The King Cruiser Wreck
Those of us who live here often get frustrated by the little
things that happen. Red tape, language problems, and all sorts
of cultural differences makes for an interesting life; sometimes
good and bad, but sometimes you just want to throw things. Which
of course–culturally–is a bad thing here.
Then the night comes, and you're lying in bed thinking about
the reasons you came here. Suddenly some faint memory bursts forth.
You remember.
For me, it's always the memories of strange events; events so
bizarre and so questionable that you just have to sit up (in bed
or bar) and say “Yes, I remember now! This is my Phuket Purpose!
I remember why I like it!”.
This happened to me last on May 4, 1997.
I remember the King Cruiser well. After spending so much
quality time on this ship traveling back and forth between Phi
Phi and Phuket drinking horrible coffee and eating stale rolls,
I feel some kind of boat bonding. I guess it’s like male
bonding–but harder to explain.
How many of you have happy memories of the wonderful tour guide/announcer
on the King Cruiser, keeping us well informed of the days
events? Well informed–like every three minutes (in three
languages) we heard: “The beautiful, wonderful King Cruiser,
the most glorious ferry boat travel every day to most beautiful
Phi Phi Islands, the most famous Phi Phi Islands, home of delicious
bird nesting and fabulous beach and crystal clear snorkeling time
and the Phi Phi International Resort, the most...”. Well,
it was confusing and irritating at best.
What made me happy on May 4 is that for the previous 10 years,
the Phuket diving community had tried everything to get an artificial
reef program started here (very successful in many places around
the world) and had absolutely no luck. We were blocked at every
level. We were given boats we weren't allowed to sink or asked
to pay duty on boats we wanted to sink. Seriously.
Artificial reefs are good for tourism. They are good for the
environment when sunk correctly. Fish dig ‘em. Now we have
wreck diving in Phuket!
In the end (or the beginning) what happened was the perfect Thai
solution. What happened is the reason I love this country. I'm
going to stay here forever.
This 85 meter-long steel ferry had been on the same route seven
days a week, 365 days a year for the past ten years. She remarkably
managed to hit the only navigational hazard within 25 miles and
created the perfect wreck dive. She sank on a lovely spring day
with no wind, no waves and perfect visibility. No one died. She's
in 32 meters of water and already, after seven months, is attracting
amazing marine life.
At 25 meters, you'll find the engine room and the car deck, a
huge open area. The engine room has been penetrated, but it is
a pretty small place, and still lots of stuff is floating around...
like oil. Yuck.
Moving up to 18 meters you'll find the passenger section which
has the heads, the bar, and lots of tables and chairs. Even though
the ceiling is pretty low, this is safe to penetrate as the doors
are now broken so there's no chance of being caught inside. For
further penetrations, a reel is a must.
At 12 meters lies the captain's cabin and the wheel house. Many
things have unfortunately have been taken as "souvenirs",
such as the wheel and telephone, but it's still a nice view over
the bow of the boat. We did find a nice bottle of Mekong Whiskey
in the captain's cabin, so that makes you think a bit. No wonder
they couldn't find him after the 'accident'. Hmmmm....
The smokestacks are sitting at about 6-7 meters, so a nice place
to hang for your safety stop.
Lots of fish have been attracted to the wreck so far, as well
as eels and zillions of crabs. It's location near to Shark Point
has undoubtedly had something to do with it's rapid population
growth.
It's extremely popular with local and visiting divers alike.
You can do penetration dives. We couldn't have planned it better.
Wow.
You see, in Thailand, it all works out in the end. Thanks captain.
Nice shot. Keep up the good work.
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