| Distance | 18
Miles |  |
| Boat
Trip | 90 minutes | | Diving
Depth | 6-30 m. (20-100 ft) | | Visibility | fair
to good | | Currents | moderate |
| Surface
Conditions | can be rough |
| Diver
Level | beginners with Divemaster. |
| | |
On the 4th of May 1997 the 85-meter passenger ferry
'King Cruiser' on a routine run to the Phi-Phi Islands made history by straying
several miles off course and hitting the Anemone Reef. With a huge hole ripped
in her hull the ship went down in less than an hour. The absolutely ideal weather
conditions at the time of the accident no doubt greatly aided the rescue efforts
and fortunately the several hundred passengers (mostly tourists) and crew on board
at the time all managed to escape to safety. Most of the
passengers on board that day may have preferred not to participate in this little
drama, but surviving a ship-wreck would certainly be an unforgetable experience
and make for an unusual and exciting travel story to tell the folks about back
home. Any passenger or crewman who may have wanted to congratulate the captain
of the vessel for his creative navigational skills, or to thank him for stopping
the boat so everyone could enjoy a swim would have been sadly disappointed as
he had already fled the scene. If the Phuket dive scene
had been previously lacking in anything it was a decent ship-wreck for divers
to explore. This unplanned addition to Anemone Reef has become one of the most
popular dive-sites around Phuket. Not only is the wreck located near an already
popular dive-site but it is positioned almost perfectly at a depth between 12
and 30 meters. With it's multiple decks and spacious open areas the King Cruiser
wreck is providing sheltered living quarters for large numbers of fish and crabs.
Over time it will become an even better dive-site as it takes on a patina of age,
and becomes encrusted with a variety of colorful corals.
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