Local Diving near the coast

Boonsung Wreck

At Boonsung Wreck

We arrange half-day trips by long-tail boat to local wrecks, Khao Lak has to offer.

One of the trip sites is the outstanding wreck "Boonsung".
Here you will find an old tin mining platform which sank in 1984 and rests at a depth of 20 meters. The boxing day Tsunami of 2004 separated the wreck into several parts, making the dive site bigger and even more attractive.

Over several years, it became colonized by thousands upon thousands of fish, glad to be lucky enough to have an artificial reef in a vast expanse of sand.

Around the wreck, which locals describe as “fish soup,” you will pass through clouds of snappers, fusiliers, batfish, and trevally as you look for the special things living within the wreck and in the surrounding sand.

Crocodile fish, stonefish, scorpionfish, lionfish, ornate ghost pipefish, a lot of moray eels in different sizes and much more reside with the kings of the site, the nudibranchs.

Whale sharks are regularly spotted

Itinerary
We start the trip about 09:00 am from Khao Lak and bring you by Taxi to Pakarang Beach where the long-tail boat is waiting for you. We need about 30 minutes to the dive sites and doing 2 dives with a lunch break during the surface interval. We will be back at the beach around 2:00 pm and in Khao Lak 30 minutes later.

Pick-up times
Lam Kaen: 08:45 - 08:50 am
Nang Thong: 09:00 - 09:05 am
Bang Niang: 09:10 - 09:15 am
Khuk Khak (on the beach): 09:25 - 09:30 am
Khuk Khak (on the main road): 09:25 - 09:30 am
Pakarang: 09:15 - 09:20 am
Pak Weep: 09:20 - 09:25 am
Bang Sak: 09:15 - 09:20 am
Nam Khem: 09:10 - 09:15 am
Departure from Pakarang Beach: 09:30 - 09:35 am

Sea Chart Wreck

Tec Diving at Sea Chart Wreck

MV Sea Chart was in the process of transporting 1.200 logs of wood in its 3.200 tonnes hold from Burma, heading across the Andaman Sea, down through the Straits of Malacca and then on to its final destination in Vietnam.

However, in August 2009, the bulk-carrier encountered problems not far from Thailand’s coast, where rough seas and severe weather battered the ship, causing multiple leaks in its hull. Water leaked into the engine room and began to sink the vessel. All crew on board the Sea Chart managed to escape on inflatable rafts soon to be rescued by a Thai Navy ship. MV Sea Chart, 84 meters long and 12 meters wide, now rests on her starboard side in 40 meters of water.

This fascinating shipwreck still with cargo aboard and many other original features makes a jaw-dropping dive for wreck divers. A huge amount of marine life has already settled on this wreck. There are lots of Lionfish, a school of huge Batfish, several different unusual nudibranchs, a school of big Rainbow runners, a big old Baracuda, Octopus, Ghost Pipefish, Frogfish and many others.

This is a dive site for more experienced divers and for our deep diver courses.

Itinerary
On request

Wreck Park T-13

On March 22, 2014, the T-13 patrol boat was sunk about 4 kilometers off Khao Lak at La Flora Resort as the first part of a wreck park called Khao Lak Underwater World .
Later, a second patrol boat is to join T-13 and over the years the wreck park is to be supplemented by several used trucks, tanks, train carriages, old aircraft and in a few years even a full-blown warship.

The aim of the project is the creation of a dive site in the immediate vicinity of the beach resorts of Khao Lak, on the one hand, to offer the new dive tourism new excursion possibilities. Furthermore, the experience of the Boonsung Wreck, a tin mining machine sunk in front of White Sand Beach in 1984 and one of Khao Lak's most popular dive sites, shows that steel wrecks in this area are extremely beneficial to underwater fauna.

These wrecks provide perfect breeding and mating conditions for all types of aquatic life - the abundance of fish on the Boonsung Wreck, e.g. far exceeds than at the Similan Islands. Furthermore, several studies on the Boonsung Wreck have shown that the vast majority of them are young, which have perfect growing conditions. Once individuals reach adulthood, they leave the wreck and populate the surrounding sea.

There is also the hope of the local fishing industry that the new wrecks have a positive impact on the fishing grounds of the entire area. In the weeks after the sinking of the ship, therefore, were also several fishing boats at night on site, directed their strong lights, which are actually used for fishing, on the new wreck to lure the underwater life to the wreck. This was the first known case in Khao Lak where fishing boats contributed to the blossoming of a dive site ...

Now the wreck lies at about 12 to 15 meters, the shallowest point is about 8 meters deep - depending on the tides. Due to the close proximity and easy accessibility with our long-tail boat, a trip to the T-13 wreck is possible as a half-day tour. The shallow depth is perfect for beginners' courses, and it also gives experienced divers two neat long dives, as with a surface break (lunch break) of about an hour, enough rest time can be set up for a second 60-minute dive.

Specifications
Name: T-13
Commissioning: 1968
Shipyard: Peterson Builders
Country of origin: USA
Decommissioned: October 19, 2011
Displacement: 130 tons

Itinerary
On request

Pictures: Arandora (Google Album) and Natt (iQ-DIVE Khao Lak)