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Imagine
how you'd feel if your first dive on a much anticipated trip
to Thailand and the Burma Banks was going to start at 'Richelieu
Rock', quoted recently by the legendary underwater cameraman
Peter Scoones as being his top world dive site!
That
was what we were contemplating over our early morning coffee
as the sun came up on the back deck of MY Pelagian (ex Fantasea
II), the newly refitted top-class dive charter boat that was
to be our luxurious home for the next ten days of diving and
underwater photography.
We
had arrived from London jet-lagged and disoriented at the
Patong Beach Holiday Inn on the evening of the 22 nd of March,
only to be confronted with the immediate need to complete
immigration formalities for entry into Myonmar (Burma). Thankfully
the air conditioning counteracted the thirty-seven degrees
of sweltering heat, and the bonus for our eff orts was a "lie-in"
the following morning!
A
late afternoon embarkation that next day was followed by a
night passage, and now here we were, anchored at dawn some
little way off this renowned dive site.
Richelieu
Rock is four and a half miles south of the border with
Myanmar, 55 miles west of Ranong, and is located in 38m water.
It breaks the surface at low water, and is surrounded by several
other pinnacles, which reach up to about 10 m below the surface.
Good news spreads fast, and it is rapidly becoming a very
popular dive site, so we were in the company of several other
dive boats. The rock is also used for fishing by local boats,
and quite a bit of debris (old fishing nets and cages, line,
bags of stones used for anchoring) is apparent underwater.
The
visibility at this site can be variable, usually ranging from
18-25 m, but when we were there, it was about 12-15m. We also
noted a great deal of surge down to about 13 metres making
for challenging photographic conditions.
Richelieu's great advantage is the huge proliferation of sea-life
in its environs - just about everything can be found there.
Frequently seen are whale sharks (not when we were there),
stingrays, sand sharks, and leopard sharks.
The pinnacles are covered in barrel sponges, sea fans, soft
corals, and hard corals and in places are carpeted with anemones.
Shoals of snapper, barracuda, silversides and jacks swirl
around, and batfish, trigger fish (titan and Picasso) cornet
fish, sea horses, nuclibranchs (etc., etc.!) are in attendance.
Probably the biggest problem for still photographers is deciding
which lens to use, such is the range of subject choice, and
macro fans would do well to keep a Nikonos V with a wide-angle
lens in the BC pocket, just in case those whole sharks do
put in an appearance! Those shooting video certainly have
the practical advantage here.
The
rock was to epitomise diving in the Andaman area in general,
typified by rocky islands whose submerged cliffs, slopes and
pinnacles are home to a myriad of underwater life, and whose
waters tend to be nutrient-rich (hence the big stuff and the
reduced visibility) and subject to some ferocious currents.
After
five - six dives, we left Richelieu and entered Burmese waters,
completing formalities during an evening monsoon downpour
at the small port of Kowthaung, situated on a rather dirty
looking and pungent river. For those with long memories, the
"old" British name of Kawthaung was Victoria Point.
The surrounding hills were memorable for what appeared to
be illuminated temples. A young and very charming Burmese
guide joined us at this point for the next stage of the trip
to the Mergui archipelago and the Burma banks.
The
'Three Stooges', located about sixty miles west of Kawthoung,
were to be our diving hosts for the next two days, and comprise
three rocks, the largest rising some 30 m above sea level,
and the smaller ones some 24 m, connected by underwater reefs.
The middle rock, the largest, has a swim-through and cave,
often home to nurse sharks. Underwater the boulders and rocks
meet the flat sandy bottom at about 27 m.
The
Stooges form a most interesting dive site, with schooling
squid, barracuda, numerous mating cuttlefish, ornate ghost
pipefish, mantis shrimps, giant sized painted rock lobsters,
a variety of morays (often two and three in the same hole
at the same time), stonef ish, sea horses, hawkf ish (both
brown and long nosed varieties), banded coral shrimps and
legions of marching prawns in crevices. Other subjects include
red and purple soft corals, large red fan corals, green and
yellow sponges, wonderful crinoids in all sorts of all colours,
giant purple mantled anemones with their resident anemone
fish, and carpet anemones inhabited by porcelain crabs. Shoals
of fish of all varieties are seen whichever way you look!
A macro photographer's paradise, which is just as well, because
the visibility was reminiscent of British diving on one or
two occasions!
Sadly
our first dive at this marvellous location was shockingly
marred by the sound of an underwater explosion that could
only have been reef dynamiting. Apparently this still goes
on in Myonmar, though happily not so much in Thailand. It
is said that Thai women, in the manner of antiquity, withheld
their favours in order to persuade their husbands that this
practice should stop forthwith! Hooray for girl power!
Steam
westward as we next did about 100 miles from the Burmese mainland,
and (it helps to have GPS) you will find yourself over the
Burma Banks, where the seabed rises in several places to between
35 and 15 m from the surface. These seamounts attract the
large pelogics, and many ports of them are still undived.
'New
Bank' wasa shallow area located by our skipper Matthew
Hedrick, and it was decided we should be the first to dive
it and see what it had to offer. The reef edge was at 30 m,
patrolled by siivertip sharks. The bank itself was very flat
at about 25-30 m, with very few coral heads or outcrops, but
numerous small fish, sponges anemones and corals. Strange
to think we were probably the first people ever to visit this
location.
'Shark
City' is another 'bank' a short distance from 'New Bank',
and is known for its nurse sharks, while as its name suggests,
at 'Silvertip Bank', you can be hopeful of seeing this beautiful
but rather timid oceanic shark species.
Timidity is all very well, but doesn't make for very certain
encounters , and some jackf ish bait was enlisted as encouragement.
For Hilary and I, this was our very first shark feed, and
a degree of apprehension preceded our descent as a group down
the mooring line to a position some 15 m away from the would-be
site of the action. Matthew and Simon, our divemaster, then
hastily sworn down with the weighted bait, and we braced ourselves
horizontally with anticipation.
The
arrival of the first big silvertip (8 - 9 feet long) from
behind us at great speed, within a minute of the bait being
dropped, produced a pulse of adrenaline like an electric shock.
It powered over our heads to get at the fish. In all four
silvertips arrived, eventually accompanied by 'Ma,xine' a
resident 9-foot nurse shark who tried to join the party, and
a baby nurse shark, only 2 feet long. A repeat performance
the following day was prolonged by freezing and enclosing
the bait, allowing more time to admire these magnificent creatures
at the top end of the underwater food chain.
Diving
on the Burma banks may not be to everyone's taste, being very
oceanic in nature, and subject to dramatic thermoclines and
swells, but I don't think that Hilary and I will forget this
location in a hurryl
Following
all this excitement, Pelagian made light work of a rough overnight
crossing to McCarthy Rock, our next diving site. The only
topic before breakfast the next morning was the jet-strearn
current and Charybdis-like whirlpools surrounding the anchored
boat, and how the unwary diver might end up back on the Burmese
mainland a little ahead of schedule! However Simon assured
us that we were not actually diving McCarthy, beside which
we were anchored, but would be diving the eastern face of
Little McCarthy, a smaller rock some 400 rn away, where he
assured us all would be peace and quiet.
The
eastern wall of Little McCarthy was a sheer drop-off
down to boulders at about 23 m. These boulders, covered in
small soft corals, then stopped at the sandy bottom in about
30 rn. The wall was a macro photographer's dream, covered
in a mass of life, tubastrea still feeding, anemones, porcelain
crabs, hawkfish, nudibranchs, prawns, and banded coral shrimps.
At
the bottom of the wall were two harlequin shrimps (how do
dive guides find these in the middle of all this ocean- Never
ceases to amaze me), a mantis shrimp and several nuclibranchs
intent on having a good time.
McCarthy
marked our last Burmese diving site, and after further formalities
and bidding goodbye to our guide at Kawthaung, we motored
south through the night back to Thai waters and Richelieu
Rock, now an almost familiar location. Our final destination
was the Similan archipelago, a group of very pretty islands
with white coral beaches and lush vegetation. Some have the
most amazing boulder outcrops that make them look as if a
prehistoric giant had built them. Underwater there are very
picturesque fringing reefs and large coral 'bommies'that sit
on white sand, at depths to suit all requirements. At 'Morning
Edge' (Similan no. 7, Ko Tang), and 'Eastern Front'
(Similan no. 6), we were spoiled for choice at 10 - 20 m by
an abundance of hard and soft corals, crinoids of all colours,
gorgonians, glass fish, anemone fish, coral groupers, etc.
and pink and black frogfish. The Similans were a spectacular
finale to what had been a very successful trip, both in terms
of the company, the boat, the food, and the photographic opportunities.
Overall, the group had logged over 400 dives, with no camera
problems or floods (almost unbelievable) and no sickness,
ear infections or any of the other complications that can
intervene on such occasions.
Now
to a few facts and figures. Our host vessel Pelagian cruises
at 9 knots, and with 42 metric tons of diesel aboard, she
has a range of 8,000 nautical miles. Her construction in Norway
was to Lloyd's +100A1 yacht and +LMC specification, and her
onboard water-makers and over 20 tons of freshwater in the
tanks mean no worries about an extra shower or rinsing of
cameras. She measures 35 meters, weighs in at 245 tons, is
air-conditioned throughout, and offers en-suite accommodation
for 12 guests in 6 cabins, from standard to the master stateroom.
Between 8 and 10 crew are on hand to look after all one's
needs, and don't expect to lose any weight on the trip as
the excellent Thai A nternati onal cuisine (and it is cuisine)
encompasses 3 meals a day plus a little something in the afternoon
at teatime, such as freshly baked coke etc! An added touch
of luxury is the provision of freshly laundered, ironed cotton
sheets every three days! The stylish salon has stereo and
video faci lities, and there is a dedicated photo room for
underwater photographic equipment. The diving is done mainly
from 2 RIBS, as, due to her size, Pelagian has to anchor some
small way from the actual dive sites themselves. Divers are
issued with a type of delayed-action SMB comprising an orange
sausage on 6 m of line to use on ascent.
During
July, August and September this year, Pelagian will be visiting
the Manado area, and in October, she goes to Bali, another
very safe Indonesian location.
We
flew British Airways to Bangkok, and Thai International from
Bangkok to Phuket, and stayed a night at the very comfortable
Holiday Inn at Patong Beach at either end of the trip. Pelagian
is boarded from Patong Beach, and she can be booked through:
Dive
Asia Pacific
e-mail:
sales@dive-asiapacific.com
diveasia@qate.net info@dive-asiapacific.com
URL: http://www.dive-asiapacific.com
USA
Toll Free 1-800-962-0395
Fax:
1954-351-9740
PO Box 22398,
Ft. Lauderdale,
FL. 33335.
M/V
Sai Mai Live Aboard Diving
Tel: +66 (76) 263-732
PO Box 244
Fax: +66 (76) 263-733
Phuket 83000,
Thailand
Finally,
we would like to thank Matthew, Simon and Simone, and last,
but not least, Rick Lawson, for making our Andaman adventure
so very memorable and enjoyable.
Reproduced
from in focus 67 (February
2000) |
