Racha Yai

It is the destination for all our first dives, and Level 1 Open Water Diver because the conditions and typography of the sites offer an ideal environment for learning and discovering scuba diving. There are around ten dive sites around Racha Yai Island, but we generally dive on 5 or 6 which offer the best conditions and the most diverse marine life.

There are 4 wrecks on the east coast of the island at Home Run, Bay 1 and 2, the most popular is the “Haruby” wreck, a former cruise ship dismantled especially to make a wreck for divers. The second, located just next to the previous one, is an old wooden fishing boat, there is not much left of it but having been sitting at 28m for more than 10 years, an interesting marine life has found refuge there. The third wreck is a speed boat which is completely stuck in the sand between bay 1 and Home run. There is a very small part that comes out of the sand but the marine life is quite dense there, which offers a magnificent spectacle and beautiful photos. The last wreck is very recent, it is a piece of cargo ship which sank during a storm in 2015 on the island of “coral”, and which was cut up and transported between bay 1 and 2. the wreck is at 25-27 meters, a good dive to do with Nitrox (Enriched air) to be able to reach the two other wrecks.

The reefs having been damaged during the Tsunami of 2004 and also because of global warming which caused a complete bleaching of the coral over more than a month in 2009, a large part of the reef disappeared and in particular all the “horn of the horn deer” ” corals of the Acropora species which covered the white sand over large areas and provided shelter for many fish. For this reason it was decided to set up artificial reefs with cement structures of various shapes, cubes on the east coast were stacked near the wrecks, jars pierced in Bungalow bay were arranged alternating with cubes then statues in Siam Bay. These reefs are unfortunately difficult to colonize with corals but still attract many small species of fish which find refuge there.

All other sites are coral reefs mainly made of hard corals, varying between 5m and 20m on a white sand bottom.

Marine Life at Racha Yai

The fauna is quite diverse although not in large numbers there is a multitude of different species on this destination, enough to satisfy a good number of beginner divers. The dominance are the most common reef fish like damsels, parrotfish, butterflies, also various varieties of boxfish. There are easily 6 different species of moray eels, with obviously the Javan moray eel (Gymnothorax Favageneus) the largest, golden-tailed moray eel (Gymnothorax Flavimarginatus), striped-finned moray eel (Gymnothorax Zonipectis) smaller than the two previous ones, fringed moray eel ( Gymnothorax Fimbriatus) with its magnificent yellow color, also very common in the sand the snowflake moray eel (Echidna Nebulosa) and the much shyer zebra moray eel (Gymnomurena Zebra) it often hides in rocks and is very difficult to see.
There are also numerous species of venomous lion fish (Pterois) and scorpion fish (Rhinopias), which hide in corals or rocks, remain motionless and camouflage themselves.

In the sand you can come across small blue-spotted stingrays (Taeniura Lymma), particularly on the northern sites of Bungalow Bay. On the “haruby” wreck there are often schools of Platax and it is not uncommon to come across a school of black-tailed barracuda (Sphyraena Queni).

Photo Gallery

Map & Site Characteristics – Bungalow Bay

Depth: 8-20 meters

Current: ✩ Low

Marine Life: ✩✩

Map & Site Characteristics – Homerun Reef

Depth: 8-24 meters

Current: ✩ Low-moderate

Marine Life: ✩✩

Map & Site Characteristics – Bay 1 & 2

Depth: 8-28 meters

Current: ✩ Low

Marine Life: ✩✩

Diving at Racha Yai

The choice of dive sites each day is the decision of the responsible Diving Manager on board the boat and is based on weather conditions, currents, visibility and the different diving groups on board. We cannot guarantee dive sites before departure.

2 Dives at Racha Noi & Yai
3 Dives at Racha Noi & Yai