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21 August 2008   Admin

Beacon Reef or Beacon Beach is the only wreck dive in the Similans as of August 2002 when live aboard the Atlantis 2000 sank here.

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Name divesite: Beacon Beach or Beacon Reef
Depth: 3-33m (9-108ft)
Visibility: 10-60m (32-196ft) and more
Accessibility: Live-aboard, Speedboat
Time to visit: November - April
Specifications: Diving next to a huge vertical wall of coral. This dive has a lot of marine life. This dive site is also perfect for snorkeling.

East of Similan's largest island Koh Similan (often mistakenly spelled Similian Island No8) lays a long beach and parallel reef named after a huge navigational beacon on top of the island. Beacon Reef starts very shallow gradually descending up till eight meters deep; from there she drops down to thirty meters. Anemones, shellfish, several hard coral species creating a brilliant coral garden are some of the characteristics of this reef. Ecologists say that Beacon Reef has more than three hundred different species of hard corals, making it the healthiest reef on the Similans. Look out for bigeye fish that can change their colour from bright red to flat silver. Because of the many sandy patches she is a dive site often done by novice divers as a checkout or night dive sorting out your buoyancy control without destroying some excellent examples of coral.

A local charter boat named Atlantis 2000 sank just east of Beacon Beach in August 2002 and makes a wonderful wreck dive on the Similans. She was a 27 meter long mono-hull wooden live aboard. Its captain tried to bring the boat towards shore but she got stuck on top of the reef. All passengers were brought to shore safely when she started to sink backwards and slipped down on the reef. Up until today she sits there at a depth between 16 and 33 meters waiting for us to take a look at. The wreck hasn't had enough time yet to be overgrown with coral, but as she is sitting on the reef you will meet many of the common coral fish such as batfish, parrotfish and butterfly fish.


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