Kevster
Contributor
Maldives Northern Atolls Monsoon Trip report Apr 09
Arrived in Male then had to get seaplane to Kuredu Island in the north. Flight was about 40 minutes. No problems with excess baggage. Return sea plane was $300. Kuredu resort looked amazing. White sandy beach, blue water.
Boat The monsoon is an excellent steel hulled boat, approx 40 m in length . There is room for 22 guests. The boat was nearly full during my trip with 21 divers, probably because it was an Easter week trip. Luckily I was the only single diver and got a cabin to myself. Cabins had 2 single beds rather than bunks. Boat had 4 main decks. Lower deck where most of the accom was. The dinning room , rest of accom & dive deck. Then lounge & bar & outside area.deck Then upper sun deck with Jacuzzi. The boat was so large it never seemed to be busy.
Boat was very nice in general. Probably the nicest boat I have been on. The food was also excellent. Breakfast was normally at 10 after the morning dive, lunch at 14.00. Then dinner at 9 pm (after the night dive). Alcohol was not included. One night we had a barbeque on a deserted island which was really fantastic. We also had a trip to another deserted island. Generally very relaxed atmosphere on board. Most of the guest were European.
Camera facilities were ok. 2 rinse tanks and good charging facilities. Dive deck was very spacious.
Weather Was sunny and a bit windy. Surface conditions were ok. Small waves. The boat was very stable. Water temp was 30/29 C. At the start of the week I was in a 3mm but was ok in just some board shorts & a rashie.
Diving- Generally 3 dives a day. 17 dives during the week. On day 1 & 7 only 1 dive is scheduled. There were 3 days when a night dive was offered. I did one of the night dives. Guests were split into 3 groups. Diving was from two zodiacs. 2 groups would go out together & then one zodiac would return to collect the remaining group. Guide always checked the current before we went in. Only at 1 site during the whole week was there another dive boat. We had the dive sites to ourselves.
Most of the dives were on Thilas , rather than channels or outside reefs. We only did a few outside reefs. We visited 5 atolls. Lhaviyani, Baa, Raa, Noonu & Shaviyani . The diving was quite similar & generally not deep. There was not much current at any sites during the week. Viss varied between the atolls, generally around 20-25m. In Noonu viss was perhaps as good as 40 m.
The diving was very very fishy. In fact I would say that I have never seen so many reef fish. Big shoals of fusiliers, bait fish and generally very nice reefs.Highlights included several eagle rays, stingrays, 1 leopard shark, lots of morays, turtles, Napoleon, bumperhead parrot fish, a few octopus & a couple of Nudis. Only saw reef sharks at 1 of the sites. Approx 10-20 grey reef sharks. No whale sharks or mantas. Not a lot of small critter type stuff either. Underwater landscape was very nice. Lots of overhangs & caves with soft corals. Some very nice table corals. A few of my favourite dive sites were Fares in Baa (Nice pinnacle dive),Fenfushi Giri in Raa (Never seen so many Anemone),Maa Kandu Thila in Shaviyani (very very fishy).& Orimas Thila in Noonu (Shark dive) Overall the quality of the diving was very good. There were no amazing dives(i.e whale shark,mantas) but most were very good. Out of the 17 dives, I only found one to be slightly dull as it was focussed on finding turtles. Was hoping we would dive the 2 wrecks in the Lhaviyani Atoll but it was not part of the trip. The monsoon occasionally dives these wrecks if the conditions are ok. Was also a bit disappointed that we did not dive any channels for the currents.
Summary.
The Maldives were fantastic, the boat ,crew & diving made it a very memorable week. It was a great balance of diving/relaxing and enjoying the sun compared to some of the other live-aboards I have been on.
I would say it was good value for money. The monsoon maybe a little more expensive compared to some other boats in the Maldives but it was well worth it. I would highly recommend the Monsoon if you are after a nice relaxing dive holiday with lots & lots of fish life.
I would definitely return to the Maldives. Aug/Sept/Oct is manta season; Feb/Mar is the good viss/nice weather season according to the guides.
Arrived in Male then had to get seaplane to Kuredu Island in the north. Flight was about 40 minutes. No problems with excess baggage. Return sea plane was $300. Kuredu resort looked amazing. White sandy beach, blue water.
Boat The monsoon is an excellent steel hulled boat, approx 40 m in length . There is room for 22 guests. The boat was nearly full during my trip with 21 divers, probably because it was an Easter week trip. Luckily I was the only single diver and got a cabin to myself. Cabins had 2 single beds rather than bunks. Boat had 4 main decks. Lower deck where most of the accom was. The dinning room , rest of accom & dive deck. Then lounge & bar & outside area.deck Then upper sun deck with Jacuzzi. The boat was so large it never seemed to be busy.
Boat was very nice in general. Probably the nicest boat I have been on. The food was also excellent. Breakfast was normally at 10 after the morning dive, lunch at 14.00. Then dinner at 9 pm (after the night dive). Alcohol was not included. One night we had a barbeque on a deserted island which was really fantastic. We also had a trip to another deserted island. Generally very relaxed atmosphere on board. Most of the guest were European.
Camera facilities were ok. 2 rinse tanks and good charging facilities. Dive deck was very spacious.
Weather Was sunny and a bit windy. Surface conditions were ok. Small waves. The boat was very stable. Water temp was 30/29 C. At the start of the week I was in a 3mm but was ok in just some board shorts & a rashie.
Diving- Generally 3 dives a day. 17 dives during the week. On day 1 & 7 only 1 dive is scheduled. There were 3 days when a night dive was offered. I did one of the night dives. Guests were split into 3 groups. Diving was from two zodiacs. 2 groups would go out together & then one zodiac would return to collect the remaining group. Guide always checked the current before we went in. Only at 1 site during the whole week was there another dive boat. We had the dive sites to ourselves.
Most of the dives were on Thilas , rather than channels or outside reefs. We only did a few outside reefs. We visited 5 atolls. Lhaviyani, Baa, Raa, Noonu & Shaviyani . The diving was quite similar & generally not deep. There was not much current at any sites during the week. Viss varied between the atolls, generally around 20-25m. In Noonu viss was perhaps as good as 40 m.
The diving was very very fishy. In fact I would say that I have never seen so many reef fish. Big shoals of fusiliers, bait fish and generally very nice reefs.Highlights included several eagle rays, stingrays, 1 leopard shark, lots of morays, turtles, Napoleon, bumperhead parrot fish, a few octopus & a couple of Nudis. Only saw reef sharks at 1 of the sites. Approx 10-20 grey reef sharks. No whale sharks or mantas. Not a lot of small critter type stuff either. Underwater landscape was very nice. Lots of overhangs & caves with soft corals. Some very nice table corals. A few of my favourite dive sites were Fares in Baa (Nice pinnacle dive),Fenfushi Giri in Raa (Never seen so many Anemone),Maa Kandu Thila in Shaviyani (very very fishy).& Orimas Thila in Noonu (Shark dive) Overall the quality of the diving was very good. There were no amazing dives(i.e whale shark,mantas) but most were very good. Out of the 17 dives, I only found one to be slightly dull as it was focussed on finding turtles. Was hoping we would dive the 2 wrecks in the Lhaviyani Atoll but it was not part of the trip. The monsoon occasionally dives these wrecks if the conditions are ok. Was also a bit disappointed that we did not dive any channels for the currents.
Summary.
The Maldives were fantastic, the boat ,crew & diving made it a very memorable week. It was a great balance of diving/relaxing and enjoying the sun compared to some of the other live-aboards I have been on.
I would say it was good value for money. The monsoon maybe a little more expensive compared to some other boats in the Maldives but it was well worth it. I would highly recommend the Monsoon if you are after a nice relaxing dive holiday with lots & lots of fish life.
I would definitely return to the Maldives. Aug/Sept/Oct is manta season; Feb/Mar is the good viss/nice weather season according to the guides.
