A delight…. We went two weeks on a diving cruise with Christian Allanic
( http://www.plongee-okmaldives.com/ ) and six other divers.
After a trip to Emirates with a stop in Dubai we were received by Christian at Male airport. He took us directly to the boat for a first dive in the North Male Atoll.
Super, we go directly from the waterproof at home to the 3mm there .... Nice impression of lightness.
The cruise went very well, the boat very nice with nice cabins, a dining area in the back, a beautiful lounge, and at the top a large sunbath and a protected area and nice for naps with the breeze that rose every day and refreshed the air a little.
The dives (3 per day) were well organized with a dhoni dedicated to the diving on which all the diving equipment remained at post. The compressors were also on the dhoni, which was moving away from the boat during the inflations.
The dives were often in the current, but Christian had lent us useful hooks to settle down and see the sharks, rays eagles, and other tunas pass near us in the passes. The alcyonaries were magnificent, of all colors. At the end of each dive we let ourselves drift in the pass (kandu in Maldivian) and the dhoni recovered us on the surface after the bearings. We also dive on Thila (coral potato inside the atolls). The wildlife is just as beautiful ...
We have sailed quite a lot in various atolls (Malé, Felidhe, Mulaku, Ari, Rasdhoo). The atmosphere on board was very nice, and the crew could not do enough for us. We ate very well, a lot of fish, for our greatest pleasure. There were also fishing parties with the crew.
We also offered rebreather baptisms, and here I have to say that it was a special sensation: to dive without breathing noise and get so close to the fish or rays (I did my baptism on a cleaning area for Mantas rays and they just passed me at 20cm above it was amazing !!!).
It was a very beautiful trip of which we have of course brought underwater photos ...
Thank you to Christian and all the crew of the Challenger Atoll.
Anne and Marc
http://www.plongee-okmaldives.com/
Written by Anne RODELATO
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1 comment
Hello!
I come back from the Maldives too, on the Maha (small boat, 12 people max), which I can only recommend.
Same impressions of course, I just wanted to add that I was able to approach and even touch mantas without rebreather! On a cleaning station they stayed at 1 meter or 2, but then at night I made a mad dive, more than 50 minutes with a manta which came to stuff itself with plankton in the beam of the lighthouse and came up to me the open mouth! We were lucky of course, but in fact what attracted them was the lights of the boat at night, particularly the rather violent light on the aft deck where we ate: they turned 1h1 / 2 flush with the boat. , and then when we had a full stomach we went to see them up close! There was one left, and from time to time it was even her who missed it and brushed the top of our head with her belly!