A grey overcast morning greeted us when we emerged from our cabins.  Grey sky = less light at depth = less color.  Our first dive was at Villamandhoo Thila, a large, flat pinnacle reef just offshore from Villamandhoo resort.  The current was medium-strong: fine at the very start, then we had to swim quite hard for a bit which had me questioning my ability but luckily just then the dive master motioned for us to set our reef hooks so we each latched on to a rock or outcropping and caught our breaths and took some time to survey the area.  Areesh (the DM) then motioned for us to release and to swim up over the reef (just 5-6’ above & behind us) so we could dive sheltered from the blast.

The dive was fine – nothing really outstanding but still some great marine life.  One easily becomes blasé about seeing white tip sharks, or “there’s another sting ray”, when one encounters them every dive.  Many of these divers are keen only on seeing the big fish: sharks, mantas, tuna, etc.  I do find them thrilling too but am just as happy staring at a small bit of reef, looking at the minutiae.  Seeing which little fish come out of hiding when they think the coast is clear.  So many creatures have such effective camouflage that it’s only by staring at one spot for a while can you even detect them, ie the little octopus we saw yesterday or the flounder(?) today.

The captain started up the engines as soon as we got back onboard the Theia.  It’s a couple hours journey across open water to the Vaavu Atoll.  It was a pleasant first hour or so, warm but not hot with the cloud cover.  The rain came slowly but surely until it fell steadily for the longest time.  We entertained ourselves, lounging on the settees outside our cabins, watching the accumulating water flow across the decks, overwhelming the deck drains.  The poor crew in the open-sided dhoni had to suffer the deluge whilst chugging along in our wake.

We anchored right near Alimatha resort, to dive Miyaru Kandu, a channel dive known for its sharks.  We started deep, right at 98 feet and stayed there as long as our bottom time would allow, kneeling in the sand right at the edge of the drop-off.  In front of us was blue water teeming with schools of all shapes and sizes of fish and about a dozen or so 4-6’ white tip sharks lazily swimming back and forth.  We had a front row perch to a Jacques Cousteau documentary!  Sometimes the sharks would appear from behind us, one coming from over my left shoulder and passing about 5’ in front of me!  It was fantastic.

When it was time to ascend to shallower depths, we found ourselves riding a decent current through the channel so we just enjoyed the ride, staying well above the reef.  I managed to spot a turtle and a stingray and a pair of gigantic angelfish as we motored along.  Ending our dive at the surface, we had a few minutes to wait for our dhoni to spot us and come pick us up we saw 3 dolphins just a few meters away!  We gave a half-hearted attempt to swim towards them but they were gone instantly.

The rain came back at lunch time (2:30p!!!) so it’s been a lazy afternoon indoors, checking emails, napping, and those who have underwater cameras, checking out their photos.  We’re staying in the same spot for our 3rd dive, which will be another night dive, a Special Shark dive.  Apparently the resort here used to, or still does, feed the sharks so they’ve become used to gathering off the dock at night.  There are several other boats anchored here too so we might not dive till quite late as our DM would like us to experience the dive without a horde around.  Sounds like a very, very late dinner!

At 6p the bell rang for our briefing- we’re going for it!  We descended to the bottom at 47’ and we noticed a couple of other groups already there, forming small circles of light from their underwater flashlights.  Everyone staked out a patch of sand, set their reef hooks as the current was quite strong, and sat back and waited.  Almost immediately 2 nurse sharks and a stingray came sniffing, the ray skimming right over our DM’s shoulder to smell if he had any food on him.  From then on we just kept looking left, right, up and backwards, almost always seeing a shark or ray coming or going.  There were so many flashlights that I was able to leave mine at my side and just look, finding it easier to spot them when backlit versus shining my light randomly, lighting up plankton instead.  Sometimes there’d be a group of 3-4 sharks circling slightly above us and one would break free to swim amongst us but they were very gentle and very polite.  Just casually passing by in case we had a handout for them.  The largest, which I thought was pregnant but my guide told me was just fat, was approximately 6-7’ so they weren’t humongous and not scary.  It was fun!  Areesh believes that only the Maldives and the Bahamas offer such experience.

After diving and before dinner, it was the French (not Corsicans) who treated everyone to an aperitif.  White wine, of course.  But before we could drink we had to partake in a song (traditional? regional? patriotic? Je ne sais quoi.). But it involved waving of the hands, clapping and a repetition of “Bonne Bourguignon, Bonne Bourguignon”.  I wonder who’s turn it will be tonight, we’re out of dive groups and there’s just individual countries left.