Mantastic Maldives
Maldives and Dubai
Seminole Scuba
Sept 29th – October 16th, 2021
Captain Hassan and Assistant Captain Mohamed
Dive Guides: Albert, Alson, and Thithi
Dhoni Crew: Rayhan
Total Dives: 27 Total Dive Time: 26 hours and 3 minutes
Malé
We arrived in Malé, after a very long flight and an overnight layover in Dubai, checked into our hotel and finally exhaled a sigh of release as we managed to make it across the globe, test negative, and not miss any connections along the way.
Our time in Malé before boarding out boat was brief but busy. We went on a walking tour of the main island where we saw the open air markets, the fish markets, and several mosques around the area. After day in Malé we got on the boat and set sail in the Indian Ocean.
The Boat
The Blue Voyager caters to 26 guests with 16 crewmembers. There are 10 classic double cabins and 3 premium cabins each with en-suite bathrooms, individually controlled AC units, entertainment system, towels, storage space and TV. The indoor dining room is located on the mid-deck where meals and snacks are served.
Multiple lounging and socializing areas located around the boat, including four different sun decks, a viewing deck located at the front of both the mid deck and upper deck, and an open air deck on the top deck. There is also a unique ‘Ocean Deck’ that allows divers to relax close to the water in the evening for manta & whale shark sightings. The mid-deck also hosts a camera staging area with outlets and cubbies for storage.
Dives were conducted from a separate 62’ diving dhoni, the Blue Shadow. The Dhoni has plenty of space for divers and gear without being crowded or having to move gear back and forth from a zodiac.
The Dives
All dives were maximum depth of 30 meters and bottom time of 60 minutes per Maldivian law. Mostly drift/hooking dives. Due to strong currents, we would attach ourselves to the bottom via a reef hook in rocks to avoid wasting air and damaging the environment by grabbing on to anything kneeling on anything. Some sites it was possible to hover without the need to ‘hook in’.
North Malé Atoll
Lankan Manta Point
68’ for 45 minutes
Manta cleaning station dive. Several mantas showed up, was good easy first dive of the trip. Gentle slowing bottom with several large rock outcroppings to observe mantas from behind.
Rasfari North Corner
74’ for 41 minutes
The northern edge of the atoll, variety of soft corals and anemones. This dive did not include any large marine life and strong currents.
North Ari Atoll
Rasdhoo Madivaru
77’ for 52 minutes, 81’ for 64 minutes, 82’ for 48 minutes
A bowl shaped dive site with a 30m hole in the center of it with a flat sandy bottom. The site was protected and had limited currents which allowed for more smaller creatures and nudibranchs but no bigger animals.
Kuramathi House Reef
75’ for 63 minutes
House reef for Kuramathi resort. Typical house reef, easy dive with variety of corals and smaller animals.
Maaya Thila
72’ for 61 minutes
The first thila of many. 10m to 40m+ thila had sharks, turtles and a variety of life swimming around it. There were many out croppings and over hangs that gave hiding spots for lionfish.
Fesdu Wreck
100’ for 54 minutes
Accidental wreck of a small cargo ship sitting upright in 27-31m deep water. The wheelhouse at 24m is covered in corals mainly gorgonian and soft corals. There is no good space for penetration on the wreck, the propeller of the wreck have both gone missing. The wreck is located next to a small thila which was the cause of the wreck.
Nohohalha Thila
74’ for 54 minutes
Nohohalha means cave, but there is no cave on this thila, however it does have a few overhangs. Mostly flat but at 15m there is a small rising that comes up in the middle of the thila that goes up to about 10m in the very center of the thila.
Fesdu Lagoon
51’ for 57 minutes
Campfire style night dive. The bottom was a light sand, so visibility wasn’t super great as everyone descended down to the bottom. This was not helped by the mantas coming and disturbing the bottom, or the asshole stingray who kept running over the lights and knocking them over. Were a couple of mantas, but not a ton. Someone dropped their reel into the mess of divers as we were ascending which was…an adventure.
Fish Head Thila
91’ for 62 minutes
Back in the day used fish heads to fish for sharks until sharks were protected, and fishing for sharks was a banned. Good amount of sharks, mostly juveniles, lots of other large groups of schooling fish. Long stretches of time without any mantas. Made friends with a hermit crab.
Mahibadahoo Rock
52’ for 76 minutes
Manta cleaning station, of the west coast of Mahibadahoo Island. Decent manta , had a couple that came and went but were pretty sporadic but had two at a time when they were there.
Lilly Manta Point
65’ for 70 minutes
Manta cleaning station. Lilly Beach resort, aka camel rock aka turtle rock, sandy channel with lots of glass fish and rock with cleaning station. In the middle of valley of thilas, occasionally ghost pipe fish can be found.
Madivaru
84’ for 56 minutes
Reef near resort, can have very strong currents. Whale sharks are often seen in this area. Several turtles on this dive, who could have cared less about us as they were demolishing a sponge.
Sun Island Beyru
63’ for 60 minutes
Whale sharks! A hot chaotic mess of a dive, complete with lost buddies, dive bombing snorkelers and people nearly being bitch slapped by a whale shark. Fun times!
Lux Beyru
58’ for 61 minutes
Dive site is located outside of Lux Resort, whale sharks are possible outside of the reef.
Kudarah Thila
88’ for 52 minutes, 85’ for 41 minutes
Usually strong southeast currents. Lots of gorgonians corals, batfish, plenty of schooling fish, swim throughs, and healthy corals.
Felidhe Atoll
This was generally the wrong season for diving at this atoll. Normally, currents, during other times of the year, come into the atolls pulling in nutrients and life, but now the currents pull sand and everything out, reducing visibility and conditions.
Alimathaa Resort
41’ for 60 minutes
Channel diving between two islands. Sharks. Lots and lots of sharks. Mainly tawney nurse sharks and grey reef sharks. The site is famous due to the sharks, which are brought in because the resorts will feed them. Made an octopus friend who pretended to be a rock.
Miyaru Kandu
99’ for 60 minutes
Shark channel in Maldivian, a very wide channel, and very few sharks on the dive. Mainly macro creatures, shrimp, boxer crabs, and lionfish.
South Malé Atoll
Hathikolhu
85’ for 66 minutes
Corner of channel and ocean, diving the channel is better. At the edge, near the corner, lots of macro, ribbon eels in ~25m ghost pipes, leaf fish, yellow mouth moray,
Lhosfushi/Medhu Faru
74’ for 58 minutes
A narrow channel dive, that was pretty similar to the site Hathikolhu. The corner or the reef is generally best spot to hook in and observe.
Heart Thila
60’ for 49 minutes
Night dive! This thila is not actually shaped like a heart but a tall flat thila. Usually, there is minimal current. Lots of bloodworms and night creatures during the dive.
KandoomaThila
103’ for 54 minutes
Usually very strong currents, lots of schooling sharks, eagle rays, when strong currents. If the currents are too strong or too weak there will be no sharks or rays. Another large channel dive, one of the few channels that has a thila running through the middle of it. Aka Guradihoo Thila because of the two resorts on either side of the channel. When current is going out to ocean there's a magical spot behind two rocks and the thila with little or no current at about 25m. Then hook on to the rocks and watch stuff. Keep thila on right hand side after unhooked on towers, be careful of currents and over hangs.
Kuda Giri Wreck
101’ for 61 minutes
An intentionally sunk wreck. Smaller cargo ship, similar to size of previous wreck, less growth and interesting things. Maybe torpedo rays, they're electric, zebra shark, mostly macro stuff, pink eye goby above finger corals, frogfish maybe on stern of wreck, leaf fish.
North Malé Atoll
Fish Tank
56’ for 69 minutes
Aka Stingray City near island Kanduiiygiri. There is a tuna processing plant on the island, then they dump tuna heads/bodies into the water. Which attract all the things! Usually lots of rays, hammerhead, tigers, sharks generally deeper and dark water of the channel usually also strong currents down deep. In the shallows lots of stone fish, lots eels, rarely guitar rays, short nose box fish, snake eels. Should just call it a eel city as there are multiple different species of eels living together.
Lankan manta point
69’ for 69 minutes
A revisit! Paradise resort, similar to last time chill with mantas and a hungry turtle.
Dubai
While it is always a bummer to see a dive trip come to an end, dry solid land was a very welcomed change of scenery. (Not to mention no longer having a toilet shower. We flew back to Dubai and spent some time seeing different parts of Dubai, Abu Dhabi and the Sahara dessert.
Our first full day back in Dubai we spent doing a walking tour of Old Dubai and seeing the variety of shops, stalls and districts within the shopping areas. Once we tired of walking, we took a ride out to the desert and went dune bashing in the desert. While there were multiple times that all 4 wheels were not on the ground, and the car was pitched at a very precarious angle, we managed not to flip the vehicle and all survived the adventure. Our evening concluded with dinner and a fire dance show, featuring the world’s most expensive half bottle of two-buck-chuck.
The day trip to Abu Dhabi took us to Qasr Al Watan or the Presidential Palace. Construction of the Palace was completed in 2017 and in 2019, it was opened to the public for tours and educational purposes. While it is opened to the public, the Palace is still used for official purposes mostly hosting foreign leaders and meeting with the country’s supreme council and the federal cabinet.
After the tour of the Palace, we drove by Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque for pictures. The Grand Mosque is the largest mosque in the country. Construction of the mosque started in 1996 and finished in 2007, with a final cost of $545 million.
After a hectic adventure through the Dubai mall, getting separated from each other, and only being able to locate up escalators going the wrong direction we arrived at the Burj Khalifa. Taking a very quick elevator up to the 154 floor, 585 meters up in the air, we enjoyed drinks with views of the sun setting over Dubai and the water.
