Soleil 2 live report

[chillyinCanada]

Dive day 4:

They’ve apparently given up on splitting the briefing in two different locations on the boat, so we’re back to waiting for the lengthy Spanish and short Japanese, before the one in English. No problem, except the Spanish group talk so loud during our briefings we can hardly hear the guide - asking them to be a bit quiet only helps a bit. Please: if you’re diving with a big group, try to be considerate towards other groups and their briefing!
We keep reminding ourselves, that since both the Spanish and Japanese group brought their own guides we have a guide for the 3 of us (our German friend caught an ear or sinus infection and is no longer diving) Our dive guide (Faya) is very good and patient, he also bring SIL up, when she’s down to 50 bars, giving husband and me 10-15 min more dive time. He takes really good care of her, make sure she ok in the current, pulling her along if necessary. Faya also quickly figured out how to keep her calm during safety stop: she’s now happily holding the line for the SMB and stay perfectly at 5 m. Simple, but effective. SIL is 61 and only started diving 4 years ago, before coming here she had 48 dives and sometimes had bouyancy problems, but have improved so much during the trip, due to Faya’s help.

Morning dive at Vilamendhoo Thila, nice dive site with good fish life and ok corals. We see white tips and an eagle ray pass close to us. Also see a big bumphead napoleon and large scorpion fish.
It’s also the first place here in Maldives we see rubbish floating in the sea. Plastic plates and cutlery along with ice cream wraps and plastic bags. We collect some of it and bring to the boat.

2nd Dive at Omadhoo Thila - we were supposed to dive on the south one which should have some nice soft corals, but we never make it that far (not sure why). Ok dive.

3rd Dive at Fish Head. We do a shallow dive (my max depth was 18,6 m), still see lots and lots of schooling fish and a sleeping white tip, that is very patient, while we take photos/videos from 3 different angles getting closer and closer to it. We also see grey reef sharks, 2 octopuses and 2 turtles. Very nice dive site

There was supposed to be a beach BBQ tonight, but it looks like it’s going to rain, so they set up on the covered top deck instead, nice change and “entertainment” with drumming, singing and dance.

Darn shame about other passengers making it difficult to hear but the rest of the trip sounds pretty great.

My hearing is not ideal in situations with background noise. I was sitting very near to the dive director as he shared the briefing with us. Of course, I was struggling not only with my hearing but also his Maldivian accent. He explained what fish etc. that we could expect to see. I spent quite a bit of the dive watching out for those "blue iced nipples".

(eventually I saw some blue striped snappers, so I can only assume. . .)

 

[diveUAE]

Dive Day 5.

Is it mating season?

Day five started out with a 6:50 am dive on “Fish Head”.
We were hoping to find the guitar shark, but no luck on that. We did see millions of fish, and hooked up to see grey reef sharks and white tips.

Second dive was Moofushi Rock with a Manta cleaning station. We were instructed to “stay low” and keep out of the “cleaning area” ...
Drop in the water and see lots and lots of sharks, then a Manta arrives, I was lucky to be just where it decided to pass, so got a good video of that. As I turned to move to the side of the rock for more pictures I spot Faya: hanging in the water and urging me to come ... I follow him away from the manta and see: 2 mating white tips <3 This is my first time seeing anything like this - totally amazing and violent. I got an ok video and so did husband Our group of 3 was the only ones to witness it, so cool.

We return to the manta... our 2 Chinese friends are hooked up very close to the station and instead of going down, they’re “flying” up - getting some very nice videos, but it’s hard to get photos/videos without them in it - I saw their dive guide move them both a bit back, but not far enough. Well .... I have videos of mating sharks

3rd dive is Maaya Thila. Lots of white tips a cute baby eagle ray and ... 2 octopuses, that looks like they’re mating (or about to) - how lucky can you be in one day?

Well I guess very lucky, as the night dive with mantas are coming up.

The dhoni moored in Maaya lagoon and put up flood lights, while we’re still relaxing on Soleil. Briefing says: no more the 45 min dive, stay behind the lights. Around 6 pm they call to say mantas has arrived. We’re taken to dhoni in groups of 7-9 by the small speed boat. We’re lucky to get the last 3 seats in the first boat and 6:29 we drop in the water to a magnificent show!
4-5 mantas show up to perform a beautiful ballet, coming so close I couldn’t believe it. Husband is a bit slow at getting the camera down and a manta hit the strobes.
We sit in awe on 8 m for 45 min, then reluctantly make our way up (too good to leave)
We then wait on the boat for 45-50 min as the (you guessed it) Spanish group decided to “forget” about the 45 min and stay down for 80 min!! (I know, I don’t want my dives cut short either, but this group does it on every single dive, letting everyone else wait 15-30 min for them to come up)

Still it was an unforgettable day of diving.

 

[diveUAE]

Day 5 - last day of diving.

This day started early, as the Japanese group has a flight 3 pm, so we need to be back in Male earlier than normal.

We drop in “Bathalaa Maaga”, lots of waves, negative entry and get blown away by the current. Faya grab SIL and we dive down quick to hook up and watch the sharks gliding by - grey reef sharks keep a bit of distance, but small white tips come pretty close as we just hang there. A bump head also comes by for photo shoot;-)

Getting back on the dhoni is hard, because of the waves. As soon as we’re on the boat I wished I was back in the water. Feeling a bit seasick:-(

Back to Soleil for breakfast and a long sail to Male, waves are still high, but the good thing about Soleil is it’s a big boat, so not too bad.

We have lunch and say goodbye to the Japanese group.

1.30 is briefing for 2nd dive and 2 pm we drop at “Nassimo Thila” - not much to report from there - plenty of fish, but compared to other dive sites a bit boring.

4.30 is last dive, and we discussed if we wanted to do that dive.

Another special thing about Soleil is, that you buy a package of trip with 17 dives (only 1 night dive). If you want more dives the price is 35 us$. I’ve never been on a LOB that does it this way, but we knew before the trip, so for us it was ok.

Skipping the last dive would mean we saved 35 $ pr pers, but in the end we decided to go. SO happy we did!!

We dove Fish factory (or Fish Tank) and it was a great end to our trip.
Finally the guitar shark showed up and circled around everyone for 20-30 minutes. Along with the masses of whip rays it was action packed, divers, rays and fish everywhere:-D

 

[Ministryofgiraffes]

So common that Spanish divers are very loud, I went to school with a bunch of guys from Madrid. it’s a cultural thing.. generally if you smile and shout over them to’ pipe down’ they are generally fine, but tutting and eye rolling, politely asking the, to be quiet does nothing.

‘thanks for the great running report, much appreciated. I am surprised that your SIL is diabetic and didn’t discuss it with the boat beforehand, one of my dive buddies is diabetic and always briefs the boat before, they will generally accommodate and have side food available just for him. Essential for that ‘1 boat in 20’ who do not follow the standard meal times..but I’m guessing she will next time and thanks to your report others will know to..

 

[diveUAE]

So common that Spanish divers are very loud, I went to school with a bunch of guys from Madrid. it’s a cultural thing.. generally if you smile and shout over them to’ pipe down’ they are generally fine, but tutting and eye rolling, politely asking the, to be quiet does nothing.

‘thanks for the great running report, much appreciated. I am surprised that your SIL is diabetic and didn’t discuss it with the boat beforehand, one of my dive buddies is diabetic and always briefs the boat before, they will generally accommodate and have side food available just for him. Essential for that ‘1 boat in 20’ who do not follow the standard meal times..but I’m guessing she will next time and thanks to your report others will know to..

Thank you for your kind words.

We did a LOB in Sudan with a bunch of Italians - they were loud, but respected the briefings. Have dived with Spanish groups before and never had a problem (I’ve always found them to be great divers)

SIL DID inform them about her diabetes both before we arrived and on the form we filled out at arrival. She carries a note from a doctor specialising in diabetes and diving. I guess they just did not inform the whole crew.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Have very much enjoyed your live report. Some of it took me right back!
I've looked for your updates every day and been gratified every time.

 

[Angelo Farina]

Yeah, also I was taken back, thanks to your excellent report...
In 1986 I and my wife spent 3 months in the diving staff at Alimatha, and of course Alimatha Kandu and Miaru Kandu were two of the more frequent dives At that time the coral was all alive and very coloured, and in both sites it was common to see a number of large sharks and eagles, sometimes an hammerhead.
I would be really curious to come back 33 years later and see how it is now.
Any chance that you share some of your video clips on Youtube?

 

[chillyinCanada]

Yeah, also I was taken back, thanks to your excellent report...
In 1986 I and my wife spent 3 months in the diving staff at Alimatha, and of course Alimatha Kandu and Miaru Kandu were two of the more frequent dives At that time the coral was all alive and very coloured, and in both sites it was common to see a number of large sharks and eagles, sometimes an hammerhead.
I would be really curious to come back 33 years later and see how it is now.
Any chance that you share some of your video clips on Youtube?

You will be bery very disappointed in the coral.

 

[Angelo Farina]

You will be bery very disappointed in the coral.

That's what I fear. Past year I went back to Maldives after 30 years missing, but I was at MAHRE, a research center of the University, for making experiment with hydrophones.
Hence we did not go in sites remowned as nice diving spots.
We did see mostly dead coral everywhere and very few fish, but I was hoping that this was due to the site. My wife was devastated, I was sad, but not as much as her.
After coming back I started reading reports and watching videos, and nothing did resemble our memories and the photos taken at the time by my wife with her Nikonos-III. They were mostly diapositives (Kodak Ektachrome 64) and we sometime watch them remembering those 5 fabolous years we spent when young...

 

[chillyinCanada]

That's what I fear. Past year I went back to Maldives after 30 years missing, but I was at MAHRE, a research center of the University, for making experiment with hydrophones.
Hence we did not go in sites remowned as nice diving spots.
We did see mostly dead coral everywhere and very few fish, but I was hoping that this was due to the site. My wife was devastated, I was sad, but not as much as her.
After coming back I started reading reports and watching videos, and nothing did resemble our memories and the photos taken at the time by my wife with her Nikonos-III. They were mostly diapositives (Kodak Ektachrome 64) and we sometime watch them remembering those 5 fabolous years we spent when young...

There are still sites with so many fish though. I'd also went on a northern exploration trip couple of years ago and we went to one resort island, the name is which I can't recall and they had had a vigorous replanting. The coral all around their Island was incredible or at least in the area of the island where we were diving. I was very surprised because it must have been fast growing.

Edit: also found some gorgeous formations on a deep south dive but most places were pretty wrecked. Some of it was environmental too! I was scandalized to find sand and dirt smothering the corals as well as, discarded building materials etc. surrounding an island that had a new resort on it.