Dive Review of Carpe Novo/Kiha Beach in
Maldives/North Atolls

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Carpe Novo/Kiha Beach: "Whale Sharks and Mantas!!", Oct, 2021, by Carl Belles, FL, US ( 1 report with 2 Helpful votes). Report 11688 has 2 Helpful votes.
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Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity	N/A
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling
Overall Rating
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Comments	Combo land-based and liveaboard trip postponed due to COVID. We spent 3 nights land-based with the express purpose of snorkeling with mantas and whale sharks, before joining the Carpe Novo liveaboard for a week of diving. Overall, a great trip, with some cautions/criticisms. Travel to the Maldives was pretty uneventful. We got our Maldives-mandated PCR test 48 hours before departure from our first airport (must be within 72 hrs per Maldives entry requirements) at our local urgent-care clinic. Maldives health declaration was relatively easy to complete on mobile devices. NOTE: Maldives government requires that form be completed within 24 hrs of arrival to Maldives, and some airlines were checking for completed form before departure from US. We completed form once in US before check-in with airline, and then completed it again during layover to comply with entry requirement. Flew Qatar Airways MIA-ORD-DOH-MLE using AA miles for Business Class. Aircraft were equipped with QSuites on both international legs; well worth it if possible, and an excellent value if redeeming AA miles. Check-in took longer than usual due to the agent checking all of our documentation; have everything printed out or already up on your mobile to speed the process. Crew were friendly and charming, food and beverage service were excellent as always, and QSuites are super-comfortable and well-appointed. We had individual window seats on the way to MLE; we switched to middle, rear-facing seats for the return as the barrier between these seats can be lowered to create one larger space. Excellent choice for couples, and being rear-facing didn’t bother either of us. Transfer in Doha was as easy as ever. Our layover was long enough that we opted to get a room at the in-airport Oryx Hotel. Not cheap, but not outrageously priced, either. Highly recommended for long layovers, especially during COVID times. Got some sleep, a shower, and we were able to isolate better than in the lounge. Entry into the Maldives was easy as well. Usual immigration procedures plus a temperature check. I don’t think anyone checked on either our health declaration or our vaccination status; my guess is that they are relying on the airlines to handle this. We collected our bags for the transfer to our domestic inter-island flight to Dharavandhoo. Domestic terminal is very basic and no-frills, so if flying from here I would hang out outside by the harbor until absolutely necessary. Flight to Dharavandhoo was uneventful – your basic inter-island flight like you might experience anywhere. Landing on Dharavandhoo, we were met be a representative from Kiha Beach who arranged us all onto golf carts for the short drive, with our luggage following behind. Dharavandhoo is a small island with not a lot of infrastructure, but Kiha Beach is a pleasant little hotel with an attentive staff and close proximity to Hanifaru Bay, the reason for our stay. Food was good if not exceptional, the beach was very pleasant, and the house reef was a surprisingly lovely snorkeling spot. Would have made for some decent beach diving as well. NOTE: Neither Kiha Beach nor anywhere else on Dharavandhoo serve alcohol. We had daily snorkels with squadrons of mantas, and a few whale sharks in nearby Hanifaru Bay. A short walk from the hotel to the island’s marina took us to the boats from which we would snorkel. Access to the bay is controlled by rangers who communicate with the nearby resorts and hotels to alert them to good times to snorkel. Conditions could be crowded around the large critters; I had to throw a few elbows to keep other snorkelers at bay. Conditions could be pretty rough depending on tide and weather, and there were some long swims from where the boats were made to wait. Visibility was cloudy, but that’s what brings the filter feeders, so no complaints here. Carpe Novo agreed to pick us up at Dharavandhoo, so we did not make the return flight to Malé. Things operate on “island time” quite a bit, so it was getting dark by the time we met the tender for the trip out to the liveaboard. There was a brief introduction and some basic check-in procedures before dinner. Maybe because of the late hour, I felt like the briefing and introduction were a bit perfunctory; as the week went on I realized I was learning things about the boat that probably should have been communicated upon arrival. The liveaboard herself is well-appointed, with large comfortable cabins (including the largest bathrooms I’ve seen on a liveaboard) and a good deal of public space. I never felt crowded while aboard, or like I couldn’t find a quiet spot for myself if I wanted one. She rolled some during transits, but nothing that kept me awake. There is a spacious camera room aft that looked like it had plenty of charging capability and sufficient real estate for everyone. Our a/c did quit working during this trip, but once we brought it to the crew’s attention it was repaired reasonably quickly. Electrical outlets are 220V “universal” outlets. Crew were attentive, professional and responsive to passengers’ needs. Food was plentiful and decent, although the menu was a bit repetitive and not terribly imaginative. Most meals consisted of soup, rice, pasta with a sauce, stewed or sauteed vegetables, and a protein of some sort. Curries were frequent, and my favorite dishes. Breakfasts were similarly simple; eggs, toast, hash browns, sausages, and turkey “bacon.” One passenger’s request for pancakes was almost immediately fulfilled. The bar is small and minimally supplied, with Sri Lankan “Lion” beer on tap, wine, and basic spirits. All alcohol is at an extra charge. Dive operations were from the tender (called a “dhoni”) that accompanied the liveaboard. The dhoni is large enough to handle all passengers at once, although I don’t think it was ever full during our journey. Once settled in for the first dive, your gear remains in place (with a crate underneath your station for fins and small items. Tanks are filled in place via the onboard compressor. Multiple tank sizes are available, and most tanks seemed new enough that they could be configured for yoke or DIN connections (my request for DIN valves was easily handled by removing the threaded “donut” from the tank valve). Nitrox is available at no extra charge, and consistently measured 32% (+/- 0.5%). Entry is via giant stride from the stern platform; boarding is via ladder on the port side of the dhoni. The dive platform was large enough that divers with physical limitations could don their gear seated on the platform and then roll into the water. Crew assisted with in-water gear removal if requested. Dive briefings were thorough, with outstanding hand-drawn maps of the site. Divers were split into three groups and generally stayed with the same divemaster throughout the week (sometimes groups would be combined due to fewer passengers diving). Our divemaster, Areesh, was attentive without being overbearing, and was good at small critter spotting. The dives ended up being a little more challenging than I anticipated. A couple of days we had very rough seas upon surfacing, which made for some challenges getting back in the dhoni. Virtually every dive was a drift dive to greater or lesser degree, so being comfortable deploying a marker buoy is recommended. To be fair, this was monsoon season, so perhaps other times of the year are less challenging. I would not consider the week we had suitable for new or inexperienced divers. One criticism of the dive operations; there were no roll calls either before or after entry. Groups were small enough that it was easy for each dive master to account for his flock, but a roll call is such a simple procedure to institute that it seems odd that this was not SOP. To my uneducated eye, corals looked pretty healthy, with a lot more soft coral than I am used to seeing in Florida and the Caribbean. There were lots of small colorful reef fish, a number of dog tooth tuna and other similarly sized fish, a few turtles, and plenty of reef sharks of various species. A few mantas and eagle rays were spotted during the week, and one group reported dolphins during a dive. Once I learned what to look for, I spotted multiple octopus, during both day and night dives, and on one site we came across multiple pairs of cuttlefish. The ship returned to Male late in the afternoon the day before disembarkation, and a health care worker came aboard to administer PCR tests for anyone who needed it for onward travel. Results were sent to the crew, who then forwarded them on to individual passengers. Upon time to leave, the dhoni dropped everyone off at the dock at the Malé airport, from which we went our separate ways. It was a good week of diving, if more challenging than anticipated. I would travel aboard Carpe Novo again, especially if they implement better tracking of divers from the dhoni. Maldives are open for business and relatively easy to enter and exit. Recommended for sure.
Websites	Carpe Novo Kiha Beach
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	251-500 dives
Where else diving	Primarily Caribbean and East Coast US, with forays to Fiji, Hawai'i, and the US Pacific Coast.
Closest Airport	MLE	Getting There	Easy connections through Middle Eastern and European gateways (we flew Qatar through Doha).
Dive Conditions
Weather	cloudy	Seas	choppy, currents
Water Temp	80-83°F / 27-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	40-100 Ft/ 12-30 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	Max. depth
Liveaboard?	yes	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	Squadrons
Dolphins	1 or 2	Whale Sharks	> 2
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter	N/A	Boat Facilities	N/A
Overall rating for UWP's	N/A	Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	[None]

Report currently has 2 Helpful votes

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Dive Review of Carpe Novo/Kiha Beach in Maldives/North Atolls

Carpe Novo/Kiha Beach: "Whale Sharks and Mantas!!", Oct, 2021,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Carpe Novo/Kiha Beach in
Maldives/North Atolls