To make up for lost ground the boat sailed south overnight to a place called Kuredo.  Diving in Kuredo is allegedly famous for its fast expresses.  Based on the advice of Riyaz the plan was to dive the Kandu (Maldivian term for channel) on the second dive in anticipation of a faster flow.  Of frustration was that we learnt retrospectively that this site was also famous for its hammerheads in the very early hours of the day, i.e. by 6 am.

 We took pot luck and selected an outer reef of the Kuredo resort.  For many of us this materialised to be one of the most outstanding dives of the expedition in terms of both underwater scenery and marine life.  The topography of the site was absolutely stunning.  The dive was along underwater sea cliffs, with immense overhangs interspersed with numerous caverns of varying shapes and sizes regardless of depth.  The still water enabled the divers to relax and stop to marvel at very close quarters a number of sleeping green and hawksbill turtles, and sting rays sheltering in the caverns.  The photographers were in happy snap paradise.  The backdrop was alive with thousands of small reef fish.  There were also a number of free swimming turtles and sting rays, which all seem unfased by the presence of divers.  If only all ‘pot luck’ dives were this successful.

 The second dive was planned to be the Kuredo express.  The first wave went in, whilst the second wave sat on the dhoni in eager anticipation to see how far they managed to drift.  40 minutes later the divers surfaced, not far from where they had been dropped in the water.  The express unfortunately had the speed of the M25 on a Friday night.  To make the dive even more disappointing, the sight was virtually sand and rubble as a result of the devastation caused by the Tsunami.  The second wave changed location but had a very similar dive. Main sightings included leopard morays and some giant grouper.  At least we could perhaps provide some useful feedback for the coral and marine surveys. 

 The third dive was on the outer reef of one of the islands.  The main highlight was part of the wall which had splintered away from the main cliff to form a prominent pinnacle with a chasm which called out to be swim through.  For the second wave the strong currents had made it quite a slog to get their, however the feature was well worth the effort, however unfortunately for most of us this was nearing the end of the dive. 

 The last dive of the day was the charity sub aqua swim for SSAFA.  The original intent was to swim around one of the islands; however the marine topography did not lend itself to enable this to happen safely i.e. to with boat top cover in the original intended fashion due to shallow waters.  With time against us it was elected to conduct the swim in the spirit it was meant but in a safe and suitable environment which was on the edge of one of the resorts between a couple of the jetties.  Swimming from A to B along a sandy bottom was reminiscent of the search for the Catalina.  The swim was made slightly more entertaining by the presence of a sting ray, which swam to within arms reach of Diary Dave and Liz.  For Nick, however his meeting with the sting ray, in particular its tail, was slightly too close for comfort as he found himself immediately swimming over its head in around a couple of metres of water.

 Martin and Liz also managed to squeeze in their Dive Leader theory exam.  To round up another good day, some of the expedition went on a brief run ashore to a nearby resort called the ‘One and only’ to enjoy a cocktail by the lapping shores of the Indian Ocean.

Spotted Stingray - Photo David Ball