Koh Tachai Is A Stunning Pinnacle That’s a Favourite Of Many Phuket Diving Instructors
Koh Tachai is a picture postcard tropical island with lush greenery and white sand beaches. Situated 20km north of Koh Bon and the Similan Island National Park. Underwater it’s even more spectacular, huge granite boulders, healthy corals and tonnes of fish.
A couple of mooring buoys is all you will see above the surface. The top of the dome shaped pinnacle is at 12m and falls away to 45m on the deepest side. The site is usually exposed to strong currents so you’ll make your descent and ascent on of the buoy lines. Doing so will safely guide you down to an area of shelter from the current. On the west side you will find large boulders and swim-throughs and on the east there’s gardens of sea whips.
Chevron Barracuda At Koh Tachai Pinnacle
The whole site is covered by many different species of fusiliers. Attracting large giant, golden and bluefin trevally that linger around waiting to smash into the congested schools disorientated by the current. At times like this it can be a spectacular dive without even moving. Just pick a good vantage point, hold onto the nearest rock (not the coral) so you can watch the action.
Cover As Much Of Koh Tachai As You Can
There’s so much to see on this site so you really do need to make the effort of covering as much ground as possible. Where the rocks meet the sand you’ll have a great chance of seeing leopard sharks, blacktip reef sharks and jenkin’s whiprays. Hidden in the small caves and cracks rest large marbled groupers, huge red snappers, zebra, giant and yellow margin morays. Hawksbill turtles can be found munching away in the coral gardens and green turtles sometimes pass through, a surprisingly rare sight underwater considering they can often be seen hanging around the liveaboard boats on the looking for food scraps.
Giant Trevally Cruising Around At Koh Tachai
Had enough yet? We haven’t even got to the best part. As well as a resident school of chevron barracuda, some very big yellowtail barracuda and napoleon wrasse. Koh Tachai is also a favourite haunt for magnificent manta rays and the holy grail of Similan island liveaboards – the majestic whale shark!
