On 12 April 2025, the Thai liveaboard DiveRACE Class E caught fire on the final night of a Similan Islands cruise. Everyone survived, but they were not unscathed, and the fire has brought liveaboard safety failings into question yet again. DIVE spoke to some of the survivors.

By Mark 'Crowley' Russell

In the early hours of 12 April 2025, the Thailand-based luxury liveaboard Dive Race Class E caught fire on the final night of a five-day cruise through the Similan Islands.

All 16 passengers and ten crew survived, but the incident has not been reported in the global media with the same intensity of scrutiny that followed the Sea Story disaster of November 2024, in which eleven people died when their Egyptian Red Sea liveaboard capsized.

While the Class E fire survivors escaped without serious physical injury, the incident has taken a heavy toll on the mental health of those who escaped the inferno, and they are very aware that the litany of safety failures leading up to their rescue could have made their situation far, far worse.

No muster drill

Nicole Yeates, who works for the US Department of the Navy, and her husband Joe, a serving US Navy Officer, were on a three-week, first-class ‘trip-of-a-lifetime’ to Thailand before Joe headed out to sea for an extended period of duty.

Nicole, a self-confessed ‘big trip planner’ who enjoys researching the minutia of a potential holiday, did plenty of investigation before settling on DiveRACE Class E (from hereon just Class E), a well-appointed 34.5-metre steel-hulled vessel launched in 2015 that came with an excellent safety record and brilliant reviews.

The couple was picked up in the afternoon of 8 April and boarded Class E in the evening with another 14 divers. They set sail soon after arriving, and while the lead guide presented a safety briefing in the saloon, there was no proper muster drill to familiarise the guests with the boat’s emergency equipment and procedures.

‘We got there in the evening of 8 April and got underway,’ Nicole said. ‘There was no safety briefing other than a kind of, “here’s this, there’s that”, you know?

‘They said our life jackets are in the state rooms and the life rafts are on the top deck but there was no drill of any kind.’

Chanhyeok ‘Chris’ Kim, a diver from South Korea enjoying his first liveaboard – and who is also chief officer for a 200,000MT merchant ship – told the same story

‘The lead divemaster gave a short briefing about safety instructions,’ said Chris, ‘however, it was just: life jacket is in your cabin; life raft is on top.

‘They didn’t tell us about other safety equipment, for example, the place of the fire extinguisher or the fire alert system. Also, they didn’t talk about the muster station for fires or the abandon ship situation.’

No smoke detectors or fire alarm

For most of the voyage, everything was almost perfect, and Nicole gives praise to the crew where it’s due. ‘Things were efficient,’ she says; ‘they were well run and everything was well organised. The food was excellent and, overall, it was really well done – no complaints.’

On the last night of the trip, Class E and her passengers were moored over the Boonsong wreck when it became apparent that the vessel they were on was anything but perfect.

‘At about 3.15, 3.20 in the morning, Joe wakes me up and he tells me: “get up”,’ says Nicole. ‘He said: “Do you smell that smoke?”, but I’m half asleep at this point so I kind of take it with a grain of salt.

‘And then I hear somebody yelling, “Evacuate! Evacuate!”’

There were no smoke detectors or fire alarm system on board, and no roving night watch posted by the crew. The alarm was raised by a passenger who, unable to sleep, had been up on deck at the time the fire broke out.

Nicole and her husband left their cabin to investigate, and the nature of the emergency was instantly apparent.

‘As soon as we got into the hallway, there was thick smoke,’ said Nicole. ‘I tried to cover my mouth, but it was too much, and very acrid, so we ducked down and went outside onto the dive deck.

‘The smoke was out there too. We went to the edges to try and get some fresh air but it was already overwhelming the dive deck.’

They did not see any flames at this point, only smoke, so the couple headed out to the dining area on the upper deck, where other passengers were starting to gather.

‘We had about half the passengers at that point,’ said Nicole. ‘The head divemaster and a couple of the other divemasters showed up but then smoke started filling that area too, and it got too rough, so we walked along the side and went up to the front of the boat.’

Not realising the gravity of the situation, none of the assembled passengers had brought their life jackets with them.

‘It all happened too fast,’ said Nicole, ‘and I don’t think anybody realised that when people said “it’s smoky” that they were going to be jumping over the side.’

A couple of the female crew members, apparently unable to swim, had turned up with life rings.

No power, no radio, no battery backup

Approximately 10 minutes after leaving their cabins, the passengers realised the whole boat was without power – and had been for some time.

Another liveaboard, the MV Raga, owned by Smile Dolphin Adventures, was moored nearby but there did not seem to be any attempt by the crew to make contact.

According to Chris – who is in charge of his merchant ship’s firefighting team – Class E’s captain was at the front of the boat, and did not appear to be in control of the situation.

‘He could not speak English and looked panicked,’ he said, ‘so I went to the bridge to use the distress signal.

‘I tried to call by VHF radio, but it was not working because there was no electricity, so I tried to push the distress button, but it was also not working.

‘I tried to find other emergency equipment, but there was nothing,’ Chris continued. ‘The only thing I found was SART [Search and Rescue Transponder, which can be detected by other ships’ radar] but it was not that important in this situation.

‘So I couldn’t do anything because there was no power, and the batteries were also not working.’

DIVE has spoken with the DiveRACE Class E’s Singapore-based owner, who said in a written statement that ‘independent back-up batteries, radios and fire extinguishers were available’.

The simple facts remain, however, that two highly trained maritime officers – one civilian and one military – could not find a working radio on the bridge and, if there was a backup on board, neither the captain nor any of his crew put it to use.

‘The is pretty key to me,’ says Nicole, ‘and very aggravating. They went to the bridge to look for the bridge-to-bridge radio, assuming it had a battery backup. It did not.

‘They went looking for an emergency beacon. No battery backup on that, either, so no way to signal Mayday. Nothing.’

SOS by smartphone

With no way to communicate with the outside world, people started to signal Raga using the flashlights on their mobile phones.

‘They were probably 150 to 200 metres away,’ said Nicole, ‘far enough to circle the anchor chain and not hit us. People were trying to signal SOS with the flashlights on their phones, but [the crew of the other boat] also seemed to be sleeping, and there was nobody on the bridge because we couldn’t get their attention.’

By this time the fire had taken hold on the back deck. Unable to raise a reaction from the other boat, and with no way to signal an emergency, the passengers realised they were probably going to have to abandon ship.

‘At this point we could see a glow in the back of the boat, and it was getting worse and worse,’ says Nicole. We are talking via a video call, and it is clear to see the memory is clearly not easy for her.

‘We heard planks starting to hit the dive deck, and we start hearing air hoses start popping, which is just feeding the fire, and we heard things exploding.’

Somebody was bringing life jackets up to the forward deck, so Nicole and her husband – both strong swimmers and, as US Navy personnel, able to handle emergencies pretty calmly – start passing them out.

Sea conditions worsened as the boat burned – Nicole estimates a 1.5–1.8 metre swell – and a steady drizzle made the decking slippery, causing her to fall and break her sacrum (the triangular bone situated between the two hip bones of the pelvis) as she was helping.

It also became clear at while they were preparing to abandon ship that two divers were missing. Fortunately, one of the divemasters – a foreign national, not a member of the Thai crew – was able to open the forward emergency hatch, enabling them to escape the lower deck.

The liferafts were deployed – again, not by the crew but by one of the foreign divemasters and a passenger. Sea conditions and current made them difficult to access when people started jumping into the water, but – very importantly – they remained tethered to the vessel while the passengers abandoned ship, rather than drifting away, useless, into the dark.

By this time, the flames and the noise of the small explosions had aroused the attention of Raga’s crew, who deployed their boat’s tenders and weighed anchor to pick up Class E’s survivors.

The first mayday was issued by Raga’s captain at approximately 4.15 am.

This story, for reasons of length, will appear in two parts. The second will be published next week…

Related articles

• Fire Alert – Improving liveaboard fire safety for divers
• Liveaboard safety – how divers can change it and when to walk away
• Emperor Seven Seas liveaboard destroyed by fire in Port Ghalib
• Sea Story liveaboard survivor tells her story
• Divers rescued after Komodo liveaboard sinks

The post Survivors of Thai liveaboard DiveRACE Class E fire speak out – part 1 appeared first on DIVE Magazine.

The granite topography of Thailand’s Similan Islands gives writer and photographer Mark B Hatter plenty to work with during a journey on board the Thailand Aggressor

Words and pictures by Mark B Hatter

Occasionally, a rookie mistake can result in a positive outcome. Such was my situation on our final dive aboard the Thailand Aggressor as we approached the end of our cruise in the Andaman Sea, off the western coast of Thailand.

Everything seemed perfect on this final morning in the Similan Islands, capping off a wonderful week. The sea was smooth and super clear, and the early morning sun, hazy behind a thin layer of high clouds, would likely provide excellent sunburst photographic opportunities.

As a bonus, our boat was the only vessel at the dive site.

We’d visited Christmas Point earlier in the cruise and I was looking forward to again shooting the wildlife in and around the massive granite boulders strewn around the site.

The smooth rocks are signature surface and underwater topography features of the Similan Islands. Settling onto the sandy floor at 20 metres, between two massive granite boulders, I attempted to test fire my camera to validate aperture and shutter speed settings. The lack of a response was puzzling and unsettling. Up until now, I’d had no issues with my kit.

After a quick sequence of checks, the ‘err’ message on the camera’s LCD was soberingly clear: I had left the memory card out of the camera after downloading my last series of images the night before. Something I would have realised, had I completed my gear check before climbing into the dinghy.

We’d already dived Christmas Point early in the cruise but, nevertheless, this mistake would still cost me…

Or so I thought.

THE SIMILAN ISLANDS’ GRANITE PARADISE

The Similan Islands and associated sea mounts run up the west coast of Thailand. They are mainly composed of ‘intrusive granitoids’, rocks that formed between 250 and 150 million years ago as a result of plate tectonics that allowed magma to bubble up from deep within the Earth’s core to form protrusions and small mountains.

Aeons of weathering and erosion have left the islands smoothly contoured, creating a unique topography which is extremely
popular with tourists and divers.

There are 11 ko (the Thai word for ‘island’) in the Similan Archipelago, all of which are under Thailand’s protection as a national park. While each ko has a formal name, for the sake of simplicity they are more commonly known locally as Islands 1 through to 12.

During our seven-day cruise we visited dive sites along most of them, along with those at Ko Surin and Richelieu Rock.

We began our journey with an introductory dive at a shallow site called Anita’s Reef, between Islands 5 and 6, where classic coral bommies rise up from a shallow sandy plain.

The morning light was perfect for capturing colourful anthias and damselfish streaming over stony coral formations. I love shooting into the sun when it’s low on the horizon, and the conditions at Anita’s were ideal that day for cool sunbursts as backdrops against bommies that were teaming with life.

Our next dive, at Elephant Head Rock, between Islands 6 and 7, was a surprisingly different experience. This site, dominated by massive granite boulders, offers classic Similan diving. You might expect the boulders to be festooned with corals and sea fans – but actually most of the rocky surfaces are oddly devoid of encrusting life. Yet there are areas on every reef that offer an exception to the rule.

At these underwater oases, soft and stony corals, as well as massive sea fans, abound. This phenomenon of largely naked rock surface is apparently completely natural and not related to climate change or historical storm impacts – indeed, there are old growth tabling corals on the smooth granite, albeit few and far between.

Could it be that the windward facing sides of the islands, being more exposed seasonally, are less inclined to promote extensive coral or sea fan encrusting?

We also dived a number of sites which appeared to be within the seasonal lee of an island, and provide the conditions for much more typical massive coral bommies and linear reef structures to form.

At Ko Bon (Island 10), we got the best of both worlds. Having entered the water along a windward point, we let the current sweep us past the mostly barren rocky slopes, around a boulder-strewn point, to a protected lee-side shore where we found an astonishing developed coral reef.

Almost immediately, we encountered an enormous school of batfish hovering in the current, mid-water, which captivated half of our dive group.

I was drawn instead to shoot the massive shoals of golden and translucent sweepers, ever shape-shifting, like a single amorphous organism, in and around the stony coral structures.

MEETING THE ANDAMAN LOCALS

On the afternoon of our fifth day we left the Similan Islands for the five Surin Islands, an archipelago closer to the coast of Thailand but still within the Andaman Sea.

At Ko Surin Tai we made an afternoon sojourn to a village of Indigenous sea people called the Moken, a group also known as Sea Gypsies.

The Moken number in the hundreds, share everything communally and have their own language. As people of the sea, their mode of transportation is a longboat made of hardwood, colourfully painted and propelled by the most unusual engine I’ve ever seen, bearing a drive shaft at least 3m long that terminated in a double-bladed propeller.

After our visit to the Moken village we suited up for a sunset dive along the south shore of Surin Island. In the gloaming, my dive buddy and I were blown away by the underwater metropolis of stony coral, starting near the surface and sloping to around 20m.

The diversity was staggering and the coral was in surprisingly excellent health. Massive tabling corals, easily 2.5m in diameter, were complemented by forests of branching staghorn corals, lettuce corals and many other species of smaller plating corals.

Between the thickets of coral, an occasional magnificent anemone, replete with anemonefish, punctuated the dense seascape.

The dive was incredibl,e and it was only our inability to focus on subjects after twilight that ultimately drove us from the water. The surprising old-growth fringe reef at the south end of Surin Island left me perplexed about how this magnificent feat of nature could be evading the ever-encroaching threat of climate change.

Happily, at least for now, there are still places on the planet that are defying the odds of human-caused degradation.

DIVING RICHELIEU ROCK

The following morning we travelled before dawn to reach one of six mooring buoys off fabled Richelieu Rock, a massive underwater pinnacle barely reaching the surface between the Similan and Surin islands.

‘The Rock’ is one of the most popular dive sites on the planet, visited daily by dozens of boats and hundreds of divers – and for good reason.

As an isolated pinnacle in the open ocean, the Rock is swept by unimpeded currents that support an astounding abundance of life. Signature species include a myriad pastel-coloured carnation corals, giant sea fans and more magnificent anemones than I’ve ever seen in one place.

When the current is raging at Richelieu Rock, it’s the side receiving the brunt of the current where everything happens.

Shoals of glass fish are under continuous assault from schools of predator jackfish, long-nose emperor fish, groupers and snappers. Carnation corals covering every available surface swell in the tidal flow.

At the crown of the pinnacle, anemonefish in thousands of magnificent anemones fight to keep from being swept away from their hosts.

We make the penultimate dive of our trip at the Rock as the sun is going down. The day boats are gone and divers from the few other liveaboards still moored on fixed buoys have all left the water.

We have the place to ourselves in the waning light. Magnificent anemones often fold up into the shape of an onion at twilight. Seeing this phenomenon, with thousands of anemones in action at once, left me shooting continuously until it was time to go topside.

A NEW PERSPECTIVE

I had a lot of images to process after four dives at Richelieu, which might explain why I had forgotten to put my memory card back in the camera immediately after completing the download.

Thus it was that I found myself at Christmas Point completing my last dive yet unable to shoot any more. Rather than regretting my foolish error, though, I was ultimately glad of it.

I’d been shooting Similan’s granite-based reefs for the better part of a week, and it was only on that final dive, without the burden of searching for viable scenes to photograph, that my eyes and mind were opened to the surprising, spectacular underwater vista that is Thailand’s Andaman Sea

THAILAND AGGRESSOR

The Thailand Aggressor was recommissioned in October 2024, so facilities are excellent. Meals include Thai lunches and dinners, and western breakfasts.

The vessel offers two routes, season-dependent. I selected the North Andaman Sea voyage, which covers dive sites in the Similan Islands, Surin Islands and Richelieu Rock, and departs from Tap Lamu Pier, 60-90 minutes by road from Phuket International Airport.

The divemasters and cruise director gave wide latitude on every dive, something photographers will appreciate. As long as we were paired with a buddy and carried an SMB, we were free to dive each site as we liked.

We were offered five dives per day on three occasions.

For more information, visit www.aggressor.com

More great reads from our magazine

• Painting with Light – an interview with Catherine Holmes
• Artificial Intelligence – good or bad for underwater photography?
• Liveaboard safety – how divers can change it and when to walk away
• Luxury resort versus budget homestay in Raja Ampat
• The National Lobster Hatchery – giving lobsters a helping hand

Click here to take out a regular yearly subscription

The post Diving the Similan Islands with Aggressor Adventures appeared first on DIVE Magazine.

Book by 30 June 2025 and save 30 per cent off a luxury scuba diving trip to the Maldives for September 2025

Take advantage of the latest special offer from Dive Worldwide to stay on the exclusive Makunudu Island, a five-acre paradise of lush vegetation encircled by white sand and crystal-clear waters, with just 36 traditional bungalows available and spectacular diving only minutes away.

September is manta season in the area and provides good chances of spotting reef manta rays.

Alongside the scuba diving, there are plenty of watersports to enjoy in the island’s lagoon, including stand-up paddleboarding, kayaking, and snorkelling.

Related articles

• Dive & Discover St Helena with Dive Worldwide
• Dive Worldwide introduces three new resorts
• DIVE Magazine Spring 2025 preview

Stays at the resort also provide guests with the opportunity to embrace Maldivian heritage by trying handline fishing or learning how to operate an antique sailboat.

The offer includes a free upgrade to all-inclusive accommodation, and also a ‘buy one get one free’ massage at the intimate Aavun Spa (payable in resort only)

Price: £2,995pp sharing (reduced from £4,195pp) saving £1,200pp, including return international flights, speed boat transfers, 7 nights’ all-inclusive in a beach bungalow and nine guided dives (tanks and weights provided, other equipment hire is extra).  

For more information or to take advantage of the offer, head to diveworldwide.com, or give the team a call on +44 (0)1962 302087

The post Maldives Makunudu Island offer from Dive Worldwide appeared first on DIVE Magazine.

Aggressor Adventures Launches Exclusive “Back-to-Back Special’ – save up to $1,600 when you book two consecutive liveaboard trips or adventure combos.

Aggressor Adventures has announced its latest promotion for thrill-seekers and globe-trotters: the Back-to-Back Special.

The limited-time offer will reward guests with savings of up to $1,600 when booking two consecutive adventures at select Aggressor destinations.

From the vibrant reefs of the Red Sea to the serene landscapes of northern Thailand, travellers can double their experiences – and their savings – with the following pairings:

• Red Sea Aggressor IV + Nile Queen II River Cruise – Save $1,600
• Nile Queen II River Cruise + Sri Lanka Signature Lodge – Save $1,000
• Philippines Aggressor I & II – Save $1,000
• Komodo Aggressor + Raja Ampat Aggressor – Save $1,000
• Cocos Island Aggressor & Okeanos Aggressor II – Save $1,600
• Thailand Aggressor + Chiang Mai Signature Lodge – Save $1,400
• Bahamas Aggressor I & II – Save $1,000
• Belize Aggressor III & IV – Save $1,000

Booking Window: 21 May – 4 June, 2025
Travel Deadline: All travel must be completed by December 31, 2025

‘This new Back-to-Back Special is perfect for adventurers who want to maximise their journey by exploring multiple destinations in a single trip,’ said Wayne Brown, CEO of Aggressor Adventures. ‘Whether it’s diving, wildlife safaris, or river cruising, these savings give our guests more reasons to stay and play longer.’

Availability is limited, and back-to-back itineraries must be booked together during the promotional window to qualify. For full details and to reserve your ultimate adventure combo, visit Aggressor.com.

More from Aggressor

• New Bahamas Aggressor II arrives in May
• Philippines Aggressor II launching in April 2024
• Aggressor Adventures announces return of the Thailand Aggressor
• Aggressor Adventures launches new Komodo Aggressor
• Aggressor Adventures’ CEO Wayne Brown publishes first book

The post Aggressor Adventures launches ‘Back to Back Special’ appeared first on DIVE Magazine.

Todd Thimios has what many would believe to be the perfect job – he travels the world on private yachts, searching out the very best dive sites for his clients. His 20 years of luxury wandering has resulted in Ultimate Dive Sites – a glossy book listing his 50 favourites dotted around the globe. Here are three to whet your appetite…

Words and photographs by Todd Thimios

MILFORD SOUND, NEW ZEALAND

Dive below mountains and waterfalls into an environment you’d usually find 200 metres deeper

The South Island of New Zealand – Aotearoa, in the native Māori language – is world-renowned for its dramatic mountainous scenery, and there are few places more dramatic than the Milford Sound. For divers, black coral is the main attraction, but the Sound has much more to offer, and the magic begins with the drive in.

According to Māori legend, Aotearoa’s fjord lands were carved out by the demi-god Tu-te-raki-whanoa, who, upon reaching
Piopiotahi (Milford Sound), did his best work before ending his journey. Undoubtedly, this is one of the prettiest landscapes on Earth, but if you think Milford Sound is otherworldly, wait until you see what’s below the surface.

While technical diving and the discomfort of wearing a drysuit deters many divers, the fun of exploring the ethereal world beneath the fjords is absolutely worth the effort.

Known as New Zealand’s ‘coral capital’, some of the interesting coral trees that you’ll find here are those of red and black corals. Despite their name, black corals are actually white in appearance, thanks to millions of miniscule white polyps in a thin layer of tissue covering the coral’s black skeleton.

Finding these usually deep-water corals in shallow water is a novelty, made possible by the murky surface layer of freshwater run-off blocking out the sunlight. The existence of deep water animals surviving at shallower depths is called ‘deep water emergence’.

With nearly 6,800mm (267in) of annual rainfall, this is one of the wettest places on Earth. As the rain falls onto the mountains, it pulls nutrients from the forest floor down into the sea, creating a blanket effect on the water’s surface.

The result of this murky, tannin-stained water is an incredible marine environment that is starved of light – an ecosystem typical of 200m (656ft) depth is found within only a depth of 10–20m of water.

There’s an eerie feeling for the first few metres as you descend into the murkiness, but once you’ve reached the bottom of that freshwater blanket, the visibility and scenery opens up to dramatic walls hosting large branches of snow-white coral, stingrays, octopuses, nudibranchs, dog or carpet sharks, and clusters of crayfish, all enjoying the protection of the 690 hectare (1705 acre) Piopiotahi/ Milford Sound marine reserve.

If you’re lucky you may spot a New Zealand fur seal or some bottlenose dolphins. A day with local operator Descend Diving (currently taking a break from diving) will have you zipping through the Sound and out to the Tasman Sea, with scenic stops for waterfalls and wildlife spotting.

Two dives are offered and those without prior drysuit experience can pay extra to get training and a certification while on the tour.

With the dive boat setting off from the boat ramp at 9 am, I recommend that you stay close by, rather than driving the winding road (which is prone to rockfalls) in the dark.

There are chalets and a campground at Milford Sound Lodge (milfordlodge.com), but they book out far in advance. If you can’t stay there, the next option is the town of Te Anau, 118 km (73 miles) away; allow about an hour and a half for the drive as the 1.2 km Homer Tunnel can get congested sometimes.

If you’re driving a campervan, there are also some great, cheap Department of Conservation (DOC) campsites, which are positioned in scenic locations along the drive in (doc.govt.nz).

Best time to dive: October-April.

Gear: it’s cold and dark, so drysuit, gloves, hood, socks, thick undergarments and a good light.

Photography tip: Showcasing the landscape both above and below the surface was my main focus, so I felt that shooting wide was the best option. I used an 11-24mm zoo,m which yielded good results of both marine life and divers among Milford’s cold-water reefs. Ensure your strobes are reliable, as even though visibility can be good, it gets dark real fast.

SS COOLIDGE, ESPIRITU SANTO, VANUATU

Dive deep into an underwater museum of WWII relics mixed with 1940s opulence

Whether you’re a relative newbie to deep water diving or a seasoned deep-sea technical diving adventurer, the SS President Coolidge on Vanuatu’s stunning Espiritu Santo Island offers a fantastic wreck diving experience.

The SS Coolidge isn’t just any shipwreck, at 198m (650ft) long and roughly 22,000 tons (24,000 tonnes), it’s arguably one of the best wreck dives in the world, and you can walk straight off the beach to access it.

Once a luxury passenger liner with elegant cabins and plush restaurants and bars for more than 1,000 people, it was transformed into a troop carrier during World War II when 40,000 troops were stationed on the rapidly converted Espiritu Santo, making it the second largest American base in the Pacific.

It was here in 1942, while entering Santo’s harbour, that Coolidge collided with its own US mines. The ship’s sailing orders had omitted vital information about safe entry into the harbour, and with fears of Japanese submarines looming large, the captain attempted to navigate through the most obvious of channels.

A mine struck her in the engine room, followed by another near her stern. Over the next 90 minutes, 5,340 men from the ship got safely ashore, with only two lives lost. However, the captain’s attempts to beach and save the ship were shortlived.

Coolidge listed heavily on her port side, sank stern first, and slid down the slope into the channel. Today her stern sits in 72m of water and her bow in 20m, creating a sanctuary for deep wreck diving and one of the most unbelievable shore dives imaginable.

Gearing up on the beach, divers take a short walk to the tide line, and after swimming only 40-odd metres, the bow comes into view, marking the beginning of the colossal structure that is the wreck of the Coolidge.

Diving Coolidge is like entering a time capsule. Back in 1980, when Vanuatu gained independence from its French and British colonisers, it was declared that no artefacts would be allowed to be salvaged from the wreck. So today, with the ship still largely intact, divers can swim through its holds and decks, encountering an array of relics from guns, cannons and Jeeps, to helmets and personal supplies left behind by the troops.

Then there’s relics like ‘The Lady’ (a porcelain bas-relief and divers’ favourite), chandeliers, a mosaic tile fountain, elegant baths and grand staircases, which all add to the charm.

While Coolidge is a labyrinth of corridors, rooms and cargo holds, this shouldn’t deter new divers. To truly appreciate the ship’s magnitude and majesty, I recommend at least 10 to 15 dives. After all, she stretches almost 200m in length. But even with just a few dives you can get a taste of her grandeur.

For me, a return to Santo 20 years after I lived here allowed me to see how the wreck has fared over the years (particularly since Vanuatu gets its fair share of cyclones and earthquakes). While a few structures have collapsed (the promenade deck, mainly, and the swimming pool which popped out and fell to the ocean’s floor), overall, the wreck hadn’t changed much. It’s still solid and safe to explore, with the right guides.

Diving in Luganville was pioneered by the legendary Allan Power back in the ’80s. Allan operated a dive centre here right up to his death in 2018. He had made over 15,000 dives on the Coolidge and had taken more than 20,000 divers to the Lady alone.

His legacy is carried forward by Pacific Dive, situated within Luganville’s Espiritu Hotel, which runs daily dives. Its local Ni-Van staff take great pride in the Coolidge. They are incredible guides, accruing tens of thousands of dives between them on the wreck over the years (pacificdive.net).

Best time to dive: year-round, but the May-October dry season is best for sea conditions, temperature and visibility.

Gear: 3mm wetsuit over summer and 5 mm over the colder winter months.

Photography tip: Pack your favourite wide-angle lens and dive Coolidge several times to capture the bow and the full length of the ship when shooting her from outside. Inside, strobes are turned on to focus on the many different chambers and artefacts within.

MERGUI ARCHIPELAGO, MYANMAR

For decades sea gypsies have had this region all to themselves… until now

Off limits since World War II, the Mergui (pronounced mer-gwee) Archipelago in southern Myanmar (formerly Burma) opened to liveaboard dive boats in 1997 and, since then, word-of-mouth about the region has started to spread through the diving world.

Their relative isolation and history of being closed to tourists due to Burma’s military regime have helped them maintain their pristine and undeveloped state.

Known to the outside world by their British colonial name of Mergui (the indigenous name is Myeik), these 800-plus islands are scattered across 400km (248 miles) of the Andaman Sea, down the coastline of Myanmar.

Devoid of hotels and beach front bars, the jungle-clad islands, some of them still unnamed, are inhabited only by a few thousand Moken ‘sea gypsies’, the indigenous people of the Mergui Archipelago.

These semi-nomadic people have traditionally spent their days fishing or boat-building and are known for their incredible freediving abilities. For the Moken, the only tourists that they see are a small number of divers or adventure cruise ship passengers, passing through.

On our expedition, we set sail from Kawthaung (Myanmar’s southern gateway to the archipelago), though commercial liveaboards also depart from Ranong across the Thai border. Most of our trip was based around several well-known sites, with the rest of our trip visiting unknown sites for exploratory dives.

Our captain’s favourite dive was Black Rock, one of the Mergui’s most westerly islands. Standing solitary in the sea with a steep wall dropping down to over 100m (328ft), this pinnacle is a magnet for marine life, giant mantas, vast schools of barracuda, trevally, snapper and fusiliers clouding the waters.

Underwater, this limestone rock is covered in soft corals and anemones; the reef’s crannies and crevasses a haven for scorpionfish and other benthic critters.

At night, the dive site transforms as colourful corals bloom and nocturnal creatures emerge to feed in the nutrient-rich waters.

Another favourite spot was Western Rocky. The island is known for its sharks, including whitetips and blacktips, grey reef sharks and some large nurse sharks, which can be spotted inside a tunnel dive that cuts through the island’s core.

Just north of Western Rocky, a dive site aptly named Shark Cave is also good for spotting nurse sharks, plus whip rays, blotched stingrays and the odd whale shark, and then there are smaller cuties such as seahorses and anemonefish.

Perhaps the highlight of the trip, for me, was the huge gorgonian sea fans found in numerous locations, with a dive site named Fan Forest Pinnacle (also known as Rocky Peaks) being especially populous with wonderful gorgonians. To this day, I would say that the largest and most impressive gorgonian fans I’ve ever seen were in the Mergui Archipelago.

While the Mergui Archipelago has many amazing dive sites to explore, the visibility can be a bit all over the place. Cold-water currents bringing nutrients (commonly called ‘the green monster’) can rush through dive sites unexpectedly.

Some areas have been fished hard, while others have been decimated by dynamite fishing. Then, on some dive sites, ghost nets litter the reefs.

While the archipelago is just beginning to find its feet as a world-class destination for divers, it’s crucial that the government protects the region, not just for the future enjoyment of divers, but also for the Moken people who call it home and depend on these waters for their food, lifestyle and income.

The MV Smiling Seahorse has been running liveaboard dive trips to Mergui since 2012 and offers several scientific and exploratory itineraries. Trips on this small boat, which takes only 16 divers, depart from Ranong in Thailand (thesmilingseahorse.com).

Best time to dive: late October to mid-May for calm seas, blue skies, better visibility and a steady water temperature of 27°C (80°F), which aligns with the migratory patterns of large pelagics, including mantas and whale sharks (Feb–May is prime season for the big stuff).

Gear: 3mm wetsuit for water temperatures around 27°C (80°F) from late Oct to mid-May.

Photography tip: Mergui has a bit of everything: megafauna that needs a wide-angle lens, coral garden seascapes that suit a wide-angle zoom and incredible critters for your macro lens. If possible, pack it all, particularly your wide-angle.

More great reads from our magazine

• Painting with light – an interview with Catherine Holmes
• Artificial Intelligence – good or bad for underwater photography?
• Liveaboard safety – how divers can change it and when to walk away
• Luxury resort versus budget homestay in Raja Ampat
• DIVE’s Big Shot Portraits – THE WINNERS!

Click here to take out a regular yearly subscription

The post Searching for the best – an extract from Todd Thimios’ Ultimate Dive Sites appeared first on DIVE Magazine.