seastarr2
Registered
I was in Phuket from October 12-17 staying at the Amanpuri Resort. I had never been to Phuket before, but was anxious to see how it faired after the tsunami. Our resort was in great shape, but some of the neighboring resorts had had to do a lot of rebuilding. I was only able to make 2 dives with H2O Sportz, the dive op associated with the hotel, because of bad weather. H20 Sportz is run by a German man who is very safety conscious, but because of the language barrier with the Thai DMs, I did feel like not everyone was on the same page during the dives. It was had to understand all the dive briefs, but they used visual maps which really helped. They answered all our questions and helped with animal id after each dive.
Dive 1-Shark Point
Dive site was in the middle of nowhere at a channel marker. Max depth 60ft. The rock formation under the marker protects from the current. So at the surface during drop off there was a lot of current pushing the boat away from the rocks, but underwater we did not much current at all. There were no sharks, but hundreds of sea anemones and clownfish. The anemones were beautiful shades of purple and turquoise. No sharks though!
Dive 2-Ko Docmai
Dive site was the side of a wall of one of the stunning ko kai islands. There was a bit of current so we just drifted along the wall at about 45 ft and looked in the small caves. Saw pipfish and banded lobsters. Visibility was great.
Overall the diving was very good. The water was warm (84oF) and the visibility was good. The only negative was the "sea lice" in the water. They are tiny jellyfish, I think, that feel like pin pricks all over your body. I couldnt feel them when I wore my wetsuit, but you did when you just went swimming off the beach. I dont know if there is a certain time of year that they are worse, but it was a bit annoying. I would definately go back and try a liveaboard so that I could get a little more diving in. I have some pictures from my trip in my gallery.
http://www.scubaboard.com/gallery/sh...0/ppuser/21042
Dive 1-Shark Point
Dive site was in the middle of nowhere at a channel marker. Max depth 60ft. The rock formation under the marker protects from the current. So at the surface during drop off there was a lot of current pushing the boat away from the rocks, but underwater we did not much current at all. There were no sharks, but hundreds of sea anemones and clownfish. The anemones were beautiful shades of purple and turquoise. No sharks though!
Dive 2-Ko Docmai
Dive site was the side of a wall of one of the stunning ko kai islands. There was a bit of current so we just drifted along the wall at about 45 ft and looked in the small caves. Saw pipfish and banded lobsters. Visibility was great.
Overall the diving was very good. The water was warm (84oF) and the visibility was good. The only negative was the "sea lice" in the water. They are tiny jellyfish, I think, that feel like pin pricks all over your body. I couldnt feel them when I wore my wetsuit, but you did when you just went swimming off the beach. I dont know if there is a certain time of year that they are worse, but it was a bit annoying. I would definately go back and try a liveaboard so that I could get a little more diving in. I have some pictures from my trip in my gallery.
http://www.scubaboard.com/gallery/sh...0/ppuser/21042
