While there are unsurprisingly hundreds of world class dive sites in the Maldives, the majority of liveaboards tend to follow a fairly standard 7 day itinerary that departs from and returns to the capital city of Male. This is basically a loop that runs from north to southern Male atoll, makes the crossing to Ari atoll and then swings over to Felidhoo atoll before heading back up to Male atoll and the capital.

Jez with clownfish and anenome at Hafsaa Thila

Certainly this trip is the most convenient Maldives itinerary to do, and it has several world-class dives within it which makes it perennially popular. I've done this trip several times on three different Maldives liveaboards – MV Orion, MV Carpe Vita, and MV Sachika – follow the links for detailed reviews of each boat - and here are what I think are the best Maldives dive sites in a typical seven day trip. You can see my previous trip report 7 days on Maldives Liveaboard MV Orion, my magazine story Luxury Scuba Diving In The Maldives for Bangkok Airways inflight magazine Fah Thai and Maldives Diving photo gallery January 2011 for more info on how trips actually run.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yihoIvUBDM4

Note that this list of dive sites doesn't cover Baa atoll (home of Hanifaru, the annual August and September manta ray and whale shark fest) in the north or the southern Maldives sites south of Ari atoll – that would be another Best Of list in its own right as those sites are not visited so often by Maldives liveaboards due to their relative remoteness. For current pricing and schedules on MV Orion, MV Carpe Vita and MV Sachika, follow the links.

The best time to go to the Maldives to do the classic Male- Ari – Thud - Male itinerary is April, when the visibility is outstanding, although it's pretty amazing all year round. June and July are the months to avoid as seas get choppy and wind picks up with the monsoon changeover.

Hafsaa Thila

Hafsaa Thila
Usually awash with huge schools of fish, Hafsaa Thila is a shallow, flat-topped pinnacle where marine life congregates. Since the catastrophic coral die off in the 1990s, the Maldives is more a place to creatures rather than coral, and Hafsaa is one of the signature sites for spotting white tip sharks in the blue as well as schoals on the pinnacle.

Manta Rays of Rangali Madivaru, Maldives

Rengali Madivaru
A sun-drenched shallow reef, Rengali Madivaru is also one of the Maldive's most famous manta ray cleaning stations – there are several stations scattered along the edge of the reef on the cusp of its slope down into the depths. Mantas cruise and wheel around each station, making it possible to move on from one to another if it gets too crowded – it's unsurprisingly a popular site. See more manta ray photos from Rengali Madivaru in my previous post Maldives Manta Rays: A Spectacular Close Encounter At Rengali Madivaru

Turtle and Sting Ray, Maya Thila Night Dive, Maldives

Maya Thila
Widely considered as the best night diving spot in the Maldives, Maya Thila is a shallow pinnacle where white-tip sharks, stingrays, turtles and a plethora of other creatures are regularly encountered after dark.

Maldives Whale Shark © kaz20

Maamigili
Not a dive site as such, more an area, Maamigili is a stretch of water famous for sightings of whale sharks. It's possible to go snorkelling with the gentle giants here, although you need to keep your wits about you in the water

Kudarah Thila

Kudarah Thila
Picturesque overhangs and a field of coral fans typify Kundahah, one of the prettiest dive sites on this list. There can be strong currents and a negative descent required, but once on the thila itself, the abundant fish life brought in by the currents makes it a must-see site worth the effort

Maldives Manta Rays Dhonkalo

Dhonkalo
An eighteen metre deep sandy channel in the middle of nowhere, Dhonkalo's barren reef is distinctly unappetising – except it's also a stunning manta ray cleaning station. I've seen up to 15 here on any one dive, riding in train formation on the sometimes savage currents that can rip through the channel – it's like an underwater airport. (See more Dhonkalo pix in my previous post Maldives Manta Rays: My Best Picture of 2010).

Kuda Giri Wreck

Kuda Giri Shipwreck
Actually a minor dive site in the Maldives pantheon, this one is a personal favourite of mine. The wreck of the Kuda Giri, a boat deliberately sunk for diving, sits upright on a sandy bottom at 30 metres with the top of the deck around 24 metres. Thickly encrusted with colourful corals and still relatively intact, the wreck provides an atmospheric final dive for most trips. The nearby reef provides some extra scenery for the last, shallow part of the dive.

More photos from the Maldives can be seen in the Divehappy Maldives Diving photo galleries - click any thumbnail for a bigger version.

Manta Rays of Rangali Madivaru, Maldives

April may be the cruelest month for T.S. Eliot, but for Maldives scuba diving it's absolute bliss - while conditions are good almost all year round, in April there's a certain quality of light and a certain clarity to the water that makes it particularly special. The Maldives is famous as one of the few places in the world where you can have almost guaranteed encounters with manta rays, and South Ari atoll's Rangali reef is one of the most spectacular manta hotspots.

Manta Rays of Rangali Madivaru, Maldives

But there's little to prepare you for four mantas swooping in and circling around their cleaning station at Rangali Madivaru, wholly unbothered by a couple of divers flattening themselves on the rocks below them to be as unobstrusive as possible and so only a few inches from being touched by the tips of a manta's wing.

Manta Rays of Rangali Madivaru, Maldives

Rangali Madivaru is an almost-certain stop on any Maldives liveaboard trip as it's a reknown manta cleaning station, located in relatively shallow water at 8 to 20 metres. There are several cleaning stations along the long, steep sloped reef, and it's possible to move between two or three stations in a single dive to stay ahead of other divers if you're feeling fit.

Manta Rays of Rangali Madivaru, Maldives

On this dive, circumstances conspired to be perfect. My dive buddy Jez and I slipped into the water a few minutes before everyone else on our dhoni from the MV Carpe Vita was ready - the shallow reef stretched out beneath us with no current and astounding visibility of 40 metres, drenched in light from the mid-morning sun.

Manta Rays of Rangali Madivaru, Maldives

We'd both been here before and knew what a popular spot it is for Maldives liveaboards and resorts alike (like the uber-luxury Conrad Rengali)- to be on the reef alone was beautiful, especially as it wasn't long before the first, very large, manta ray came gliding in to greet us. Around 3 metres from wingtip to wingtip, this manta showed no fear - actually, no interest at all - in two divers skulking around his territory.

Manta Rays of Rangali Madivaru, Maldives

Instead he lazily took up circling very slowly around the cleaning station, and was soon joined by another, and another... and another. To have four manta rays, each the size of a small car, passing inches over your head and momentarily blocking out the sun before swooping back out into a holding pattern around the station, is not something you forget easily. Some of the mantas got so close to me I couldn't fit them in the camera viewfinder - and I was using a lens that makes things seem further away...

Manta Rays of Rangali Madivaru, Maldives

Thanks to the relatively shallow depth - around 10 metres at the top of the reef - we were able to stay with the mantas for a good half hour, and they remained in place even as several boatloads more divers arrived on the scene. By that point Jez and I had drifted down the reef to another cleaning station, and a couple of the mantas seemingly followed us a few minutes later. I've seen mantas in Thailand, Indonesia, Palau and the Philippines, but the Maldives provides the perfect conditions for not only seeing them but spending time watching their amazing presence in the water.

Carpe Vita Maldives Liveaboard

Carpe Vita is a brand new luxury Maldives liveaboard which launched in March 2011. The sister ship to the already established Carpe Diem liveaboard, Carpe Vita is purpose-built for scuba diving. The boat basically aims to take the best elements of Carpe Diem and make it even bigger and better. Carpe Vita is targetted at the luxury end of the dive market and runs 7 day Maldives diving trips departing and returning to Male.

Carpe Vita Maldives Liveaboard

Executive Summary
If you can't be bothered to read all of the info below, the executive summary is that Carpe Vita is an excellent boat, very efficiently set up and operated, and is certainly raising the already high bar of what to expect from luxury Maldives liveaboards. It compares favourably with the two other luxury Maldives liveaboards I've been on previously – MV Orion and Sachika. View Carpe Vita liveaboard's current schedule and pricing for Maldives trips.

Carpe Vita Maldives Liveaboard

Big And Beautiful
Carpe Vita's topside and interior was designed and built by Dutch partner Agnes Van Linden and her father Fop Van Linden in Innamadho shipyard in Raa Atoll during 2010, the first thing that's noticable about Carpe Vita is the sheer amount of space. The liveaboard has a maximum of 20 guests, 10 rooms and there is plenty of room to accommodate all of them. The saloon is huge with a snack area and three separate tables and fitted cushioned seating and windows running around the full length of the room which keeps it light and airy.

Carpe Vita Maldives Liveaboard

Eating usually happens on the open air upper deck at the back of the boat, where meals are served up buffet style and there are more moulded seats for reclining. The sundeck at the top of the boat also has a jacuzzi and a good size shade over more seating and sunbeds to accommodate around 10 people at any one time. My favourite area of the boat was at the front on the upper deck where more comfortable seats await – one of the nice things about Carpe Vita is that it feels there are plenty of spaces where you can spend time alone as well as the main communal areas.

Carpe Vita Maldives Liveaboard Cabin

Carpe Vita Liveaboard's Cabins
Each of the bedrooms is big enough to fit a full king size double bed and a single bed together - good for friends and family who need separate beds - and also has a spacious ensuite shower, sink and toilet. Apart from MSY Damai in Indonesia, these are the biggest rooms I've seen on a liveaboard anywhere. The bedrooms also have a single desk for photo editing, several power outlets (standard British 3 pin plug sockets) with power adapters thoughtfully provided, and a flat screen TV to which a media centre can be attached to play back lots of movies.

Carpe Vita Maldives Liveaboard Cabin

The room has powerful aircon that can be quite arctic if you require it to be so, while the shower has strong water pressure, a good size shower head and dependable hot water. My room had a slight whiff of diesel to it but it was barely noticable after the first night.

Carpe Vita Maldives Liveaboard Dinner

The Food And Booze
Carpe Vita follows the classic liveaboard pattern of providing generous quantities of food at breakfast, lunch and dinner, with pre-breakfast snacks available before the first dive and snacks late afternoon. There's a barbeque dinner on a typically picture postcard perfect Maldivian island one night (complete with whale sharks carved in the sand) and a sit down dinner where four courses are served to you on the boat another night. Otherwise, it's a buffet setup and you help yourself. The food is in general good, although being a bit fussy/overly fond of food I would have liked to have seen a couple more choices of main course. It's very nice to be able to eat outside each time, and the captain is diligent about positioning the boat so the deck is in the shade. That said, with a full compliment of guests, it does get a bit crowded for moving around the table during mealtimes.

Carpe Vita Maldives Liveaboard

Carpe Vita has a very impressive policy of not only providing unlimited free drinking water (important to check this is included when booking Maldives boats) but also two complimentary beers or glasses of wine for each guest each night. As this is often all most guests want with their dinner, this is a nice bonus – especially as alcohol in the Maldives is not cheap. For those who wish to indulge a little more, there's a good selection of wine available priced at a reasonable $25 and up, and bottles of spirits (e.g. Stolichnaya Vodka) start at $65 a bottle. The dedicated bar staff are very good at promptly attending to drink orders. You sign for your drinks at the end of each day.

Carpe Vita Maldives Liveaboard Dhoni

The Dive Setup
As with other Maldives liveaboards, all diving on Carpe Vita takes place from an auxiliary boat, or dhoni, that follows the Carpe Vita behind. Dhonis are traditional Maldivian boats and so usually quite basic – the Carpe Vita dhoni however is really quite posh, with lots of space (again) for each guest to gear up, two large rinse tanks for cameras, and a large, spacious toilet and shower too, which is a real luxury. (Peculiarly though there doesn't appear to be a drinking water dispenser on board - this is apparently being rectified very soon).

Dive briefs take place in the saloon and there's a whiteboard in the main lobby area which shows the dive times for each day. A loud bell is rung to indicate a dive briefing is about to take place – if you don't come to the saloon, it's assumed you want to skip the dive. There are four dives scheduled each day with the first briefing at around 0630. When there's no suitable night dive spot there will be a late afternoon dive at around 1630. The dive guides are excellent, both above and below water – they all speak fluent English and also are a friendly bunch – easy to get on with and receptive to any requirements you need.

Carpe Vita Maldives Liveaboard

Dive Photography Setup
For photographers with big rigs, the setup is adequate but not ideal. There are rinse tanks on the dhoni and on the back deck of the Carpe Vita itself, along with a table for cameras and a charging station for batteries et al.

I would have liked a dedicated area on the dhoni for large cameras to be placed out of the way. The boat staff were very helpful but not quite familiar with how to handle camera gear. The biggest problem is big cameras being left in the rinse tank and other cameras being dropped into the rinse tank on top of the dome of another camera below. If the boat staff could give big cameras a quick rinse and then store them for the journey home it would avoid any unfortunate accidents.

Carpe Vita Maldives Liveaboard

Conclusion
The main thought that kept occuring to me during my week on Carpe Vita was that , to coin a phrase, “everything just works”. From the hot showers to the dive briefings to the spacious dhoni, a lot of thought has gone into the details of how the liveaboard should work, clearly inspired by experience learnt whilst managing sister liveaboard Carpe Diem. It's obviously the beginning of Carpe Vita's career and stuff on boats always breaks, but the planning that has gone into the boat, and the ongoing revisions to subtly improve their processes over time, means that I'd be surprised if the Carpe Vita's high standards slip anytime soon. The initial feedback from Carpe Vita's first guests, mainly American, has been very positive. I would have to agree – if you want to maximise your diving in the Maldives and also want a luxury boat experience with plenty of space, Carpe Vita should definitely be on your shortlist.

View Carpe Vita liveaboard's current schedule and pricing for Maldives trips.

In January 2011 I headed back out on MV Orion in the Maldives to do the classic Male – Ari – Felidhe – Male loop. Conditions were great with beautiful viz although we had a couple of dives with outrageously strong currents due to the full moon. Below are a few highlights of my photos from the 7 day trip. Thanks to Alex at MV Orion for letting me on the boat (again). I'll be back on Orion in August for the annual Hanifaru trek in the hopes that the manta rays and whale sharks will be doing their incredible feeding show again.

Manta Ray Maldives MV Orion January 2011

Diver over coral, Maldlves MV Orion January 2011

Manta Ray Maldives MV Orion January 2011

Diver and clownfish Maldlves MV Orion January 2011

Diver over coral, Maldlves MV Orion January 2011

Moray eel Maldlves MV Orion January 2011

Manta Ray Maldives MV Orion January 2011

Stingray Maldlves MV Orion January 2011

White tip shark Maldlves MV Orion January 2011

Manta Ray Maldives MV Orion January 2011

One of the tongue-in-cheek rules of thumb about professional and amateur photographers is that pros show you the one great shot they took and amateurs show you everything. I am wavering somewhere inbetween, and as such I couldn't choose one photo from this sequence as my favourite.

The final shot - number 4 as you scroll down - is certainly the best image, but I love the effect of seeing all four frames and the feeling of the mantas come palpably closer, especially as they take on that breathtaking formation as they get nearer. The mantas following one another is known as a train, and you can see just close they are to one another - and to me, as I was shooting these shots with a fisheye lens. It happened so fast, I wasn't really sure what I'd got until afterwards - and still count these shots as sheer luck rather than photographic cleverness and forethought on my part.

I certainly hope I get some more chances like this in 2011...

Maldives Manta Rays Donkalo 1

Maldives Manta Rays Donkalo 2

Maldives Manta Rays Donkalo 3

Maldives Manta Rays Donkalo 4

MV Orion

MV Orion is built around the cruising in comfort concept, where the boat is appealing to divers and non divers alike. Scuba is a big part of the boat's itinerary with three dives a day -- four if there's a night dive - but it's also a great boat on which to relax, sunbathe, enjoy the spa, sauna and jacuzzi and watch the Maldives seascape go by as the boat cruises during the day. Cabins are very spacious and well-appointed, while the dining room, bar area and sundeck are also designed to provide plenty of room. (I've also written a more detailed report of the practicalities and amenities of the MV Orion, with videos and pictures of the bedrooms and mess decks).

Maldives seascape

Manta Ray, Lankan

MV Orion departs from Male on a 7 day schedule, usually with a checkout dive on one of Male's dive sites. We went to Lankan, the famous Manta Point site, where we saw a couple of manta rays hovering at the cleaning station - great way to begin a trip.

Manta Ray at Hani Faru

Hani Faru - Waiting For Whale Sharks
MV Orion heads from Male Atoll to Baa Atoll which is several hours crossing. This is the location of Hani Faru (also spelt Hanifaru), the small bay that's growing increasingly popular as a whale shark and manta ray hotspot. I've previously written about National Geographic's incredible Hani Faru video footage of mantas and whale sharks feeding together - unfortunately, we didn't get to witness quite such a feeding frenzy during our trip as the whale sharks remained elusive. There were however numerous manta ray encounters, both while snorkelling as they glided in to a bommie only 4 metres down, and again when we went diving at Darawandu Kandu.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67ej4-qgEGY

The dhoni (a small boat separate from the MV Orion used as a dive platform) goes looking for whale sharks around Hani Faru, cruising until they spot one of the leviathans on the surface. Everyone then jumps in with snorkelling gear to spend some time with the whale shark. If everyone remains calm and no one gets too close to the whale shark, it's possible to spend anywhere up to 20 minutes with one of these huge but harmless creatures.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_NxuTLRvOo

If there's no luck spotting a whale shark, the dhoni heads to a nearby reef for a dive - with the small chance that perhaps a whale shark will turn up while submerged. It's definitely worth the day of the itinerary at Hani Faru to have the chance to see whale sharks, even if they don't turn up - and the mantas are there pretty much all the time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCvR4h2rh5o

Hunting For Hammerheads
From Hani Faru and Baa Atoll we headed to north Ari toll via Rasdhoo Atoll, in search of another rare creature - the hammerhead shark. Rasdhoo Kandu is famous for hammerheads appearing out of the blue to investigate waiting divers, and our luck improved with not one but four of them suddenly materialising out of the depths. To go looking for hammerheads, you need to have good buoyancy and be able to hang in the blue at 30 metres, as that's the best chance of seeing them. Rasdhoo Kandu has a pretty sloping reef with abundant fish life on which to spend the remainder of the dive. The video clip above of the Maldives hammerheads is courtesy of Roald and SJ - thanks guys!

Red Snapper, Maldives

Speedy Drift Dives
Virtually every dive site in the Maldives is subject to the changing of the tides, and incoming or outgoing current. Besides the thilas, or pinnacles, the other staple of Maldivian scuba is channel diving, which can shape up into speedy drift dives depending on the current. We had a couple of contrasting channel dives at Gangahi Beru Faru and Gangahi Kandu in Ari Atoll - the first was pretty fast, with whitetip sharks and napoleon wrasse speeding by as we coasted along the sandy bottom of the channel with great viz all around. The second was a much more gentle affair which barely involved moving your fins to be carried forward - it also let us stop to look under ledges where there were huge stingrays to be found, while more whitetip sharks patrolled nearby.

In Love, Maldives

There are not many night diving sites in the Maldives thanks to the ever changing currents, but Maaya Thila is a stand out location due to the large collection of stingrays, turtles and whitetip sharks that are active at night. It's a deservedly popular dive site so you might encounter other groups of divers there too. Maaya Thila is also worth checking out during the day - when it's just right, the site can be teeming with fish when there's current to carry in big shoals of fish.

Yellow Snapper, Maldives

Fish And Ships
Haza Thila was one of my personal favourites of the trip thanks to the jawdropping clouds of fish racing around the pinnacle - vivid coloured fusiliers coursed over the pinnacle's top and down around us, while huge schools of snapper hundreds of fish strong hung in the current, eyeing us cautiously as we approached. Chunky dogtooth tuna cruised on the edges of the shoals, weaving in and out of the fish as whitetip sharks passed by underneath. I spent a few seconds level with a white spotted eagle ray as it rode on the current before speeding away. Haza has a convenient plateau at 10 metres stacked with big tables corals and dancing schools of tiny turquoise and orange fish.

Glassfish on the Kuda Giri Wreck, Maldives

For our final dives, we visited the Kuda Giri wreck, which is extremely photogenic thanks to its incredibly colourful coral growth and resident schools of glassfish. Sitting upright with the bow at 20 metres, it's perfect for diving (and indeed was deliberately sunk for divers around 20 years ago). There is still the giant propeller at the ship's bottom down at 35 metres. Beyond the wreck is the near vertical slope of the thila itself, which levels out into a shallow plateau of corals.

Bridge Window, Kuda Giri Wreck, Maldives

Kuda Giri Wreck, Maldives

Once back in Male atoll, we dived where we'd start at Lankan point in the hope of seeing manta rays again. It turned out to be a real grand finale - we encountered three mantas together at two different cleaning stations, sweeping across the reef in graceful arcs over the heads of slightly awed divers before unhurriedly heading out into the blue in a synchronised manta train.

Incoming Manta Rays, Lankan, Maldives

In all, despite not having much luck at Hani Faru, it was an excellent trip with a good diversity of dive sites and some great big pelagic action. It's my third visit to the Maldives to dive in north Male and Ari, and I'd love to go back to Hani Faru again and also venture down to the far south of the Maldives to see more of this unique dive environment.

Maldives Seascape

I recently went to the Maldives to see the newly built MV Orion in its second week of operation. The boat already has an impressive setup, and with its final improvements due to be complete by the end of October 2009 (free Nitrox, free unlimited drinking water, personal entertainment systems in each room) it will be even better. The following is a rundown of the practicalities of being on the MV Orion. I've also published a separate trip report about the scuba diving on MV Orion - the boat follows a 7 day schedule around Male, Baa and Ari atolls.

mv-orion-maldives-liveaboard-15

MV Orion

Included below are some of my world famous quick videos shot around the boat - there's zero production values as it's just me wandering around with my Canon IXUS. However, they hopefully give a good idea of what the bedrooms and bathrooms really look like. The first video shows the boat exterior, while the second and third show the Junior Suite and Standard Double Room. There is also a collection of photos below showing the outdoor bar area, the Executive Suite jacuzzi at the front of the boat, and the huge sundeck up top.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VapxnOPyq_c

MV Orion is built around the cruising in comfort concept, where the boat is appealing to divers and non divers alike. Scuba is a big part of the boat's itinerary with three dives a day -- four if there's a night dive - but it's also a great boat on which to relax, sunbathe, enjoy the spa, sauna and jacuzzi and watch the Maldives seascape go by as the boat cruises during the day. Cabins are very spacious and well-appointed, while the dining room, bar area and sundeck are also designed to provide plenty of room.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0MNI5Mr8WQ

Accommodation
MV Orion can accommodate up to 22 guests. It has an Executive Suite, Junior Suite and several double rooms. All rooms are ensuite with hot power shower, spacious and well-appointed. There is a vanity unit in each room which is good for setting up a laptop and camera gear if required. Each room also has its own flatscreen TV and will apparently have a personal media player in the near future. The air con was a bit hit and miss during our trip, but this is apparently being ironed out in the near future.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy7qdBZoedI

Dining And Drinking
MV Orion has a very large, comfortable air conditioned dining room where pre-dive breakfast, big breakfast, lunch, 5pm snack and dinner are served. Meals are served buffet style and there is always a choice of 3 or 4 different dishes. Fresh fruit e.g. watermelon or papaya is the standard dessert. Tea and coffee is available free all day.

There is a water machine due to be installed on the boat which will provide unlimited free drinking water to all guests during their trip. Some boats charge for bottled water beyond an initial two litre per day allowance.

There is a full bar on board serving beer and spirits - draught Heineken is around $4 a glass, and spirits around $5 a shot.

Sundeck and other amenities
The sundeck on MV Orion is massive, with a covered area for those who want some shade. There is also an outdoor bar at the back of the boat which is perfect for sundowners. There is a jacuzzi located in the outdoor bar too, as well as a private jacuzzi at the front of the boat for the use of guests who are in the Executive Suite. There is a spa and sauna also located near the outside bar, and a Thai massage service is available on board too.

Diving
MV Orion does not stick to a rigid schedule of trying to fit in a maximum number of dives per day. Three dives a day is the norm.

Daily Dive Routine - most days begin early at 6am for 6.30 am dive briefing. All dives are conducted from a smaller boat, known as a dhoni, which follows the MV Orion. The dhoni has a fair bit of room for gearing up and storage boxes underneath each seat. All dive gear can be left on the dhoni between dives. Most sites are no more than 10 to 15 minutes from the MV Orion. Remember to bring water, sunblock and sunglasses for each dive. A towel is provided for each guest in their room to bring on the dhoni.

Because all diving in the Maldives is tidal, guests should be aware that briefings can change while on the dhoni if the current is not behaving as expected. The dive guide will check the current before guests enter the water.

Entry into the water is by giant stride, with a fairly tall ladder to climb back up at the end of the dive.

Stepping onto the dhoni from the Orion can be a little bit tricky, so take care to watch your footing and let the staff help you.

Dive guides - there are two dive guides, Hassan and Alex. They are the co-directors of MV Orion's business. Hassan is a veteran Maldivian divemaster with over 15000 dives. Alex also runs a large dive operation in Singapore. There will a third Cruise Director joining the boat in November 2009 who will also act as a guide.

Free Nitrox - Nitrox will be provided as standard on MV Orion. It wasn't available when I was on the boat as it was only the second week of operation - send an enquiry using the form below to check if it's available for your preferred dates.

Camera Gear - there is a large flat platform on the dhoni which is a good place for putting cameras - a rinse tank is also available on the boat. There are charging stations for cameras in the dining room, but they are only really suitable for smaller cameras as they are cubby holes built into sideboard areas. There are several plug outlets in each room. The plugs use 3 pin British style plug sockets. Bring an adapter and surge protector if you use other types of plugs. The electricity voltage is 230 Volts AC / 50 Hz.

Getting There
Fly into Male Airport (the Maldives' capital city) for pickup and transfer by speedboat direct to MV Orion. The ride takes about 10 minutes. Find the cheapest flights to Male on Skyscanner.

Booking with MV Orion
For current departure schedule, pricing and to make your booking enquiry, click here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yihoIvUBDM4

This video clip from National Geographic is absolutely insane. Scores of manta rays and several whale sharks duking it out to see who can eat the most microscropic plankton in Hanifaru in the Maldives. Hanifaru Bay lies in the Baa Atoll, and this gathering of manta rays and whale sharks - sometimes scores of mantas and several whale sharks, which are usually solitary and very rare - occurs occasionally between May to November.

I am heading out to Hanifaru on the Orion liveaboard next month, and so I'm crossing everything that we might get to witness some of this incredible action. If I saw only a tenth of what goes on in these videos, I'd be a happy man. It might even surpass the best dive of my life...

Also check out this stunning Hanifaru photoset on Flickr taken by Christian Loader - thanks to UW photographer Matthew Oldfield for sending me the link.

hanifaru-christian-loader

Hanifaru by Christian Loader

Here's another Hanifaru clip from Aqua Dreams Imaging:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ah76Di65H0

There's more info about Hanifaru on this page of the excellent DivePhotoGuide.com and Bruce Barcott'sfull Hanifaru National Geographic article, complete with more photos, is also online - definitely worth a read.

The Maldives is as famous for what lies below its sky blue seas as for the dazzling beaches that rest above it. Chris Mitchell and Jez Tryner explore the amazing underwater sights of the Maldives’ Male and Ari Atolls

maldives-fah-thai-1

Maldives Fah Thai Magazine Pages 1 and 2

Think of the Maldives and you think of tropical beaches, sunsets over aquamarine seas and beautiful beachside resorts. But what’s above the water is only half the story when it comes to this island nation scattered over 800 kilometres of the Indian Ocean. The Maldives is defined as much by the water that surrounds it as what’s on the atolls themselves. Where the sandy beaches provide little habitat for life on land, within the water just a few metres away there is an unparalleled diversity of marine life that is revered by scuba divers the world over.

You don’t need to even enter the water to appreciate the unparalleled richness of the waters surrounding the Maldives – just standing on the jetty at the Soneva Gili resort and looking down into the water, you can see tropical fish and juvenile rays skittering across the sand a few inches beneath the ocean’s surface. As the first resort in the Maldives to be built wholly over the water, Soneva Gili also invested heavily in regenerating and protecting the marine environment around Lankafushi island on which it’s based. After painstakingly removing a large concrete wall built in the ocean by the previous resort owners, the waters around Soneva Gili revived and became a burgeoning nursery for numerous sea species, including tiny blacktip sharks and baby mobular rays. A resident marine biologist at sister resort Soneva Fushi oversees coral regeneration and marine life care programs.

It’s a rule of thumb for divers that for the most pristine reefs and abundant marine life, you have to be prepared to travel to the most remote places. But due to local conservation efforts, there are some excellent dive sites a few minutes boat ride from the bustling capital of Male and its surrounding resorts. Submerge into the water at a dive site like Nassimo Thila and you’re greeted by huge schools of yellow snapper, thousands of fish strong, moving in perfect synchronicity together. Fronds of soft coral resplendent in electric reds and purples cling to the huge boulders that sit on the sandy bottom of the seabed, wreathed in clouds of tiny glassfish. Look away from the reef and out into the blue, and you can see for 40 metres, the deepening shades of blue shot through by the Maldivian sun, still visible above. The colours feel vivid and saturated, like an image enhanced picture postcard, but they’re completely real.

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Maldives Fah Thai Magazine Pages 3 and 4 - that's me top right!

The abundance of the reefs near to Male spark excitement about what’s to be seen underwater in more remote areas, hidden away from any boat traffic or other human contact. The lure of seeing whitetip sharks, manta rays or possibly whale sharks, the biggest fish in the world at 12 metres long fully grown, makes many divers take to a liveaboard, literally a boat where you spend a week living on board. Originally liveaboards were quite primitive affairs for hardcore dive enthusiasts only. The MV Sachika typifies a new breed of liveaboard, where the boat is a floating luxury resort so that guests are not denied any comfort (such as jacuzzi, spa and massage, along with huge buffets of freshly cooked food). This lets non-divers enjoy the trip as much as divers with island hopping, snorkeling and sunbathing, as well as ever changing spectacular vistas of the Maldivian ocean, miles away from anyone else.

Over the course of a week the Sachika traces a route between Male, Ari and Felidhe atolls, criss crossing amongst numerous tiny deserted islands where Robertson Crusoe could be half expected to make an appearance. These islands within the atolls signify thilas, pinnacles of rock rising up from the ocean floor of which the sandy top is the only part visible above water. Down below the thilas are the aquatic equivalent of skyscrapers, home to all manner of marine life, from the tiny coral polyps that make up the enormous, man-size coral fans, to the dustbin lid sized grey stingrays that shuffle across the sand, to the enormous but elusive whale shark, which can sometimes be spotted straight off the boat’s sundeck basking a couple of metres below the surface. The thilas are also the cause of a couple of shipwrecks, like the Kuda Giri and Kudima, which have now been reclaimed by the sea and become impromptu marine sanctuaries.

At the edge of the atolls lie the channels, where the outside ocean meets the atoll interior waters. Channels are a magnet for divers as one of the best places to see white tip and grey reef sharks up close and personal as they ride in on the strong ocean currents. This is a real Maldivian adrenaline experience, watching the sharks effortlessly cruise by while hanging on to any available rock to avoid being swept away by the insistent movement of the water.

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Maldives Fah Thai Magazine Pages 5 and 6

Sharks have an undeniable allure, but the highlight of the liveaboard trip for most was a more serene encounter with arguably the most graceful creature in the ocean – the manta ray. Known to congregate at certain coral bommies, mantas will hover there stationary in order to be cleaned by smaller pilot fish – it’s effectively an underwater car wash. At Donkalo in Ari atoll, the cleaning station attracts not just one manta ray – a cause for celebration in itself – but three of them, queuing up in orderly fashion to await their turn at the station before deciding to playfully hover over the bubbles coming from the divers themselves. To see a four metre wide manta ray swoop over you only inches away, moving its black cowled bulk with complete fluidity, is to witness one of nature’s greatest creations, and to be somewhat awed by it too. As a finale to our liveaboard, it’s unforgettable.

Back on land at the Sheraton Full Moon resort to relax before leaving, it’s impossible to resist the temptation to have one last dive – there always seems to be something more to see. The Sheraton is the nearest five star resort to Male Airport and has access to the same great sites as Soneva Gili, and a final dive on Lankan Reef proves to be turtle heaven - no less than seven of these endearing creatures are spotted, busy munching coral, drifting on the gentle current or simply sound asleep. Moments before surfacing, one super curious turtle circles around, completely unafraid and thoroughly intrigued about these noisy creatures in its realm. As a friendly farewell from the underwater world of the Maldives, it’s hard to beat.

Julian Cohen: Going to the Maldives for me was all about my quest for Mantas. Since I started diving I had wanted to see these most enigmatic sea creatures but was unsuccessful at the top Manta spots of Asia. Hin Daeng, The Similans and Koh Bon in Thailand; Bora Bora in French Polynesia and even Manta Point in Bali. So off to The Maldives I went and saw my first Manta feeding on the surface as we approached the first dive site on the first day and then there was not a dive that went by without seeing them. I had to wave them out of the way so I could see the fish!

My rig for this trip was a Nikon D200 in a Subal housing with two Ikelite D-125 strobes.

[Chris note: You can also read Julian's article about the Manta Rays of the Maldives in Underwater Photography magazine issue 46 - download it for free]

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Mantas, Maldives

1/50 at f5.6 ISO 100 Nikon 10.5mm - All Image Sizes On Flickr

This is my favourite shot from the whole trip. At the end of a dive we came up to find the mantas feeding at the surface. Stripping off the tanks we jumped back in with snorkels and swam with them for an hour. I wanted to get a black and white reportage kind of shot with the mouth of the manta wide open. To do this I had to get close at feeding time and on the surface proved to be the best for this. The visability was about ten meters as there was a lot of plankton in the water and they swooped around me, appearing out of the gloom swimming at top speed. Sometimes they seemed to be surprised to see me there in front of them but they always just missed me and carried on feeding. As there was a lot of backscatter, converting to black and white helps to attract the eye away from this and onto the manta.

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Manta Sun, Maldives

1/160 at f8 ISO 100 Nikon 12-24mm at 17mm - All Image Sizes on Flickr

I am always trying to find different ways to shoot the same subjects. For me a lot of the subjects are actually new, as this was my first time shooting mantas, but other photographers have shot mantas before so it was important to me to impose my own style on the photograph. This can be done in post processing, as is the case with this photo, as well as in camera. I primarily use Adobe Lightroom to develop and store my RAW images and this program has the ability to store a snapshot of the adjustments made to a photo as a preset that can then be applied to any other. I have many presets stored and use these as a base to further adjustments. I like this one as it has removed a lot of the cyan ring that you get when including the sun in the shot with a digital image. The surrounding water is turned so dark it is almost black which draws attention to the manta and the sun.

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Manta Rain, Maldives

1/125 at f7.1 ISO 100 Nikon 10.5mm - All Image Sizes On Flickr

Taken in only eight meters of water during a period where the mantas were feeding at the surface, I was looking for the beautiful silhouetted manta shot to add to my collection. I tried one with the strobes on to see how it would look and got this. Although the water was murky, because I was near the surface and was shooting straight up it appears to be very clear, and the manta is beautifully highlighted by the strobe. You can see the rain on the surface of the water.

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Glassfish, Maldives

1/200 at f8 ISO 100 Nikon 10.5mm - All Image Sizes on Flickr

This dive site was teeming with glass fish that covered the whole bombora; so thick it was nearly impossible to see the coral. The dive guides told me that later in the season there would be loads of fish there. I find it hard to imagine there being room for any more!

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Manta Vortex, Maldives

1/4 at f22 ISO100 Nikon 10.5mm - All Image Sizes on Flickr

An experimental shot that involves shooting at slow speed, maximum aperture and then twisting the whole camera housing as you squeeze the trigger. Try to keep the subject as the axis point and twist the camera without moving the lens off it's axis or the subject itself will be blurred. It doesn't always work and I had a whole card of blurred and warped images while I practiced this technique but I think it was worth it for this shot.

See all of Julian Cohen's Maldives portfolio on Flickr.