Phuket COVID-19 Inevitable Temporary Closure
Sadly but inevitably we ran our boat for the last time yesterday. We will be back but certainly for the near future we will be suspending services until further notice. Thanks so much to our many guests so far this year. Because of you we are in a strong position to be able to resume services with the same fantastic team when doomsday has been cancelled.
All of our staff are healthy at present and following government advice on social distancing. Tony did give us a bit of a scare but he was quickly given the all clear.
In truth we’ve been living in a bit of a bubble in Phuket. There were very few COVID-19 cases in Phuket and Thailand in general. Tourists were still enjoying the diving around Phuket. Cases have now started to appear and for guest and staff safety we decided to stop running. Now all entertainment, tourist attractions, swimming pools, restaurants and bars have been closed until at least mid April.
It has been a fantastic season with lots of whale shark, leopard shark, jenkins whip rays and giant guitarfish sightings, we think due to the slightly cooler water this year. We haven’t lost any of our usual sightings and the schools of fish seem to get bigger by the day.
jenkins whipray on homerun reef
A Nice Day To Finish On
With the closure of Phi Phi National park we diverted to Racha Yai for three very pleasant dives. We managed to get to the east side and dive Bay 1, Lucy’s Reef and Homerun Reef. We had jenkins whip rays at Bay 1 and Homerun, eagle rays at Homerun and one group were lucky enough to see a giant guitarfish at Lucy’s Reef. The hunt for the harlequin shrimp on the harruby wreck ended in abject failure but there was lots batfish hanging around. Annoyingly, the poor visibility that has been with us lately had started clearing.
born searching for harlequin shrimp
Moving Forward
In truth there’s very little we can do right now. Some of our boat crew will be making MV Kepsub home for a while, maintaining, painting and doubling as security guards. The office staff still have work to do but our dive staff will be sat at home hoping we can go out again soon.
We’d Very Much Appreciate Your Help
There will be plenty of you self isolating right now either voluntarily or forced. So maybe it’s an opportunity to write that nice TripAdvisor or google map review that you haven’t had time for. Even if you’ve already reviewed us, if you’ve returned then please write another. Of course if you didn’t enjoy your time with us, please continue to not have the time.
Booking in advance would be greatly appreciated. Anyone who has dived with us know that we don’t ask for deposits unless in exceptional circumstances. We’re not going to change that.Advanced booking for next season will give our staff a much needed morale boost and confirm that there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Read and share our blog and social media posts. We already have a lot of blog posts that you probably haven’t read. So now would be a good time to have a look. Alleviating your own boredom and helping us. Have a browse of our website, if there’s information that you feel is inaccurate or needs clarification then please let us know.
What We Can Do For You
We’ll keep you updated as much as we can. Special offers for next seasons liveaboards are already available and we’ll have the options ready for next week. We’ll keep posting on social media and publishing blog posts. Posting some nice pictures and generally keeping you up to date with what’s happening in Phuket.
If there’s anything specific you would like to know about Phuket, please feel free to send an email. It doesn’t have to be booking or dive related, we’re always happy to answer our guests queries.
So again, thanks very much for diving with us and we hope to see you back on our boat in the very near future.
By Justin Hartrey
Posted in News & Updates on .
