45 nm to the north of Similan lie the remote Surin group and these islands provided our furthest northing in Thailand. Only another 50 miles and we would be in Burma/Myanmar.
Ko Surin Nua and Ko Surin Tai are separated by a narrow and shallow channel of tide worn coral and sand. Strong currents flow around the group but we found an excellent mooring in the eastern bay, near the National Park HQ. Anchoring in the group generally would be quite difficult due to the steep-to walls of coral. NW breeze predominated for our stay. The beaches were stunning of course and the impenetrable jungle came down to the high water mark from the 300+ metre peaks.
The crew of Diomedea swam, snorkelled, and inspected the park campground on the NW side of the island. Tents and bedding are supplied for the tourists but how the bedding was cleaned was not obvious. "Aired" was all we saw. High speed day boats brought new tourists from the mainland every day. Nearby is the so-called sea gypsy village owned by locals. It was difficult not to be cynical about the existence of such things. The only activity seen in relation to the village was the noisy clatter of a dozen long tails coming out each day to take loads of punters for snorkelling trips around the bay. Otherwise these gypsies did nothing - no fishing or distance voyaging or gypsying about. We did not visit the village but were told by others that it was touristy with trinkets for sale etc. We suspect the only folk living in the village were the boat drivers themselves plus a few women to sell the trinkets to the captive tourists.
Living in Buddhist lands one does sometimes lose track of one's own Christian heritage. No Easter eggs for sale anywhere in Thailand is a good example! And so it was that Good Friday came as a surprise, upon Diomedea. It was only for Andrea's smart phone reminders that we twigged. We did not eat fish but swam amongst the many species, including a remarkably large moray eel (The moray being rather more scary than usual as we had just watched the nasty scene in The Borgias when the ruler of Naples is eviscerated by flesh-eating lamprey eels in the pool stocked by Seneca!!) In the evening the sky was clear as the full moon rose, leaving its silvery track off our starboard quarter. Later Orion held his protective sword overhead.
The grand finale occurred the following evening, the 4th with a lunar eclipse lasting some hours as the moon rose in the east. Very auspicious. Time for us to head south.