March 24-27, Diving Similans on MV Pawara

No time yet to edit many pictures, so here is a VDO instead:

Pawara 2018 from Vo Sta on Vimeo.

Now leaving for the next trip...

See you under water

Day 12-15 / Tag 12-15 dive life. Pawara

We are now on the second boat, the MV Pawara, of West Coast Divers.

I will take the entire Pawara trip together in one post, or I won't be able to follow up with the blog.

So much to see, so much to experience. It's hard to document everything if there are so many impressions, intense.

OK, here we go. 

Day 12

It's Friday, March 24th, last night we cruised out of Tap Lamu port to the Similan Islands again. There are so many boats at Anita's Reef, our Tour Leader decides to take another dive site for the first dive on this trip: Hideaway and Monuments. Both very easy and beautiful. Perfect viz and the water is a dream by itself

Nice start into the day at the dive site called "Monument"

My new group is Vicky and Melanie,

Jan Chan from Hong Kong

and of course my trusted guide Dan

"Monuments" looks like this (yes, this IS underwater...)

Next stop: South of Eden, where Camille, another dive guide, spots a black Frogfish, my foto did not come out too well, too many divers, wrong angle, too much light too much backscatter,

The Black Frogfish at South of Eden

and then to Elephant Head Rock

Elephant Head Rock is a big formation of Granite Boulders scattered over one another, offering great swimthroughs and a hole in a wall where many divers take pictures. I saw Yellow Ribbon Eel and beautiful Oriental Sweetlips

Oriental Sweetlips at Elephant Head from Vo Sta on Vimeo.

Beachtime at Donald Duck Bay. Climb the trail again, left it out last year, had been there before. But this year I took my shoes from the boat, so I could do it again.

Night dive at Nam Chai, The Moorings, meet my cute friend the boxfish again

 and a beautiful pink Nudibranch on an orange coral

sleep overnight,

then head for Koh Bon. Probably no signal next two days.

Day 13 / Tag 13, March 25
Starting at Similans North Point with a wake up dive at 7:21
Master Boatboy John now fills my tank to 210 or 220 bar, sawng roi sawng sib, because I am always 10 bars below the others of the group after surfacing. Good man, fabulous crew anyway.
I have caught a bad cold, headache, lots of mucus from my nose after 44 minutes underwater, don't feel too well
Heading for Koh Bon, second dive of the day from the Bay to the West Ridge. This is supposed to be the spot for meeting the Great Mantas, but we had no luck. Went up to the Coral Bommy and returned after 25 minutes to the Ridge. Camille reached the Bommy 15 minutes after us und was lucky to see at least one.

Happy Camille after meeting Mr. Manta

Surfaced after 44 minutes, lots of mucus from my nose, this cold seems to be just getting started...

Here are some scenes from the Dive Deck, to give you an impression of Liveaboard Diving:

Dan rehearsing the extended high five

PJ:"Why don't you follow Me?"

PJ and John

Scenes from the Dive Deck from Vo Sta on Vimeo.


Two more Dives at Tachai Pinnacle, this time with dive times of 55 and 46 minutes. Slowly getting into the groove..

Day 14 / Tag 14, Sunday March 26
Starting at Richelieu Rock for the first two dives of this day. First dive without camera.

Bernadete from Germany, and Luca from Slovenia, now both live in Singapore

Famous chinese traditional singer

I love Blue

underwater forests

Black Marbled Ray at Tachai Pinnacle

Black Marbled Ray at Tachai Pinnacle

Jan from Hong Kong, in perfect trim as always

Feathered Stars. These Crinoids have been around some billion years....

Wart Slug

 Sunset Dive at Tachai Reef. Last dive is limited to 40 minutes. We were 35 minutes into the dive, looking for critters and staring at sand, when Dan and I turned face up and spotted this huge cloud of Chevron Barracudas

Barracudas anyone?

Chevron Barracudas

Barracudas at Tachai Reef from Vo Sta on Vimeo.


Thunderstorms on our night cruis way back to the mainland, but I had so much fun with the wild bunch of dive guides Camille, Oliver, PJ and Dan. Everybody had a great time.
BTW: Camille looks ten times more beautiful than on the pictures (I promised her to write that. And it's true)

Day 15 / Tag 15, Monday March 27
On our way back to the mainland we visited the Boonsung for the last two dives of this trip.
After the first dive my son messaged me that he had arrived safe and sound at the Hotel in Nai Yang. It was his first long haul flight and his first time in SE Asia. I am happy he made it without any problems.

Me and PJ. Man, did we have some fun together. My facial muscles are still aching from laughing that much

Sad to no longer dive with this funny bunch, especially Dan with PJ were more than hilarious...
"Next dive we go to 40 meters, do a safety stop, take a deep breath and inflate the BCD..."
"I tell the customer to give me a minute so I can go behind the rock and take a shit. Biiig shit, man..."
🤢💩🦈
'Nuff said

I will miss you guys!

Back on land the minivan brings me to Nai Yang, check in, find my son on the beach.
Fernando and Patricia Molina come by for a beer. We chat about two hours at the restaurant on the beach, together with my son Leo. We agree to get together on Phuket after my trip on the Junk, when I have 3 days in Kata Beach

Patricia, Fernando, Volker, and Leo

See you under water

 Isn't this what it's all about?
The Blue from Vo Sta on Vimeo.

Day 11 / Tag 11 Dive Life. Sawasdee Fasai trip ends, Pawara starts

This post will be updated later
all photos straight from the iPhone camera, no editing

Disembarkation from Sawasdee Fasai, every body sad the trip ends, we had so much fun together.
Ya os estoy echando de menos, Vasilis, Pilar y Monica ❤️

Spent some time at the port, hung out with the locals and had a beer or two. Luckily I could store my bags on the Pawara already, so no bulky luggage to drag around on a super hot day.

This trip is not sold out, we are 21 passengers. I was booked for a spare budget cabin, which I like a lot, it's in the Captains wheelhouse, far away from engine and generators, but I got upgraded to Deluxe cabin! Share it with Jan, a young man from Hongkong. Later, when I was already on the Pawara, I chatted with Edu, boat to boat, who does this trip on the Sawasdee Fasai together with some customers. 

And right when our boat briefing started, Monica showed up on the Sawasdee one more time to say goodbye. To the guys who travel with Edu. 

See you under water

MV Pawara has got a new Sister Ship

Exciting news found on FB: The MV Pawara, operated by West Coast Divers Phuket, now has a new sister ship: The Sawasdee Fasai. Prices are a bit higher than on the Pawara, around 10 percent.
I would really like to try it.

More pictures here: Clicki click 

The boat looks great, I sent an email to Doo at West Coast Divers immediately, to find out, if she is in charge for the booking of MV Sawasdee Fasai as well.
Their schedule shows a trip starting March 14th, my day of arrival in Thailand, till March 18th, one day before I go on board the MV Mariner of Wicked Diving...

More important: Will Marco, Brian, Beto and Fernando be working on the Pawara or the Sawasdee this season? Wanna dive with these guys again, no matter which boat! With them I would go to the Similans even in a Dinghy!

Update: Booking is open for The Sawasdee Fasai! Temporary page: http://www.westcoastdivers.com/mv-sawasdee-fasai-schedule/

See you under water