Liveaboard Maldives

Am planning a trip to Maldives...in Jan / Feb 2010 and would like to get recommendation on liveaboard and resort. I was recommended to try out MV Sunset Queen which I was informed is new. I would also like to stay 2 - 3 days at a resort just to relax and do nothing.

Welcome feedback and recommendation.

Check other liveaboards as well.
SACHIKA - MALDIVES LIVEABORD
ARI QUEEN MALDIVES LIVEABOARD FOR SCUBA DIVING SURFING CRUISING

Maybe check out

Manthiri Maldives

I have heard good things about it.

Hi June,

Have you thought about where you want to go? Most boats do a route that will take in some of North Male, South Male and Ari Atoll. Others like MV Amba and MV Monsoon go further north away from the crowds (and these involve a seaplane ride). I did the Monsoon trip myself not long ago and they work in conjunction with Kuredu resort so that would be an easy fit for what you are looking for. Here is my trip report.

Hope that helps.

OnTheSpot: Great trip report and timely since I'm considering going at around the same time frame. I think you r recommendation has sold me on the Monsoon. One question about equipment though. I'll need BC and suit(?)... are they available for rental?

June: Maybe I'll see you out there.

Michael

Hi Prestmep

check out the link below for info on Monsoon...

Monsoon | Maldives Liveaboard | Scuba Diving Holiday

i hope that this is helpful

John

Thank you all of you. Information on DiveTheWorld is very useful.

Now have to check if flights are available via Singapore or Kuala Lumpur during mid-Feb 2010.

Prestmep: will let you know which boat...

June, I was last Dec on the Manthiri. It was comfortable boat with a great deck but in the rooms at times the AC was a bit warm at night. The food was 5 stars. All the staff was professional except one. And for that one I would never ever book this boat again. He was the head divemaster. He gave a good briefing but he consistently took us out in VERY strong currents and expected us to hang onto the live corals. (We found few dead ones to hang onto.) It was sad to see what we had done to the reef after he took us on one dive. Morays are aggressive in the Maldives. Several divers got bit but they had gloves on. I don't wear gloves generally as I was trained that way so I would be more careful of not touching live corals. Well one dive in a VERY strong current I had to grab onto the reef and from BEHIND a coral head a moray came out and bit me not once but twice. No gloves of course so I was streaming a bit of green in the water. I swam to this dive master, who was hanging peacefully with his dive hook. (no hooks for the guests) He asked if I was ok. I did not want to make too much of it or maybe I was in shock-- Don't know-- but I stayed down for about 5 minutes more hanging onto some live green corals then decided it was not a good idea to continue this with the blood streaming out. He went up with me and asked to see it. I told him we needed reef hooks if we were going to be in that type of current. He raised his eyebrows and that was the last time he spoke to me about the incident for the final two days on the liveaboard. He told the captain small dive boat that we would dive from to clean it out. That was the last time he approached me. He never checked to see if I wanted to see a doctor ( it probably needed a couple of stitches but we were a bit far from a doc). He never checked during those last two days how I was healing. NADA! I wrote to the company and they said that he was with them for 2 years or so and there had not been any complaints against him so they were not going to do anything about it. His name was Moosa. DON'T GET ON ANY LIVEABOARD WITH HIM!

ah, Moosa, the aggressive morays, the currents, the lack of hooks. All sounds familiar. He did good briefings but they always included a disclaimer that the current might be doing something else, and often it was, and sometimes it was a little nuts what we dove in. I could never figure out if it was him or the nature of the area, or a little of each. We definitely did lots of dives that would have benefited from a reef hook and I'd have brought one if I'd known. (He didn't have one at the time either.) I don't recall that he specifically told people to hang onto live coral or what he said exactly, but there was generally enough dead coral to hang onto and of course that's what people tried to do. Tricky, as there was something living almost everyplace and I quickly learned to watch out for those eels. I've never seen such freaking aggressive eels.

Damselfish:

ah, Moosa, the aggressive morays, the currents, the lack of hooks. All sounds familiar. He did good briefings but they always included a disclaimer that the current might be doing something else, and often it was, and sometimes it was a little nuts what we dove in. I could never figure out if it was him or the nature of the area, or a little of each. We definitely did lots of dives that would have benefited from a reef hook and I'd have brought one if I'd known. (He didn't have one at the time either.) I don't recall that he specifically told people to hang onto live coral or what he said exactly, but there was generally enough dead coral to hang onto and of course that's what people tried to do. Tricky, as there was something living almost everyplace and I quickly learned to watch out for those eels. I've never seen such freaking aggressive eels.

Click to expand...

I have never seen so many eels and so many that were aggressive. The guides on the Manthiri said there were so many because of few predators. I read somewhere on the net that the morays are so aggressive because sharks are fed in the area and the eels have developed this erratic behavior. I wrote to two different shark foundations to see if that indeed was the reason but I have not heard back from either org.