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

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Guitar sharks are so cool! We saw a pair of them when we were diving there, just chilling on the sandy bottom at 95 feet. There were 3 of us, dive guide, dive guide in training, and me... so everything was calm and they didn't mind us snapping photos at all.

Kinda random question... with all the deep diving done, does anyone mind if you stay at 15 feet for as long as possible to offgas more? I know that I feel a LOT better if I spend more time on a stop (even if it's not a decompression dive) and I usually have enough air in the tank to take some extra time to off gas.
 
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Guitar sharks are so cool! We saw a pair of them when we were diving there, just chilling on the sandy bottom at 95 feet. There were 3 of us, dive guide, dive guide in training, and me... so everything was calm and they didn't mind us snapping photos at all.

Kinda random question... with all the deep diving done, does anyone mind if you stay at 15 feet for as long as possible to offgas more? I know that I feel a LOT better if I spend more time on a stop (even if it's not a decompression dive) and I usually have enough air in the tank to take some extra time to off gas.

There were a few divers got too excited when they saw the Guitar Shark. They chased the Shark around. So I just positioned myself on the shallow where I thought it might come on my way and I got lucky on that strategy. It swam right under my fins. I’ll post the video later on when I post the final trip report. Such a beautiful Shark.

On your random question on extending safety stop, if everyone in your group, including the guide agrees with your intention, why not do it.

Some of the Maldives diving rules include a maximum depth at 30m & a dive time of 60min. You would need to ascend to the shallow when your tank pressure reaches 750psi (50 bar). CD will make sure that everyone abides by the rules. If we violate them, he’ll let you know that you have been a bad diver.

So, as long as you & your buddy stick by the rules and one of you has an SMB to launch it when you get separated from the group during the extended safety stop, you’ll be fine. Hopefully the Dhoni would find you if you get blown away by the current.

CD will check your bottom depth, dive time and how much air you have left by the end of every dives. He’ll log the data in a log sheet and you’ll sign the log sheet.
 
Day 6

D17 was at Nassimo Thila, N. Male Atoll, 88 ft bottom depth for 57 minute dive time. We saw lots of overhangs with beautiful & colorful soft corals and fish swimming upside down in the ceiling of the overhangs. Sometime it’s good to see the bottom part too, as we saw a Hawksbill Turtle was busy having breakfast.

After the dive, we had breakfast. The crew washed our wetsuits & BCDs and hung them on the railing of the boat for drying. Unfortunately cloud began to gather and raining started. So some of the wet gears had to be moved to inside the boat.

Medic arrived on the boat ~ 10am to perform PCR swab test to those that need them. Each PCR test costed $85 + 10% service charge.

NITROX, AL100 tank rental and a wine glass during dinner time are included in the trip cost. Additional bills such as onboard courses, drinks (beers, coke, etc.), gear rental cost, PCR test, would be settled after dinner.

We would disembark the boat tomorrow at 7am. The crew would drop us off at the airport.
 
Disembarking day was as scheduled. Those who were flying home,16 out of 18, received PCR negative results and headed out to the airport. One guest is staying for another week on the boat. Another guest is continuing the vacation on another island for another week.
 
@Dan Do you have any advice re: baggage allotment for inter-island flights? The baggage allowance is way less than me, my camera, and my gear require!

I will have the nonchalantly lightweight backpack full of camera gear and a hiking pack, and a dive bag.
 
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