Craigus
Guest
We (Sea Squirts Dive Club) just returned from our first Thailand/Myanmar diving trip aboard the Ocean Rover. The boat was all we had heard it would be, a first class experience from the comfortable rooms to the great food. The boat is well set up for a liveaboard experience. Great workspaces for photographers, too. We dived from two dingies for our 3-5 dives per day. The dingie drivers were always on top (well almost) of where we were - and when we all would head in different directions, it never took them long to spot us when we surfaced. The boat provided us all with XL size sausages, which helped a couple of times. We mainly needed them when we were diving on the same site as other liveaboards so that the dingies could sort out their divers from those on other boats.
And, speaking of other boats at the same site, that was a downer for us. At some of the Thailand locations there were 4 or 5 other dive boats all at the same location at the same time. Often groups from different boats would run into each other. That said, at Ko Tachai we spotted our first whale shark. At Fan Forrest Pinnacle in Myanmar, we found a leopard/zebra shark. The octopi were plentiful as were the cuttlefish throughout the trip. Lots of other great finds: nudis of all descriptions including two huge spanish dancers at Black Rock Wall, ghost pipefish, eels, scorpion fish, frogfish, sweetlips, crabs, lobsters, giant mantas at Ko Bon, tropicals by the gazillions, often in huge schools. Richlieu Rock was a good dive, but it was like Times Square on New Year's - crowded with 5 boats.
Due to a number of (what we were told were) unusual conditions, we found the visibility pretty poor through the trip (15-50 ft. in MYanmar; a wee bit better in Thailand). We could only imagine all the whale sharks and other kewl kritters we didnt see
Overall, the boat got a 10 out of 10 from our group; the diving something less.
The backscatter in photos was pretty bad. We found that our Canon S-50 and YS-90 strobe often didn't deliver photos as well as the guys who had the small Canon housings without strobes with the diffusers attached to them in front of the built in flash.
And, speaking of other boats at the same site, that was a downer for us. At some of the Thailand locations there were 4 or 5 other dive boats all at the same location at the same time. Often groups from different boats would run into each other. That said, at Ko Tachai we spotted our first whale shark. At Fan Forrest Pinnacle in Myanmar, we found a leopard/zebra shark. The octopi were plentiful as were the cuttlefish throughout the trip. Lots of other great finds: nudis of all descriptions including two huge spanish dancers at Black Rock Wall, ghost pipefish, eels, scorpion fish, frogfish, sweetlips, crabs, lobsters, giant mantas at Ko Bon, tropicals by the gazillions, often in huge schools. Richlieu Rock was a good dive, but it was like Times Square on New Year's - crowded with 5 boats.
Due to a number of (what we were told were) unusual conditions, we found the visibility pretty poor through the trip (15-50 ft. in MYanmar; a wee bit better in Thailand). We could only imagine all the whale sharks and other kewl kritters we didnt see
Overall, the boat got a 10 out of 10 from our group; the diving something less.
The backscatter in photos was pretty bad. We found that our Canon S-50 and YS-90 strobe often didn't deliver photos as well as the guys who had the small Canon housings without strobes with the diffusers attached to them in front of the built in flash.
