Maldives on liveaboard Keema

by Derek Dear

Our first dive in this years Club trip to the Maldives, we are diving off the MV.Keema. Today's dive is the checkout splash after a long journey. It is on Kuda Giri, which is a reef wall with a substantial wreck lying at 18m descending down to 34m.
The group of ten divers sorted out their weights before descending down to twenty metres, slight problem with ears caused by long dry journey?
Reef has been damaged by 'El Nino' but here the effect is quite patchy, overhangs and caves as good as ever, and patches of Coral look fine but in between too many dead areas. The plan was to swim around the Giri , in a clockwise direction with a diversion off to see the wreck . First lionfish of the trip, concentrating on the reef almost missed the wreck and as the Vis was 25+ and we were only twenty odd metres away, it was a shock to turn around and see it. Still boat shaped and lying upright, looked at the wheel house and cargo hold, then back to the reef, plenty of fish, water warm and great viz. What more could you ask for from a checkout dive? Sixty mins of very easy diving.

Dive Two started fantastic and then got better! Slow getting into the water as Nick got tangled up with the video camera, as we descended we were met by two large eagle rays, they were spooked by the earlier divers, they circled us then we started a fast drift dive along the reef wall, loads of life, very large Napoleons (Cheiilinus undulatus), then came across a sleepy hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata), when it awoke it must have been surprised to discover it was surrounded by divers! as it circled another turtle joined it. Coral was bleached but the wildlife was abundant. No chance to stop and look as the current was strong, but very easy diving so air consumption good.
Today's Third dive was full of Moray Eels, they seemed to be everywhere, saw my first honeycomb eel (Gymnothorax favagineus) and even saw one sharing a hole with a more common yellow-margined (Gymothorax flavimarginatus) eel, all were fairly well grown specimens.

Day Two
Dived today with John C, not a member of our Club, who we met on board Keema, said to be an Advanced Diver, in his middle to late sixties, he had said he did not want a deep dive which suited me as I was not bothered about doing a 40+ m dive. Began with a quite hard fin, which turned into an impossible dive as when I reached the reef wall saw divers hanging on! Grabbed John as he hurtled past and we all agreed to abandon the dive. Entered again at the other end of the reef to reach the corner where we attempted to hang on to view the passing sharks. Not being very comfortable and seeing two other divers peel off we decided to join them. A quick drift dive was in progress when John suddenly grabbed the dead reef and stopped. With great difficulty I fought my way back to him where he signalled he was at 50 bar. As we were in only 15m it was no problem, so at the next convenient area when he signalled to ascend I agreed.
Then things began to go wrong. The pickup dhoni was above us, other divers were completing their dives and requiring the boat and John got out his SMB and decided he wanted to be left to float along at six metres, to watch the fish! Refusing to heed my signals that he was drifting on to the reef, the boat could not follow and other divers were in need of a pickup, John then did a ten-min stop, endangering the boat, divers and my temper! Not one of our group would dive with this Prat for the rest of the holiday!
Dive Six Buddied in a threesome, slow descent to twenty metres, reef a bit dead but that just showed up the colour of the fish. Moray eels, LionFish and huge groupers. Bit slow at first, but swimming up the centre of the channel, saw a crevice full of painted crayfish, (Panulirus versicolor), huge antennae, six feet from tip to tip,. Saw a friendly turtle that fell in love with the video camera and came up to investigate. Then on to the reef edge, monitoring air, was glad others had a similar amount left, decided to swim into the blue to watch a vast shoal of Jacks, (Carangoides fulvoguttatus), spinning and circling making patterns in space, a quite amazing sight. The dive was ended with a drift back along the channel, the current being more noticeable now , on the return journey saw a free swimming Moray eel.
Dive Seven A wall dive, the bottom out of sight! Descended to a line of overhangs, swim-through and small caves. Lots of life on the wall, Dive guide showed me some micro shrimps, hiding in the caves, it is amazing how most divers seem to miss the best creatures of the reef while searching for the large sharks and rays, during the next few dives I saw five different species of Nudibranch some the size of my finger nail and others a couple of inches long, these were exciting as the colours were vivid. Then a large Octopus, a huge Napoleonfish, dark green with red eyes and bigger than me! Not bothered about us divers, then along came the sharks, large white tipped reef sharks. By this time air was running low so ascended to the reef top which was completely dead, to have a very fast exciting drift dive back along the channel, a great way of finishing the dive.

Day three
Spent a lot of time as the coral was in such a bad way looking for Nudibranchs. These, for the uninitiated, are molluscs without shells. Sometimes called sea slugs, but nothing like their dry land cousins, these nudibranches are very highly coloured, undersea works of art, which being molluscs do not move very fast, so a photographer's dream subject, I saw them in size from half an inch to a whopping four inches. Altogether five different types, from dull light brown to one, which was purple with black and white stripes! Another was white with a circle of black spots. There are a huge number in the Maldives, usually found on the reef top feeding on sponges. Nudibranches often lay their eggs in brightly coloured rings, which delicately adorn the reef.
Unfortunately due to not having a Macro lens on the Sea & Sea camera, pictures taken were disappointing.

Dive Nine Same dive as yesterday, but with the idea to go a bit deeper to see more caves, did not happen as we are all now getting close to decompression time, so repeated earlier dive, still lots to see and this time we spent longer on the reef point. The dive had started with a cruise through a large pod of spinner dolphins, (Stenella longirostris), named because they will jump out of the water and spin on their tails! Others said they could hear the calls underwater, (not me!) difficult diving as a threesome and as I knew John W. was experienced stayed with Nick as he had the video camera to control. At the reef point, as usual lots of feeding fish and in came a cruising shark. Waited for the next event as the other divers were leaving as they were running low on air, we were only at twelve metres so felt confident to wait and watch. Finally rose on to the reef top and over to the sandy gully floor where the others were doing a safety stop , looked around one last time and saw the largest eagle ray, (aetobatis narinari) . Swim majestically past, almost wore a hole in my cylinder trying to attract the others attention, finally they looked down and saw it as I followed the dive guide back to the reef edge. Did a good six-min safety stop to finish this wonderful dive.

Day Four
This was again close to the bleached coral so we knew what to expect, but was lucky as soon as we had descended we spotted two Eagle Rays and a medium size Shark. Unfortunately the dive deteriorated after that and apart from a friendly large Titan Trigger fish, (Balistoides Viridescens) , not a lot else was seen. Was using the video camera again hoping that we could get some good footage of the smaller fish. Nick and I soon separated from the others as the current picked up. We knew that all we had to do was to go with the current and that the boat would follow. After fifty mins was getting a low on air when we spotted a sandy patch and an anchor line! We had taken the dhoni, the diving support vessel., from the Keema to the dive site but by superb underwater navigation , or good luck, had landed back at the live aboard MV Keema.
Our problem today was our decompression warnings. Nine, thirty plus metre dives in three days is beginning to add up, so will miss out the afternoon dive.

Dive Eleven One of the best things our group had decided on before coming to the Maldives was that each diver would carry a ' Clanger' strapped to his cylinder. This resulted in everyone seeing everything that was spotted, a Ray, Shark or turtle caused a clang and a pointing arm, no getting back on the boat and half the divers seeing less than the other half.
Took the video camera again, even as we descended we spotted a sleeping stingray and another bigger one further on. While filming, getting very close, a white tip reef shark swam into view. The next half hour was quite pleasant, getting blasé about seeing Morays, Lion fish and Groupers. Nick, my dive buddy, and I fell behind the rest of the group, our normal position, we examined everything before swimming on, sometimes long after the others had forged ahead. Suddenly Nick grabbed the camera, I do not know how he had spotted two Octopuses. One dark brown and the other who changed colour rapidly going through the complete spectrum. A marvelous sight, and the dark brown one sat on a rock and remained in view. Had we disturbed the beginning of the next generation of Octopuses?

Day five
Today's dive was full of sharks, none too close but clearly visible in deep water, also Eagle rays. Had a warning come up on the dive computer as I entered decompression time and then went slightly deeper to photograph yet another Shark!. Paid the price with a lengthy stop at six metres and as a precaution, and as I was tired, missed out the afternoon dive.
Needed to change 'O' ring on cylinder before diving, the equipment supplied by MV Keema was all first class, so entered the water with 180bar. Descended at reef edge, cleared ears at seven metres and again at eighteen metres, right ear has been slow to clear this trip. Visibility not as good, only twenty metres!, was on the look out for something big but no luck, Down about thirty five metres when Nick signalled to me"4" I first thought he meant he had only four mins left of no-deco time, then realised he meant, did I want to go to forty metres, as it was a sandy bottom at the base of the reef , So I had my photo taken at forty one metres. Slow ascent followed, we had by this time lost the others so explored the reef face. Saw an octopus but it could not be tempted out of its hole, neither could the Morays, hopefully took a good photo of a large Napoleon which swam up to me. Finished the dive watching the small stuff at approx. eight metres.

Dive fifteen Good wall dive, very gentle, white tip reef sharks in the distance, nothing very close, till we get to the corner of the reef, after the previous deep dives we have kept to approx. thirty metres to keep deco times to the minimum. Others went to the overhangs and swim through. Said to be better coral at the deeper parts of the wall, still lots to see of the marine life. At the corner of the reef was a bit deeper than the others when a shark came to investigate, was my closest encounter to date, he was at my depth and came right at me! I got the camera going as fast as I could hit the button. Wonderful, then into the channel, fairly stiff current took us close to a large cave where a giant Napoleonfish was prowling, it came out with a bit of persuasion from Nick.

First Night dive of the holiday, it's the dive I always look forward to. We had arrived at Guraidhu and for the first time in days saw other dive boats, a popular site, we arrived just as a huge pod of dolphins were sighted, larger than our dive guide had seen before, the pod was estimated at more than a hundred and remained quite close to the dive boats for most of the day and were still in the area the next day. The night dive was around a small Thila called locally Potato reef, a good choice for a night dive as the boat could anchor above the thila on a sandy basin, and in an hour's dive the divers can circle the reef and wherever they are they would be able to surface and see the boat. We descended over the reef edge and I did what I normally do and switched off my torch and relied on the lights from my buddy's video camera as using a camera and a large torch is not practical. It's a small reef and when we had been shown it from the boat we thought that in our hour we would circle it half a dozen times, in fact by taking it slowly and seeing so much life we circled it just over a once and a third. We started the dive at 6:30 and some thought this was a little early but by the time we were at 15-20 metres it was dark enough and soon it was totally black. Life was abundant, first saw some cleaner shrimp, almost transparent then a large Nudibranch, tried to get my budd's attention by feeling for my cylinder 'Clanger' but it had slipped and as I was searching for it a hand suddenly grabbed mine and placed it on the line, another diver from the group had seen me and had quessed the trouble and had helped me out. Next a sleeping turtle was surrounded by divers and then an Octopus was chased over the reef by the cameras, it changed colours and gave quite a show. Throw in Moray eels, Lion fish large hermit crabs and a host of beautiful things I have yet to discover names for it is no wonder that this dive was rated to be the best dive done by many of the group , with some divers naming it the best ever in over 200 logged dives!

Miyaru Kandu: Dropped into the water and descended to 20m. Arrived at a boring, flat, sandy area. Thought this dive would be a complete wash out, but as I had the video camera, decided to make sure all divers were filmed. Suddenly, Mick spotted a honeycomb Moray Eel. It was large, and very pretty. Mick coaxed it from its hole by wiggling his fingers. Was able to sit on the sandy bottom and film. About 10m further on, they all began to signal. A horizontal crack in the wall, bout 3m long, was crammed full of about 20 spiny Crayfish. So intent on all being in the same gap, some were clinging upside down on the roof. Another boring patch followed then Mick called me to look round a rock. A darkish-brown, huge scorpion fish lay on a grey rock. Could get quite close to film, but not quite as close as Mick wanted. Saw some garden eels. Found I was using more air than usual, due to using video camera. Another empty patch of white sand. Albert (Dive guide) took out his slate. "Anyone for snow boarding?" It looked just like a ski slope. At the bottom was a huge sea cucumber. Nick saw a Triton triggerfish propped against a rock. It didn't move, but was still alive, as it watched us. By now, were at about 7m and at 40 bar, I signalled to Nick to ascend. Could have been a boring dive, but had its exciting moments.

Dive eighteen: Full Moon: Kuda Thila. Our last dive from the Keema. Only the seven from 109 Lincoln did this dive with both our dive guides. A gentle, relaxed dive to finish the week, the aim was to stay shallow, as some folk were flying home next day. It is surprising how much more we saw than we would have done earlier in the holiday. I spotted my first stone fish without help. Also saw a ribbon eel which is also called a Ghost Moray. (Rhinomuraena spp)

Reethi Beach hotel, opened last November, medium size, lots of extras, ( that were not needed, like a Gym, Badminton and Tennis Court and Swimming pool,) Food , International, will never win prizes but you do not go to the Maldives for gourmet nosh. Salad Bar at lunch and Dinner, all meals buffet style and a very good range of desserts and cakes at meal times. I am said to be a finicky eater, (Wot Me?) I found something to eat at every meal. Rooms had the most sophisticated Air conditioning I have ever seen, (all remote controlled,) TV and a good size but best of all Maldive Bathrooms, these bathrooms were bigger than the cabin I had on the liveaboard, about three times the size, and were without a roof, sit back and watch the stars! Open Air showers, yes plural, the bathrooms had two high pressure showers so no waiting for a shower , shower with a friend! Sheer Luxury.
Staff were friendly, and with a disabled wife could not do enough to make things as pleasant as possible, allowed free emails , could have posted this dive log direct from the dive site if I had thought!

First dive at Reethi Beach Hotel House reef, told that the reef was dead, so with trepidation we had our kit taken to the entry point, its the best way to dive! Entry from the beach , thirty metres to the drop off, where we descended to only eighteen plus visibility. A slow drift along the wall and in the space of the next hour we saw, half a dozen lion fish, five Moray eels, range ring from a couple of feet to a four footer, a friendly turtle who wanted to play, three Nudibranches, the common purple one with black spots, a thin ribbon type ,blue white and green and finally a dark brown one which was new to me.Also saw an octopus which would not leave its home and a large green shrimp thing? again not recognised, well I am a diver not a expert!
The dive school is Sea Explorer, run by Robert , their equipment was new and so still in good condition, the hotel only opened last November. We were charged 168 pounds for unlimited diving on the House reef, if it had been full of live coral it would still be a bit expensive as after four dives plus a night dive we felt we had seen it all, so paid extra, sixteen dollars for a two tank dive off a boat and visited local dive sites. The boat dive would normally cost thirty dollars plus the sixteen dollar boat fee, that's thirty odd pounds for a trip and cylinder plus weights - a bit expensive.

Dive Twenty-Three Second dive of the day, just long enough to get an air fill, great system at the hotel, pick up a phone and have a cylinder delivered to where ever you plan to enter the water, when exciting the water, drop off the cylinder behind any old bungalow pick up the phone tell the dive school where and they come to collect, no carrying lots of gear in ninety plus degrees for us. And back to the reef, another turtle, or was it the same one? This dive slightly less life, so either we dive to the west or we dive earlier, will have to find out. Saw a large puffer fish hiding, fantastic expression, large eyes and markings as if constantly smiling, also a Clown Trigger fish, (balistoides conspicillum)

Dive Twenty-Four Torch is invaluable in checking out the reef wall. Saw quite a few christmas tree worms, (porites solida), on the coral, these come in a variety of colours, I saw mostly yellow and black which look like flowers but when you go to touch them or let your shadow touch them they will instantly withdraw down their holes. Went a bit deeper to begin with on this dive, looking for anything further out in the channel, but soon came back to the reef wall as that is where things are to be found. Without doubt less too see on the second dive of the day, the vis is poorer. Went to the right for a change and as there was not a lot to see went a bit further than we planned. Came to a patch where there were some interesting overhangs and saw some cleaner fish tackling a large grouper. Was at seven to ten metres and twenty bar when we decided to surface, discovered that we had swam a considerable distance past the Water Bungalows and were in fact a fair way from the beach. Hard swim back to shore, in the end resorted to removing fins and walking back!
Dive Twenty-Five Had been told this was the dive to go on, the best that the dive school offered and we soon discovered why. The plan was to swim over four thillas (Coral lumps!) and to stop on the fourth and view the protected site from the reef edge. Big warnings not to leave the reef and enter the sandy area where sharks may well be found. As this was the first dive we did off the Dive school doni was surprised at the easy going nature of the Dive Marshall, Robert, he came over to us four, said where to dive and left us to our own devices, no nanning here! Began with a descent to twenty five metres, rest of the boat swam dutifully over the Thilla at about fifteen metres, us four decided to look at the base, saw the largest shark of the holiday resting on the sea bed! Thillas full of life and Coral certainly on the walls looked better, Slow swim to fourth thilla where my buddy Nick rose over the top and started to signal frantically for me to join him, on the other side of the reef was a sandy area where a group of sharks, estimated to be about thirty, were patrolling up and down, mothers with young, pregnant ones, and yes you can tell, and some large solitary types. In amongst the groups as if this was not enough there were also a few rays. These Sharks were close and numerous, the best of the many shark sightings of the holiday, and best of all they were not going away but were staying, longer than our air would last. We stayed for an amazing twenty odd minutes. A great dive.

Dive Twenty-Six Slight problem when entering the water, Nick my buddy 'popped' a clip so we drifted away from the reef while we sorted things out, a helpful boat captain pointed us in the right direction but was well behind the others, this dive was the prettiest of the holiday, first a large area of sand eels, but it was when we went on to the top of the reef, where normally it was dead that we saw what the Coral should have been like. Octopus, crayfish, moray, lionfish and all the small stuff, every where you looked. Try taking a photo of a Nudibranchs within an anemone including the protective clown fish, would have been a stunner but the result was out of focus :-( Highlight of the Dive was seeing a rare Leaf Fish! A very nice dive.

Dive Twenty-Seven A Night Dive off the house reef, highlight was to see a Cuttle fish (family Sepiidae,) go the complete distance from the top of the reef to the bottom changing colour as it did so.

Dive Twenty-Eight Very slow long drift along reef edge hoping to see turtles, not much action but did manage to eventually see six, nothing else of note except that computer decided that I had had enough diving as how ever long I hung around doing a safety stop it required more! Stayed until air was down below twenty bar and the others had had the all clear from their computers, they had done the same or greater depths and dives than me in the last two weeks so decided mine was just being very cautious.

Dive Twenty-Nine Last dive of the holiday, only went to check out the computer, nice slow drift, nothing new was spotted until the last few minutes, where we saw my fifth new Nudibranch, a small plain brown one, very noticeable that as we came over the top of the reef the lagoon was very warm, uncomfortably so.

Lincoln BSAC Branch http://www.lincolnbsac109.com/