mrrworld
Contributor
Just got back from a one-week liveaboard in the Maldives, which was fantastic. Nothing new for those who have already been but for those considering going there, its definitely worth the effort/cost.
Heres my trip report:
My wife and I dove July 3 10 with Island Safari II (more on the boat later). We had ok weather, rained a few times at night but never during the day but most days were windy and cloudy so we never had that great sunny diving day. Conditions at the surface were somewhat choppy but I was always able to protect my back and gear up in the water. Below, we never experienced the famous Maldivian ripping currents but almost every dive had some sort of current resulting in a nice slow drift with little effort required. A few dives early in the week had some tricky currents but nothing we all couldnt handle. Vis was good but I dont think this was the time of year for the great vis you read about in the Maldives. Id say it was 40-60 feet on most dives with a few less than that. (For the record, I am usually on the short side of vis estimates, blaming other divers for vis grade inflation! So others may think the vis was much more.)
We did three dives a day, which was fine, I guess. On one hand, there is nothing to do but dive so four a day would have been possible but I have to admit that I was not nearly as wiped out as I have been on other liveaboards after doing 4-5 per day. No night dives which was disappointing. I asked to do some but got the usual Asian its possible vague answer which really meant no without saying no. Not sure what the problem was and if I was the only one on the boat pushing for it but the dive guides didnt seem interested in doing them at all.
Dives were limited to 45 minutes a dive. This is one of my pet peeves with diving. I understand safety, etc. but with computers, I think we can be a little more aggressive. I was coming up with 1/3 to ½ a tank of air so a few extra minutes of bottom time wouldnt have hurt as I was never close to hitting my deco limits. (I use a Suunto computer which is fairly conservative.)
We took the normal route, I think, hitting the north and south male atolls and the north and south ari atolls. Of the 16 dives, I think we saw sharks on every dive but one or two. Mainly white tip and reef sharks but one dive had silver tips. Saw one whale shark while diving (none between dives although not for lack of searching), two dives had manta rays, several had eagle rays including the last dive of the day where we saw 17, I think we saw napoleon wrasse on practically every dive, one bigger than the next, too many morays to keep track of, too many tunas and trevallys to count, and turtles on several dives. One blue water dive resulted in seeing a hammerhead but it was too far in the distance to say we actually saw it. My quest to see a hammerhead continues. For more details on specific dives, see below. I am an accidental photographer (on land and below) but here are some pictures of the trip.
Picasa Web Albums - Michael
The Island Safari II was fine. We chose it for no other reason than it fit our schedule. This is my fifth liveaboard but first pricey one so not sure I have much to compare it to. The boat holds 22 divers but we were only 13 so there was plenty of room. I think even with 22 the boat would be fine but the dhoni may be a little tight. Food was fine, nothing great. Breakfast was the worst meal but lunch and dinner always had several veg and non-veg selections so there was always something good to eat. Rooms were nice, fairly big with enough space to store your gear bags, etc. The rooms may be a little crowded if you put 3-4 in a room, however. Crew was nice, a little bit of a language barrier but they were helpful, service oriented, etc. Our dive guide did a good job, wasnt big on pointing out small things but I guess no one is in the Maldives to see nudibranches. The Island Safari II caters to Japanese groups (my wife and I were the only non-Japanese divers) so if you are going alone, it could be a quiet week unless the Japanese speak another language. I wouldnt say this was a negative but I enjoyed meeting other divers on my other liveaboards, which didnt happen on this one due to the language barrier. Fortunately, my wife and I get along!
The Island Safari I (older, slightly smaller, somewhat cheaper), however, caters to Europeans.
My only real complaint with the boat was the first day when we did no diving. The Japanese group did not arrive until the evening of the first day so we sat by the airport all day doing nothing. You pay good money for each day so it seems to me there should be a requirement that all guests must arrive the night before or by a certain time during the first day so that you can at least get in one dive and start moving away from the airport. Maybe this is standard practice in the Maldives but it doesnt seem right.
For the dives:
1. Banana Reef not too far from the airport. Very nice dive with lots of ledges, about an 80 foot wall, and lots of fish life
2. Rasfari Outer Reef kind of a cool dive as we dove above the reefs, kind of like an aerial view of the reefs. Lots of fish life including several napolean wrasse, barracuda. Highlight was one smaller reef was surrounded by 20-30 titan trigger fish, seemingly perfectly spaced, as if they were guarding the reef.
3. Rashdoo Madivari we jump in the water and immediately are staring at two whitetips. Lots of predators like sharks, trevallys, tunas, etc.
4. Rashdoo Madivari out in the open looking for hammerheads.
5. Fish Head some big groupers on this dive
6. Lhamariyugaa Thila great start with lots of sharks but dive was so so
7. Reethi Thila think this was my favorite dive. Two big school of barracuda at the beginning, one that seemed to follow us for the first 10 minutes. Parade of sharks throughout the dive including silver tip sharks. 8 devil rays in a pack and than a really big school of barracuda at the end of the dive. Reef was in great condition, lots of deep ledges to explore, big fan coral.
8/9. Maamigih Out and Dhigurah Out these were probably the two worst dives as not much going on. During the surface interval, we were looking for whale sharks so the dive sites chosen were not that good. On probably in the minority here but I rather do great dive sites with slim chance of seeing whale sharks than average sites with a better chance of seeing a whale shark. Did see a sail fish from the boat between the dives.
10. Forgot to record the name of this dive but it was the first time we saw a manta ray.
11. Dhidoo Out about 5 minutes into the dive saw a whale shark at about 100 feet, going very slow so easy to fin with it. Was close enough to touch it. About 15-20 feet long so not a real big one but still very cool.
12. Dhigurah Arches Lot of ledges which I always liked. Saw a couple of marble ray. Deep inside one ledge were two gigantic moray eels, like something out of the move The Deep.
13. Vilamandhoo Thila - saw a spotted eagle ray during the descent and then a smaller one at the end of the dive. Saw lots of sharks.
14. Vaagali Caves Only dive I saw lobster but otherwise a typical Maldivian dive.
15. Lankan Outside this is a manta ray cleaning station and it did not disappoint as two or three came by. One seemed to like the bubbles or liked to be photographed as it practically sat on our heads for about 10 minutes. With about 10 minutes to go, my guide and I left the group to check out the reef. I think it would be a good site to explore. During our safety stop, a very big manta came right up and circled around us and then took off. Very cool.
16. Back Faru last dive of the day and we saw 17 spotted eagle rays, usually in groups of four. In one group, one of the eagle rays left and came right at us, swam around us for a few minutes and then returned to the other four. It was weird but great.
Heres my trip report:
My wife and I dove July 3 10 with Island Safari II (more on the boat later). We had ok weather, rained a few times at night but never during the day but most days were windy and cloudy so we never had that great sunny diving day. Conditions at the surface were somewhat choppy but I was always able to protect my back and gear up in the water. Below, we never experienced the famous Maldivian ripping currents but almost every dive had some sort of current resulting in a nice slow drift with little effort required. A few dives early in the week had some tricky currents but nothing we all couldnt handle. Vis was good but I dont think this was the time of year for the great vis you read about in the Maldives. Id say it was 40-60 feet on most dives with a few less than that. (For the record, I am usually on the short side of vis estimates, blaming other divers for vis grade inflation! So others may think the vis was much more.)
We did three dives a day, which was fine, I guess. On one hand, there is nothing to do but dive so four a day would have been possible but I have to admit that I was not nearly as wiped out as I have been on other liveaboards after doing 4-5 per day. No night dives which was disappointing. I asked to do some but got the usual Asian its possible vague answer which really meant no without saying no. Not sure what the problem was and if I was the only one on the boat pushing for it but the dive guides didnt seem interested in doing them at all.
Dives were limited to 45 minutes a dive. This is one of my pet peeves with diving. I understand safety, etc. but with computers, I think we can be a little more aggressive. I was coming up with 1/3 to ½ a tank of air so a few extra minutes of bottom time wouldnt have hurt as I was never close to hitting my deco limits. (I use a Suunto computer which is fairly conservative.)
We took the normal route, I think, hitting the north and south male atolls and the north and south ari atolls. Of the 16 dives, I think we saw sharks on every dive but one or two. Mainly white tip and reef sharks but one dive had silver tips. Saw one whale shark while diving (none between dives although not for lack of searching), two dives had manta rays, several had eagle rays including the last dive of the day where we saw 17, I think we saw napoleon wrasse on practically every dive, one bigger than the next, too many morays to keep track of, too many tunas and trevallys to count, and turtles on several dives. One blue water dive resulted in seeing a hammerhead but it was too far in the distance to say we actually saw it. My quest to see a hammerhead continues. For more details on specific dives, see below. I am an accidental photographer (on land and below) but here are some pictures of the trip.
Picasa Web Albums - Michael
The Island Safari II was fine. We chose it for no other reason than it fit our schedule. This is my fifth liveaboard but first pricey one so not sure I have much to compare it to. The boat holds 22 divers but we were only 13 so there was plenty of room. I think even with 22 the boat would be fine but the dhoni may be a little tight. Food was fine, nothing great. Breakfast was the worst meal but lunch and dinner always had several veg and non-veg selections so there was always something good to eat. Rooms were nice, fairly big with enough space to store your gear bags, etc. The rooms may be a little crowded if you put 3-4 in a room, however. Crew was nice, a little bit of a language barrier but they were helpful, service oriented, etc. Our dive guide did a good job, wasnt big on pointing out small things but I guess no one is in the Maldives to see nudibranches. The Island Safari II caters to Japanese groups (my wife and I were the only non-Japanese divers) so if you are going alone, it could be a quiet week unless the Japanese speak another language. I wouldnt say this was a negative but I enjoyed meeting other divers on my other liveaboards, which didnt happen on this one due to the language barrier. Fortunately, my wife and I get along!
The Island Safari I (older, slightly smaller, somewhat cheaper), however, caters to Europeans.My only real complaint with the boat was the first day when we did no diving. The Japanese group did not arrive until the evening of the first day so we sat by the airport all day doing nothing. You pay good money for each day so it seems to me there should be a requirement that all guests must arrive the night before or by a certain time during the first day so that you can at least get in one dive and start moving away from the airport. Maybe this is standard practice in the Maldives but it doesnt seem right.
For the dives:
1. Banana Reef not too far from the airport. Very nice dive with lots of ledges, about an 80 foot wall, and lots of fish life
2. Rasfari Outer Reef kind of a cool dive as we dove above the reefs, kind of like an aerial view of the reefs. Lots of fish life including several napolean wrasse, barracuda. Highlight was one smaller reef was surrounded by 20-30 titan trigger fish, seemingly perfectly spaced, as if they were guarding the reef.
3. Rashdoo Madivari we jump in the water and immediately are staring at two whitetips. Lots of predators like sharks, trevallys, tunas, etc.
4. Rashdoo Madivari out in the open looking for hammerheads.
5. Fish Head some big groupers on this dive
6. Lhamariyugaa Thila great start with lots of sharks but dive was so so
7. Reethi Thila think this was my favorite dive. Two big school of barracuda at the beginning, one that seemed to follow us for the first 10 minutes. Parade of sharks throughout the dive including silver tip sharks. 8 devil rays in a pack and than a really big school of barracuda at the end of the dive. Reef was in great condition, lots of deep ledges to explore, big fan coral.
8/9. Maamigih Out and Dhigurah Out these were probably the two worst dives as not much going on. During the surface interval, we were looking for whale sharks so the dive sites chosen were not that good. On probably in the minority here but I rather do great dive sites with slim chance of seeing whale sharks than average sites with a better chance of seeing a whale shark. Did see a sail fish from the boat between the dives.
10. Forgot to record the name of this dive but it was the first time we saw a manta ray.
11. Dhidoo Out about 5 minutes into the dive saw a whale shark at about 100 feet, going very slow so easy to fin with it. Was close enough to touch it. About 15-20 feet long so not a real big one but still very cool.
12. Dhigurah Arches Lot of ledges which I always liked. Saw a couple of marble ray. Deep inside one ledge were two gigantic moray eels, like something out of the move The Deep.
13. Vilamandhoo Thila - saw a spotted eagle ray during the descent and then a smaller one at the end of the dive. Saw lots of sharks.
14. Vaagali Caves Only dive I saw lobster but otherwise a typical Maldivian dive.
15. Lankan Outside this is a manta ray cleaning station and it did not disappoint as two or three came by. One seemed to like the bubbles or liked to be photographed as it practically sat on our heads for about 10 minutes. With about 10 minutes to go, my guide and I left the group to check out the reef. I think it would be a good site to explore. During our safety stop, a very big manta came right up and circled around us and then took off. Very cool.
16. Back Faru last dive of the day and we saw 17 spotted eagle rays, usually in groups of four. In one group, one of the eagle rays left and came right at us, swam around us for a few minutes and then returned to the other four. It was weird but great.
