Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Similan Dive Sites – Deep Six

Deep Six

Deep Six tumbles down from the north point of Island 7.  It is a collection of submerged boulders similar in topography to North Point and Christmas Point on Island 9.

  A mooring line to the west brings you down to the center of the dive cite.  Continue to swim north where you can find boulders which extend down to maximum depths of 45-50 meters. Keep an Eye on your depth gauge!

Stay close to the rocks until you have assessed the current, which tends to be stronger towards the northern tip of the dive site.  White tip reef sharks can occasionally be seen in the deeper areas, as can larger rays and Kuhl’s stingrays.  Like this one Keith hovering right over a Kuhl’s Ray at 35 Meters…


There are some great swim throughs around the big boulders at the centre of the dive site.  A large arch at around 22 – 24 meters on the western side will bring you into a maze of smaller swim throughs lined with whip corals and sea fans.  Pipefishes and crustaceans love these dark holes, and harlequin shrimp have been found sitting on the bottom of the western swim through.  Oriental sweetlips and larger groupers can be found under rocks and table corals.  Look along the rocky bottom for mantis shrimp, octopus and sea snakes. 


Flabellina can be found along the outside walls of the main boulders. Like this one…

There is a larger channel on the eastern side of the dive site which can also provide good shelter if there is a strong current.  Leopard sharks also seem to enjoy these sheltered sandy areas.  Towards the south of the dive site, the boulders spread out into larger sandy areas which runs alongside of the island at around 10 meters.

  In the shallows here you will find more huge gaps in the boulders, making for some really scenic swim-throughs. There are alos plenty of exciting fish and discoveries in here. This is a Great Barracuda just before taking off…

  Look here for red and purple fire gobies and nudibranchs.  Swim out into the blue for the safety stop or return to the mooring line as it can be difficult for the boat to collect you if you stay close to the island.  This is also a good opportunity to look for cruising manta rays as well as to watch the large shoals of fusiliers.

Here is a pretty good map of the site, as done by the authors of “Similan pocket dive sites” a really good book about the Similans. They dived the area for several years, so they are in the know about how to dive these sites. You can purchase a copy of this and other books in our shop.

Wicked Diving

Similan Islands


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