With our transfer to the boat scheduled for 5:30pm, we got a 2:00pm checkout and planned for a nice lunch at the hotel. While I napped by the pool, Bill worked on our Phuket blog and pictures. A 2.5 hour bus ride later we boarded the M/V Pawara where we were shown to our cabin. We had booked the Master cabin because I really hate yucky accommodations. While this was the best on the boat, it was still far from great. Most cabins have bunk beds so you have to lie under the bunk and few windows. Ours was a queen size bed with nothing overhead, and large windows covering 2 sides. We even had a little bench area that we used as a storage shelf for electronics and a camera table. Our bed was actually a plastic covered
foam mat about 2" thick and covered with a single sheet that was not fitted. Very uncomfortable. The ensuite bathroom was functional, but not good. I'm sure ours was much better than the others. When we weren't diving, Bill spent most of his time in the cabin because he forgot his non-prescription sunglasses and didn't want to take off his contacts 4 times a day. I avoided the room as much as possible and spent my time reading in the sun deck.

We left port after 11pm as one of the group was delayed due to flight problems. The weather was perfect, but the 5 hour crossing to the Similan Islands was pretty rough. Luckily neither of us are bothered by motion sickness but we still didn't get a great night sleep.

We were awakened each morning at 6am for pre breakfast (toast and fruit) and the first dive briefing. First dive at 7am, then full breakfast. 2nd dive at 10:30, then lunch. 3rd dive at 2, followed by snack, then a sunset or night dive followed by dinner. The dives were generally deep with the most interesting things at 70'-90' and very little to see once you got above 30' which meant dives were usually shorter than we've been used to in the Carribean (~40 minutes). We dove on Nitrox (an enriched mixture with ~30% oxygen vs normal air with ~21%) which is generally intended to allow you to have more bottom time but such is life.

The food was good and plentiful, a mix of Thai and international dishes. Always fresh fruit and salad but light on dessert. Even though everyone lays around on deck between dives, it is not a vacation for slackers. We were exhausted each night and went straight to bed following dinner and were usually asleep before 9. Dive, eat, sleep, repeat.

Our shipmates were a very diverse group. There were a little over 20 divers, a couple of snorkeling wives and 10 crew. We had a large Korean group, a small French group, a couple of Germans and Danes, a Swede and two ladies from the US that are in the Peace Core in Asia.

We knew Phuket was was hit by the Tsunami 10 years ago, but since the Similan islands are so many miles away, we did not expect to see as much damage to the reef as we found. Apparently they also had the ocean get too hot about 4 years ago and that also killed a lot of coral. Bill had been here 20 years ago and the difference was dramatic. Very little live hard coral and reduced soft corals but there was lots of reef rubble everywhere. Visibility was maybe 40'. On day 3 we went to Richelieu Rock and here the reef was in fantastic shape and much more the way Bill remembered. Rich colors, beautiful soft corals, huge fans, ...

And with the nicer reef we got a significant increase in the amount of sea life (I guess even fish prefer to live in the nicer neighborhoods). Where we would see a school of hundreds of fish in the Similans, at Richelieu Rock we saw schools of thousands. On almost every dive there was interesting things to see and so we enjoyed all 14 dives. We found Nemo everywhere, orange striped clown fish darting around in the anemones. Lots of huge moray eels, turtles (Bill's favorite) that did not seem to be bothered by divers, sea snakes, leaf worms, a yellow seahorse, shrimps and crabs, also lots of scorpion fish. We saw several octopus which on daylight dives is unusual. We even watched a pair mating which was amazing! You can see most of this on the 3 minute video on Flikr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/bill_and _dessa/16371850455/).

During our safety stop (we hover at about 15' below the surface for 3-5 minutes to allow our bodies to release some of the nitrogen we have absorbed at depth) on one of the dives, a tiny yellow pilot jack made friends with Bill. It swam around him the whole time and seemed to like his ****** area best. It even continued when we surfaced and swam the 50 yards back to the boat. It was funny to watch but after we got back on board, Bill kind of felt bad as it was unlikely that the little fish would survive to make it back to the reef. One of the other divers in our group found a picture of this kind of fish in one of the dive reference books. It showed them swimming with a whale shark. Maybe he confused Bill for one?? (hey, that sounds like a fat joke)

Many of the creatures we have posted photos of are masters of disguise, so finding them will be like working a Highlights puzzle. Especially the octopus and the scorpion fish look just like the coral they lie on. Because of the depth of the dives the reds and oranges get washed out leaving the photo images predominantly blue and green. The video color is better.

All things considered, a good trip and it was great to be back underwater. Up next a 24 hour, 3 flight brutal travel day to get to Sydney. I'm ready for a country where something akin to English is spoken and some food that is familiar.

As always, higher resolution photos are available on Flikr:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/bill_and_ dessa/sets/

... Bill and Dessa