A group of divers have just returned from our 4.5 day sailing liveaboard trip in Chumphon Province, run as a joint venture between Sampai Jumpa & DJL Diving.
The guys dived the shallow wrecks throughout the area plus enjoyed some great coral dive sites.
Photo: A large cave / swimthrough on one of the small islands.
The trip commenced with dives at a coral site of three small islands called Koh Ngam. Our reading prior the trip rated these sites highly, and the group enjoyed the shallow sloping reefs.
Following this the liveaboard proceeded north. The group got to make three wreck dives -descending onto the ‘Dumb Dumb Maru’, ‘Inverted Wreck’ & recently discovered Japanese Tanker. Visibility wasn’t great on the DDM & Tanker, but the divers managed to map the shallow tanker, giving a better idea of how she lies. The much deeper Inverted Wreck (@ 40 metres) had the best conditions, and the divers enjoyed the coral growth and marine life.
Photos:
1. The Sampai Jumpa sailing liveaboard
2. The Dumb Dumb Maru ship wreck, outside Chumphon.
3. Coral encrusted wreck site
4. The divers exploring spectacular wall
5. Wreck dive specialty graduate Shane, descending down the shot line towards the ‘inverted wreck’
6. A lionfish on one of the coral dive sites
The expedition also explored remote islands and pinnacles, north of Chumphon, witnessing a lot of marine species that we don’t see around Koh Tao. Visibility was in the 10 – 15 metre range and we didn’t see any other divers! Many of the divers were Koh Tao dive pros, and rated the diving as much better than Koh Tao!
1. A small pufferfish
2. White eyed moray under a rocky outcropping
We got to enjoy lots of exciting swimthroughs & small caves, healthy hard coral reefs and beautiful deeper soft corals.
On the return voyage to Koh Tao, we stopped of and did a couple of deep dives on the Unicorn wreck – deep air diving to 46 metres.
We’ll be running a repeat liveaboard throughout Chumphon Province in about two weeks time – there are 11 places available – the cost will be 20,000 baht.
Contact DJL if you are interested in joining.
