20 March Dhiffushi

04 27 05N 073 42 24E 10m sand between low level bommies

More motoring in no wind. There is a marked boat channel in the NW corner of the atoll but we crossed the reef in the south west corner keeping a white pole to our starboard. The minimum depth we saw was 4.5m and the water was clear for us to easily navigate around the bommies. It's likely we could have passed over without touching but why risk it?

Dhiffushi is two islands; the northerly one a resort and closed to casual visitors, the southerly one has the village and a number of locally owned guest houses, hotels and restaurants. We had the buffet dinner at the hotel by the boat harbour and it was very good and good value. Because the only religion allowed in the Maldives is Muslim there is no alcohol. If you want to buy a beer you'd have to go to a resort or buy one from the bar on the rally Mother Ship.

welcome festivities

handicraft demonstration

typical village road

At one of dive shops we were talking to the guide about dive sites close to the anchorage and he recommended a fishing boat wreck a mile away. Next day we went to dive it, found the buoy he said marked the site, tied our dinghy to it and descended. The ship is sitting upright in maximum 24m with the superstructure up to 12m. There was a fair current sweeping the decks but we were able to move around without problems. There is plenty of life on it including a well camouflaged stone fish.

It had been our intention to do a second dive on a wall but when David fired up the generator to refill my tank the generator wouldn't start. David wasn't able to fix it until the following day when he was able to trace the fault back to a blown fuse. Of course, it's a special 32V time delay one, but it is replaceable with a standard fuse as a temporary measure.