• Dive Level:

  Advanced

• Best Months:

  January-December

• Accessed By:

  Boat

• Maximum Depth:

  35m

• Water Temperature:

  20°C - 28°C

• Currents:

  Strong

Description

The King Cruiser wreck is 85 metres long by 25 metres wide, and has 4 decks with large passages and window holes. The wreck is resting in an upright position on 32 metres, with the captain's cabin the shallowest area at 12 metres. This depth, together with the frequent strong currents and low season rough seas, makes the diving here unsuitable for beginners.

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. Yuk.

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 Mehkong Whiskey in the captain's cabin, so that makes you think a bit. No wonder they couldn't find him after the 'accident'. Hmmmm....

On 32 metres at the stern you can see the twin propellers with lionfish swimming around them and there is normally a nurse shark sleeping in the angle between the sea bed and the open cargo ramp. The toilet area at the rear of the main deck is home to the largest lionfish of any of the local sites. The wreck is home to literally thousands of scorpionfish which are perfectly camouflaged with the rusting steel and barnacles so, if you have to hold on to something, look closely before you touch. Towards the bow, near the wheel house there are 2 frequent visitors to the wreck who seem to delight in intimidating divers as they hang on the line for their safety stop. 1 is an enormous barracude and the other is a large and friendly hawksbill turtle who will nibble your hoses given the chance.

There are huge schools of fish all over the wreck. In fact it's as if the more broken up the wreck becomes, the more fish it attracts. It seems odd that with beautiful homes like Anemone Reef and Shark Point so close by, these fish choose to take sanctuary in a rusting lump of metal, but they do and you'll find the biggest schools of trevally, mackerel and yellowtail barracuda here along with rabbitfish, surgeonfish, fusiliers and other schooling fish.