Friday, December 25, 2009

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM SOUTH ARI ATOLL!
















Okay - the connection is really crummy but I've been keeping a log & will try and upload it and then see if I can add some pictures too....here's hoping!
SUNDAY, December 20
SOUTH MALE - Dive #1….a bommie (pinnacle) with a purposely sunken fishing boat near it that is covered in hard corals and a “fish haven”. Water temp ranged between 84-86 beautiful degrees and visibility was about 60’. This dive site is used as a “check-out” dive so everyone can check their weighting and make sure all gear is functioning properly. There were lots of fish and corals so it makes for a beautiful first dive!Second dive was at 4:00 and as dive time approached, more and more of us were crashing! Jet lag has a tendency to do that to you and as most of you know, diving when tired is not a good idea so only Bob, Mark & Mike, along with Moosa and Hassan did the 2nd and final dive of the day. They made it a good long one….just about 90 minutes and it ended as pretty much a night dive by the time they were done! There were Napoleon wrasse, a purple frogfish, robust ghost pipefish and cleaner shrimp tidying up an eel!
After a delicious dinner with incredibly delicious fresh mango for dessert, everyone “hit the hay” for a good night’s rest!

MONDAY, December 21
Today’s first dive was at 6:30 a.m.! We dropped into the most beautiful deep blue ocean imaginable. Today’s visibility was in excess of 100 feet. It started out as a quick drift along the reef edge with schooling anthias, flasher wrasse and some beautiful anemones with their anemonefish guarding them. Out in the blue we spotted several whitetip sharks and a good-sized blacktip, but they all kept their distance and we admired them from afar. Much too far away for any photos! As the current slowed down we were greeted by a HUGE school of fusiliers – beautiful blue with a silver horizontal stripe. We also had a few giant trevally cruise by us, more Napoleon wrasse, some honeycombed eels tucked into the coral and Moosa found a very large stingray resting in the sand under a ledge.

We’re now completing our first open ocean crossing and chairs have been tipping over and books falling off the shelves! Thank goodness we have good sea legs! Next dive is around 11:00 so time to get ready and see what King Neptune has in store for us……

Dives #2 & #3 were cruising along an outer reef wall into the channel leading back into the atoll. Schooling fish, sharks at the perimeter, lots of red-lipped triggerfish and UMS…”usual Maldivian stuff” as Moosa calls it! Five eagle rays in formation cruised just off the reef in the blue.

TUESDAY, December 22
Obviously we aren’t in wireless range yet, so I’ll just jot down bits and pieces from the dives and when the opportunity comes, upload the whole thing at once!

We’ve moved on to the Felidhe Atoll for today’s dives. Most of the dives this week in the south will be along the outer reef walls and into the channels. All so far have featured many varieties of schooling fish, triggers and unicorn fish in the hundreds, schooling bannerfish, anthias and some swift drift dives. The last dive on Tuesday was at a “signature” dive site called “Cherry Caves”. There are spectacular reef structures and overhangs dripping with soft corals. The wall is a sheer, spectacular structure with loads of life on it. No current on this dive so everyone “puttered along” enjoying the sights. A school of 7 eagle rays flew overhead and a large school of jacks swirled below the divers…at about 150 feet! Visibility was excellent but they were too deep for good photographs.

WEDNESDAY, December 23, 2009
Everyone loved Cherry Caves so much, it was the 6:30 a.m. dive this morning. We spotted two huge Napoleon wrasse cruising along the reef but they are extremely shy and difficult to photograph. Sharks cruising in the blue, swirls of schooling fish around us, more jacks below us, beautiful corals along the reef wall and then we ended up on top of the reef with lots of beautiful anemones with the indigenous Maldivian anemonefish in them. They’re a golden orange with a single stripe on the sides of their faces with a black underside and black fins….very beautiful!

Dive #2 was Cherry Caves again, by popular acclaim…this time the current had picked up considerably so we cruised by the soft coral overhangs and tucked into the reef to watch the swirling jacks below us while a beautiful white tip reef shark cruised along side of us. After drifting up over the top of the reef for a while, we settled down again over a large patch of hard corals that were totally covered by schooling bright yellow snappers and brim. Then a baby turtle decided to pay us a visit! The reef top was covered by many other varieties of fish as well…it was a pretty, pretty dive.

THURSDAY, December 24, 2009
Early morning dive was beautiful as was the 2nd dive – both with virtually no current and lots of chances to stop to photograph the marine life. Then we had a 2-hour sail to the next dive site. In the Maldives, transits are done during daylight hours because of all the shallow atolls between the main atolls. The water is at least a dozen shades of blue while we’re transiting!

On our 2nd dive we were paced along the reef by a HUGE Napoleon wrasse! They are magnificent creatures but extremely shy and hard to photograph. Luckily he swam from the reef top towards the blue right in front of me so I was able to get a couple of good images! These reefs in this atoll are teeming with eels of all shapes, varieties and sizes. On our 3rd dive we found TWO together in one hole and then a bit farther along the reef came across one with two giant coral-banded shrimp and a peppermint shrimp doing some cleaning on him!

Tonight is our big Christmas dinner. We got back from the 2nd dive and the salon was decorated with bunting and balloons. When we came in from our 3rd dive, more tinsel was decorating the ceilings, the rubber tree was decorated with icicles and strings of lights had been added! Our camera room counter has been turned into the buffet table and the gang is in there right now putting together a fabulous fruit & vegetable centerpiece! I can’t wait until it’s dark outside so we can turn on all the lights and see how beautiful it becomes! Photos to follow!

Dinner was FABULOUS! The buffet set-up was gorgeous as well…they did a fantastic fruit/vegetable sculpture centerpiece and had various salads, smoked salmon, sauted eggplant, a wonderful beet salad along with roast turkey and roast duck. At the vegetable end were these lovely looking pears…only to find out that they were sculptured mashed potatoes….these chefs are amazingly talented! Other yummy vegetables were served, giant prawns and fish….the dessert end was loaded with goodies galore and we were all stuffed! It was a memorable Christmas dinner, that’s for sure…..OH, and to boot, Santa paid us a visit too! We thoroughly enjoyed our Christmas celebration and the crew LOVED having Santa visit!

Friday, December 25 – MERRY CHRISTMAS, everyone!
We awoke to pouring rain and dark, dark, dark grey skies. All of us opted to skip the 6:30 a.m. dive and just sit and drink tea or coffee and relax, so we headed south for our 3-hour transit to South Ari Atoll. It was a very smooth crossing and everyone absorbed themselves in their various novels. Once we arrived at S. Ari, Moosa did our dive briefing…..we have now arrived in the WHALE SHARK area! The area that the whale sharks frequent runs parallel to the outer reef so we swam between 40-50’ over huge table corals and other hard corals. We saw several turtles and lots of carpet anemones filled with anemonefish but our focus was in the blue….hoping, hoping, hoping for a gentle giant to swim our way! Well, after 60 minutes of watching, tanks were starting to get low on air so we ended that dive. We have another one later this afternoon and then again in the morning. We’ll be down here in S. Ari for a few days and will alternate between the whale shark area and the giant manta areas so we’re greatly looking forward to more dives “hunting big creatures”!










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