This was my first trip to the Maldives and I certainly plan to return. I was based at VADOO, a Japanese run resort with very few round eyes present. I did 29 dives in 6 days and during that time logged my 800th dive and had an underwater party to celebrate.
DIVE SITES
No need to go any further, the house reef has it all from gobies to sharks, garden eels to Eagle rays.
Hawksbill Turtle, yes you can get as close as this!
Arceye Hawkfish (left) and Maldives Anemonefish (right)
Pixie Hawkfish above
Excellent viz, great underwater scenery and large shoals of snapper.
EMBOODHU HOUSE REEF
Fast current on this one made photography a bit difficult, but excellent dive.
LION'S HEAD
Several turtle encounters on this relatively fast drift dive, using 20mm lens so easy to capture the the size of these creatures.
MAS THILA
Not much current and good opportunity for photography, turtles and shoals of blue lined snapper.
VADOO PASS
Incredible topography here, forget the photography and go with the flow. huge underwater sand dune on which Iwasu-san did some aquatic acrobatics.
VADOO CAVES
Another drift with amazing overhangs and of course caves. Nudibranchs on this dive plus longnose hawkfish and turtles.
HELMUT REEF
Turtles, turtles and more turtles, along with Eagle Rays, big Tuna all on this medium drift dive.
BANANA REEF
Wild current and VERY fast drift, scratched my dome port on this dive, but not seriously. Very friendly Humphead Wrasse (Napoleons) but strobe arms were horizontal. Definately a job for Nikonos with wide angle.
THE CANYON
Another fast drift dive with sharks, humphead wrasse and turtles.
DIVE BUDDIES
Chiharu Kawasaki, Hida Harumi, Yoshimi Toyoda,
Koji Wakasugi, Kuni Sawaki, Keiko Sakamatu,
Yuki Noguchi, Y. Noguchi, Chika Kawawaki,
Hisana Gomi, Keiji Miyamoto, Sumi Moroshige,
Hiromi Kawai, Misato Shinai, Atsato Masouko,
Noriko Takada, Junko Sano,
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