Emperor Leo Real Time Review, March 21-28, 2021, The Best of Maldives

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Also, how’s the boat? I’m scheduled to be on the Leo this May, but my country currently isn’t letting people travel. Hoping they don’t have any problems with me rescheduling again...it’s not my fault...!
 
From last night boat briefing
Rules:
Max depth 30m
Max time 60min
Min press 50bar btm / 30bar surface
No DECO
Buddy system (no solo)
No touching
No gloves
A SMB / buddy
Alcohol after the last dive of the day
Guided dive (4 divers/DM)
Hand signal T = half tank,
Hand signal Fist = 1/4 tank = 50bar
Giant entry after the guide in the water
No negative entry
End dive data: Press/Depth/Time
Surface snorkel only
No deep free diving between diving
Wash wetsuit on seawater + spray freshwater
 
Also, how’s the boat? I’m scheduled to be on the Leo this May, but my country currently isn’t letting people travel. Hoping they don’t have any problems with me rescheduling again...it’s not my fault...!

It’s just been refurbished. IMHO it’s better than Carpe Vita. You’ll enjoy it. I also like Chris, the CD of Leo, very informative, giving good briefing, funny guy. Rippon & Issey are also good DMs. Good cook!
 
D4 was at Mayaa Lagoon, N.A, 36 ft, 42 min. Fantastic nite dive manta diving. Saw 1 manta having a feast on the planktons gathering on the lights setup at the Sandy bottom. Also, schooling of Bigmouth Mackerel, occasionally Blacktip Reef Sharks checking us out. After I had enough diving, 4 Mantas showed up. What a first diving day!
 
Day 2

The day was started with a rumble of the engine. The boat sailed southwards to mid East of Ari Atoll for an hour from 6a to 7a.

D5 was at Fish Head, 95 ft bottom depth for 65 min dive time. It’s a 65 x 35 m Thila. Saw Gray Reef Sharks, White/Golden Mantis Shrimp on the shallow & Hawksbill Turtle munching.

D6 was at Moofushi Kandu, mid West of Ari Atoll, manta cleaning station, 87 ft bottom depth, 63 min dive time. The sea was flat, no current, with 40 ft visibility. Some guests saw 1 manta, but I didn’t see any, which is OK by me because last week I saw 9 mantas there when I went with Carpe Vita. We did see a couple of Eagle Rays, Schooling Sweetlips and the usual Leaf Scorpionfish.

D7 was at Dhigga Thila, South Ari Atoll, 75 ft bottom depth & 65 min dive time. The sea conditions were the same as D6. So, nothing much to see, other than floating weightlessly.
 
Day 3

The day was started with a wake up bell & knocked at the door at 1am for snorkeling with whaleshark at the back of the boat, where the crew put a flood light to attract planktons, hence, Whalehark. A 20 ft (6 m) one appeared.

D8 was at Rangali, SW Ari Atoll, 71 ft bottom depth for 67 minute dive time. This site is near Conrad Hilton Resort with underwater restaurant.

A Manta cleaning station without Manta, unfortunately. However, Issey, our DM showed a spot where cleaning shrimps like to hangout. So, I put my left hand to them and within a couple minutes 5 of them landed on the back of my hand and started picking some of my dead skins. I took a video of the event with my GoPro on my right hand. There was a moray eel next to this spot was being cleaned by the cleaning shrimps too.

Towards the end of the dive, we were hovering near the cleaning station with lots of table corals, enjoying the scenery, while finishing safety stop.

D9 was at 7th Heaven, SE Ari Atoll, 98 ft bottom depth for 59 minute dive time. We saw several Napoleon Wrasse cruising by. Near the end of the dive, we saw nice fan corals and Tasseled Scorpionfish.
 
D10 was at Lucky Rock, S. Ari Atoll, 102 ft bottom depth for 63 minute dive time. Before the dive we cruise around for half hour in search of whaleshark without any luck. The diving was quite & relaxing. We saw Whitetip Reef Sharks, Moray Eels, Emperor Anglefish, Porcelain Crab, Pufferfish.

Day 4

D11 was at Kudarah Thila, S. Ari Atoll, 88 ft bottom depth for 65 minute dive time. We saw lots of Blue & gold Snappers, nice swim through passage, overhangs, fan corals.After the dive we went cruising for 4h to west to Vaavu Atoll.

D12 was at Dhevana Kandu, E. Vaavu Atoll, 106 ft bottom depth for 46 minute dive time. We saw several Eagle Rays in the blue, Schooling Barracudas.
 
D13 was at Alimathaa Jetty, E. Vaavu Atoll, 71 ft bottom depth for 66 minute dive time. We saw several Eagle Rays in the blue, schooling snappers, the resident Nurse Sharks, some Blacktip Reef Sharks, Goatfish being cleared by cleaner wrasse, Unicorn fish.

This time we started ~ 4pm with good daylight, a much better photographic condition than the previous 2 trips there (5:30pm & 6:00pn).
 
What is the covid vaccination status of the people on your boats? That's the one thing that I worry about with travel...
 
Day 1
We sailed for 5 hrs to Rasdhoo Atoll yesterday afternoon, arrived in Rasdhoo ~ 10pm. Right time for a quiet & good night sleep.

Dive 1 was at Rasdhoo Maldivaru, 102 ft, 48 min, started @ 6:58am. Channel diving. Guided by Rippon, who guided me back in December 2018 on Maldives Aggressor II (MA2). What a coincidence! Currently MA2 was not in operation. We saw Reef Sharks, big NapolWrasse, Leaf Scorpionfish, Black Cheek Moray which bit my right elbow as I got too closed to it and I did not see it when I was trying to take the picture of the Leaf Scorpionfish.

Does that hurt? Infection?
 

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