Trip Report Carpe Vita Real Time Review: March 7-18, 2021 Trip to Maldives Deep South

[Barmaglot]

Thank you. For me, Indonesia is very difficult to impossible to access due to passport issues, and until recently, Maldives required a very long and expensive flight, but recent developments have enabled me to fly there via Dubai, which is considerably shorter and cheaper than connecting somewhere like Moscow, so now it's on my short list of destinations.

 

[Centrals]

I have far less experience than you, but this strikes me as odd - my experience, limited as it is, must have been atypical. I've done four liveaboards so far; two in Thailand, one in the Philippines and one in the Red Sea, and all four had four dives per day as standard, doing fewer than that only when the boat is in a long transit to somewhere. Fitting four 1-hour dives into a day doesn't seem to have ever been an issue.
Is the 3 dives per day thing peculiar to Maldives (maybe due to lots of long transits between atolls?) or is it common in other destinations that I simply haven't yet been to?

Long transfer because the slow diving boat could not keep pace with the LoB. No night dive.

Not easy for you guys to travel to most Muslim countries.

 

[NootFish]

I think the issue is that the dives are all very deep, so that's why there's only 3. When I asked about getting in another dive, they said that they didn't recommend it because of the dive profiles they tend to dive. I really want to do night dives so I can practice with my snoot...

 

[jmsenger]

I think the issue is that the dives are all very deep, so that's why there's only 3. When I asked about getting in another dive, they said that they didn't recommend it because of the dive profiles they tend to dive. I really want to do night dives so I can practice with my snoot...

The Carpe Vita used to offer four dives per day. My first few trips with them had four each day, once in a while five if we did a night dive. They switched to three per day a few years ago.

 

[Sunn]

I think the issue is that the dives are all very deep, so that's why there's only 3. When I asked about getting in another dive, they said that they didn't recommend it because of the dive profiles they tend to dive. I really want to do night dives so I can practice with my snoot...

After 2 days, and after the 3rd dive of the day, your computer will cry if you try more.... have a look at your total desat. time !

 

[NootFish]

Hoping for some shallow night dives so I can practice my snooting!

 

[Dan]

If you are in Deep South route, don’t miss Fuvahmulah.

 

[Dan]

Dive 26 was at Moofushi Rock, W. Ari Atoll. 4th manta cleaning station of the trip. This time it really delivered the mantas. We saw 8 of them lining up like the manta train in Manta Ridge, Raja Ampat. What an incredible sight to see for the whole 60 minutes.

Other Kodak moments were the Whitetip Reef Shark & baby Eagle Ray cruising by.

What a great dive!

Bottom depth was 50 ft with 69 min dive time.

Here’s the video of Moofushi Rock diving.

 

[Dan]

Day 4
Dive 10 at Vilingili Kandu, NE of Huvadhoo Atoll, near the Kooddoo / Maamendhoo airport, where Maldivian airlines made 1st stop on the way to Gan. This is another reefhook kind of dive. This time the current was mild, visibility is fantastic (> 100 ft / 30 m). We saw a wall of Reef Sharks some of them within 10 ft (3 m) away from us. What a dive!

Bottom depth was 108 ft (33 m) with 56 minutes of dive time.

Here’s what we saw during the Kandu diving. BTW, Kandu = channel = current = reef hook time.

 

[chillyinCanada]

My first time hooking in to watch the shark parade, I looked to my immediate right and saw a little shark parked beside me in the current. We eyed one another warily but decided neither of us was a danger to the other. So I looked away to watch the parade. A few minutes later, I looked back to see my little shark buddy, only to find that he'd been replaced by a significantly larger shark who was even closer to me.

I was more concerned about the bigger shark and we eyeballs one another for what seemed like quite awhile. Eventually, I looked back to the parade and when it was time to unhook, the bigger shark was gone.