A week aboard a scuba liveaboard, MV Conte Max

We went a day early to Kooddoo island to meet the MV Conte Max boat for our week of scuba diving.  Kooddoo has a runway so we flew to the island in a Dash 8 from Male, the Maldives international connection point.  Our one-night stay was at the newly-opened Mercure resort.  We arrived in time to do one quick snorkeling excursion.  The reef was not close to the shore so we went to the reef on an excursion boat. 

Most of the rest of the Conte Max passengers arrived about noon the following day.  We met them and the boat crew at the airport terminal and walked to the boat.  We did an introductory dive that afternoon so the crew could assess our skills.  We started doing 3 dives per day the following morning.  Currents tended to range from 1 or 2 mph to 6 to 8 miles per hour.  In the stronger currents we “flew” by the reef until we were through the Kandus .  Kandus are channels at the outer rim of the atoll through which water had to flow to raise the water level inside the atoll when the tide was rising; to lower the water level in the atoll when the tide lowered.  Usually we reached calmer waters after the fly-bys and we were able to explore the reefs at a more relaxed pace.

Kandus tend to be where the large sharks and other animals of the open sea are usually found.  Finding sharks was the goal for all of the advanced divers.  That included all of the passengers except us.  We are not advanced divers.  So we had our own divemaster.  The currents were actually stronger than is appropriate for divers with our abilites and limitations. 

This was our second of three samplings of what Maldives has to offer.
To get an idea of what we saw look at the video below:  

g-Adventures snorkeling liveaboard in Maldives

When we arrived at the Male airport in Maldives we walked a short distance across the street to the dock where we were met by a skiff that took us to the dhoni (Maldivian style boat) named GAHAA where we would live for the next week.  The two Canadians and six Americans who were on the Sri Lanka tour continued on the Maldives portion of the trip.  All four cabins had limited space.  Three of the four had attached toilets, sinks, and showers.  Ours didn’t.  The toilet and sink in the hallway were usable but the shower wasn’t.  Fortunately other passengers allowed us to use their showers.  But the food was excellent and the snorkeling was better than any place we had been before.

During our week we had opportunities to snorkel at thilas in the North Male and Felidhoo Atolls and to visit two inhabited islands.  Thilas are subsurface coral reefs that are complete ecosystems that teem with life.  There are numerous thilas within all of the Maldives atolls. 

Look at Maldives in Google maps; choose satellite view; zoom in.  You will see an amazing archipelago consisting of thousands of islands and thilas.

I have uploaded a video to YouTube that provides a sampling of what we saw.  It includes photos and videos.