scubadive425
Registered
From April 27 - May 1, a group of three friends and I went on a 4-day/4-night liveaboard trip to the Similan Islands aboard the Colona VI. We had a really wonderful time and the diving was fantastic, so I wanted to post a trip report to describe our trip. Hopefully this can be helpful to others, as posts were helpful to me when planning my trip!
We planned our trip with Jamie from Sunrise Divers. He was incredibly helpful. He helped us pick our boat, answered a million questions, and even recommended a hotel and activities for us for after the liveaboard. I would very highly recommend Sunrise Divers.
None of us had ever been on a liveaboard before, so I can't really compare the Colona VI to any other boat. The boat had 14 divers, 2 dive masters, and 5 crew, which was full capacity. The rooms were tiny, with two twin bunk beds, so 2 people per room. There was one room on the boat that had a double bed and was supposed to be nicer, but I didn't see inside that room. Each room did have its own bathroom, though, which was really nice. It was basically the size of a shower stall, with a toilet, a sink, and a faucet above the toilet that was the shower. The water wasn't temperature controlled but it wasn't too cold so it was ok. There were plenty of other places to sit and hang out on the boat, so the rooms weren't a problem. I don't think I was ever in the room for longer than 5 minutes (other than to sleep). The main deck of the boat had a cushioned area for people to sit, read, nap, whatever. Then there were 4 booths with tables where we all ate, had the dive briefings, filled out our log books, etc. You could also go up to the roof, which they called the "grilling deck", to sit in the sun. Overall I'd say the boat was comfortable. It was big enough and didn't feel cramped. When I go on another liveabord in the future, I'd probably spend more money and get one with a bigger bedroom and/or bathroom, just so I could feel more clean for four days (scuba diving 4 times a day and not having a really refreshing shower to run to after dives makes me feel really gross). But for the value and the diving, this boat was really great.
The food on the boat was fine. There were always lots of choices, no one went hungry. They had breakfast, lunch, an afternoon snack, and dinner all freshly made by the cook on-board. And there were always snacks around like cookies and bread.
All of the crew were very helpful and friendly. The dive masters were available to answer any questions and describe all of the places we went. They were also really good about telling us the names of all of the things we had just seen on a dive. There were also lots of books on the boat that you could use to identify all of the cool things you saw underwater. There were two guys who helped us get geared up and also helped us get back out of the water, before and after every single dive. They even put people's fins on for them. It was definitely the easiest dive-prep I've experienced. We set up our own tanks once, right when we got on the boat, and never set the up again the entire time, everything was taken care of for us.
Now to the best part, the diving!!
We did 14 dives, 4 each of the three full days and 2 the last day. I don't have my dive log with me right now, so I can't list out all the sites where we dove, but it was a selection of many sites all around the Similan Islands and also Koh Bon, Koh Tachai and Richelieu Rock. We dove all of the sites that I had read about before the trip. All of the dives were wonderful. We saw so much life, it was amazing. The schools of fish were massive, one bigger than the next, and all bigger than I had ever seen before. We saw a ton of eels, even honeycomb eels on one dive, a napolean fish, tons of lion fish, scorpion fish, shrimp, sea horses, a sea snake, a mantis shrimp, leopard sharks... the list seriously goes on and on. The biggest thrill was seeing a manta ray!! That was really amazing.
Just a quick heads up, on our trip if you didn't have an advanced certification you weren't allowed to go on night dives or deep dives. I don't know if this is the case for all trips on the Colona VI, but it was on our boat and there was no way to get around that rule other than to do your advanced certification during the trip ($200).
Here's a link to a whole bunch of the pictures I took while on the trip. I had a brand new Canon A570 and the underwater housing for it (with no external flash). I LOVED the camera. So easy to use and the pictures it took were great, much much better than I had expected for my first underwater pictures and for not having an external flash.
click here to see pictures from under water and on the boat
I couldn't say enough good things about the diving. I would go back in a heartbeat, and all of my friends who were with me say the same. Anyone who is considering taking this trip should definitely do it.
We planned our trip with Jamie from Sunrise Divers. He was incredibly helpful. He helped us pick our boat, answered a million questions, and even recommended a hotel and activities for us for after the liveaboard. I would very highly recommend Sunrise Divers.
None of us had ever been on a liveaboard before, so I can't really compare the Colona VI to any other boat. The boat had 14 divers, 2 dive masters, and 5 crew, which was full capacity. The rooms were tiny, with two twin bunk beds, so 2 people per room. There was one room on the boat that had a double bed and was supposed to be nicer, but I didn't see inside that room. Each room did have its own bathroom, though, which was really nice. It was basically the size of a shower stall, with a toilet, a sink, and a faucet above the toilet that was the shower. The water wasn't temperature controlled but it wasn't too cold so it was ok. There were plenty of other places to sit and hang out on the boat, so the rooms weren't a problem. I don't think I was ever in the room for longer than 5 minutes (other than to sleep). The main deck of the boat had a cushioned area for people to sit, read, nap, whatever. Then there were 4 booths with tables where we all ate, had the dive briefings, filled out our log books, etc. You could also go up to the roof, which they called the "grilling deck", to sit in the sun. Overall I'd say the boat was comfortable. It was big enough and didn't feel cramped. When I go on another liveabord in the future, I'd probably spend more money and get one with a bigger bedroom and/or bathroom, just so I could feel more clean for four days (scuba diving 4 times a day and not having a really refreshing shower to run to after dives makes me feel really gross). But for the value and the diving, this boat was really great.
The food on the boat was fine. There were always lots of choices, no one went hungry. They had breakfast, lunch, an afternoon snack, and dinner all freshly made by the cook on-board. And there were always snacks around like cookies and bread.
All of the crew were very helpful and friendly. The dive masters were available to answer any questions and describe all of the places we went. They were also really good about telling us the names of all of the things we had just seen on a dive. There were also lots of books on the boat that you could use to identify all of the cool things you saw underwater. There were two guys who helped us get geared up and also helped us get back out of the water, before and after every single dive. They even put people's fins on for them. It was definitely the easiest dive-prep I've experienced. We set up our own tanks once, right when we got on the boat, and never set the up again the entire time, everything was taken care of for us.
Now to the best part, the diving!!
We did 14 dives, 4 each of the three full days and 2 the last day. I don't have my dive log with me right now, so I can't list out all the sites where we dove, but it was a selection of many sites all around the Similan Islands and also Koh Bon, Koh Tachai and Richelieu Rock. We dove all of the sites that I had read about before the trip. All of the dives were wonderful. We saw so much life, it was amazing. The schools of fish were massive, one bigger than the next, and all bigger than I had ever seen before. We saw a ton of eels, even honeycomb eels on one dive, a napolean fish, tons of lion fish, scorpion fish, shrimp, sea horses, a sea snake, a mantis shrimp, leopard sharks... the list seriously goes on and on. The biggest thrill was seeing a manta ray!! That was really amazing.
Just a quick heads up, on our trip if you didn't have an advanced certification you weren't allowed to go on night dives or deep dives. I don't know if this is the case for all trips on the Colona VI, but it was on our boat and there was no way to get around that rule other than to do your advanced certification during the trip ($200).
Here's a link to a whole bunch of the pictures I took while on the trip. I had a brand new Canon A570 and the underwater housing for it (with no external flash). I LOVED the camera. So easy to use and the pictures it took were great, much much better than I had expected for my first underwater pictures and for not having an external flash.
click here to see pictures from under water and on the boat
I couldn't say enough good things about the diving. I would go back in a heartbeat, and all of my friends who were with me say the same. Anyone who is considering taking this trip should definitely do it.
