Premo83
Contributor
Trip Report - Deep South Maledives
Diving:
We were 20 divers on the boat split up in three groups. The diving was always conducted from a Dhoni and not from the main ship. We did three dives a day and the water temperature was mostly 29-30° :-/ The trip started in the deep shout in Gan, Addu Atoll (1 hour flight from Male). From there we headed north to Male while diving at the following atolls: Addu Atoll, Fuvahmulah, Huvadhoo Atoll, Laamu Atoll, Thaa Atoll, Meemu Atoll, Vaavu Atoll, South Ari Atoll, North Ari Atoll. In the beginning the diving was a bit underwhelming. We did about 4 blue water dives with the hopes to see hammerheads, tigers and threshers. One or two hammerheads passed by very deep, very few divers saw them. I don’t know if we just weren’t lucky enough or the group was too big. For the blue water diving they kept all three groups together. Also the water was very warm, I still had 29° at 30m. So the blue water dives were disappointing. What we did most were channel dives. We were hooked in at the entrance of a channel at around 30m, watched for sharks (mostly grey reefs and whitetips) until our NDL hit zero. Then we started drifting through the channel where we kept our eyes open for different types of rays and turtels. We also did three dives where we waited at cleaning stations for mantas to show up. These dives were amazing. One dive we spent around 90 minutes watching them up close. Another exciting dive was a night dive with nurse sharks. However it is a popular spot so there are many divers in the water and it can get chaotic especially if there is some current. I was very happy with our guide. If you are a bit experience he let you dive your way but he always knew where the whole group was. He also had a good feeling where to go during the dives. One dive we were watching the mantas but the place was getting crowded so he gave us the signal to leave and took us to another place 2-3 minutes away where we had 4 mantas for ourselves away from all the other divers. The briefings were in great detail and they mostly nailed the current. Before every dive one of the guides jumped in for a last minute current check.
Crew:
Always hard working and very helpful. Nothing to complain about. Our guide was great as already mentioned. The chef prepared outstanding meals. There was a lot to choose from with a good mix of Asian/Indian/Sri Lanken and western food. There was also always plenty of food.
The boat:
It was very clean, every room hat its shower and toilet. We had plenty of space in our room however some rooms are a bit smaller. Still I think there was enough room. The camera table was a bit small but we didn’t have many divers with camera. There is also plenty of space to hang out on the boat.
In general it was a very good trip and I would do it again but it isn’t at the top of trips I would do again...closer to the middle of the pack. What I forgot to mention is that the corals weren’t in great shape but it wasn’t surprising to me considering the very warm water.
I also did a short video of the trip:
Diving:
We were 20 divers on the boat split up in three groups. The diving was always conducted from a Dhoni and not from the main ship. We did three dives a day and the water temperature was mostly 29-30° :-/ The trip started in the deep shout in Gan, Addu Atoll (1 hour flight from Male). From there we headed north to Male while diving at the following atolls: Addu Atoll, Fuvahmulah, Huvadhoo Atoll, Laamu Atoll, Thaa Atoll, Meemu Atoll, Vaavu Atoll, South Ari Atoll, North Ari Atoll. In the beginning the diving was a bit underwhelming. We did about 4 blue water dives with the hopes to see hammerheads, tigers and threshers. One or two hammerheads passed by very deep, very few divers saw them. I don’t know if we just weren’t lucky enough or the group was too big. For the blue water diving they kept all three groups together. Also the water was very warm, I still had 29° at 30m. So the blue water dives were disappointing. What we did most were channel dives. We were hooked in at the entrance of a channel at around 30m, watched for sharks (mostly grey reefs and whitetips) until our NDL hit zero. Then we started drifting through the channel where we kept our eyes open for different types of rays and turtels. We also did three dives where we waited at cleaning stations for mantas to show up. These dives were amazing. One dive we spent around 90 minutes watching them up close. Another exciting dive was a night dive with nurse sharks. However it is a popular spot so there are many divers in the water and it can get chaotic especially if there is some current. I was very happy with our guide. If you are a bit experience he let you dive your way but he always knew where the whole group was. He also had a good feeling where to go during the dives. One dive we were watching the mantas but the place was getting crowded so he gave us the signal to leave and took us to another place 2-3 minutes away where we had 4 mantas for ourselves away from all the other divers. The briefings were in great detail and they mostly nailed the current. Before every dive one of the guides jumped in for a last minute current check.
Crew:
Always hard working and very helpful. Nothing to complain about. Our guide was great as already mentioned. The chef prepared outstanding meals. There was a lot to choose from with a good mix of Asian/Indian/Sri Lanken and western food. There was also always plenty of food.
The boat:
It was very clean, every room hat its shower and toilet. We had plenty of space in our room however some rooms are a bit smaller. Still I think there was enough room. The camera table was a bit small but we didn’t have many divers with camera. There is also plenty of space to hang out on the boat.
In general it was a very good trip and I would do it again but it isn’t at the top of trips I would do again...closer to the middle of the pack. What I forgot to mention is that the corals weren’t in great shape but it wasn’t surprising to me considering the very warm water.
I also did a short video of the trip:
