Holiday Dates : 1-10 June 2003
The Island  Maayafushi is a Maldivian island in the northern part of the Ari Atoll. It is a small round island which will take about 10-15 minutes to walk around at slow walking place. The accommodation consisted mainly of small comfortable, simply furnished, thatched beach bungalows and I would suggest that east side of the island (at the time we were there) is more sheltered when the wind picks up.
The diving
Average water temperature: 28 Celsius
Wetsuit used: 5mm full wetsuit
Diving in the Maldives has been superb at every island we have been to. Maayafushi is located in a fantastic area. The Maayafushi house reef, in my option is not very good, however whilst we were there some German divers did see Manta rays and sharks. The dive shop was well stocked but, as we have our own equipment we just needed air tanks and weights. It's worth noting for those who are interested Nitrox is currently not available.
 Most of the boat dives were thilas, these are coral blocks normally in channels which can make interesting fast drift dive as the tide sweeps in or out of the atoll. These do, in our experience tend to be the more interesting dives as the larger animals such as Manta rays, sharks and Eagle rays for example tend to like currents. We did about 24 dives during our stay, consisting of a morning dive (sometimes a two if the dive site was a long trip) an afternoon dive and the occasional night dive. Sharks figured in nearly every dive and it would be easy to write something about all of the sites as there were no bad ones however, the dives mentioned below should give you a good idea about the diving.
Maaya Thila
 While we were on Maayafushi the weather was very changeable. The closest dive-site is Maaya Thila, a twenty minute Dhoni ride so even if the boat could not travel to far because of the weather there was disputably one of the top 10 dive site on the door step. The thila is covered with fish and has a population of gray reef sharks and the coral is in good condition. This dive site was also the spot for the night dive and whilst up to this point I could take or leave night diving, this is a spectacular night dive. The white tip reef sharks zoom around using the torch light to hunt, gray reef sharks cruise in the distance, turtles sleeping in caves, octopus darting around I could go on suffice to say if you get the opportunity do it.
Bathala Maaga Kan Thila.
 This is a large thila which stretches along the outside of the Atoll and about 40 minutes from Maayafushi. This is a reverse profile dive which means starting at the shallowest point then moving to the deepest part of the dive where you then surface. Because this thila constantly has the current washing over it the current can be quite strong however as you make your way down the reason for this reverse profile become increasingly obvious as the Gray reef sharks cruise by, and possibly Eagle rays glide above.
Bathala Kari Thila (Ali's Thila)
 The dive master Ali had been diving Bathala Kan Thila and whilst he was doing his safety stop he drifted along the Atoll in the current and noticed a school of reef fish, an indication of a reef nearby. Ali increased his depth and saw a possible new dive site. Back on Maayafushi Denise and I were the only ones due to dive that afternoon so he asked if we fancied trying a possible new dive site . Needless to say we jumped at the chance. The Dive site was about 40 minutes by Dhoni and was actually two coral blocks which you could swim between. Both of the thila's were covered with fish life, and there was also a large amount fish in blue water around them too. What did make this dive special were the Nurse sharks huddled together under an overhang.
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Food and entertainment
The package was all-inclusive, which in actual fact means almost all inclusive. For example after midnight the drinks at the bar had to be paid for, which is something to be aware of.
The coffee shop was open between about 10 am to 10 pm and had small snacks available mid morning and mid afternoon. It was a nice place to have a cup of tea and watch the sunset.
 The breakfast, dinner, and the evening meal were all served in the dining room. Breakfast was a buffet, and there was a good variety to choose from. Lunch and dinner alternated between a buffet and a set menu. I was not over-enamored with the set menu but starter, which was always a buffet selection, could normally be turned into a main meal.
The bar was a large covered area with a sand base and most evenings there was entertainment but this was normally aimed at the Italians. However, most evenings the divers on the island sat together, chatted, played cards and generally entertained ourselves.
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Travel
The holiday was booked through Maldives Scuba Tours. The outward flight was in the evening from Heathrow on Air Sri Lanka and flew directly to the Maldives with no stop offs which was about 10 hours. The return flight was at lunchtime on Emirates and required connecting to a London bound plane at Dubai . This meant around half an hour in Dubai airport duty free, far better than Maldivian equivalent.
As the airport at Male is an island any transfer travel will be either by boat or seaplane. We have found the boat is fine if transfers are less than 45 minutes to 1 hour and can be spectacular if the sea is calm and there is little wind or rain. However, Maayafushi is about 1 hour 30 minutes by boat so we made the transfer by seaplane which took 30 minutes.
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