Richelieu Rock Koh Tachai & Surin Islands (3 Days 2 Night) 9 dives

The best liveaboard for advanced divers who want to dive premier dive sites at Surin Islands Koh Tachai & Richelieu rock on a 3 Days 2 Night weekend liveaboard is this trip

The Richelieu Rock & Surin Islands trip offers a max of 6 dives

Embarkation:
Thap Lamu Pier, Khao Lak at 8am hrs

Disembarkation:
Thap Lamu Pier, Khao Lak at  5pm

Note that local Phuket pickups start at 6.00am

The Richelieu Rock – Koh Tachai & Surin Islands visit the best dive sites around Surin Islands.

This diving trip is ideally suited for people who are experienced advanced open water certified divers or are intending to take the advanced adventure course while staying on board, this trip focuses on diving around Similan & Surin Islands.

Why choose Richelieu Rock & Surin Islands as a liveaboard.

The attraction of the liveaboard lifestyle often suits everyone, step aboard The Junk for an unparalleled Thailand liveaboard diving experience, The Junk has been featured in many movies, from James Bond, “The man with the golden gun” to the Walt Disney “Swiss Family Robinson” to name a few.

The boat was constructed mainly from teak wood in Malaysia in 1962 designed to be used as a commercial boat for hauling fruit and wood.

First registered under the name of “June Hong Chian Lee” meaning “Respect Wind Travel Forever” the boat was later overhauled in 1997 and started service again in 1999 being totally renovated and given the name “The Junk” as a stunning new diving liveaboard.

The boat is 30 meters in length with three elegant masts and 330 square meters of sails undeniably one of the most unique diving boats and experience you would never forget as a customer. The Junk has a cruising speed of 8 knots by motor-sailing Max Customers: 18 divers, 2 Double Cabins, 2 Shared-Triple Cabins, 2 shared quads, Air-conditioning in all cabins. All cabins have private bathrooms and individual control air-con.

The meals on The Boat are served buffet style inside the atmospheric teak saloon dining area that provides a wide variety and unique flavors of the wonderful Thai & western style cuisine as well as various tasty dishes.

The prices quoted are per guest and include the following onboard facilities: large open sundeck, lounge with TV / DVD Nitrox is also available, first aid box, emergency oxygen, 2 x dinghy, fire extinguishers & life jackets GPS, depth sounder, mobile phone, and radio.

All meals, fruits, drinking water, coffee, tea. Divemaster supervision, tanks, weights, weight belts. Transfer to and from your hotel/dive vessel.

• This is a recreational diving trip. You must be licensed and certified to scuba dive.

• Open water certified divers 18m limits.
• Advanced open water divers 30m limits.
• Deep diver training certification max 40m
• No technical or decompression diving is allowed.

The Richelieu Rock & Surin Islands

Your Cruise Director will schedule up to 4 dives per day; 3-day dives and either a sunset or a night dive.

The diving day has a typical schedule as follows:

• Light Breakfast followed by a briefing & Dive 1
• Full Breakfast, relaxation followed by briefing & Dive 2
• Lunch, relaxation followed by briefing & Dive 3
• Dinner will be served either before or after the sunset/night dive

Day 1 is reserved for embarkation, there will be no diving on this day. For the final day aboard we schedule 2 dives to allow plenty of time for off-gassing before disembarkation and your flight home. The Cruise Director is happy to listen to requests from guests to visit or remain at certain sites and providing it is possible and the schedule allows, then guest’s requests are respected.

Similan Islands
The above water scenery will provide stunningly beautiful white sandy beaches with small forested areas. Dive some of the following sites; Boulder City, Sharkfin Reef, Anita’s Reef and Honeymoon Bay. Under the surface you may see Leopard (zebra) shark, blue-spotted stingrays, clown triggerfish, rabbitfish, scorpionfish, snappers, emperor fish, giant trevally and angelfish. The coral gardens, bommies and boulder formations are wonderful to dive.

Elephant Head Rock, visible from the surface, this is the biggest pinnacle in the Similans and has some fantastic swim-throughs. If lucky you might see some white tip reef sharks, batfish, trevally, and barracuda can often be seen on the perimeter of the boulders and if you look closely in the cracks and in the rubble you can see smashing mantis shrimp, porcelain crab, moray eels and cleaner shrimp.

Richelieu Rock
Richelieu Rock is a limestone pinnacle named by Jacques Cousteau after the character in the Three Musketeers, Cardinal Richelieu, as it reminded him of his deep scarlet cape. There are purple soft corals covering most of the pinnacle and other areas covered in magnificent sea anemones as well. Barely breaking the surface at low tide, this horseshoe-shaped outcropping, slopes steeply to a sandy bottom at 18 to 35 meters (60-120 Ft). This site offers great diversity for such a small and isolated spot. It also offers excellent multi-level diving and, because it’s a high-profile reef, there’s always sheltered areas to hide from current. The marine life is prolific and includes amongst, many other things; Pharaoh cuttlefish, large octopi, all 5 varieties of anemonefish of the Andaman Sea, variety of moray eels, ornate ghost pipefish, smashing mantis shrimps, harlequin shrimps, tiger tail sea horses, Spanish mackerel, frogfish, many schooling snapper and occasional sightings of manta rays and whale sharks.

Surin Islands
Topside scenery of Koh Surin with evergreen forests, mangroves, and small beaches, surpasses even that of the picturesque Similan Islands. Underwater the reefs of Surin have the greatest hard coral diversity in Thailand. You are likely to see Napoleon wrasse, yellow-masked angelfish, bump head parrotfish, tomato anemonefish, and barramundi, as well as lots of turtles that still come ashore in this area to lay their eggs. Because of the remoteness, not many liveaboard boats visit these islands and you will be able to enjoy the dive sites without sharing it with tourist hordes.

Marine Life: Turtles, Napoleon wrasse, yellow-masked angelfish, bump head parrotfish, anemonefish, barramundi, Wrecks, amazing reefs, nudibranchs, shrimps, moray eels, leopard sharks, octopus, cuttlefish, ornate ghost pipefish, smashing mantis shrimps, harlequin shrimps, tiger tail sea horses, Spanish mackerel, frogfish, Manta Rays, Whale Sharks

Please read the Diving Medical Form  If you reply “YES” to one or more questions, we will need a written medical clearance that you are physically in good shape to scuba dive signed by a certified Doctor.

We strongly recommend you to read the flying after diving article on our website, as you will have to wait at least 24 hours before you can board a plane.

Maybe you just recently purchased a new set of equipment and want to try it out first then you can visit us at the dive resort our private scuba diving training resort located at kata Beach. –  If you don’t need a refresher you still have the option of a free pool dive to try out your dive gear if you wish prior to joining the liveaboard.

We would advise that if you have not dived in such a long period of inactivity (6 months) you take a free refresher as identified by your license provider under Safe Diving Practices prior to taking this trip. A refresher can be a short pool session at our dive pool Kata Beach to check out the equipment fits and fine-tune your buoyancy

Our professional staff can then issue a “scuba skills update program” a digital recognition card you can access on your Phone to officially prove you as having completed the Scuba Diving Refresher program. This you can then have on your phone as proof of the refresher.

Cabin sizes

2 X private double bed cabins which can convert into twin beds fully air-conditioned with own hot water shower and toilet en-suite.

2 x three berth cabins (can also be taken as shared twins or private double cabin fully air-conditioned with own hot water shower and toilet en-suite.

2 X  four berths cabins (which are all bunks but can also be sold as Shared Twin) fully air-conditioned with own hot water shower and toilet en-suite.

What is not Included

National Park Entry fee and diver’s fee: 1,200 Baht (for a diver) National Park Entry fee: 800 Baht (for non-diver) Equipment rental full set 500 Baht per day (not including torch 200 baht & computer 250bht per day) Alcohol is not included

The requirements for this trip is that you must be open water certified with a minimum of 15 dives the last dive should be within six months prior to departure –

Visitors must purchase a ticket to enter the national park, we arrange this for you, this ticket is not transferable please ensure that your holiday insurance covers for canceled trips as we will not be able to refund if you cancel for any last moment reason whatsoever.

Diving Insurance.

We advise every certified diver to ensure that you have adequate scuba-diving insurance for diving in Thailand for medical treatment. Please check your travel insurance policy for scuba diving cover.

Most Thailand liveaboard diving safaris are sold by local reputable dive shops in Phuket who will then allocate their personal experienced diving guides for your trip to supervise your diving holidays.

If you are a group of 2 or more take a private guide this will make your enjoyment more fun than being in a mixed group

If you take the liveaboard trip you are avoiding hotel charges while combining your holiday, accommodation, scuba diving and food in one package.

If you have never been on a Thailand liveaboard diving boat they are certainly the best way to dive, and we urge you to take a minimum 3 days / 2 nights. The liveaboard lifestyle has many attractions and many downsides. Most boats are mobile, provide inexpensive water access. A liveaboard lifestyle is becoming more popular with scuba divers around the world and generally regarded as being a cheaper way to visit remote dive site.

When you make the payment  you will be required to some personal details about you and your group

• Full names of each diver / Boat passenger/student diver in your booking
• Date of Birth Day Month Year
• Nationality
• Passport number for each person Date of Birth (Day Month Year) of each person
• Dive card details/certification level
• Dive card numbers
• Last dive date of each diver
• Number of logged dives
• Do you have your logbook?
• Do you own a dive computer?

Additional information we need

• Equipment sizes (Bodyweight In Kg and shoe sizes)
• Hotel details, the full name, and address of your hotel

Please also advise if you have any dietary restrictions.

Avoiding the pitfalls of booking a diving Liveaboard.

Thailand Liveaboards can often be sold by external 3rd party travel agents and Tour Desks who are not a Licenced diving center or people who sit at home on a laptop and don’t employ diving staff, these tour operators may not even be based in Thailand and often work alone.

It’s easy to find diving agents as they will advertise their products using Google AdWords when looking for Thailand liveaboard or Thailand Diveaboards, Liveaboard.com, Viator or even Padi travel ,you need to investigate who you will actually be diving with, and is the website you are buying from is it a legitimate diving store, actually a Physical  dive shop that in Thailand with staff to take care of you, doing your homework now and looking at the background of the company.

If you have any questions regarding the Similan & Surin Islands Thailand Liveaboard package just send us a short message and a member of staff will get back to you. Contact Us