Mick does the Maldives (MY Monsoon and Kuredu Island)

[Mick F]

Mrs. Mick & I have done various dive holidays over the last few years and this year, we wanted something a little different; so at the end of September set out for the Maldives. This was to be a mix of diving and relaxation, one week aboard the new liveaboard MY Monsoon, and a second week on Kuredu Island.

We left home at 6.00am on Sunday and had a long days travel getting there travelling from Dublin - London – Dubai – Male – Kuredu, and were absolutely knackered reaching Kuredu on Monday morning where we were met by the guides form the Monsoon – Joe, Karin, and Chris. Many of you will know Joe and Karin from the MY Hurricane trips in the southern Egyptian Red Sea. Chris has worked for some years in the Maldives and jumped at the chance to guide on the Monsoon.

We met up with the other guests – there was to be only ten of us aboard for the week, and jumped in promptly for the check-dive onto Kuredu House Reef. This is a surprisingly good house reef, although I didn’t really have a good dive as I hadn’t trimmed the Evolution properly and was also knackered from the journey.

As soon as we were back on board the boat headed off to our next mooring and anchored up for the night. We were doing a clockwise route around Baa, Raa, Noonu, and Lhaviyani Atolls. Monsoon is the only liveaboard doing this Northern route, which meant that we would be free of other divers for most of the trip.

Tuesday morning we jumped in on a small Thilla, which is an underwater island, and I was amazed at the amount of life here. Whilst most of the coral in the Maldives is still recovering from El Nino in the late 80’s and would not be comparable to the Red Sea, the fish life is incredible with huge shoals of fish on almost every dive. I really enjoyed this dive but the second dive of the day turned out to be one of the most incredible dives I have ever done.

We jumped in on another Thilla and were met by four Manta Rays swimming around and around our heads. I had never even seen these creatures before and I was astounded at the size and grace of them. I spent an hour almost motionless in the water just watching and videoing them on their circuit. For the last 15 minutes I was on my own with Karin who then backed off the reef a little to give them some space. With no bubble blowers around and no noise, they now came much closer to me, almost brushing off me at times. I’m not an overly religious man, but this was an almost spiritual experience. I left the water on a high that’s almost impossible to describe and I thought that this would be the highlight of the trip. I was wrong. We had just had lunch when the shout went up: “WHALE SHARK”

Apparently, if you go to a known hot-spot for Whale Sharks, you still only have a 5 – 10% chance of actually seeing one. We grabbed our snorkels and ran for the RHIBS. When we got in the water, there wasn’t a single Shark to be seen. Nope, there were three of them! The plankton was almost like soup, you could feel the thickness of the water, and these 6 – 8M Sharks were feeding at the surface. We bobbed around them as they gulped gallons and gallons of water forcing it through their filters and out through their gills. Although we were consciously avoiding touching them, one of them hit me with its tail. I braced for the impact, but as soon as it touched me it stopped and just let the tail gently drift across me. I couldn’t believe how gentle this huge animal was. They were also completely unbothered by our presence. I saw a TV program with Tanya Streeter earlier this year. She wanted to freedive with a Whale Shark and when she found one, started bleating on about how all the snorkellers around it were crowding it and frightening it. Having seen the size and power of these marvellous beasts, I have no doubt that if they didn’t want to be there then nobody would be able to crowd them. They were so amazing to watch we almost (but not quite) ignored the Mantas that were just below them also feeding on the plankton! Eventually we had to leave and jabbered constantly about the experience for the rest of the day. Joe, Karin, and Chris were now all smiles, the pressure was off. The week just couldn’t get any better.

Well, actually it could.

Wednesday morning we dropped into 18M of water onto a sandy bottom with absolutely nothing to see. Except for the Manta Rays all around us in a feeding frenzy. We later estimated anything up to a hundred off them, soaring and gliding. Turning somersaults over and over again whilst completely ignoring all of the divers sitting quietly below them. Where-ever I looked the sea was full of Mantas; This was just…...well it was…(looks up Thesaurus)…nope I still can’t find a suitable word to describe the experience. We surfaced and fell into the RHIBS with big stupid grins just in time to see another Whale Shark turn up. We grabbed snorkels and got back in for another closeup session with one of the seas most incredible beings.

After this life just couldn’t get any better. We had some really good dives over the next two days. Every dive had tons of life with Turtles, Morays, Anenome fish, Eagle Rays, Octopus, Marbled Stingrays, huge lobsters & shrimp, and all kinds of beasties great and small. Every dive turned up something new, whether it was a free-swimming Honeycombed Moray, or a White Tipped Reef Shark asleep under an overhang. The diving was top notch and on some of the dives I was surprised at just how good the hard and soft corals could actually be. Obviously not all of the sites were bleached to the same extent.

I did a couple of dives with Joe who was only too eager to take his Megladon out to play. It was on one of these dives on Friday afternoon, that my highlight of the week occurred. We had seen a good number off Grey Reef Sharks on a small Thilla on Friday morning, but they wouldn’t come anywhere near us, so we returned that evening hoping to get a bit closer.

We did.

We swam around for quite a while with two small reefies following us, but we couldn’t see any big stuff. A Guitar Shark swam past snuffling the sand at one point, but he wasn’t hanging around for pictures. We saw the odd one in the distance, but they just would not come close. We were frustrated, but after about 45 mins all the bubble blowers surfaced. As soon as they had gone, the familiar shapes began to come from the Blue. We settled down on the sand back-to-back and waited. They started to circle and come closer and closer; some of them knocking on for 2M long. I shot some great video with them almost brushing off me. I lost count of how many there was. We later estimated about forty to fifty of them. This was another hugely intense experience which was blowing me away when BANG.

Something hit me hard from behind on the right shoulder, making me drop the camera and stumble forward. I looked around to see what the hell Joe was playing at and saw this huge shape brush past me. It was a big fat Grey Reef Shark which had either accidentally hit me in the swarm of beasties, or decided I was no longer welcome in its water. Joe and I had drifted about 10M apart from each other and the sharks were now all around us. I know that reefies are not particularly dangerous to divers, but I was hoping that someone had explained that to these ones. As my sphincter tightened they suddenly all headed off up the reed. We looked at each other and headed for the surface with some of the biggest stupidest grins possible.

This was one of the most powerful encounters I have ever had underwater. This is one of the reasons I dive a rebreather. Joe and I were the only ones on the trip to experience this and it was a special, extraordinary dive. We did a few more dives on Saturday and Sunday morning, but nothing could match the dives we had already done this week.

I’ve done quite a few dive trips but this is most definitely at the top of the tree. The Monsoon is a great liveaboard. Steel hulled, built in the Red Sea and most comfortable. The crew are just about the best I have met with a mixture of Maldivians, Egyptians, Sri Lankans, and a Philippino. Really good food, and fully rebreather friendly.

Joe, Karin, and Chris are the best you’ll meet anywhere, and really made the trip something special. They went out of their way to look after Mrs. Mick who had knee surgery only eight weeks before the trip. The crew carried her gear everywhere, and either Chris or Karin took her under their wing during the dives I did with Joe. Overall they are just fantastic people who truly love diving and guiding, and this really shows.
Mrs. Mick and I moved onto Kuredu for the second week and we all had a bit of a party Sunday night to say goodbye to the other guests who were departing Monday morning. The ten of us had gotten on really well during the week and we were sad to see them leave.

Kuredu is an interesting place. We had a beautiful villa on stilts over the lagoon which looked out on the amazing Maldivian sunsets. We did find some things a bit wearing such as the constant up-selling of excursions or discounted bottles of champagne. We also had $500 stolen from the safe in our room. We had some push-back from the management at first when we tried to report it, but when the General Manager got involved, they did eventually bring the police to the island two days later. The management tried hard to persuade us that we had lost or mislaid the cash, and went to great lengths to explain how it couldn’t have been stolen from the safe as only we had the combination. This was almost convincing until the policeman showed me a report about another guest having cash stolen from their safe in July! Also when we told one of the bar-staff during a chat that we had money stolen from our room, he immediately said “from your safe, yes?” so I got the impression we weren’t an isolated incident.

So having gone through all this would I recommend Kuredu? Well actually, yes I would. I wouldn’t go there as a destination in itself, but for a weeks relaxation after a liveaboard week it was really enjoyable. The spa was great and we made plenty of visits. I usually can’t bear lying in the sun, but I did lots of it this week. We snorkelled in the lagoon and lazed around the deck in the villa.

We only did a couple of dives but I did do a scooter intro on the house reef which was brilliant. Prodivers are the dive center on the island and are a very large German operation. One of their instructors took me out for the intro. They have Japanese Apollo scooters which I hadn’t come across before. The scooter is relatively small and light but pushed me along at about 3 knots flat out! You hold it between your legs and operate a push-pull throttle. If you ever get a chance to have a go on one of these, don’t hesitate. Just don’t turn your head sideways at full speed or your mask comes off!

Overall it was a great experience; a really enjoyable two weeks. We booked through Tony Backhurst, and flew with Emirates who are one of the best I’ve travelled with. If you’re even remotely considering going out there, just go. You’ll love it.

I’ll try to get some video clips up over the next few days. Hope you enjoyed it.

Till next time,

Mick.

EDIT: Video is up at

[ShinyD]

Great report Mick! The diving sounded fantastic

[Ahoy]

Excellent report and glad you had such stunning dives. I did Male and Ari atolls recently and was thoroughly impressed. But your pelagic experiences are exceptional! I'll have to have a look at Monsoon in the future!
Cheers,
S.

[mala]

any wrecks?

[Mick F]

There's a scuttled small wreck on the Kuredu house reef, and a couple at a site called the Shipyard. One's a tuna boat hit the reef after catching fire and the second a small scuttled wreck. Nothing too exciting really TBH, but worth a scoot 'round.

[Midnight]

Hate you, hate you, hate you!!!

Welcome back to rainy Dublin!!

Midnight

[Peter M]

Nice report Mick, i didnt know you had one of those snorkel thingys !!!

[Richard Mason]

Great report. I'm tempted. Just have to rope in Mrs M.

[Hazel W]

great report and sounds like you had a great time .... kuredu is a great island and the local diving is superb even with the coral being so badly damaged not long ago. We were there in 2004 and had a great time. Didnt have anything nicked but we heard of those who did ! shame as it spoils an otherwise fantastic hol.

Hazel

[JasonP]

Originally Posted by Hazel W

great report and sounds like you had a great time .... kuredu is a great island and the local diving is superb even with the coral being so badly damaged not long ago. We were there in 2004 and had a great time. Didnt have anything nicked but we heard of those who did ! shame as it spoils an otherwise fantastic hol.

I've been on a land based holiday to the Maldives 12 times, including Kuredu though it's my least favourite island, and I've never heard of anyone having anything nicked. Another reason to go to another island in my book.

Jason