Posted on August 23rd, 2013 by admin-scubacat-dw | Comments Off on Go Eco Phuket 2013
The 13th August 2013 was a very good and special day for Phuket’s divers. In fact, in honor of her Majesty Queen Sirikit’s 81st birthday, divers community and volunteers met to cleanup our reefs and beaches.
GO ECO PHUKET is a non-governmental organization recognized by the Thaï government, that takes place every year, this year in August. This year, more than eleven diving companies and 1500 divers and non divers were present to clean up and help to protect the oldest most productive ecosystems on earth. Moreover, a lot of volunteers came, included divers of other countries who were in holidays, Thai people and students and schoolchildren from educational establishments of the island. Everybody was ready to begin this cleaning day at 7:00 am under the sun at Chalong Pier for a small briefing, TV interview and thanks for all those involved in this action.
After that, every diving teams and beach cleaners went to the beautiful Racha Yai, Racha Noi or Coarl Island to begin their job…
Our Scuba Cat Team took about 1.5 hours to go to Racha Yai with MV Scuba Fun, and about 22 people on board, included 10 volunteers.
Our destination once we arrived were the Bay’s 2 and 4 for the day.
Scuba Cat were given the responsibility for putting down 2 new mooring lines at Bay 2, the owner Sarah Kench, has donated the use of 2 1000 tonne anchors for the lines to be attached to, this will enable more mooring opportunities for the dive and snorkel boats visiting the island. Once the equipment was on the divers went for the dives to try to make the reef of Phuket one on the top diving destination in Thaïland and in the world !!
After approximately two fifty dives each and many efforts, Scuba Fun and his team have collected bottles, clothes, old dead fish for analyses, metalics and plastics debris, ropes, ans fishing nets.
To close the day on the way back, all dive boats stood in line to celebrate this good and productive day and take pictures before going back to the pier to sort and weigh all the collected debris from the day.
We would like to thank our sponsor for the day All About Scuba Diving, the crew and volunteers who donated their time to help in this underwater clean up.
Summary of the day : 4 356 kilos of debris collected in total !
GO ECO PHUKET, it’s doing what you like, while participating in the environmental protection !
Posted on August 17th, 2013 by admin-scubacat-dw | Comments Off on The Racha Islands
The Racha or Raya islands are located about 25 km south of Phuket and know as an excellent diving and snorkeling daytrip destinations.
However, there are some differences between them. Racha Yai is quickly developing into a place to stay on for few days with some bungalow and resort operations springing up in recent years, it is a relative small island 24 km southeast of Chalong pier on the east coast of Phuket that has always been famous for its crystal clear sea, white powder sand, snorkeling, diving and big fishing.
Racha Yai offers some of the best dive sites in the region to explore throughout the year, and generally has the best visibility year around of the daytrip destinations from Phuket. At the northern tip of the island, two pretty little bays are known for their deep, clear waters and colorful corals, they have a gently sloping sandy which also provides a good opportunity for snorkeling and diving. But the best area is considered to be on the east coast where the currents allow a gentle drift dive along a rocky slope covered with an incredible display of corals, which, in addition to the wealth of water, nutrient attracts large schools of tropical fish.
Batok Bay is clear and perfect for snorkeling, though the bay gets quite busy with visiting boats in the afternoons.
The island’s pristine beaches continue underwater as a white, sandy seabed, interspersed with hard-coral gardens and boulders. With your first experience into the clear turquoise water you’ll know you made a good choice coming here for your scuba diving. One of the best places of Racha Yai is also, Siam bay, a large bay without boat and few people which is a pretty place to isolate and enjoy the surrounding beauty of the island. Around 8 years ago a new dive site was made in this bay featuring life size concrete elephants, a temple, giant clam and other structures, this was created as an artificial reef to attract more marine life.
Besides, this place is a great place for experienced divers; it will be a good location to make a first open-water course training scuba diving. There are four points to practice diving in Racha Yai depends to season. Generally it’s sandy, gently and visibility is good in this area. You can found so many fishes, ad example schools of barracuda.
Racha Noi or Raja Noi is the more isolated of the two islands, its located 5 Km south of Racha Yai Island and about 15 km south of Phuket. But it is also a popular dive site for experienced divers. Indeed, the depth is greater and the currents generally stronger than its sister to the North Island. Racha Noi is uninhabited and has no services or accommodation, but there’s some great diving in the area.
The visibility is one of the best of the scuba dive sites day trip from Phuket due to a extra depths and proximity with the lands. Like Racha Yai there are two bays with a sandy bottom but with few people and you can make your first open water scuba diving in this area.
You will encounter huge rocks that cause the presence of Manta rays and whale sharks. The South tip of the island offers the opportunity for a dive on a large pinnacle which rises up to 12 m where you can found larger fish like Manta ray and sharks. Currents here can be quite strong, but you are rewarded by so many fishes like schools of blackfin barracuda, octopus, sea snakes and blue-spotted stingrays. Furthermore, you may be seen turtles too at Marita’s Rock which is formed by huge granite boulders.
Racha Noi offers many wonderful opportunities for deep dives.
Posted on August 2nd, 2013 by admin-scubacat-dw | Comments Off on Why visit Phuket in the green season?
In Phuket, the weather doesn’t have the same four seasons as other parts of the world like in Europe. Don’t be afraid of the weather in low season. In July, you can wear polo shirts and shorts every day. The temperature doesn’t drop below 28°C.
There are a lot of reasons why people choose to take a vacation in Phuket.
Mostly people come to Phuket for the sea and the beaches, but there are so many more reasons, such as scuba diving, culture, great and cheap food or for the nightlife.
During the high season can be when you get the best weather, this is approximately between November and May. It is also the time when the west facing beaches in Phuket are sheltered and calm. That’s why this is the period when most of tourists come.
So, why choose the low season, here are the main reasons:
Low season is the period from June to October. Actually, it is in July we entered in the South West Monsoon season. But low season is a great time to visit Phuket. You will get sun most of the time, so many days are hot and if it does start to rain you just have to go as shelter for as long as the rain lasts. The rain that does fall mostly comes at night and often passes quickly.
Monsoon, makes people forget about beachfront vacations. But, In June,July and August for example there are not so many days of rain. During the monsoon season Phuket turns lush and green; it can be the coolest period in the year, quieter and most relaxing of all as there are few tourist in the resorts and service is at a high standard.
You can do anything in low season that you can in high season, but there are advantages to this time of year.
Hotel rates are slashed and you can generally get lower prices from tour operators, vehicle rentals, boat trips …. The months June, July and August are still a popular time to visit as people take advantage of the low season prices.
Big resorts drop prices dramatically, and you can found cheap guesthouse rooms with all necessary comfort for a handful of bhat.
Furthermore, this period is called the “green season” because with the rain there are so many tropical plants that cover Phuket. And with the fewer tourists in this season you have more space to move and to enjoy beaches and islands. Indeed, you will find more room next to the sea, less divers in the water and more space in the shops and restaurants.
Don’t hesitate to come in low season, you will find the same charm and the same beauty that Phuket and surrounding area has, but for a lower price and few people.
Posted on November 9th, 2012 by admin-scubacat-dw | Comments Off on PhiPhi Live-Aboard Dive Trip September 2012 on the Scuba Adventure.
Due to more erratic weather during the low seasons here (it can be blue sky and calm/clear seas or it can be raining and rough) live-aboard trips are better planned for the more local dive sites around Phuket, where shelter is easily found and diving schedules are much less affected. Rather than taking day trips, the local dive sites are so much better done from a relaxed live-aboard, with long surface intervals and schedules that best to avoid other divers on the day boats – all in all, much better diving!
Day 1: Shark Point 1 – Stronger currents occur twice a month, so it was nice to have a leisurely 1st checkout dive that enabled us to explore most of pinnacle #1. A mass of anemones, colourful soft coral, sea-fans and barrel sponges make this marine-life rich dive site a must on any trip. Always cool things to see, we managed to find 4 tiger-tail sea-horses of various shades and a nice variety of morays.
Palong Wall Bay (Phi Phi Le) – We chose this dive site partly to avoid the currents on the other side of the island but also because it’s one of the best places to see black-tip reef sharks. Vis at about 10m was lower than Shark Point but once you tuned into looking for the sharks, it was easy to see them (some very close). There were individuals to be spotted throughout the whole dive and some groups of 3 or 4 sharks at a time. There were a couple of turtles munching on the hard corals and things like a white devil-scorpion-fish to entertain us as we waited for more big fish!
Turtle Bay (Phi Phi Le) – As it suggests, this was our dive site for turtles. It didn’t disappoint with our divers seeing a combined 5 hawksbill’s of various sizes.This site can also be awesome for macro, with some colourful nudibranchs and we found a Maldive sponge-snail too.
Tonsai Cave (Phi Phi Don) – As it suggests, this site has a cave but it was the wall, covered with coloured soft-corals and polyps, that was the subject of our night dive. Active with shrimp and decorator-crabs it was a green/grey, free-swimming, barred moray trying to eat a small crab that provided the best entertainment (the crab got away!). We had a bar-tailed moray, another interesting, though un-identifiable, small moray poking it’s nose around and also a nice beige tiger-tail sea-horse.
Day 2: Koh Bida Nai – We easily managed to work our way round most of the smaller of the 2 Bidas, with a nice drift down the west side, providing beautiful scenery, schools of trevally and tuna, plus vis up to 20m. Once we got to the other side, vis was around 10m but that was where we found 3 zebra sharks (two 1.5m juveniles and a larger adult) – so not too shabby then 😉
Koh Bida Nok – Again making use of the moderate current, we took drift down the longer side of Bida Nok. Always active with large schooling fish, we also had a few black-tip sharks and 3 very large ‘pick-handle’ barracudas. The terrain on the west side is varied and interesting, followed by a purple and yellow wall (complete with split level cave) on the northern end. Palong Wall North (Phi Phi Le) – Getting another dive in on the east of Phi Phi Le really paid off. With the best vis of the trip (a clear, blue 30m), lighting up the stunning beauty of this site. Clusters of jagged rocks in the shallows, forming channels and swim thrus (with a few sharks and turtles), dropping down to the white sands at depth, that slope up and down to the large, soft-coral covered boulders. 2 big, playful cobia in the depths were the stars of this show plus a handful of squid and some good size spiny lobsters kept our safety stop swim interesting.
Viking Cave North (Phi Phi Le) – We were also running some specialty courses on the boat, so this site was ideal for both a course dive and spending a bit more time in the shallows (4th dive of the day). We had a leopard flounder and a white bent-stick pipe fish in the mid-depth sands, another turtle at the dives end, but it was diving real slow and finding lots of nudi’s that made a nice contrast to the days ‘landscape’ diving. Nudi’s included; some small blue-dragons (Pteraeolidia Ianthina), a large Halgerda Stricklandi (bright orange spots on a bumpy white body with black-frilled on white rhinophores and gills – if that helps you imagine?) and lots of small but oh so pretty Flabellina Exoptata with their bright orange tipped, deep-purple ringed cerata (lots of pointed tubes down their back) on a violet body. Have fun looking them up!
Day 3: King Cruiser Wreck – With such an abundance of marine life it’s often hard to see this 80m long, 25m wide wreck! During the day, vis can be anything from 3m to 30m here, but there is nothing like an early morning dive at the cruiser. Vis is often at it’s best and you’re normally the only divers there. It’s absolutely the best way to enjoy the thousands of schooling fish and also the macro and soft corals that have grown on this rusty wreck.
Shark Point 3 & 2 – Due to this time having the strongest of the currents during our trip, we decided to use pinnacle #3 of Shark Point as our focus for this dive, giving us protection from the in-coming tide and then a nice drift over to the vivid soft corals of pinnacle 2. Pinnacle 3, being a little deeper on average than the others, has more varied hard corals amongst the soft and attracts an awful lot of fish. A school of chevron-barracudas added yet another thing to our list of cool critters. Koh Doc Mai – This was a great easy dive to finish the trip with. Vis was around 15-20m and we decided to make the most of the sunshine and visit the deeper rocks on the west side. Lots of nooks and crannies to find grey-bamboo sharks in and coral covered crests to peer over, then finishing off on the south wall for more macro and morays.
Summary: Some mixed diving in terms of conditions (currents, waves, sunshine and light rain), with visibility a good average (min of 10m, max of 30m) and many fewer dive boats than high-season. Great diving, be it special critters to see on a dive, marine-life rich seascapes or a wreck all to ourselves. Diving with a small group of people, on a live-aboard during the low season has a lot of advantages to having a great time below and above the water – we had the opportunity to visit Phi Phi for an evening out too!
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