The Big Blue fleet
Our Dive Boats
MV Waverunner
Waverunner is the newest addition to the Big Blue Diving fleet. It was originally designed and built as a dive boat that would bring customers from Koh Samui to Koh Tao for diving day trips. Like all of our dive boats, it was fitted with a steel hull to help the boat be more stable in rough seas.
Waverunner is 24 meters long and 7 meters wide and has three exit points. She has space for over 100 tanks so she can carry a lot of divers. But we like to be comfortable and have space to set up gear on our dive boats, so we rarely ever put more than 60 people on this boat at the same time. The lower deck on Waverunner is the wet deck, where we store tanks and set up gear. It’s spacious, yet efficiently designed, and has a variety of set up spaces to accommodate everyone from beginner students, to divemasters in training, to technical divers. The upper deck is a dry deck designed as the perfect space to relax between dives. It is fitted with fixed tables and benches organized to allow different dive groups to have their own space to conduct dive briefings and debriefings. The dry deck is half-covered providing shaded and sunny areas so that sun-worshipers can get a little tanning time in during surface intervals.
Waverunner has onboard compressors which means that neither our staff or our customers have to carry tanks on and off the boat. This means a more relaxed diving day for you, and it’s a guarantee that our staff will always be in a great mood!
Smoking is allowed on Waverunner (only on the dry deck) but we ask that you be ultra considerate of where you put your cigarette butts. Please dispose of your cigarette butts in one of the provided containers.
MV Enzo
Enzo has been part of the Big Blue Diving fleet for several years. It was originally built to run day trips from Koh Samui to Angthong Marine Park.
Enzo is 20 meters long and 6 meters wide. It has 3 water entry points and an enormous equipment assemble area and dive deck. She has space for 78 tanks so she can carry a lot of divers. But we like to be comfortable and have space to set up gear on our dive boats, so we rarely ever put more than 50 people on this boat at the same time. The lower deck on Enzo is the wet deck, where we store tanks and set up gear. It’s spacious, yet efficiently designed, and has a variety of set up spaces to accommodate everyone from beginner students, to divemasters in training, to technical divers. The middle deck is a dry deck designed as the perfect space to relax between dives. It is fitted with fixed tables and benches organized to allow different dive groups to have their own space to conduct dive briefings and debriefings. The dry deck is completely covered and shaded, providing the perfect spot to relax. We don’t want anyone to wake up from nap on any of our dive boats with lobster skin!
What makes Enzo special is the sundeck above the captain’s cabin. Full-day trips on this boat are especially great since you can kick back on the sundeck after dives and grab a quick nap in the sun.
Enzo has onboard compressors which means that neither our staff or our customers have to carry tanks on and off the boat. This means a more relaxed diving day for you, and it’s a guarantee that our staff will always be in a great mood!
MV Big Blue
Big Blue is the original Big Blue Diving boat from when we first opened back in 1991, so of all of our dive boats, she holds a special place in our hearts. In has the same captain that it had back in those days too!
Big Blue is 16 meters long and 4 meters wide. It has one exit point, right off the back of the boat, and has enough space for a maximum of 13 divers. But if we’ve got people on the boat doing sidemount diving, or decompression diving, we’ll never fully load the boat to make sure they have the space they need for their gear setups. There’s just one deck on this boat. The back section is the gear assembly area and dive deck, and the front section is a large open area perfect for dive briefings. Big Blue even has a sundeck above the captain’s cabin.
There is no compressor onboard Big Blue and at first that sounds like a bad thing. But when you rock up to a dive site and the captain turns the boat off, you’ll realize why this is actually a GREAT thing.
After years of taking recreational diving students and fun divers out to the dive sites around the island, Big Blue is now a dedicated boat for our technical divers. Managed by our technical team, this boat follows it’s own schedule so that it’s divers have maximum flexibility to conduct dives with varying complexities.
Smoking is NOT allowed on Big Blue. Since Big Blue is a tech diving boat, there can be a mix of gases on board that can be explosive. Since it is a single-deck boat, we do not allow smoking simply for safety reasons.
Our Shuttle boats
Big Blue Diving is definitely right on Sairee Beach, but there’s no pier out front of our resort, and our boats are too big to come right up to shore. So when you come diving with us the first Big Blue boat you’ll meet will be one of our longtail dive boats. We have two of them and each one can hold up to 20 divers. When your dive trip is ready to leave, you’ll hop on to one of them and they’ll zip you out to the big boat you’ll be taking. And after you’re all done with diving and the big boat has returned to Sairee Bay, our shuttle boats will be there waiting for you, ready to zip you back to shore.
Things You Should Know
Boats are very important in Thai culture and there are certain rules that you need to know and follow while you’re on board any of our dive boats. The captain lives on the boat. The captain’s cabin is his home. You should never enter the captain’s cabin without his expressed permission.
In Thailand, boats are blessed by monks to ensure they have safe passage over the water. The bow of the boat is the area the monks bless, and it is called Buddha Point. It’s easily recognized by the decorations (usually ribbons and fake flowers). This is a sacred area on the boat. You should not wander into this area, nor should you sit in front of it with the soles of your feet facing in it’s direction. This is considered extremely rude and the captain will not be too pleased.
All of our dive boats are outfitted with toilets, but they are marine toilets. That means that anything that goes into them gets flushed out into the ocean. Keep that in mind while you’re using them and if possible, wait until the boat is moving and off a dive site before you use them.
When the ladder on the boat is down you are allowed to jump off the boat and enjoy the water. But when the boat crew pulls the ladders up that means the boat is about to start moving. Never jump into the water when the ladders are up.
We keep our dive boats in tip-top shape. That’s why we sent each of our boats to Chumphon and into dry dock once a year for a complete check and maintenance schedule. We check to make sure everything is running properly, efficiently, and in a way that does not harm the waters in which we work. The engine and compressors are checked and maintained to make sure we get you to the dive sites you want to see and can provide clean, safe air for your dives when you get there.
All of our dive boats are equipped with regularly checked and restocked medical kits, as well as 100% oxygen so that we can start dealing with diving emergencies (if they happen) right away, right on the boat. All of our oxygen tanks are checked every week on Fridays by our divemaster staff.
