Eco Blue and Blue Voyager realtime review 4/18-5/12

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NootFish

Contributor
Messages
175
Reaction score
131
Location
USA
# of dives
200 - 499
Day -3. Nose swabbed, thrice. Tests negative twice, test pending: one.

Bags packed (I hope).

Determined that connecting flight through New Delhi was a Bad Idea, and changed to fly through Dubai for $$$$ more but peace of mind. Still worried that I might not end up at my destination due to Things Out Of My Control, but hopefully, hopefully, I'll be back in the ocean for the first time in more than a year.

It is a miracle that I only have 3kg over my 30kg baggage limit, including gear and camera. I've been practicing my nonchalant camera bag lift. :wink:

This has been a crazy year, I really hope I get to the destination with all my baggage, and the constant parade of fish and palm trees through my head will become reality.

Stay tuned! MSP to AMS to DXB to MLE to GAN over the next 2 days! Will I be awake enough to go swimming when I get to my hotel in Gan? Bets are open!
 
Sensible move NOT to transit in India. Pretty bad situation in the country regarding on infection at the moment.
Look after yourself during all those transit. Stay hydrated with WATER only.
Take your time to recover from the jet lag.

Enjoy your holiday.
 
If you’ve got a long layover in Dubai, let me know. Happy to meet you for a beer or coffee.
 
If you’ve got a long layover in Dubai, let me know. Happy to meet you for a beer or coffee.
On the way back, I'm going to be spending one night in Dubai! I was planning on doing a desert trip and then maybe going shopping! I'm sure there will be time for a beer! Wednesday night and Thursday during the day I believe it's the 13th of May? Right at the end of Ramadan.
 
Supposed to be getting on the boat today but there was a case from the last group of tourists and now the boat is in quarantine. I'm in Gan. The replacement boat is in Malé. Booking a flight back to Malé. Feeling kind of disappointed because I was very much looking forward to the tiger shark action down here. I guess I'm coming back sometime!

I had a really nice snorkel at the house reef of equator village where I spent the night. I got chased by a triggerfish and enjoyed the large number of clams. I then made a spontaneous decision to get a massage, which is one of the better decisions that I've made this trip.
 
Supposed to be getting on the boat today but there was a case from the last group of tourists and now the boat is in quarantine. I'm in Gan. The replacement boat is in Malé. Booking a flight back to Malé. Feeling kind of disappointed because I was very much looking forward to the tiger shark action down here. I guess I'm coming back sometime!

I had a really nice snorkel at the house reef of equator village where I spent the night. I got chased by a triggerfish and enjoyed the large number of clams. I then made a spontaneous decision to get a massage, which is one of the better decisions that I've made this trip.

That sucks! I hope they’re able to extend your trip or otherwise make up for the 2 days of diving you’ll miss. How can they have not known about the positive case before you all flew down to Gan??
 
I didn't get my laptop online at all, and I didn't log in with the cell phone, so updates didn't happen!

We did a trip from Male-Male aboard the Keara and it was cool! The water was warm and wonderful, nothing more than a dive skin needed. The food was absolutely fantastic, and less fatty than your usual liveaboard food. Lots of curries, my favorite being curried squash! Underwater highlights included seeing 4 (maybe 5) whale sharks off the back of our boat the night we parked in the magical location in S. Ari Atoll. We saw a Guitar Ray at Fish Tank/Factory. Most of the divers on the trip were very experienced, which was nice. A lot of "go down to 30m and hook to watch the show." Many, many sharks. Not enough night diving (only one). We had a moonlight BBQ on an uninhabited island, which was gorgeous. Also did a beach cleanup, where we removed 5 big bags of trash from a short segment of beach in less than an hour. We had a fantastic snorkel with mantas in an atoll where they were rumored to be gathering.

I felt like we spent a bit too much time around Male, and could have spent more time in other places.

Total: 37 dives in 13 days (only one dive on the last day)
Nitrox: 28-30%
 
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Next it was on to the Blue Voyager, which was lovely. Similar circuit of the central atolls, only less currents likely due to waning moon. This crowd was younger, and fun to hang out with. There were 21 people aboard a boat with capacity for 26 (even 21 people felt like too many in the water at once.) We dove and saw the usual things you find in the Maldives, fewer mantas this time, none of them at the cleaning stations. But we had a successful Manta night dive, with tons of mantas swooping overhead to feed. (Seriously, this was amazingly cool!!!)

Total: 28 dives in 10 days
Nitrox 30-32%

I need to make a list of favorite sites from this trip, and cool stuff we saw.... will do that when I get some time at computer with my dive logs!
 
Cheers for sharing, could you share more about the difference between the 10 night and 8 night trips for Maldives? Im wondering what the extra 2 nights provides.

Also how was safety on the blue voyager and how many divers per dive guide?
 

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