This is a follow up post to the 2013 Maldives trip, while the previous post detailed the liveaboard trip in its entirety, I want to share the dive log and some underwater photos in this post.
Photos are taken with Olympus E-PL3 & PT-EP05L underwater housing, I use an Inon UWL 100 & dome port for wide angle shots, and the Inon UCL 165 close up lens for the few macro photos.
Lighting is supplemented with a couple Sea & Sea YS-D1 from my buddy Terence, control wasn’t the best since I’m still getting used to the set up. I gotta be more patient in trying out different settings, but alas, when the underwater world is so beautiful, sometimes you just want to enjoy the moment.
Joshua, Aileen & Cherish, posing with a turtle at Fish Head
We logged 17 dives over 6 days of diving, and got to see basically everything except manta rays at cleaning stations, but the sharks, tuna, whale shark, marble rays, beautiful seascape, and wonderful company more than made up for it.
Here’s hoping we will visit this paradise of a country again in not so distant future.
guitar shark found at 38 meters at “Fish Head”
Check out dive.
28.1m
One diver shot up from 20m with mask and regulator off, luckily proper CESA observed
Saw two black tip around 5-6′
Titan trigger non aggressive
School red tooth trigger fish
A very big morey eel
Parrot fish
Night dive 9pm+
Site: fesdu lagoon
Set up lights on boat and dhony to attract mantas.
Went down and visibility was not too great due to sand kick up
Manta came close few times, magical
65 mins
During safety stop Manta feeding under lights. Shot a short video
The same diver cut the dive short, still recovering from first dive’s emergency ascent
school of fish at Lily’s Manta Point
a customary picture of nemo
played with the cleaner wrasses a little at Broken Rock, day 4
Guitar shark at 38.5 meter.
Saw some 6 footer gray sharks
Giant morey eel swimming out of hiding place too
Plenty of fish, coral
Medium current, maybe a tad too deep at guitar shark area, luckily monitored and did not go into deco
Alan and Nicole came up late due to deco
The diver who had problem on the first day had a good dive, that’s great
Dive 4:
Before lunch
Second dive at Lily’s Manta point
Didn’t manage to spot any Manta this time
Close to 20m and we found a spot on Sandy bottom waiting for Manta, did not happen
Ended up playing a bit and taking pics at the nearby reefs
Afternoon dive
Same site at Lily’s Manta point
No Manta this dive either, nice leisure dive
Puffer fish, coral fish, played with the sand and fishes taking advantage pecking the debris
day 3 – swimming with whale shark
Kudimaa wreck, I always love the ambiance of a wreck dive
Kuradah Thila
Plenty of reef fish, huge garupa too
Nice seascape, Nemo too
Saw a Manta while on Dhoni
Dive 7:
Second dive
South of ali atoll
Site: manigili
Trying to spot whale shark
We Snorkeled with the baby wheel shark first, was fun at first then it got too crowded
Some other group didn’t play nice and cut through front, blah
Still the whale shark was majestic!
Diving later was non eventful except the whale shark for the first minute.
Too much current swaying us left and right so we went up after about 40m
Dive 8:
Third dive of the day
Kudimaa wreck
Beautiful wreck, we went inside a little bit too
Didn’t put my flash trigger securely so no flash available
Big school of bat fish, very bold and curious
manta visited us again on the 3rd night, majestic creature
a moray eel scheming something against Caely, at Broken Rock
caught Nicole framing these pair of butterfly fish
Site: broken rock
Nice leisure dive, Joshua having a bit of problem descending, tried helping but didn’t manage cos I didn’t carry weight
Saw a pair of yellow batfish, nice pic opportunity
Morey swimming outside too
Site: vashu giri kandu
Deep and with quite a bit of current
Saw napoleon wrasse, sharks, and eagle ray
Hanging on the side wall to fight off current
Almost deco at 3-4 mins for a while
One of the more challenging dive sites
Dive 11:
Night dive
Alimatha jetty
One of the more exciting dives
We had some sardin in a milo tin and lots of nurse sharks came
Got very close to them too
A few knocked me and the camera pretty solid
Giant trivoli were huge, almost 2 feet in length and very bold
Huge marble Rays too
Haze was petrified underwater, didn’t know nurse sharks don’t bite
Awesome dive even tho it was very shallow at about 5-8 meters only
diving with nurse sharks at Alimatha Jetty, thrilling experience
huge marble ray among the sharks
Others saw a school of black tip at deeper end too
Quite deep, less exciting dive especially after last night
Dive 13:
Site: kandoona
Pretty deep dive, hit deco for about a minute strong current and we just hang on the rocks, looking at quite a few gray reef sharks just chilling at the channel, kinda like f1 car in wind tunnel
A few Napoleon wrasse too
35 meter
Site: vilivaru giri
Lots of reef fish, a few types of trigger
Trying to take a photo of a pair of pipe fish but an unsuspecting morey bit attacked the strobe
Saw a turtle too
Quite a lot of clown fish too
Beautiful corals, including table coral
Brown ribbon eel
Others saw octopus too
spotted this beautiful jellyfish at “Sunlight” dive site, day 5
beautiful seascape at “Sunlight”
plenty of these small critters at Miyaru Kandu, day 4
say cheese, Mr. Turtle of Miyaru Kandu dive site
Site: sunlight
No Manta
Played with sand again
Saw a tiny little flounder which was very cute
The two coral blocks had some jewel garupa, Nemo etc
Saw a pretty good size jelly fish on the way up too
Dive site: Lankan reef
Saw a tuna for the first time. A bit far away so can’t get any pics.
It was some 10-20m from a shark that everyone was checking out
No Manta sightings tho
Reef fish aplenty, pipe fish too
Dive site: Lankan reef
Another try for Manta but yet again no luck
Saw a shark, turtle, yellow pipe fish and other reef fish
A more relaxing end as the last dive of our trip
Haze & yours truly, signing offÂ
WAIT FOR ME !!!!!!!I AM GOING NEXT YEAR !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Terence: good luck, hope you see some awesome stuff!
Awesome pixs. I didn’t realise I look so ugly there…! lol
Manta: hahaha.
That is not Nemo!
Nemo is Amphiprion Ocellaris.
Picture is Nemo’s cousin Amphiprion Sebae.
PPKia: haha technically you are right, but Nemo’s cousin is unfortunately, named Nemo as well! 😛
Wow..that looks awesome! 😛
Amy: thanks 😀
Wow, that’s another amazing world down there! 😉
Cheryl: definitely!
KY, I have not gone skin diving in a long time. The guy I am with too busy was a former Navy Seal was good at it and I had lot fun like you see all those underwater life when diving. I do it again now when heading to Hawaii to visit my cousins.
Vickie: time to set him up straight!
I want to take up diving license too. So magical under water!
annna: you should!
Awesome, i have no idea how camera works under water LOL
Ken: with some expensive underwater casing. lol
OMG so wonderful! I just started diving and all these pretty things in the water, just so gorgeous!!!
Nicole: enjoy! and dive safe
Maldives is my favourite place to dive! clear water and blue sky. Can u share me more info about the places that u stay at Maldives? I want to stay in a resort/hotel with renovation and has good facilities.
Anna: hmmmm.