One of the world's best (Feb. 21/09 - Similan Islands, Thailand)

Richelieu Rock is one of those dive sites that seasoned divers have heard about and read about, as it ranks as one of the ten best dive sites in the world, and a spot where whale shark sightings are common. We sailed overnight, traveling east from Koh Tachai, and mooring up on the reef at sunrise before any other boats had a chance to arrive. Mainland Thailand is visible to the east, and Koh Tachai and the Surin Islands are off to the west. Official patrol boats had a noticeable presence, as we were sitting within swimming distance of the Myanmar (Burma) border. Richelieu Rock is a horseshoe shaped formation of submerged rocky outcrop, which ranges from about 100 feet deep on the outside walls to less than 20 feet on the shallowest rocks. We jumped in and were instantly impressed - the reef was completely carpeted with purple and white soft corals, and schooling fish were everywhere. Fields of purple and blue "magnificent" anemones covered the rocks, housing hundreds of anemonefish of different varieties, including the endemic tomato anemonefish. We came across a huge blotched fantail stingray lying on the sand, lots of lionfish hanging in the water above the soft corals, a tiny tiger egg cowrie on a sea fan, no less than four ornate ghost pipefish, urchins, massive grouper, a red-spotted coral crab, several little eels, and big schools of fusiliers, snapper, and rainbow runners. Whew! It was a beautiful and relaxing dive with photo opportunities all around, definitely worthy of its world class status!

Luckily, we were able to do a second dive at the same spot, giving us another hour to soak in the gorgeous marine life. There was a bit more current and a bit less visibility, but we still found some scorpionfish, a pipefish, a seahorse, a big school of sedate barracuda, and a massive school of big eye snapper that swirled around us in a dizzying cloud. We could've hung out in the shallows all day long, watching the little anemonefish dart in and out of their host's tentacles, playing a game of hide and seek with our camera. But every dive has a time limit, so up we went to avoid being left behind as we packed up and set sail for the next destination.

Koh Tachai, where we did our night dive last night, was close enough and good enough to head back for a couple more dives. This time we headed for a reef that fringes the northeast side of the island, where the sloping sandy bottom turns the water a brilliant turquoise colour from the surface. Coral bommies and fields of staghorn coral hid white-banded cleaner shrimp, Durban dancing shrimp, nudibranchs, ornate ghost pipefish, moray eels, and even a couple small octopi that put on a colour-changing performance when we got close. This site is a favourite of leopard sharks, but apparently our group was the only one that didn't see any - some people saw six! But we would be diving here again tonight, so maybe we would luck out then. We actually took Bocce diving with us so he didn't feel left out, stuffed in a ziploc bag to keep him dry. He didn't complain even though he didn't look too thrilled about it!

A pretty stretch of beach beckoned us to come for a visit, so we spent our surface interval meandering the sand and reading until it was time to gear up once again. After dark, we piled back into the water to explore the same area at night, with half the fish asleep and the rest trying to hide from predators. We found another of those oscillated dwarf lionfish, a fibrilated moray eel, some tiny squat lobsters, and a skinny sea cucumber that was at least six feet long! During our ascent, when we were swimming midwater back to the boat, we covered our lights and swam in the pitch black, with only the illuminated sparks of bioluminescence flying off our fins. It's a very cool but very creepy feeling to be underwater in total darkness!

Back on the boat, we had some dinner and then watched a slideshow of the photographs taken by Tom, the onboard photo pro who has joined us on every dive to capture our trip and the beauty of this place. Virtually every shot could be on the cover of a magazine - they are flawless, brilliantly coloured, crystal clear, and creative all at the same time. Portraits of us having fun underwater, close-ups of sea life, and unique wide angle shots of divers hovering amongst massive sea fans. It made me really want to some day get a housing (and lenses, and strobes...) for my SLR camera, as the results you can get with the right gear are incredible - most of them make things look even more beautiful than they do in real life!