17 March Gaa Faru

1. NW pass 04 45 92E 073 24 08N 27m
2. NE pass 04 46 05E 073 28 13N 21m sand, depth in west fork 10m

There was more motoring to reach Gaa Faru where there was a village visit arranged. We entered through the west pass which is 25m deep and left through the west side of the east pass with minimum 10m depth.

The village visit on the second day of our three day visit consisted of a coconut and a village tour. WE bought food at a well (comparatively) stocked shop and topped up our internet data.

There was an invitation to take sundowners on the Mother Ship at 5.30pm one day but with the rally boats split between anchor sites on the north and south sides of the laggon and the Mother Ship moving to a third location 2 miles from the closest yacht it didn't happen,

For us the highlight of our visit to Gaa Faru was the diving. We did three drift dives in the west pass three times and twice on the outer wall on the NE side of the atoll. The west pass was a great drift dive with plenty to see. The outer wall had spectacular visibility and we saw plenty of sharks. We began the first wall dive from the site of the Seagull wreck which foundered on the top of the reef a hundred years ago. It mainly lies in less than 7m on the top of the wall. Sadly the coral in the Maldives bleached in 34c water temperatures a year ago. There is some new growth already and there are plenty of fish, but the colour and vibrancy of the reefs we knew 10 years ago have gone.