Dive Madivaru

In the afternoon on the 5th we dive the Madivaru dive site just south of the Conrad-Hilton resort on Rangali Island. The tide is flowing out so we drift dive. 

Oriental sweetlips

During the dive we spotted Turtles, Moray Eels, White tip shark and to top it all off, a Manta Ray. She came suddenly upon us and majestically swam past us against the current. The corals were not too great, understandably due to us being on the outer side of the atoll.

Turtle & Oriental sweetlips

Turtle head

Turtle

Moray eel hiding under huge table coral

Sabre squirrelfish

Nemo again, Maldive anemonefish

Manta Ray

The visibility was abt 10-13m. When surfacing we notice the dive boat some 500m distance off and it eventually took the crew 1.5hrs to find us.

Diving Havodigalaa pinnacle

On the 3^rd we are diving a pinnacle between the Tinadhoo and Havodigalaa Island. It is a very easy dive and has awesome coral formations along the drop offs. Suddenly we come across a resting leopard shark. Eventually he swims off, maybe disturbed by so many visitors. According to our local dive guide, Mr. Mohamed Siraj, the shark is extremely rare in this area of Maldives.

Huge 2m diameter table coral, all intact

Finding Nemo

The leopard shark

Giant clam

Afterwards guests head out to Havodigalaa Island for some day BBQ and fun n the sun. I go ashore as well and walk around the Island to see what it got to offer. The Island itself is a nature reserve for breeding birds with a few buildings with Bengali residents that I assume are some kind of caretakers. While walking around I can see only chickens on the Island, maybe it is not nesting time for the local wild birds. The beaches look pristine but only one glimpse under the surrounding mangroves shows the staggering amount of rubbish that has washed ashore: empty plastic bottles, discarded slippers and other floating debris. Ah, the cost of civilization…

Nina on Havodigalaa

Mangroves

Once back onboard and dusk coming upon us some guests went on a fishing dhoni for night fishing and this time they got a decent catch and returning at 2am back onboard.

Havodigalaa postcard views

Coconut palm avenue

More Beach...

On the 4^th Half of the Guests disembark for home and the rest of the group goes to Tinadhoo Island for sightseeing the rural conditions. Upon return 1730hrs we heave up anchor and start towards our next destination: Ari atoll.

Huvadhoo atoll

Couple of hours later we enter the Huvadhoo atoll and anchor near the main Island of Tinadhoo. 

Fish drying racks S of Tinadhoo

Small shallow lagoon but gravelly beach

Same again

We reconnoiter the nearby Islands that looks very picturesque from afar but find the beaches pretty mediocre with rough coral gravel at the shores. The lagoons though would make excellent snorkeling grounds with a lot of live coral heads in 1-3 m depth. Unfortunately the entrances are a tad too shallow for our tenders. At one Island we spot multiple fish drying racks for tuna.

Locals going by their daily life

Disappointed in the Islands nearby we head to the nearest Island inside the atoll, Havodigalaa Island. The beaches there have white powdery coral sand beaches and th word goes to setup a beach BBQ there. As we approach the beach we can see a lot of people milling around on the beach and Mr. Siraj, our dive guide, explains that is a public holiday in Maldives and that the people are probably just picnicking here. I am also told the Island is actually a nature reserve for breeding birds that migrate here. From the quick look I get from the beach I can only see a few chicken running around. We are approached by two men that are revealed to be the caretakers of the Island and actually hails from Bengal. Luckily we have on our boat people who are proficient in Bengal and we make immediate friends with them.  

Havodigalaa Island

Picknicking locals

Havodigalaa beach

In the evening the weather spoils the BBQ plans yet again as rainy squalls keeps passing above us.  

Locals heading off

Our agent Shafeeq arranges a local group of Maldivians to play music on the aft deck. They start with golden oldies but soon change their music to traditional songs that involve clapping and a drum with singing together. Quite special performance and everybody enjoyed the beat. They are also accompanied by a young Russian girl and after a short chat I find out she's the girlfriend of one of the guitarists and plans to marry and settle in Maldives, ah the folly of youth and love...

Later some fishing is attempted from aft swimming platform but again with a poor catch.

Addoo atoll

29^th Guests arrives. Weather is dead calm as all piloting manuals suggest Crew is onboard prepared as usual.

Hankede Beach mangroves

Hankede Beach

30^th Check Hankede Island for the beach setup to have sundowners and BBQ. The area has been intended to build a resort by a local entrepreneur but is still pending litigation. Icey’s people built up a lovely setup with a path lined with flaming coconuts for the guests to follow to the beach. I was lucky enough to not get hit by the local squall that pelted everyone at the beach and soaked all crew there. Luckily the rain had passed when the Guests arrived so they enjoyed a thoroughly good night of BBQ.

Maldivian cargo dhoni, they can take a 20' container on aft deck

IE in the distance from Mulikolhu Island

After a passed thunder squall, Luke with rainbow in back ground

31^st we are marking the channel to Mulikolhu Island. Me, Luke and Ty end tape reflective tape on empty canisters and up tye them to coral reefs at hazardous points. Same time we see awesome sea life with drop offs going deeper. The weather is not in our favor and the night time BBQ is cancelled. We get the crew safely back onboard although many of our buoys had disappeared with the high waves and passing thunder squalls. New Year is celebrated onboard with a hurried glass of champagne on the port main deck companionway.

Approaching thunder squalls

The "Director's" table

1^st We are still anchored off Mulikolhu Island and guests takes advantage of the sun and plays on the Island. The wind is persisting and blowing freshly from NW. I was on the Island when darkness fell and I saw all the hundreds of hermit crabs emerging from the mangrove bushes to wander about the beach. The biggest specimens I came about were the size of a mans fist. In the evening some Guests go for night fishing but returned without booty.

Happy New Year

Neptune and his minions in full swing

2^nd We weigh anchor early morning at 6am and set our course for Huvadhoo atoll just north of us. During the passage we cross the equator northbound and again Neptune boarded us to initiate them in to the Mysteries of the Deep. The proceedings went well with each participant sealing their worthiness to enter the northern hemisphere with a Bloody Mary shot.

Diving British Loyalty

28^th We reconnoitered the Island of Mulikolhu and found a couple entrances to go through the coral reef with jetski and rescue boat. Having a secured entrance we returned to IE and prepared for a dive at the British Loyalty wreck.

British Loyalty part of railing and a Feather star

C/E Andrei giving the "OK" in the engine room

One propeller blade

Corals

Not taking too much time we loaded our gear onto the Gulf Craft dive boat and headed for the dive site. The guide did not come with diving gear and only pointed out a floating water bottle and told us that there is where the wreck is and follow an N-S course for viewing and do a swim through the wreck.

Current crew of BL, Vermilion rock cod

More railing

Nemo found, Maldives anemonefish

Nemo's cousin found too, Clark's anemonefish

Andreas gives the thumbs up at the end of the dive

Lead by Willy we did all this and saw an ample amount of fish but in my opinion it was not really the best Maldives could offer. The visibility was probably not the best as it was close to dusk. I was still happy to make out the thick riveted hull plating and railings plus other parts such as the propeller and rudder stock, a good dive.

M/t British Loyalty

Photo Courtesy of Library of Contemporary History, Stuttgart

M/t British Loyalty was torpedoed during WWII twice but still did not sink. Eventually she was scuttled to her current location by the British for target practice. For those more interested in the history of m/t British Loyalty can click here.

Exploring Addoo atoll

On 27^th we got a local guide onboard to reconnoiter the local Islands for possible beach parties and barbecues. The locally called “Bushy Island” up north proved very difficult to approach and so we settled on the Mulikolhu Island in the south of the atoll that had recently hosted one of the “Survivor” series seasons with Icey teaching the urbanites how to open coconuts and to catch fish.

Addoo beaches

Our local man "Icey"

Same afternoon I lent from Icey and Matty a pair of scooters and headed with Jessie North to explore the northwestern side of the atoll. First I had to stop and change some dollars to local currency for any expenses. It did not take long to discover the scooters needed more fuel so we stopped on Maradhoo Island on a prominent fuel station to fill our vehicles. At same time I discovered Jessie was on a scooter saddle for her first time of her life but she handled it pretty well.

Riding past trees planted by the English

From Maradhoo we continued onwards and passed the commercial port.  I could see ships anchored to offload oil for the local power station and refrigerator ships to load some tuna that seemed to be the common term for “fish”. Then there was some local shipyards that were repairing dhonis and Gulf Crafts, all vey small and compact operations.

Jessie on her "hog"

We passed the power station with its gorgeous trees planted by the Brits on the way on Maradhoo Island and went along to Hithadhoo Island by the western seaside to Koattey were there was supposed to be ancient ruins of a Fort.

Maldivian jungle

We looked for the ruins as far as we could go by road and reached the sea. We parked our scooters and took a swim in the Indian Ocean with the northern swell pushing us back onshore. I cautioned Jessie to stay close to shore as the local currents might be treacherous. The swim was refreshing but the beach really rocky with dead corals so it was not a nice place to walk on.

The northwestern swamplike inner side of the Addoo atoll

After drying ourselves we took a shore path resembling more of a trial track and eventually met a party of local Maldivians and after querying for the Fort they told us the ruins were long gone during their grand father’s time, oh well, so much for the guide books advice.

Coconut juice break

The inside of Koattey

As we were motoring up and down every treaded path we could find with Jessie we stumbled upon a local man who was cutting down coconuts. After some initial sign language he opened a coconut each and we whetted our whistles with the tender sweet juice. After emptying the shell he cut it half so we could get at the meat. I rewarded the man with 50 US cents in local currency for his efforts. He did not show any emotion if it was insufficient or not so I reckon he was happy. After this it was getting dark and we started back south as Avnish had set a dinner date with me.

Hithadhoo

This time we motored straight through the Hithadhoo center main road and saw the various businesses lining the streets along the residential houses. Many were built by coral bricks, i.e. pieces cut out of the surrounding coral reefs.  On the way we passed many dissecting roads that showed us the sun as it was descending lower and lower. So when it was really nearing the horizon we made it through the brush and stopped to admire the sunset. After this I got a call from Avnish enquiring of our whereabouts so we jumped on our scooters and headed for the Maradhoo Island for the “Citybend” restaurant.

Almost sunset again

At “Citybend” we met Avnish and Nina and had a delicious dinner with local curries and other delicacies. Anyway after dinner, we got on our scooters and drove them back to the Icey’s resort on Gan Island.