Dive Review of
Mermaid I in
Burma/Mergui Archipelago+Similan Is

Red Sea, Norway, Turks & Caicos, Cayman Is, Scotland, Ireland, Malta,
Turkey, Tenerife, Mallorca, Florida, Bahamas

Dive Conditions

Time and depth limits; everyone carried a delayed SMB.  

Crew handled UWP equipment carefully; there was always a fresh water bath
available.  No facilities to develop film, but digital photographers could
share their stuff.  

Overall Rating

The best thing about the Mermaid I was the crew . . . very professional,
very responsive, very courteous.  They treated the divers like guests in a
5 Star hotel.  The boat is solid and a very comfortable ride. 
Accommodations were good . . . I stayed in the cheap cabin below deck
(so-so), cabins above deck have windows.  Plenty of hot water; toilets
could use some work.  Food is good and plentiful, but tends to be
repetitive.  Dive staff was very safety conscious and made every effort to
ensure divers got their money's worth on every dive.  The diving went from
very good to absolutely fabulous!  Some currents and low viz might be tough
on novice divers.  Highlights included a Whale Shark at Richelieu Rock,
more Stingrays than we could count on North Twin Plateau, a pair of
Harlequin Shrimp at North Twin Pinnacle, a Spanish Dancer at Western Rocky,
and rescuing a poor Porcupine Fish stuck in a fishing net at Ahtet Kyunni. 
There were Nudis, Scorpionfish, Lionfish all over the place.  This boat
goes from Phuket, Thailand, to Burma and back.  We had dive sites all to
ourselves; scheduled 4 dives per day, including night dives.  PJ provides a
very professional (albeit expensive) UW DVD of the trip, but worth every
Baht; he can find anything 'cuz he knows where to look.  I would go back
again. 

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