52 Travel
amenities; guests are generally happy as
long as the boat is safe and they’re
enthused by what they see in the water. By
contrast, the Explorer smoothes out all the
rough edges. Cabins are a cool refuge of
fluffy towels and kingsize beds; there’s a
mixologist behind the bar; the meals of
lobster and wagyu steak far surpassed
anything I have been served on a boat. It is
a serious working vessel that feels more
like a floating boutique hotel and, yes, you
pay a considerable price for that.
The diving was taken as seriously as our
comfort — this was expedition-level stuff.
For the first time, in partnership with the
bespoke tour operator Original Diving, the
three-deck, 39m catamaran was setting its
course for the deep south of the Maldives.
We’d explore remote reefs on the way
to the island of Fuvahmulah, known
for its tiger sharks.
Other, less fancy live-aboards visit these
areas, but you’d probably have to get
a flight to or from a southern atoll.
The Explorer’s twin 1,000-horsepower
engines, however, make it much faster
than other boats, so you can return to
North Malé Atoll on an overnight run.Exploring the Maldives
on a luxury dive boat
Sailing in the Indian Ocean,
Simon Rogerson is captivated
by close encounters with turtles,
eagle rays and whale sharks
to hold on to anything; you can relax and
maintain position in the current — let the
action come to you.”
The Explorer continued south and we
kept diving the channels, clocking up
plenty of time with green turtles and reef
sharks. By day three we had fallen into
the rhythm — dive, eat, sleep, repeat —
but there were interludes built into the
itinerary. At anchor in Gaafu Alifu Atoll
the crew turned on powerful stern lights
as darkness fell, attracting swarms of
plankton to the back of the boat. Then,
in the early hours of the morning we were
roused by an eager whisper over the PA:
“We have a whale shark!”
Whale sharks are the biggest fish in the
sea, ocean-going plankton feeders that
grow to the size of a bus. Beyond a few
hotspots they are seldom encountered;
seeing one is considered a once-in-a-
lifetime experience.
The shark was about 4m long, an
adolescent, but enormous nonetheless.
It swam right up to the stern light and went
upright, its great mouth gulping down the
plankton that had massed at the surface.5 0 milesEquatorGaafu Alifu
AtollFuvahmulahNorth
Malé AtollMALDIVES
INDIAN
OCEAN
Four Seasons
Kuda Huraa
resortI
stepped off the side of the boat and
the bright light of the Indian Ocean
was replaced by soothing tones
of royal blue. I stole a final glimpse
of the coral islands in the distance,
then followed the trail of bubbles
from my fellow divers as they
descended towards a submerged
mountainside. Visibility was something
like 40m — as clear as it gets anywhere in
the Indian Ocean.
It was the sort of dive you are told never
to expect — a parade of reef A-listers that
read like a Blue Planet showreel. A green
turtle the size of a coffee table swam
regally through a school of blue-lined
snappers; a squadron of spotted eagle rays
blotted out the sun as they streamed
overhead; grey reef sharks danced in
the swirling currents close to the atoll
entrance. You normally have to work hard
for exceptional wildlife experiences, but
here it was being served up like a buffet.
Not unlike meal times on Four Seasons
Explorer, where pre-dive pastries and
coffee greet the dawn; a selection of
smoked fish, meats, fresh fruit and other
treats is served post-dive; and then there’s
à la carte breakfast as well. Every day.
I loved the addictive mas huni, a salad
of ground tuna, chillies and coconut
with fresh chapatis — the Maldives in
edible form.
This was live-aboard life, but not as we
know it. Live-aboard dive boats have been
around since the 1980s, a recreational take
on expedition vessels such as Jacques
Cousteau’s yacht, Calypso. Today most are
run as cottage industries; there may be a
single owner or a co-operative, but not
typically a big brand. So, having been on
about 40 such vessels of varying quality,
I was prepared for the Four Seasons
live-aboard to be a bit different.
I boarded the Explorer at the Four
Seasons Kuda Huraa resort in North Malé
Atoll, a 35-minute speedboat from the
airport. I was greeted by the traditional
beating of a boduberu (drum) and the
less traditional insertion of a digital
thermometer into my ear, to confirm I was
feverish with anticipation, not Covid-19.
My good health established, I was handed
the first in a long series of chilled, delicate-
ly scented towels.
This was mid-March, just as inter-
national travel was starting to contract.
The Explorer can take 22 guests, but for
our ten-day trip we had nine, including a
former director of the Bank of England
and, reassuringly, a former director of
global health for Public Health England.
Well, if he thought it was OK...
Standard live-aboards put the emphasis
on efficiency as diving platforms,
providing hearty meals and comfortableSimon Rogerson travelled
as a guest of Original
Diving and the Four
Seasons Explorer
live-aboard. It next
sets sail on March 8, 2021,
and the nine-night trip
costs from £15,700pp,
including flights,
transfers, seven nights’
full board on the boat
and a night before
and after at Kuda Huraa
(originaldiving.com).
The Foreign Office
is advising against
non-essential travel to
the Maldives at presentNeed to
know
Dining on board the Explorer Ari Atoll in the MaldivesDiving with a whale sharkFelipe, the resident marine biologist,
gave us daily talks. And after dinner each
evening we were shown a beautifully
edited underwater video of the group’s
adventures, on a huge, high-definition
screen.
Our diving took place from a smaller
support boat, known in the Maldives as
a dhoni, so all we had to do was sit on
a bench, check our breathing gas and
climb into our kit. There was even
someone who would de-fog your mask,
a level of luxury I haven’t seen in nearly
30 years of dive travel.
Our floating home wove its way
south through the Maldives’ atolls, great
necklaces of coral reefs and islands
that enclose vast lagoons. These lagoons
may have the turquoise water that lure so
many visitors, but for us they were of
secondary interest.
“The lagoons don’t have the energy we
need,” our cruise director, Abdul Latheef,
said. “Here in the Maldives everything
depends on water movement. Every day
water flows in and out of the atolls through
kandus, channels between the islands. And
when the currents get moving, fish activity
peaks. Little fish come out to feed on the
plankton, then big fish like the
snapper or tuna come out to hunt, and
sharks arrive to hunt them in turn. This is
why we need to dive in the high-energy
zone, close to the kandus, where the water
moves fast. This is the Maldives at its best.”
The first time you dive a kandu, it can
take you by surprise. For two thirds of the
dive you’ll be drifting serenely, wafted
along by a gentle current. You can explore
the reef, looking for octopuses, the
barrel-sized Napoleon wrasse, or moray
eels with intricate honeycomb patterns.
Then the current starts to pick up and it’s
time to deploy reef hooks to prevent
yourself from being swept away.
“Reef hooks are not destructive,” Abdul
told me. “If you use one correctly, it will
minimise your impact on the coral.” The
nylon line attaches to your buoyancy
compensator jacket and has a hook that
you secure under a patch of dead coral
rock, he explained. “Then you don’t need