Maldives - Discovery-1 liveaboard (January, 2001)
Author: Ilan

About Diving in the Maldives:
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The Maldives Islands in the Indian Ocean offers excellent diving in strong currents and are not for beginner divers.  In January 2001 I have been on 8 days liveaboard on the Discovery-1, like all liveaboards in the Maldives the boat functions as a floating hotel and the diving is done from a diving Dhoni (local wooden boat) that hosts all the diving equipment and gets away from the main boat during compression of the tanks.  The Discovery-1 is quite a luxuries and comfortable boat and the food like most food in the Maldives is based on fish.  The liveaboard was done in North Male atoll, South Male Atoll and Felidho atoll, most dives were drift dives with very strong currents and some of the dives were against the current.  Coral bleaching affected the top of most of the reefs and due to the strong current there aren't many big corals but the amount of fish, sharks, turtles, rays and other critters is amazing.  In 7 diving days I saw 1 Manta ray dozens of turtles, white tip and gray reef sharks, stingrays, eagle rays large tunas and giant travellies.  Also between the dives we visited some of the islands (local, resorts and inhabited) and enjoyed the beautiful views and the many shades of blue water and green islands.

About the dives:
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Day-1 - North Male Atoll
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Banana Reef:
Assembling the diving gear body checks and we jump off the dhoni I start descending and to fly with the current passing near the wall that is covered with thousands of blue triggerfish jacks moray eels large groupers and two big hawksbill turtles the visibility is good and I feel good with the weights and equipment.

Manta Point:
According to the Maldivian dive master in this season Manta Point is actually No Manta point, the dive is a strong current drift dive and we fly near the wall passing near two white tip reef sharks that swim away from us I'm used to the blue trigger fish but it is still spectacular we also see two big hawksbill turtles that ignores us and continue feeding on the corals.

Nassimo Thila:
The dive is as usual a strong current drift dive near a coral wall with lots of caves that gives you a chance to stop in a shelter from the strong current the caves are full of soft corals and a unique emerald blue soft coral that I've never saw before we saw a big white tip shark big groupers and when se did our 5 meters safety stop we saw a big Manta Ray on the reef I'm swimming against the current trying to get near her but at three meter from her she is just flying away from her with several remoras attached to her.

Furahna south:
This dive turns to be the most crazy dive I've ever done it starts as a strong current drift dive but then the current got stronger and underwater sand storms started me and my dive body found refuge in a cave and just watched the underwater sand storm after getting back to the surface we entered a vortex and for some minutes we just circled each other till we got out of it.

Day-2 - North Male Atoll
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Back Faru:
Wall dive against mild to weak current lots of fish.

Maagiri Thila:
Reef dive without current 1 giant Napoleon Humphead followed us.

Banana Reef:
Drift dive with the strong current the wall is still covered with blue triggerfish and other types of fish.

Day-3 - South Male Atoll
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Kiki Reef:
Drift dive with weak current lots of fish saw 1 turtle.

Bolifushi Wreck:
We entered the water and headed to the wreck when from the wreck a hawksbill turtle swam to us and played with us swam from one diver to the other and didn't accept no for an answer (he is probably used to being fed by divers) the wreck it self lies on its back and is full with groupers some very large and several types of shrimps the sands around the wreck are inhabited by garden eels, we left the wreck and continue along the reef into a school of hundreds of juvenile jacks that surrounded us from every direction it was very impressing.

Laguna Caves:
Back to strong currents and drift diving we saw big dog toothed tunas a hawksbill turtle and a green turtle as we flew with the current.

Day-4 - South Male Atoll
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Vadho Caves:
Mild current took us along the wall but also enabled us to stop and look around and indeed we saw 1 white tip reef shark passed below us and run away we stopped in a cave entrance to look at some big yellow groupers and in a cave 1 meter above 4 large black spotted sting rays just laid there and we stayed there for several minutes just looking at them breath we continue the dive saw some tunas and on the safety stop an eagle ray flew over me the best dive till now I thought.

Dhigu Thila:
Again mild current the visibility was medium but we saw 1 white tip and 1 black tip reef sharks got an excellent view on a hawksbill turtle in a coral feast and some big groupers.

Myaru Faru:
Drift dive with strong current to the entrance of a channel at 16 meters we stopped in a view point just holding tight to everything that could hold us and stayed and watch 3 big white tip reef sharks one of them pregnant female as they circle effortlessly with and against the current we stayed there till we had to go up and on the way up we saw 2 big stingrays 1 laying on the bottom and one swimming bellow us another excellent dive.

Day-5- South Male & Felidho Atoll
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Kuda Giri Wreck:
Went down to the wreck that sits on the bottom of a coral pinnacle (Thila in maldivian) lots of small fish and some big bat fish and some big jacks on the way up we circled the thila till we got up.

Medhu Faru:
We dove in a mild to strong drift dive to the entrance of the channel and stopped in 28 meters hold to the ground and watched the shark show with 1 gray reef shark escorted with 9 white tip shark in all sizes swimming bellow us keeping a distance between them and us when we had to continue the dive we were joined with a giant napoleon saw 2 big turtles and at the blue water a group of giant travellies in a big number swam.  Although I saw a big number of hammerheads together in the past I never saw so many reef sharks together but it was only the beginning.

Kudhiboli Kandu:
We dove with the wall in a reef that suppose to have mantas but the visibility was bad due to the sun angle and the amount of plankton in the water the most interesting thing in the dive was anemones in large number getting close for the night and the clown fish trying to hide in what left of the shelter the anemones once provided.

Day-6 - Felidho Atoll
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Kuna Yashi Kandu:
Again diving in low visibility we saw a small white tip shark swimming above us a stingray and a school of jacks.

Myaru Kandu:
Incredible wall dive with week current into the channel we couldn't go deep due to decompression limits so we stopped at 21 meters and I managed to see some big tunas and a really big gray shark that swap away.

Dhevana Kandu:
Diving against the current to the channel corner where the current got to be very strong we went to 26 meters held the ground and watched the show that started with 7 eagle rays that swam with the current after they passed ewe noticed the sharks in the depth I couldn't count their number but there were several white tips and several grays when the time came we had to leave them and on the way up we saw 2 huge lobsters hiding in a small cave.  Best dive till now I thought.

Day-7 - Felidho & South Male Atoll
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Alimatha Kandu:
Last day of diving and we are diving against the current to the corner of the channel a friendly napoleon escorts us 1 small white tip shark passes above us we recognize the corner by a group of big black fish that I don't know what type they are we are stop at 30 meters and watch the show tunas travellies and of course white tip and gray reef sharks bellow us in very close range at one point I had a white tip and a gray sharks in my frame when a big stingray just swam between them (wow) then a giant barracuda joined the show on the way up we saw a small white tip shark another stingray and an eagle ray them swam below us giving us an excellent view of the white spots.  Best dive in the trip I thought but wait for the next dive.

Guraidu South Kandu:
The usual routine swimming against the mild current to the corner where the current is very strong holding to the ground and watching the show that this time started with 22 eagle rays (that is the average number from all the other divers report) that swam with the current and of course the white tip and gray reef sharks that swam bellow us all the group continued the dive and me and my diving body decided to stay for several more minutes knowing its our last day dive and seeing that we have enough air and we are still in the safe deco zone, and then an amazing thing happened the sharks no longer timid by the large number of divers started coming up and swam all around us ignoring us this is the best dive from many excellent ones I thought.

Kuda Thila:
As a dessert we did a night dive in 8 meter around the thila lots of shrimp crab soft and hard corals but the most amazing thing was two big turtles sleeping inside a cave at 8 meters.

Conclusion
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If you can afford it go to the Maldives it is one the best diving spots in the world but be prepared for the strong currents
they give a lot of pleasure but also are hard to fight some times.

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