Maldives liveaboard question-Aggressor?

[Lisa24]

Hello, I have a few questions about liveaboard in the Maldives. I just received a quote for 7 nights on the new Maldives Aggressor for Feb 08 of $2395 US per person. This seems alot higher than other liveaboard in the Maldives. Is the Aggressor charters that much better to justify spending the extra money?

Are there any other liveaboard that you guys would recommend.

Also, we are pretty new divers (having only logged approx 20 dives so far), is it a bad idea to do a liveaboard in the Maldives due to the strong current?

I don't have much reference, but we just returned from a dive trip to Fiji and there were some pretty strong currents there in my opinion. Does anyone have a comparison between the Maldives and Fiji as far as difficulty of the dives are concerned?

Thanks in advance, Lisa

 

[smokey braden]

lisa24,
welcome to this board.
you can get good info on the asia forum.
i did a liveaboard in the maldives in '03.
http://www.sultansoftheseas.it/en/infoSMadivaru.php
it was a great trip.
the peter hughes fleet has a lob in the maldives.
regards,

 

[Doc]

My impression was that the more any particular opeartion caters to North American dvres, the happier you're likely to be.

I have been diving a few times there and each trip was aboard a boat that variously was more familiar with either Japanese, Germans, Italians and Eastern Europeans.

I absolutely love the chance to meet fellow divers from different nations. Unfortunately- very few other nationalities are hard wired with the dive-dive-dive mentality that you and I take for granted.

It might be a good thing to get on a US oriented live-aboard in this region. They are geared up for 5 dives a day. They will not be torn between you and the 1 or 2 a day crowd.

Understand also- most liveaboards have small wooden Dhoni boats that trail them to provide diving. That's where your gear is stored along with the compressor. They scoot away during SI's and refill tanks. This is done because most boats there are not designed like Hughes or Aggressor boats- they are either fancy cabin cruisers or long native inspired local cruise boats. (Manthiri).

In that no female crew are likely to be aboard any of the local boats, men do all of the cooking. Due to the society's norms that sent them to sea, they forgot to learn to cook, because- after all- that's what a woman does. No wonder they were so skinny! The food was universaly atrocious. The Japanese vessel (A SWATH like the Nekton) had the best food, but enough of the jellied fish, already. Not at breakfast, anyway.

The plus side to the Japanese boat? 35 divers in the exact same silver rental wetsuit and cameras waddling off the dive deck.

Strong current? What there was seemed quite mild. Learn to shoot your SMB from 20' depth and hang at 15fsw for small boat recovery. Learn to pass your gear up to the boatsman. Learn to climb a small ladder or do the Zodiac flop. That's about it for "advanced skills". There is the opportunity to go stupid deep. Most of the wrecks that I have been to there were shallow at 45~75'. They seem to feed the fish often, they dump garbage everywhere and the reefs are spider-webbed with 120# monofilament. Still very cool diving.

As for comparison of current- you really can't do that. I've been to some places in Fiji that might have made you take up stamp collecting. Damned near did it to me. So- how can we compare? Raw current means nothing. Anything over .3 mph and you're just flying along for the ride anyway. The trick is knowing depth/buoyancy recognition and control.

I would consider the North American style boats carefuly!

 

[shrop3483]

I'm curious to know.

 

[Lisa24]

Roatanman, so it sounds to me like the extra cost is worth it since you will get to dive more than you probably would on another liveaboard.

Would you have any concerns about reserving a charter on a boat that hasn't even finished being built? It starts sailing Jan 08 and the charter we currently have reserved it Feb 3-10. We have until May 7 to give a deposit and secure the reservation.

How would you rate the diving in the Maldives?

As far as currents are concerned, I guesss I was just a little nervous. I seem everything I have read is that it is not recommend for new divers and it is a more challenging place to dive. Thanks for putting me at ease about that. We dove the Rainbow Reef in Fiji and the day we did the Great White Wall the DM said this would be the last day it could be dived for a while due to the currents beginning to come in. I think they were pretty intense. They didn't require any kind of safety devices, which in retrospect we really should have had them. I guess if we do go to the Maldives we will have to get our ahead of time and practice in some quarry locally.

Thanks for the info and advice so far.

Also, are there any resorts in Fiji that you would recommend. We will have to be on a budget after spending that much on the cruise. We plan to spend 5-6 nights at a resort following the dive cruise.

 

[justacey]

Hi Lisa
I've only been on the Sea Spirit with www.scubascuba.com 3 years ago and it was a fantastic trip. We then went on one of their charters to Cocos Island with the owner Rob who's a great guy. And since we can't go on their Galapagos charter until next year, we are more than likely to be going back to the Maldives this autumn with them.
Their website has all the info you need. They are a UK company, but I'm sure that won't be a problem.

Enjoy your holiday whatever you choose.

 

[lemurs2]

Hi Lisa,
We were on the Baani Adventurer in Jan 07 and were the only Americans. There were 8 Germans, and 8 Italians + 4 of the Italians were non divers. I posted a trip report on here if you do a search. We were only at about 50 dives before the trip and did 18 dives during 5 1/2 days. We thought the food was pretty good and the crew was great.
I did find the currents strong in the passes. We aborted one pass dive because we had to do a negative entry, swim really fast down to the rock outcrop about 60 feet and hook in. If you missed the point to hook in then you could get caught in the "washing machine current" Only 4 people out of 12 people made it down.
We were very glad we went and loved getting the experience

 

[Lisa24]

This may be a really dumb "beginner" question but I was wondering when a dive requires you hook into the reef, do they provide you with the hook or is this something you should always take with you on a dive just incase?

Can't hooking in damage the reef or is this normal practice?

Thanks again,Lisa

 

[lemurs2]

This was the first time we had used a reef hook and borrowed them from the crew. You actually hook into the rock or dead coral. Anywhere that we dove with pinnicles (sp?) we didn't have to use them. You just swim to the side where the current isn't as strong. They were very useful on the night dive because the current was very strong.
The crew didn't use them because they knew the sites and were very skilled

 

[tarzana]

Has anyone been on this liveaboard?

Can anyone recommend a nice but not expensive hotel to stay in before and after the diving?

Tarzana