rpfitton
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We're going to the Maldives to cruise on th Monsoon. It looks pretty new and was wondering if anyone's been on it?:14:
MV Monsoon Liveaboard
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Here is their website, and it does seem to be a new boat: Tony Backhurst Scuba - Monsoon - Maldives Liveaboard
I left other info for you on the other thread. Click my Username above my pic to see a link to Private Message me if you get lost here. Hint: I have UserCP bookmarked as the page I go to first when I come onto SB.
Hi everyone.
Just got back about 3 weeks ago from the Maldives. My husband, a friend and I did a week on the Monsoon liveaboard and had a really good time. The food was excellent and the crew were competent and very friendly - the dive / safari guides Chris and Petra in particular. We were also fortunate to have a group of people on the boat (many from a BSAC group out of the UK, a few Hungarians and a few Dutch) with whom we got along with very well.
We stayed an extra 24 hours (at no cost - though your meals had to be taken on the island) on the boat before we went home. This was great as they allowed you to dive the house reef whenever you wanted (also at no cost) from the boat. It was also a good opportunity to get to know the crew better without all the rushing around . They really are a kind group of people with wonderful humours (though it takes a little effort to get the more shy ones to open up at first - but no problem for my husband the clown).
The cabins were pretty comfortable and roomy and very quiet except when they were hoisting the anchor in the early hours of the morning - that was okay for me as most days I was already up anyway. The bathrooms were a bit stinky from time to time due to the sewage piping on the boat but it was never at a level that was overly disturbing - anyway I think this smell is just a fact of life on any liveaboard.
The itinerary of the boat takes people through the northern atolls, starting and ending in Llaviyani, going through Baa, Raa, Noonu and back to Llaviyani We never had to share a dive site with another boat, in fact it was rare we saw other human beings at all!!! I had hoped that somehow we could get down to Rasdhoo to do the hammerhead dive but no such luck, it was too far off of their planned route. Oh well we'll have to do that on our next visit...
The safety on the boat was top notch. We were particularly appreciative that Chris and Petra snorkelled and / or went down first on every site to ensure they knew exactly what the currents were doing and how the vis was going to be. Huge thumbs up for these two!!!
The week of our liveaboard was a bit of a bummer due to weather - significant rain, wind and swell (it was October after all). This made it a real challenge for Chris and Petra to find sites with decent visibility and safe diving conditions. This might be the one inherent downside to Monsoon as that, since they are plying relatively unchartered waters, the number of known dive sites is limited. So while people probably never notice this on trips with good weather, we felt the limitations a bit on our trip. For example, we returned to a site twice on 2 different days - a site which wasn't that great after the first 20 minutes (Christmas Tree Rock) - it was very small in size and since we were 21 divers, we ended up on top of each other even though they tried to split the group into four separate groups.
Monsoon has 2 dinghys that you dive from so expect a slightly less graceful reboarding after your dive as you will have to pull yourself into the boat or have some assistance if you don't have the upper body strength. We were fine with it but there were a few people on our trip who seemed to not like this setup. One benefit though of dingys is that you can get from place to place much more quickly than the typical Dhoni boats that the other liveaboards tend to use which aren't towed by the main boat but have to follow behind on their own.
One other minor downside was the Kuredu resort itself, where we had to take our lunch on the first day and lunch, dinner and breakfast on the last day. Food on the island was not very good and we felt overwhelmed with the sheer number of people on the island - the buffet line had a bit of cattle mentality about it. But in the grand scheme of things this is a very minor point as this was only a fraction of our experience.
Overall, given the challenges we had with the weather, it was an outstanding trip with many great memories. The number and variety of smaller fish and corals we saw was unbelieveable and I've never seen so many lionfish, scorpionfish and morays in my life! We saw a manta EVERY day, including a smaller one that was quite friendly at the Kuredu house reef where we started and ended our trip. We saw massive, graceful turtles, and a few sharks (mainly white tip and grey reef - though I have to say I was disappointed with how few we saw on the trip) - Orimas Thila in Noonu was the one site we had for sharks in any numbers.
Highly recommend this liveaboard to anyone. Feel free to send me a quick message on scubaboard if you have any other questions I can help with.
Just got back about 3 weeks ago from the Maldives. My husband, a friend and I did a week on the Monsoon liveaboard and had a really good time. The food was excellent and the crew were competent and very friendly - the dive / safari guides Chris and Petra in particular. We were also fortunate to have a group of people on the boat (many from a BSAC group out of the UK, a few Hungarians and a few Dutch) with whom we got along with very well.
We stayed an extra 24 hours (at no cost - though your meals had to be taken on the island) on the boat before we went home. This was great as they allowed you to dive the house reef whenever you wanted (also at no cost) from the boat. It was also a good opportunity to get to know the crew better without all the rushing around . They really are a kind group of people with wonderful humours (though it takes a little effort to get the more shy ones to open up at first - but no problem for my husband the clown).
The cabins were pretty comfortable and roomy and very quiet except when they were hoisting the anchor in the early hours of the morning - that was okay for me as most days I was already up anyway. The bathrooms were a bit stinky from time to time due to the sewage piping on the boat but it was never at a level that was overly disturbing - anyway I think this smell is just a fact of life on any liveaboard.
The itinerary of the boat takes people through the northern atolls, starting and ending in Llaviyani, going through Baa, Raa, Noonu and back to Llaviyani We never had to share a dive site with another boat, in fact it was rare we saw other human beings at all!!! I had hoped that somehow we could get down to Rasdhoo to do the hammerhead dive but no such luck, it was too far off of their planned route. Oh well we'll have to do that on our next visit...
The safety on the boat was top notch. We were particularly appreciative that Chris and Petra snorkelled and / or went down first on every site to ensure they knew exactly what the currents were doing and how the vis was going to be. Huge thumbs up for these two!!!
The week of our liveaboard was a bit of a bummer due to weather - significant rain, wind and swell (it was October after all). This made it a real challenge for Chris and Petra to find sites with decent visibility and safe diving conditions. This might be the one inherent downside to Monsoon as that, since they are plying relatively unchartered waters, the number of known dive sites is limited. So while people probably never notice this on trips with good weather, we felt the limitations a bit on our trip. For example, we returned to a site twice on 2 different days - a site which wasn't that great after the first 20 minutes (Christmas Tree Rock) - it was very small in size and since we were 21 divers, we ended up on top of each other even though they tried to split the group into four separate groups.
Monsoon has 2 dinghys that you dive from so expect a slightly less graceful reboarding after your dive as you will have to pull yourself into the boat or have some assistance if you don't have the upper body strength. We were fine with it but there were a few people on our trip who seemed to not like this setup. One benefit though of dingys is that you can get from place to place much more quickly than the typical Dhoni boats that the other liveaboards tend to use which aren't towed by the main boat but have to follow behind on their own.
One other minor downside was the Kuredu resort itself, where we had to take our lunch on the first day and lunch, dinner and breakfast on the last day. Food on the island was not very good and we felt overwhelmed with the sheer number of people on the island - the buffet line had a bit of cattle mentality about it. But in the grand scheme of things this is a very minor point as this was only a fraction of our experience.
Overall, given the challenges we had with the weather, it was an outstanding trip with many great memories. The number and variety of smaller fish and corals we saw was unbelieveable and I've never seen so many lionfish, scorpionfish and morays in my life! We saw a manta EVERY day, including a smaller one that was quite friendly at the Kuredu house reef where we started and ended our trip. We saw massive, graceful turtles, and a few sharks (mainly white tip and grey reef - though I have to say I was disappointed with how few we saw on the trip) - Orimas Thila in Noonu was the one site we had for sharks in any numbers.
Highly recommend this liveaboard to anyone. Feel free to send me a quick message on scubaboard if you have any other questions I can help with.
caymaniac
Contributor
What,..........no pictures........;>(
Shadow of the Deep
Registered
Thanks for the report. I am going on a trip end with her of January. Sounds good and I am keen to compare her to the Manthiri.
TimK
Contributor
I too am doing a trip on the Monsoon in late April 2009 with a lady friend from CA. We are also doing 7 nights on the island (Kuredu) since I am coming out of the Iraq war zone and need the hedge against flights not making it out on time. As you all do your trips it would be nice if you could come back in and post reports for those of us following. It would be a real help! Thank you and best of luck on your trips!
whereisthesea
Registered
We are thinking to do the north atolls trip at the mv monsoon live aboard in august, and we would like to know if it is worth the price. Total expenses including flights are 3.200 from Spain.
Maldives Islands Liveaboard - MV Monsoon
On the contrary it could be Maldives central atolls live aboard in a cheaper one.
Waiting your comments.
Thanks in advance.
Maldives Islands Liveaboard - MV Monsoon
On the contrary it could be Maldives central atolls live aboard in a cheaper one.
Waiting your comments.
Thanks in advance.
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