Maldives, May 2006
We flew into Male', the capital of the Maldives. Male' is just a small Island, probably one of the smallest capital cities in the world. Much of the traffic is water born, water taxis etc. 1/3 of the population of the Maldives lives on Male'. Thats about 75000 people so there is quite a lot squeezed onto a small space. This was my first experience of the Maldives and my choice of holiday was one week live aboard followed by one week shore diving.
We were met at the Airport by our dive boat, the 'Dhoni', a support boat that ferried us out to our live aboard, the "Sea Spirit". It is an original Maldavian boat built of teak. The interior, highly gloss varnished, has first class air conditioned accommodation for 12 divers.
The weeks dive program was discussed and agreed with the 2 dive guides. In summary the weeks plan was to dive the North Male' Atoll, South Male' Atoll then head South to Vaavu Atoll and then the channel between Meemu Atoll. The channels "Kandu" connect the Atolls to the open Ocean which means strong currents but the best place to see large pelagics. My priority was to see Manta Rays and I was not disappointed.
Our first dive was to be that very afternoon. It was on the North Male' Atoll, a steady shakedown dive on a reef with a slight current running. The corals in the Indian Ocean where bleached a few years ago due to a rise in water temperature. They are recovering now especially the soft corals which are brilliantly coloured, mainly in shades of blue and green, a real picture. There were plenty of all the usual reef fish and some large black and honey combed Moray's just hanging about around the corals.
Our next morning dive, nicknamed Manta Point for obvious reasons, is a channel between North and South Male' Atoll. We dropped into a very fast current and after 30 minutes we came across the Mantas as we came back up 16 metres. We had to hook in with a reef hook to keep position. The Mantas where feeding on the reef wall possibly a up welling. They came up the wall close to us, turned over, and went back down and continued in this circle one after the other. I counted nine, others said there was fourteen all large and so graceful. Some had sucker fish on their under bodies. I was so in awe of this wonderful sight that I forgot to use the camera, fortunately some of the others did and you can see photographs elsewhere on this site.
For me the whole trip was worth this one dive, I have seen the odd Manta in the Red Sea but never so close, our 60 minute dive time was soon over unfortunately.
Our next dive was the wreck of the Maldive Victory recently featured in Dive magazine. It is a large freighter that run into the airport runway and sank. The hull and superstructure is all intact and lies in 35 metres to the sea bed. There is good access and it is possible to swim just about anywhere throughout the wreck. We found some old transistor radio's in the bottom of one hold. The masts are still standing and useful for deco stops. Coral is now growing on the hull and superstructure and it is a first class wreck dive.
The rest of the weeks diving was of the same vein, we where privileged to see other large pelagics, Mottled Sting Rays, Eagle Rays, Silver Tip Sharks, Reef Sharks, Black Tips as well as all the usual reef fish and a variety of Morays. One rare fish I was privileged to see was a Leaf fish so well camouflaged in the coral it was almost invisible.
All to soon our weeks live aboard was over. Along with others staying for two weeks, I boarded an air taxi and flew North West for one hundred miles to the Island of Kuredu. The flight over the Atolls was spectacular. On Kuredu Island all types of water sport are available, diving, snorkelling, sailing, sail boarding canoeing and even golf. We dived the house reef and some of the reefs inside the Atoll. Here I noticed the coral was undamaged by the higher water temperatures of a few years ago and have plenty of life on them.
The average water temperature was 29c and at forty metres it was 28c. The diving certainly lived up to my expectation and I would like to do it all over again.
Cliff Glew
We were met at the Airport by our dive boat, the 'Dhoni', a support boat that ferried us out to our live aboard, the "Sea Spirit". It is an original Maldavian boat built of teak. The interior, highly gloss varnished, has first class air conditioned accommodation for 12 divers.
The weeks dive program was discussed and agreed with the 2 dive guides. In summary the weeks plan was to dive the North Male' Atoll, South Male' Atoll then head South to Vaavu Atoll and then the channel between Meemu Atoll. The channels "Kandu" connect the Atolls to the open Ocean which means strong currents but the best place to see large pelagics. My priority was to see Manta Rays and I was not disappointed.
Our first dive was to be that very afternoon. It was on the North Male' Atoll, a steady shakedown dive on a reef with a slight current running. The corals in the Indian Ocean where bleached a few years ago due to a rise in water temperature. They are recovering now especially the soft corals which are brilliantly coloured, mainly in shades of blue and green, a real picture. There were plenty of all the usual reef fish and some large black and honey combed Moray's just hanging about around the corals.
Our next morning dive, nicknamed Manta Point for obvious reasons, is a channel between North and South Male' Atoll. We dropped into a very fast current and after 30 minutes we came across the Mantas as we came back up 16 metres. We had to hook in with a reef hook to keep position. The Mantas where feeding on the reef wall possibly a up welling. They came up the wall close to us, turned over, and went back down and continued in this circle one after the other. I counted nine, others said there was fourteen all large and so graceful. Some had sucker fish on their under bodies. I was so in awe of this wonderful sight that I forgot to use the camera, fortunately some of the others did and you can see photographs elsewhere on this site.
For me the whole trip was worth this one dive, I have seen the odd Manta in the Red Sea but never so close, our 60 minute dive time was soon over unfortunately.
Our next dive was the wreck of the Maldive Victory recently featured in Dive magazine. It is a large freighter that run into the airport runway and sank. The hull and superstructure is all intact and lies in 35 metres to the sea bed. There is good access and it is possible to swim just about anywhere throughout the wreck. We found some old transistor radio's in the bottom of one hold. The masts are still standing and useful for deco stops. Coral is now growing on the hull and superstructure and it is a first class wreck dive.
The rest of the weeks diving was of the same vein, we where privileged to see other large pelagics, Mottled Sting Rays, Eagle Rays, Silver Tip Sharks, Reef Sharks, Black Tips as well as all the usual reef fish and a variety of Morays. One rare fish I was privileged to see was a Leaf fish so well camouflaged in the coral it was almost invisible.
All to soon our weeks live aboard was over. Along with others staying for two weeks, I boarded an air taxi and flew North West for one hundred miles to the Island of Kuredu. The flight over the Atolls was spectacular. On Kuredu Island all types of water sport are available, diving, snorkelling, sailing, sail boarding canoeing and even golf. We dived the house reef and some of the reefs inside the Atoll. Here I noticed the coral was undamaged by the higher water temperatures of a few years ago and have plenty of life on them.
The average water temperature was 29c and at forty metres it was 28c. The diving certainly lived up to my expectation and I would like to do it all over again.
Cliff Glew