Tuesday 4 February Surin islands

The Surin islands are thirty miles south from Koh Phayam and were once famed for their diving. Sadly the coral is 95% dead. We've been told this it was caused by the 2004 tsunami or it could have been rising sea temperature. We also learned at the dive shop on Phayam one of the best sites had been dynamited by fisherman only two weeks ago.

Park ranger beach, N Surin

tour boats

sunset in dive bay

So when we reached the northern Surin island we weren't surprised by the lack of visitors. There were no dive boats, a few day trippers and overnight stayers camping at Park Ranger HQ and, while we were, a maximum of 8 yachts. We were planning to pick up one of the three mooring balls which was closest to the beach but were warned by the other yacht it was close to a bommie so we switched to the one further offshore.

The park rangers were quick to visit to collect our fees and ask us not to walk on the beaches as this is the time of year turtles are laying their eggs. Snorkelling was permitted and we were glad to be able to swim in the delightfully clear water. Snorkelling on the nearby reef was sad, lots of fish, but the coral is 95% dead. On the point of the island which perhaps get more current sweeping it there is new growth taking place and there are big schools of fish. I even saw one small hawksbill turtle.

On our second morning in the Surins we took the dinghy across to the Park office; it's too shallow to get the big boat in and conditions were very calm anyway. The water between the two islands is proper postcard turquoise flanked by the green of the islands. It was busy at the park office with day trippers stopping for what looked a very good lunch at the simple restaurant. There were lots of photos on the walls of the underwater world before it disappeared. It must have been beautiful. We didn't stay long, looked at the other anchorage on the west side and saw 6 boats there.

For our third and last night in the Surins we moved 4 miles around the north island to a big bay on the west side just north of the main anchorage. For the day and night we were the only yacht there, a few snorkellers visited from main bay but otherwise we were on our own. On the hunt for somewhere to snorkel we found a mooring line without ball attached closer to the main reed and with a nice diving spot underneath it! Needless to say it didn't take us long to move Jackster to this line, don kit and jump in for our first dive since Komodo! Being so dive starved we enjoyed it; coral has started to grow here too and there were still many fishes to watch. There was a massive lobster waving at us and an octopus hiding under a rock.

Three days in Surins and we were ready to move on to the Similans chasing the end of the diving rainbow.