Diving Maamigili Beyru

[Dan]

Diving Maamigili Beyru, South Ari Atoll, Maldives on 28 Dec, 2023 with Blue Horizon III. Saw Giant Moray, Whitetip Shark, Coral Hogfish (Jv), Sabre Squirrelfish, Big-scale Squirrelfish, Phantom Butterflyfish, Oriental Sweetlips, Many spot Sweetlips, urge Grouper, Hexagon Grouper, Hawksbill Turtle, schooling Blueline Snapper and WHALESHARK at safety stop.

 

[JustSurfaceInterval]

Looks great!
Our countdown is runnning 1 digit.. Hence the question: how is the weather?

 

[Dan]

It’s nice (flat sea like in a lake) on 17-24 Dec trip on Maldives Aggressor 2 trip. We made 19 dives.

Not so nice on 24-31 Dec trip on Blue Horizon 3 trip. Choppy, raining a lot, so-so vis, missing 4 out of 18 planned dives. One engine caput when we were in South Ari Atoll (fire alarm went off to tell the crews that there was something wrong. I grab life jacket but only 3, including me, out of 22 guests, who took the alarm seriously, the rest of the folks were just did their own things as if it was a false alarm). Hence, cancelled cruising to Vaavu Atoll & hid out in a harbor near the airport not too far from Maamigiri and did a another day of diving there. Then cruising back to Male (for 10 hours) with 1 engine. Did just one dive that last dive day, Saturday, the 30th to make sure I have time to drive my gears. But the rain was relentless till the morning of departure day. I packed up my damped gears. Now I’m on my way home from Frankfurt to Houston with 7.5 hours to go. Writing this on the plane using United WiFi ($28 for 12 hour WiFi access).

I hope they fix the broken engine before cruising out on the next trip. Otherwise the next guests would have the same bad luck like us. It’s an old & tired boat. Some power outlets are not working. I tried to use their TV monitor to share my videos to other dive buddies, but not possible due to the power outlet was out of commission.

May a better weather be with you!

 

[JustSurfaceInterval]

Thanks for coming back - enjoy your flight!