Gong Xi Fa Cai! Happy Chinese New Year from White Manta.

Finally, our first sighting of Manta rays this Thailand season!! 3 of them at Koh Tachai. It was my first inspection trip as well with Sharon and Vivienne our youngest daughter.

As the winter months close in around the Northern Hemisphere, the days get shorter and darker, long summer evenings are replaced by cold dark and frosty nights, while summer wardrobes of shorts and T-shirts are replaced by woolen hats, scarves and thick cosy coats. For the crew and customers of the MV White Manta the arrival of November means something entirely different... The start of the Similan Islands safari season here in sunny, tropical Thailand!

Bon Voyage Singapore! Here we are at the end of October and our Singapore season is over, after four fantastic months offering dive trips around local Indonesian and Malaysian divesites, it is once again time for us to bid farewell to the City Island and head north to Thailand. Before sailing for those exotic waters, we did have time for one more farewell trip, The Hari Raya long weekend to Anambas islands, Seven Skies and Igara Wrecks, which turned out to be the perfect way to say goodbye to our friends here in Singapore.

Saturday morning, Seven Skies wreck, thirty-four meters below the surface, clear blue waters, a ripping current and an ocean teeming with pelagic marine life: rainbow runners, barracudas, jacks, trevallies and tunas, all enjoying a frenzied attack upon a dense ball of bait fish who school close to the wreck in a vain attempt to protect themselves from the constant attacks of the torpedo like hunters of the sea. What a fantastic way to start the weekend!

Our much loved Divemaster couple: Michael and Melanie Smith were back from their pilgrimage in Northern Spain to expertly guide our divers this weekend. Additionally, another important member of the White Manta family attended with his own family: Chris Phillips. His nieces; Emily and Jessica took the PADI Open Water and Advanced Open Water courses, respectively. Chris & Maria Phillips also brought along their young son: Zacharias; he and his carer Brenda were non-divers along with Katharina Hegi, mother of the Hegi family including husband Martin, and son & daughter; Oliver and Julia. They were each to attain their Advanced Open Water certificate. It was quite a family affair!

We hosted another Open House evening early in October, inviting our friends, and theirs, to join us in some nice food and conversation in the lovely space of MV White Manta.

First weekend trip in October on MV White Manta was full of expectations to see the big fish that can be a feature of our trips towards the end of the season. We embarked to the ‘hotspot’ as soon as we left TMFT eager to get an early start and ‘catch the first worm’. Sadly it was not to be, luck was not on our side, the big fish didn’t make an appearance.

Do you remember your first dive? Are you able to re-imagine all the feelings of nervous excitement and anticipation that precedes your first descent into the depths of the ocean? For a lot of us that first glimpse of a new world is enough to hook us for life, addicted to exploring a weightless world that seems so alien from the distant world back on land. 

Only two words really needed from this weekends’ trip report..... WHALE SHARK!! Yes, those lucky divers who were able to tear themselves away from Singapore's F1 weekend were treated to, not one, but two! incredible dives with a very friendly and inquisitive Whale Shark at the Igara wreck, providing a very special end to a fantastic weekend diving onboard MV White Manta.