Rocky Point, also known as North Point, lays north of Similan Island 9 (Koh Ba Ngu) the most northern island of the Similan Islands. This wonderful liveaboard dive site consists of a cluster of huge granite boulders stretched around sandy patches. The holes and swim-throughs at around 20 meters offer lots of places to look for interesting marine life. More towards shore channels, shallower reefs and coral gardens run from east to west. Further north the sandy bottom leads you to a fantastic pinnacle in deeper waters, beautifully covered with soft coral and giant sea fans.
All about the dive
A buoy just 1 kilometer from the island leads you to the main dive site of Rocky Point. You can use this mooring line for descends and safety stops. This huge formation of granite rocks underneath has holes and swim-throughs around 20 meters to discover. To the east and west of the central boulders are smaller rocks in 10-20 meter deep water. A bit more south of the central boulders, a remarkable gigantic granite rock forms a scenic channel from east to west just 5 meters below sea level. A must see! A group of northern boulders extends to below 35 meters.
Rocky Point pinnacle
The Rocky Point Pinnacle lies about 300 meters north from the buoy. This colourful pinnacle is totally covered with soft corals and giant sea fans. The top lies at 35 meters and the slopes fall steeply between 40 to 50 meters. Please take note that on your way to the pinnacle, there is no shelter and currents can be more demanding to swim back. To go this far and deep also means shorter dive time which is regrettable since the rest of the dive site has so much to offer.
Swim through
Rocky Point has everything to be an excellent dive site with its clear water and dive variety. Interesting channels and swim-throughs around the central boulder site at 20 meters to shallow dive time closer to the island at 10-20 meters or deep diving towards the pinnacle up to 50 meters.
Schools of trevally, surgeonfish, fusiliers, goatfish and unicornfish are common at Rocky Point as well as nudibrances, pipefish and cuttlefish. On most occasions Napoleon wrasse can be seen too. The nooks of the rocks hold house to numerous Moray eels but also crabs, lobsters, and shrimps. Sea stars, sea urchins and sea cucumbers are also commonly seen here. A bit further from the rocks, schools of Barracuda hang around worth looking into the blue.
Leopard shark
The sandy bottom at 30 meters is the ideal place for spotting the harmless leopard sharks and whitetip reef sharks but also smaller creatures as goby and shrimps. For the eagle-eyed, stingrays lie buried just under the sand.
More towards the island a large extended shallow reef of hard corals and staghorn follows the shore. This area between 10 – 15 meters gives you more dive time and easy spots for safety stops. Look around for green and hawksbill turtles here between the coral. In general there is more hard coral than anemones at Rocky Point. But the corals are in good condition.
Manta rays
Throughout most of the diving season the deep and exposed location and granite topography of Rocky Point ensure that visibility is excellent. Otherwise the local plankton attracts large filter-feeding giants like manta rays and whale sharks to the site which brings another highlight to the site. They are frequently spotted at Rocky Point as they usually roam the western side of the Similan Islands.
