Here are some stories of those who have traveled with me ...  

 

At the Maldives February 9th, 2008

 

We are sailing to the next location where we will be scuba diving. We had our first dive at 8am after our first cup of coffee. The point where we dived is called "Panettone", so called because discovered by an Italian scuba diver.

Indeed, its shape is a large cake with icing sugar on top, its' summit is a small island with only sand that splays out at 360 ° in the ocean, with a maximum depth of 25 \ 30 meters. Truly a beautifull cake with icing sugar! It's a beautiful diving spot, quite multifaceted, I'd say.

There are some caves, not very big but with many soft-corals (alcyonaria) in the vault and fans of coral that rise from the bottom and quite often rise all the way to the top of the vault until they touch the hanging alcyonaria.

Groupers, Napoleonfish or Humphead Wrasses, Eagle Rays, and Tunas, generally populate the "Panettone" but today we had a surprise; The Manta Rays.

We met them 3 times at a depth of only 13 meters. They came from the blue and approached the reef where we were, with a slow and elegant pace and remained circling in front of and above our heads, and as is usual, when they wish to allow it, I swam alongside them!

We climbed back in the boat, everyone satisfied and happy for this special chance encounter. On our return to the Haveyli we found that our chef had prepared a wonderful breakfast - piping hot croissants and fresh bread.

Now we are sailing with a good wind, lazing in the sun while within our minds' eye we see manta rays swimming around us.

 Sailing through these seas the landscape is ..... What can I say? We're in the Maldives! Even the clouds aren't clouds here, they are but paintings in the background of a blue sky.

 

What had held it up for so long I 'll never know...

It suddenly appeared, regal movements, agile, carefree and curious above our upturned heads, while we held onto the coral with barely a finger.

The Manta.

I had only read about it in books or had seen documentaries, but it's subtle charm had already gotten under my skin and with my heart beaming with joy, I watched it doing it's sensuous, majestic dance for us. The remoras (also called suckerfish) obliging and ever present.

I don't know if I have ever heard a silence so total, so deep and so complete. To have seen a movement so perfect, so slow and sublime. Enveloped by blue, overcome by wonder and amazement at being there, in it's kingdom.

Then, just as suddenly as it had appeared, after an infinitely long time, it disappeared into the abyss, taking with it the divine that it had given us.

Then we felt at a loss, as if neither the sharks below, nor the colorful fish in their thousands also roamed the sea.

 

And slowly we swam back to the surface, where the long held cry of wonder exploded towards the sun.

To Serena, without whom none of this would have happened.

 

The Night in Maaya Thilla with sharks

 

This day could end in no other way! A sundowner (non-alcoholic) with tuna sandwiches and we're ready for the night dive, a dive on a thila in Ari Atoll. A thila is a shoal in Maldivian. We dived and when we were above the thila, who did we find? Sharks hunting in the midst of compact schools of fish, which would break with each shark attack. At night, emotions are stronger, among sharks that materialize fom everywhere. They see very well in the dark, whereas, we even with the help of flashlights move in the dark. We had another surprise as well, a barracuda, about 2m long, alone and much more worrisome to us than the sharks. After 40 minutes in this dark exciting sea, we emerged with an adrenaline rush to a starry sky with a rising moon.

 

The whale shark

 

Every week is a voyage towards the unknown, but with our Captain Ali, it seems to be an inevitability that we will encounter the whale shark. From his position of command aboard the Haveyli, he begins his search. We're out of the atoll, on an outer reef, in the open ocean. He suddenly slows the engines down and directs the bow in a specific direction, he comes out and looks carefully around and says ok, everybody jump and go there. We are already ready with mask, snorkel and fins and off we go !!! It's colossal, about 8 metres long, swiming just below us, only about 5 metres above the reef. It moves slowly but we are forced to kick our fins strongly just to follow it. At one point it starts to rise towards the surface, right towards us, incredulously we all stop, it opens its mouth and feeds on plankton. Right in front of me !! The story of Pinocchio and the whale intantly comes to my mind. I keep my legs still and push back with my arms, I have freediving fins and am an encumbrance to myself as I try to drift further away without touching it. Unconcerned it continues on its' course. We all have to be very careful not to touch the shark, otherwise it swims away. As it's very tempting to try to touch it, we always explain to our guests just how to behave when encountering a whale shark. This week we had really found a champion of a shark, he graced us with his company for almost an hour. Everyone managed to see it quite well from the boat, both those who did not dive, as well as those who were tired and climbed back on board, as well as the entire crew. In the end it left us and meandered back into the deep blue of the Maldivian ocean.

 

Hammerhead sharks

 

The night before, my group of fourteen people and I decided to get up early to do a dive before sun rise. We woke up at 5 - tea, coffee and biscuits were waiting for us on the bow of the Flying Fish. We plan our dive and away we go. We prepare ourselves quickly for the dive: the diving spot is near and the captain will be joining us. I ask him wich bearings to take with the compass and he replies: “I don't need a compass, in the water I can feel the reef”. “The magic of those who have been born and have lived their lives in the Maldives!” We throw ourselves into the water, near the corner of the pass (it is the opening in the reef towards the open sea). I have a compass and we head for the open sea where underneath us, all is dark blue. We go down to a depth of 25 meters, but we do not find anything interesting. Then after a few minutes I see it, its' far away. Its' a hammerhead shark! I start kicking, quickly. I have freediving fins which are very fast. I turn around but only two divers from my group are behind me. Sadly the hammerhead shark swims away. What a pity that only two subs have had the chance to see it, But I don''t give up and forge ahead with the search. I move the whole group towards the center of the channel and there they are! In front of us are seven hammerhead sharks, a disturbing presence. Swaying their huge tails and swiming by moving their crushed faces from left to right. They swim forward with those expressionless eyes, in such an abnormal position. They are just three feet away from us, we virtually hold our breath as they parade before us and glide past. We are all ecstatic and want to see more, we continue the search. Below we see another group of "hammers", there are 5 and they are bigger than the ones that we have seen before. One of them is about four meters long. We try to follow them but our diving computers begin to flash a “wailing" warning, we're going too deep and have to turn back. We turn once again to look at the group of receding "hammers" as we continue the ascent and emerge. By now the sun is high in the sky and it shines on our joyous faces, we are all deligheted that we had such luck to meet these great predators of the sea.