casts_by_fly
Contributor
Hi All,
My wife and I got back from Moofushi a really long 2 weeks ago, so I thought I'd post a trip report.Being in the UK, we are fortunate to have 5 wks of vacation every year, plus quite a few national holidays as standard. Since we have all of our family back in the US, we use every single day of it every year. However, we've settled into a routine of doing a big 2-week long vacation every other year (and a smaller 1-wk vacation in the off years, plus a week trip home). In 2010 it was Africa and Mauritius, Two years ago we went to the Maldives. This year we decided to go back.
For those that don't know the Maldives, there are ~1200 islands, of which ~200 have inhabitants. The islands are arranged in atolls. Effectively, if you cut the top off of a mountain with a jagged edge and put it in the ocean until only the top 5' was visible above the water, you'd have an atoll. Around the outside broken 'rim' you have the larger islands which feature a steep dropoff just off shore where the water drops to thousands of feet in places. On the inside, you typically have shallower water, less than a couple hundred feet deep. There are also islands interspersed across the centers of the larger atolls. Sometimes the 'islands' inside an atoll don't quite reach the surface and will stop anywhere between the water surface and 20m below the surface. These are called Thilas and effectly are coral towers that come up from the seafloor. There are also lots of channels (Kandus) between the outer islands connecting the ocean and the inside of the atoll. There are lots of walls, especially on the channel edges, and plenty of current, depending on the tides. Thila's hold lots of fish. Kandu's normally have bigger pelagics (grey sharks, rays, napoleons, tuna, etc) in the blue with reef fish along the walls.
Two years ago both rachel and I did our open water course in the Maldives and the diving is what made us want to come back. We chose a different resort this year (Constance Moofushi) and it was absolutely amazing. The service was first class. The service is what Constance Moofushi use to set themselves apart and I would say they succeed. The food was very good despite being buffet. There is 1 main buffet which has a different chef in charge of the menu each night. There is also an ala carte restaurant that is included in some packages. The included wine list was very good (we drink a lot of wine). There were 75 bottles or so on it of wines of every type. The sommeliers knew what they were doing. The rooms were more than spacious enough. We split our 2 weeks across a beach villa and a water villa. I preferred being in the water villa because of the view (we overlooked the reef and then the indian ocean with nothing between) but to go back I'd have a hard time picking against the beach villa and using the savings for diving. I would absolutely recommend anyone to go there.
The dive center (Blue Tribe Divers) was fantastic. I brought my own gear, but my wife rented regs/BCD. All of the kit was in good shape. The crew took care of you and your gear. They kept your box at the dive center and did all of the rinsing after every dive. It was full service diving- you show up, ride the boat, put on your gear, and dive. At the end of the trip they washed and dried my BCD/reg, ready to be packed away. All of the boat crew were very friendly. All of the divemaster/guides were great people. Underwater, they all were quite good as spotting interesting things, and all were good dive planners/managers. Despite diving to 25-30m on most dives and staying down for quite a while, nearly every dive was an hour, some even more. We had 1 dive (FishHead) with insane current where we burned through air faster and only made 45 minutes or so, but on the whole the dive profiles were great. More than a few times we did the safety stop while exploring the top of the reef and then just popped up when we hit 30 bar or so. We dove with Emi (who happens to be a co-owner) nearly the whole time as they seem to keep you with the same guide if possible. He was fantastic. My wife is a little less comfortable in the water at times and he inspired great confidence in her. She has gone from an anxious but excited diver to just plain excited for diving and I put it on his mentoring throughout the 2 weeks. Overall we were extremely pleased with the center.
We made 24 dives in 14 days (13 me, 11 rachel). The currents were tricky a lot of the time to make double morning dives, and our afternoons were spent lounging in the sun. On the balance though, I feel like we dove about the right amount. We ended up doing our advanced certification as well as nitrox. We figured we were doing the dives anyway, so what's a little book work for a lifetime certification. We dove some of the famous Ari Atoll sites like Fishhead Thila, we snorkeled with whale sharks, we saw a Manta up close, had plenty of turtles in touching distance, and we around schools of various fish so numerous you could never count them. The diving in the maldives is truly some of the best in the world, and I recommend it to anyone who is a diver.
The water temp was 29-31 on every dive and I only used a short sleeve rashguard and board shorts. My wife had a long sleeve rash guard and swimsuit bottoms (bare legs). There was no need for anything more.
Overall, we saw most everything we wanted to see. We saw a manta even though they were out of season. We saw lots of smaller sharks (up to 5') on most dives. I saw 2 grey's over the course of the trip which were in the ~12-14' bracket. We also saw a big nurse shark sleeping in a cave at the safety stop on the last dive. Tons of turtles, most dives had one. I saw a napoleon, but we only saw one this trip (we mostly dove Thilas, while napoleons tend towards walls and channels). We saw a TON of stonefish. Emi was particularly adept at finding them. We saw 6 or 7 on 1 dive, with 2 in the same hole and a third 2' away. We saw a scorpionfish on the same dive. There were lionfish on every dive it seemed and nudibranches everywhere. For a macro photographer there were targets galore. We saw quite a few spotted eagle rays including a group of 6 or 7 on the last dive that were gliding slightly above us in the water column. Really cool to see them from below rather than above. We also saw 3 of them while walking across the deck to our water villa. There was also an innumerable number of fish of every type, particularly clownfish on anemonies. On one dive the top of the reef was like a carpet of anemonies, at least 30m long and 20m wide.
I'll just post the pictures below with minimal commentary. There are lots more if you go into my public Maldives 2014 smugmug account. Some are snorkeling (you can tell by the water color mostly) , but most are diving. I took a liking to Nudibranches and was trying to get better and better pictures of them. I had some gear and technique limitations but I'm happy with the result.
The camera I used was a Canon G9 in the Canon OEM underwater housing. I was working with the onboard flash and OEM diffuser. For our next dive trip (probably Cozumel in April next year) I'll add on at least 1 strobe as I think it will make a world of difference for me. I was happy with the results, especially compared to the hired camera last time we were in the Maldives (first time using manual flash underwater) and then again with my previous pictures diving with this camera. I'm getting the hang of it pretty well now, especially since I've translated my above water skills to below the water. Happy take critique on any of the pictures.
Enjoy!
thanks,
rick
Wine tasting in the ocean with Sharks.
Scorpionfish
Bluefin GTs (school of 50 or so) under our water villa deck with an octopus
Angry Clam
My wife and I got back from Moofushi a really long 2 weeks ago, so I thought I'd post a trip report.Being in the UK, we are fortunate to have 5 wks of vacation every year, plus quite a few national holidays as standard. Since we have all of our family back in the US, we use every single day of it every year. However, we've settled into a routine of doing a big 2-week long vacation every other year (and a smaller 1-wk vacation in the off years, plus a week trip home). In 2010 it was Africa and Mauritius, Two years ago we went to the Maldives. This year we decided to go back.
For those that don't know the Maldives, there are ~1200 islands, of which ~200 have inhabitants. The islands are arranged in atolls. Effectively, if you cut the top off of a mountain with a jagged edge and put it in the ocean until only the top 5' was visible above the water, you'd have an atoll. Around the outside broken 'rim' you have the larger islands which feature a steep dropoff just off shore where the water drops to thousands of feet in places. On the inside, you typically have shallower water, less than a couple hundred feet deep. There are also islands interspersed across the centers of the larger atolls. Sometimes the 'islands' inside an atoll don't quite reach the surface and will stop anywhere between the water surface and 20m below the surface. These are called Thilas and effectly are coral towers that come up from the seafloor. There are also lots of channels (Kandus) between the outer islands connecting the ocean and the inside of the atoll. There are lots of walls, especially on the channel edges, and plenty of current, depending on the tides. Thila's hold lots of fish. Kandu's normally have bigger pelagics (grey sharks, rays, napoleons, tuna, etc) in the blue with reef fish along the walls.
Two years ago both rachel and I did our open water course in the Maldives and the diving is what made us want to come back. We chose a different resort this year (Constance Moofushi) and it was absolutely amazing. The service was first class. The service is what Constance Moofushi use to set themselves apart and I would say they succeed. The food was very good despite being buffet. There is 1 main buffet which has a different chef in charge of the menu each night. There is also an ala carte restaurant that is included in some packages. The included wine list was very good (we drink a lot of wine). There were 75 bottles or so on it of wines of every type. The sommeliers knew what they were doing. The rooms were more than spacious enough. We split our 2 weeks across a beach villa and a water villa. I preferred being in the water villa because of the view (we overlooked the reef and then the indian ocean with nothing between) but to go back I'd have a hard time picking against the beach villa and using the savings for diving. I would absolutely recommend anyone to go there.
The dive center (Blue Tribe Divers) was fantastic. I brought my own gear, but my wife rented regs/BCD. All of the kit was in good shape. The crew took care of you and your gear. They kept your box at the dive center and did all of the rinsing after every dive. It was full service diving- you show up, ride the boat, put on your gear, and dive. At the end of the trip they washed and dried my BCD/reg, ready to be packed away. All of the boat crew were very friendly. All of the divemaster/guides were great people. Underwater, they all were quite good as spotting interesting things, and all were good dive planners/managers. Despite diving to 25-30m on most dives and staying down for quite a while, nearly every dive was an hour, some even more. We had 1 dive (FishHead) with insane current where we burned through air faster and only made 45 minutes or so, but on the whole the dive profiles were great. More than a few times we did the safety stop while exploring the top of the reef and then just popped up when we hit 30 bar or so. We dove with Emi (who happens to be a co-owner) nearly the whole time as they seem to keep you with the same guide if possible. He was fantastic. My wife is a little less comfortable in the water at times and he inspired great confidence in her. She has gone from an anxious but excited diver to just plain excited for diving and I put it on his mentoring throughout the 2 weeks. Overall we were extremely pleased with the center.
We made 24 dives in 14 days (13 me, 11 rachel). The currents were tricky a lot of the time to make double morning dives, and our afternoons were spent lounging in the sun. On the balance though, I feel like we dove about the right amount. We ended up doing our advanced certification as well as nitrox. We figured we were doing the dives anyway, so what's a little book work for a lifetime certification. We dove some of the famous Ari Atoll sites like Fishhead Thila, we snorkeled with whale sharks, we saw a Manta up close, had plenty of turtles in touching distance, and we around schools of various fish so numerous you could never count them. The diving in the maldives is truly some of the best in the world, and I recommend it to anyone who is a diver.
The water temp was 29-31 on every dive and I only used a short sleeve rashguard and board shorts. My wife had a long sleeve rash guard and swimsuit bottoms (bare legs). There was no need for anything more.
Overall, we saw most everything we wanted to see. We saw a manta even though they were out of season. We saw lots of smaller sharks (up to 5') on most dives. I saw 2 grey's over the course of the trip which were in the ~12-14' bracket. We also saw a big nurse shark sleeping in a cave at the safety stop on the last dive. Tons of turtles, most dives had one. I saw a napoleon, but we only saw one this trip (we mostly dove Thilas, while napoleons tend towards walls and channels). We saw a TON of stonefish. Emi was particularly adept at finding them. We saw 6 or 7 on 1 dive, with 2 in the same hole and a third 2' away. We saw a scorpionfish on the same dive. There were lionfish on every dive it seemed and nudibranches everywhere. For a macro photographer there were targets galore. We saw quite a few spotted eagle rays including a group of 6 or 7 on the last dive that were gliding slightly above us in the water column. Really cool to see them from below rather than above. We also saw 3 of them while walking across the deck to our water villa. There was also an innumerable number of fish of every type, particularly clownfish on anemonies. On one dive the top of the reef was like a carpet of anemonies, at least 30m long and 20m wide.
I'll just post the pictures below with minimal commentary. There are lots more if you go into my public Maldives 2014 smugmug account. Some are snorkeling (you can tell by the water color mostly) , but most are diving. I took a liking to Nudibranches and was trying to get better and better pictures of them. I had some gear and technique limitations but I'm happy with the result.
The camera I used was a Canon G9 in the Canon OEM underwater housing. I was working with the onboard flash and OEM diffuser. For our next dive trip (probably Cozumel in April next year) I'll add on at least 1 strobe as I think it will make a world of difference for me. I was happy with the results, especially compared to the hired camera last time we were in the Maldives (first time using manual flash underwater) and then again with my previous pictures diving with this camera. I'm getting the hang of it pretty well now, especially since I've translated my above water skills to below the water. Happy take critique on any of the pictures.
Enjoy!
thanks,
rick
Wine tasting in the ocean with Sharks.
Scorpionfish
Bluefin GTs (school of 50 or so) under our water villa deck with an octopus
Angry Clam
