc Mai :

The name means flower island in Thai and the dive site is a limestone island with vertical walls descending to 24 to 28m in depth. The East side is the most dived and has two caves along its wall, there are many crevices, big sea fans, whip coral and tree corals.

The site offers a good variety of macro life, tiger tail sea horses, ghost pipe fish, nudibranchs, many types of shrimps and frog fish. Many white eyes morays are found together and under ledges bamboo sharks are common. The dive is normally a one way drift along the wall.

Scuba Cat Diving Phuket Thailand Dive sites

"Andaman Sea"

If you want to enjoy the best sites that Phuket all around the Andaman Sea can offer in a 7 day liveaboard trip join MV Scuba Adventure from November to May.

MARINE PARK RULES AND REGULATIONS

DO NOT 

Collect anything except rubbish

Make loud noises, which disturb other people and wildlife.

Hunt, destroy, or do anything that harms plants, animals and the environment

Exceed 40m of depth if trained; entry level divers must not exceed 20m of depth.

Exceed no decompression limits

Dive in restricted areas

Feed any animals

Dive with gloves, (except on wreck dives and mooring line descent or ascent dives).

DO

Have a diving certification

Realise the significance of nature, in that we must share and learn to preserve it for ourselves and others.

Have a signaling device

Complete safety stops on every dive

Protect the environment with good buoyancy control