Dive Review of Manthuri in
Maldives

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Manthuri, Dec, 2002, by Glenn Davis, CA, USA . Report 322.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity	N/A
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$	N/A
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Diving was very nice. Usual dive was starting outside of a reef and flowing inside through a channel in the reef along with a mild to strong current. Nice small soft corals, hard corals were mostly broken up and dead - some starting to grow back. Saw sharks, eagle and sting rays, turtles, Napoleon Wrasse, lots of lion fish, honeycomb and moray eels, many smaller colorful tropical fish and some nudibranchs. Nice underwater topography and good vis outside of the reef and going through channel. Not for the novice, relatively strong currents at times, surface was sometimes pretty rough as were exits from water. I was used to this from Monterey and other dive experiences - but my companion got a bit bruised on the ladder a few times. The boat crew handled everything very well. The dive master and captain were excellent. Really liked the crew. One to four dives a day (including a night dive, though not every day). First day got one dive, last day of diving got in three dives, in between 3-4 a day. 8 day cruise including last day which was in port where we left after breakfast. My sister loves this boat and has been on it four times. While I liked the diving and the crew, the boat left much to be desired. Perhaps for Maldives live aboards it is great but not compared to what I have read about Peter Hughes and related classes of boats. Upon boarding the boat found it had been fumigated and the odor was quite unpleasant. Read another post to undercurrent that this boat has a cockroach problem and they do this between trips. They need to do it, wait and do it again as we had many cockroaches mostly recent hatchlings and a few large ones. They didn't seem to open up all the cabinets to get the fumigant into all spaces and so it wasn't thorough. Also, they didn't air out the boat before the guests arrived and so it was quite sickening. cabins were pretty noisy due to generator that always ran to power lights and A/C. A/C was turned up so high that we froze much of the time inside the boat. As we learned where the switches were we turned most off but never found the one for the hall outside the cabins - the engineer didn't know where that switch was either, so it was an arctic dash to get into our cabins wet after diving. Food was OK, mostly. Occasionally a very good dish but mostly just OK. Breakfasts were white bread toasted, cold fried eggs, oat meal, fruit. Snack before first dive and in afternoon - bland cookies, bananas and tea.
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	251-500 dives
Where else diving	Sipadan/Mabul, Palau, Roatan, Curacao, Cozumel, Jamaica, Monterey, Channel Islands Southern Calif.
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	windy, rainy, cloudy	Seas	choppy, currents
Water Temp	81-82°F / 27-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness	4
Water Visibility	40-100 Ft/ 12-30 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	120' max depth. Followed dive guide and dove to limits of air.
Liveaboard?	yes	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	1 or 2
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
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		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	Diving was from a chase boat that did not have a camera table or dedicated camera fresh water container (plastic trash can shared with rinsing wet suits and sundry items - only had 10" water, leaked till I suggested matching with duct tape). There is an OK dedicated tank on the main ship, not very large. Lucky there were only two cameras on this trip - mine and the dive guide. Tank could hold two cameras with full setup of strobes and arms plus small snap shot cameras. On board is a 10' camera shelf/counter with good lighting and 110 volt plugs to charge strobes and lights. Would be quite crowded with more then two cameras on it. My first live aboard, I hear that other boats have better arrangements for UWP gear. The boat has E-6 processing, two rolls min. at a time, and a light table.

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Dive Review of Manthuri in Maldives

Manthuri, Dec, 2002,

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 Manthuri in
Maldives