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Dive Review of Manthuri in
Maldives

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 2 stars Food 3 stars
Service and Attitude 5 stars Environmental Sensitivity N/A
Dive Operation 4 stars Shore Diving 3 stars
Snorkeling N/A
Value for $$ N/A
Beginners 2 stars
Advanced 4 stars
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
Corals 3 stars Tropical Fish 3 stars
Small Critters 2 stars Large Fish 3 stars
Large Pelagics 3 stars

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

Subject Matter 4 stars Boat Facilities 3 stars
Overall rating for UWP's 2 stars 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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Note: The information here was reported by the author above, but has NOT been reviewed nor edited by Undercurrent prior to posting on our website. Please report any major problems by writing to us and referencing the report number above.

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