Our last day of diving!   Some of us will be able to dive 3 times today, others as few as 1 as it’s necessary to leave 24 hours between diving and flying for safety reasons.  As I’m staying over in the Maldives for 3 more days I have nothing to worry about.

We’re still on the South Male Atoll, and this morning we got to do a wreck dive.  The nearby resort had sunk one of their old supply boats just off their island several years ago to make an artificial reef, called Kuda Giri.  Being an small inter-island cargo ship there wasn’t much infrastructure to it, just a short wheelhouse rising from the stern, with a big flat foredeck and a large, empty hold.  My buddy and I swam down into the hold but it was just a square room, nothing exciting.  The wheelhouse had zillions of tiny transparent fish in it, and in some soft corals hanging on the bow we saw 2 small long-nose hawk fish.  Afterwards we slowly circled the pinnacle behind the wreck, gently ascending to finish our dive after 59 minutes.  I spotted an angry mantis shrimp in its hole not pleased with these big mammals staring at it, and a nice-sized octopus which I was able to point out to everyone.  I hung around watching the latter for a bit, as it changed colors as it moved from rock to coral, trying unsuccessfully to camouflage itself from the curious divers.

During our interlude between dives we moved ever closer to Male and the airport, which unfortunately is now a blot on the horizon – tall buildings crowding every bit of the island.  All of sudden it feels like the trip is over and we’re just counting down the time left.

Our 2nd, and last dive (there’s not enough divers for a 3rd dive) is Embudhoo Kadu, on the northern edge of South Male Atoll.  It is the first protected channel in the Maldives.  It was a good dive, we started deep around 95’ at the edge of blue water, waiting to see what big life would appear.  Eventually a few white tip sharks, a Napoleon Wrasse, and just at the end a school of about 8-10 eagle rays came by, swooping and swirling as they do.  That was pretty cool.  Then we once again let the current take us away down the channel, ascending gently as we went.  I spotted a honeycomb moray eel, a first for me and we hooked on to the bottom to spend some time watching a turtle eat up chunks of reef.  After drifting more we hooked on again to watch another turtle eat.  Well, almost hooked on.  I had chased down the diver in front to let him know we were stopping and by the time I could get reoriented to watch the turtle I’d almost been swept past.  I grabbed Michael’s hand and he pulled me down to his rock so I could hook but there was a large honeycomb moray underneath staring at me!  I wasn’t getting that close to those jaws so I just hung on to Michael’s tank instead.  Then we ascended again, finishing after 53 minutes underwater.

The crew brought everyone’s dive gear onto the Theia, rinsing it in fresh water and setting it in the sun to dry for tomorrow’s packing.   The captain raised anchor and we steamed north back to Hulmale during lunch, back to the anchorage next to the airport.  About 6 divers have to leave at 6:30a to catch their flights.  The rest of us leave at 9am.

The afternoon was spent settling up our bills, filling out satisfaction forms, packing and just killing time.  There’s no entertainment on this boat, other than talking to your fellow divers or looking at whatever your brought on your iPad.  As only 3 others were fluent in English and 2 of those spent most of their time in their cabin I end up doing a lot of reading.  Good thing I like to read!  

Stop the Press! There was something else to do this afternoon. Unbeknownst to me, Francesca (the lead DM) mentioned at lunch there’d be snorkeling at 3pm, so when the bell rang at 3p I had no idea what was going on. I had already had my proper shower (instead of just a freshwater rinse after a dive) and I didn’t really want to get wet again but I was cajoled to go, and I was delighted I did. It was a stingray snorkel! We went to an island where they process the caught tuna for shipping, and obviously some of the excess bits get thrown into the water ‘cause there were dozens of stingrays circling around the wharf, as well as a good half dozen large moray eels including one honeycomb moray, and clouds and clouds of fish. It was great!

look closely, you can see a stingray under the man on the dock

I don’t have an underwater camera so I took a pic off of my roommate’s computer of her Go Pro shots

I’m off to the Malahina Kuda Bandos resort tomorrow for 3 nights. It’s a lower-priced resort but all-inclusive, so stress-free. So now I shall enjoy the Maldives from the terrestial side too. I don’t think there’s wi-fi….