Fuvahmulah 08 - 27 May 2025

[Blackcrusader]

OK so few more days have passed. Today a Manta and more threshers.

We had a large group of 14 people join the dives today. So 18 divers in total plus 5 guides. Must say appreciate the guides have let me at Tiger Zoo stay at the back and above the divers getting some better video in. Sometimes more action behind the divers than they realize and getting close with Tigers as they come by is fun.

 

[Blackcrusader]

OK So our Fuvamulah advernture is done. We did 35 dives in 12 days with only two dives today.

We each paid US$40 per dive including GST. US$1400 each. We also rented a 2 bedroom apartment with kitchen diving area and washing machine drying area and inluding a scooter for US$80 a day 13 nights US$1040. Mostly ate in but there are some very cheap local restaurants where you spend 45 Maldivian for a nice chicken or beef curry and Prarath bread. Local supermarket we bought food so we could have breakfast or dinner where we stayed.

Tomorrow fly back to Male staying at Avoca Inn for 5 nights US$260 including breakfast.
Diving there is US$45 a dive including GST for a minimum of ten dives will probably do 12.

Good trip so far.

 

[Blackcrusader]

Had some time to upload some videos. I was fortunate to be allowed to hang with the guides at Tiger Zoo rather than be down on the wall. Much better actually and you see way more action behing the divers that they often never see until a Tiger sweeping in from behind them and over their heads.

Did two dives in Male at Shark Tank today and no Tigers but did see from a distance some bull sharks and closer up a lemon shark.

 

[Blackcrusader]

OK did the Shark Tank dive twice today. At beginning of second dive saw a Tiger appear but it dissapeared quickly when 4 Bull sharks came in together. Also had a Lemon shark cruising around and 10 or more spinner sharks. Bit of a feeding frenzy today.

Third dive went around 30 mins away and had an excellent 1 hour dive. I've switched to nitrox 32% so a, able to spend more time at depth. The guides name is Fish who is a local instructor. So third dive was Fish myself an my traveling UK dive buddy together. Another three local staff who are not yet DM's joined but were back on the boat before us. Was a really nice reef site with a channel between the reefs. Lovely large schools of fish, and was great to see both a black tip and white tipped shark cruising around as well.

Tomorrow we are doing Manta dive site, the wreck site and the Canyons site.

My sac rate on last dive today back to my low consumption rate on this gentle dive site.

 

[Lu Y]

The dives near Male sounds great! May I ask which dive centre you went with?

We have not done local island in Maldives, but was quite disappointed with the diving operation from Banyan Tree, basically they only go to the super easy dive sites to accommodate families and elderly guests ...

 

[Blackcrusader]

The dives near Male sounds great! May I ask which dive centre you went with?

We have not done local island in Maldives, but was quite disappointed with the diving operation from Banyan Tree, basically they only go to the super easy dive sites to accommodate families and elderly guests ...

We are diving with Raajje Divers and we would dive with them again. For today my dive buddy and I will be with one guide Fish and we will have our own boat. We asked that we do the farthest site first then the second farthest and third site. We asked that we stay on the boat for the surface interval rather than come back to the harbour and back out again.

We eat a a good breakfast so really all we want is water. We depart 8:30am from the harbour so should be back to harbour mid afternoon. Fish is a really good guide who really let's us go at our own pace which for me is slow or just stopped to take video. Have not had any strong currents at the sites which is nice.

 

[Lu Y]

We are diving with Raajje Divers and we would dive with them again. For today my dive buddy and I will be with one guide Fish and we will have our own boat. We asked that we do the farthest site first then the second farthest and third site. We asked that we stay on the boat for the surface interval rather than come back to the harbour and back out again.

We eat a a good breakfast so really all we want is water. We depart 8:30am from the harbour so should be back to harbour mid afternoon. Fish is a really good guide who really let's us go at our own pace which for me is slow or just stopped to take video. Have not had any strong currents at the sites which is nice.

Heard many good things about Raajie Divers indeed! Did you have to pay a surcharge for private boat and private guide?

We always love going with private boat for flexibility.

 

[Blackcrusader]

Heard many good things about Raajie Divers indeed! Did you have to pay a surcharge for private boat and private guide?

We always love going with private boat for flexibility.

No we were the only two divers for today on our boat so no extra cost. So two divers, one guide Fish and three of their trainee DM divers. Sweet. Not a private boat as such but we did get to choose what sites we wanted to dive at.

We went to Manta Point. We did it twice just stayed there after the first dive. Saw two Manta cruise by on the first dive but they did not stop at the cleaning station. Third dive went to Banana Reef and got more excellent diving and video.

This video taken in the last 15 minutes of the second dive Manta Point. What a great call to ask the guide to let's just stay here and do it again. Another group of divers from another boat left about 3 minutes before this Manta came along and put on quite a show.

I've got more video to come.

 

[Lu Y]

No we were the only two divers for today on our boat so no extra cost. So two divers, one guide Fish and three of their trainee DM divers. Sweet. Not a private boat as such but we did get to choose what sites we wanted to dive at.

We went to Manta Point. We did it twice just stayed there after the first dive. Saw two Manta cruise by on the first dive but they did not stop at the cleaning station. Third dive went to Banana Reef and got more excellent diving and video.

This video taken in the last 15 minutes of the second dive Manta Point. What a great call to ask the guide to let's just stay here and do it again. Another group of divers from another boat left about 3 minutes before this Manta came along and put on quite a show.

I've got more video to come.

Thanks for the information re. private boat.

The mantas look great! We only saw 1 when we went to manta point in March, however I went to Hanifaru 3 times a few years ago and saw hundreds there, would highly recommend if you are into mantas!

 

[Blackcrusader]

Thanks for the information re. private boat.

The mantas look great! We only saw 1 when we went to manta point in March, however I went to Hanifaru 3 times a few years ago and saw hundreds there, would highly recommend if you are into mantas!

You also get this type of diving in South Lombok Indonesia. However the diving there is in washing maching fast currents and can be challenging conditions. Mobula & Manta abount in large numbers.
Thanks for your information much appreciated. My buddy and I decided to do Male diving at the end of our dive trip and today is last day. Will do Shark Tank, a wreck dive and another site.

So we have done a 47 dive vacation.