22 minute read
The Maldives
MALDIVES Magical ENCOUNTERS IN THE
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ENCOUNTERS
Byron Conroy and Lena Kavender are seduced by the serenity and beauty – both topside and underwater – at the Faarufushi Resort in the Maldives
PHOTOGRAPHS BY BYRON CONROY
Iam diving along the reef wall of the Faarufushi house reef together with my partner Byron and our guide Stephane. We are at about 15m depth when we spot a family of four adult eagle rays cruising towards us at the same depth. The rays are swimming along the wall and with seemingly no intention of changing their route. The three divers and the four eagle rays pass each other from a close distance in perfect harmony. ‘Wow, this will be a cool story to tell!’ I think to myself. Byron is busy working energetically with his camera to catch this unique and magical moment.
We are in Raa Atoll, a 50-minute flight north of the Maldivian capital Male. Faarufushi Maldives, a member of Small Luxury Hotels of the World, opened in early 2019 and is located on a small, dreamy tropical island. Green banana trees and other rich vegetation and fruit trees dominate the middle of the island. Surrounding the trees is the whitest sand beach imaginable, along with a 30 degree C turquoise lagoon. Yet outside this sits the coral reef wall sloping down to the deep blue ocean. And this is where our small team of divers have just had a fantastic encounter with some graceful residents of the Indian Ocean.
Loungers by the pool
The fantastic dining area Over-water relaxation
Water villas
COCKTAILS AND FINE DINING WITH A VIEW The previous day, we arrived at the island and had the great pleasure of meeting General Manager Jean-Marc and Resort Manager Marjorie. While enjoying probably the best cocktail in my life at the over-water sunset bar Boli, we soon understand that Faarufushi is the place where all your tropical dreams can come true. Whether it´s dining on a private sand bank island, watching dolphins on a private sunset cruise, learning to cook with an award-winning Maldivian chef, or snorkelling with sea turtles.
When the drinks are finished and the sun has set, we move on to Eclipse. This restaurant built over the water offers fine dining European-style with an Asian twist. Over a delightful dinner we get to know the island´s dive centre managers Cornelia and Stephane from Switzerland. The dive centre is operated by Eurodivers Maldives (www.euro-divers.com), and Cornelia and Stephane have many years of experience in the Maldivian waters and dive operations. Since this is a new resort, they have had the exciting, although sometimes challenging, task of discovering new dive sites suitable for divers with different level of experience. Even though Cornelia and Stephane have now established around 40 dive sites, they keep exploring and looking for new underwater paradises.
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Anthias swarm around the coral
A VERY SPECIAL DIVE On day two, Stephane asks us if we are interested in diving one of his personal favourite sites called Lundhufushi Thila (Thila meaning coral bommie or pinnacle in the local language Dhivehi). We are told it´s not the easiest site for a few reasons. The first challenge is to actually find the dive site. The reef starts at 24m depth, meaning that if visibility is less than that, we simply have to trust the GPS co-ordinates and hope we will descend down to the right position. The second challenge can be the current. Again, if the current is pushing, a 24m free descent can cause a drift away from the site, or make it hard to stay on site once we reach it, as it offers little protection. However, when the conditions are right, we will have the chance of see some of the Maldives’ best marine life, Stephane promises us. We don’t need a second to think - of course we want to do this dive!
When arriving at Lundhufushi Thila, we unfortunately can’t spot the reef from the surface. The experienced skipper tells us it’s the right spot and we giant stride into the water. Luckily there´s only a small current as we descend into the blue. Once we reach 10m, I start to spot what looks like a structure spinning around in circles and moving in figures of eight. As we get closer, we can see literally thousands of fish swimming around like maniacs on top of the reef. The water is so densely packed with fish that I can hardly see Stephane, who is just a few metres in front of me. Soon we get the explanation to this erratically fish behaviour. Towards us swims a beautiful leopard shark. It´s like he is aware of his good looks, as he lays down to rest on the reef just in front of Byron´s camera. What a considerate leopard shark!
A moment later, we spot several good-sized blacktip reef sharks swimming at a distance. We have been told there´s also a resident guitar shark living in the neighbourhood, and we start to look to see if he is home. As I put my head into a large overhang, I see a huge brown-marbled grouper looking back at me. These grouper grow to one to two metres, but due to current fishing practises, it is unfortunately a rare event
Expect huge shoals of fish
to meet a fully grown grouper in these waters. The Maldivian government has done a great job in banning shark fishing in 2010 and extending the ban to also include all ray fishing in 2014. However, the grouper are still under pressure from overfishing, mainly due to high demands from East Asia.
Our next dive site for the day comes with the catchy name Lun´boakandhooo. It´s named after the island whose reef wall we will be diving. The Maldives´ close to 2,000 islands mainly consist of four types - uninhabited natural islands, agriculture islands which are uninhabited but used for plantations, resort islands, and so-called local islands inhabited by the Maldivian population of about 400,000 people. This specific island is used as a fruit plantation. During the dive we encounter two large Napoleon wrasse, some fast-moving tuna and schools of jacks. The reef wall consists of mostly hard corals lit up by anthias and other small reef fish.
MARINE BIOLOGIST AT YOUR SERVICE We´re back on Faarufushi in the early afternoon and get a chance to catch up with the resort´s marine biologist Guilia, from Italy. All guests have the option to participate in a complementary Fish Identification Lab, as well as a Discover Coral Reef workshop. During these sessions, guests get an introduction to the most-common families of fish found in the Indian Ocean. It also involves learning about the different species´ ecological role in the coral reefs, and the important of the coral reef itself. The workshop includes a theory session on land as well as a guided snorkelling session in the lagoon. Guilia explains to us how this is a great opportunity to spread the knowledge to the guests on how to act ‘reef smart’, and what people can do on an individual level to support a sustainable marine environment. Using reef-friendly sunscreen, minimising the use of plastic, choosing ecofriendly toiletries and never buying souvenirs taken from the ocean being a few examples.
BABY SHARKS We have already experienced the rich house reef of Faarufushi where we had the amazing encounter with a family of eagle rays. Today, we decide to explore the shallow lagoon surrounding the island. The water is turquoise, warm and very inviting. It is shallow so we opt for snorkelling rather than diving. Just off the beach lives Faarufushi’s resident baby sharks. A group of juvenile lemon sharks and blacktip reef sharks seem to get along well in their shared residence. Juvenile sharks use this shallow lagoon as a nursery before moving on to deeper water. Since sharks do not look after
The reefs are full of life
their babies, this nursery provides protection and food for the juveniles. It also gives the guests of Faarufushi a chance to observe these beautiful animals from a close distance. As we are snorkelling around in the lagoon watching the sharks swimming around us, I’m thinking to myself how this must be the perfect cognitive therapy for all those poor people who watched Jaws as kids and grew up to become afraid of sharks!
NIKA SPA Even though we choose to spend most of our days in the water or under the surface, there´s a lot more to do at Faarufushi. We decide to stay dry from lunch onwards in order to explore what else is on offer in this tropical paradise. While walking around the island we notice some beautiful wooden huts built on stilts high up in the trees. These turn out to belong to the Nika Spa. The wooden huts are treatment rooms for massage, body scrubs and manicure. Nika also contains two plunge pools, steam rooms and relaxation areas. As we enter the spa we notice a yoga session has just started. The peaceful music along with the soothing aromas creates a feeling of calm and wellbeing just from standing here. For a moment, I feel like I´m in a different world.
HOME AWAY FROM HOME Our time at the island is coming towards an end. This week has offered us the best of two worlds. On one hand, we´ve had action-packed dives with the most-amazing marine life encounters, many thanks to Eurodivers Maldives and Cornelia and Stephane. On the other hand, the time spent on the island itself has been the most-relaxing and joyful experience. At a five-star luxury resort, one can expect a high level of service and professionalism. However, what makes Faarufushi stand out for me, is the personal connection I have felt with the people working here, and the friendly atmosphere on the island. Things like the restaurant team remembering my
Beach villas
name and my favourite drink, or how I like my coffee in the morning. But also the friendly little conversations and curious questions about our day. All these little things are what create the sought-after ‘home away from home’ feeling. In my opinion, that´s what makes the difference between just any luxury holiday and a true dream vacation.
We spend our last day in paradise by simply enjoying our stunning beach villa, having more dips than I can count in our private pool, and enjoying the ocean view from our balcony. Having a waterfall shower in our fantastic open-air bathroom, and just enjoying walking barefoot on the white beach in front of our living room. All good things come to an end, but we will keep our memories from Faarufushi in our mind - as well as on the camera’s SD-cards - for a long time to come! n
Pristine gorgonian seafan
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Atlanta DIVING THE
It took Pete Mesley 23 years to fulfil his dream of diving on the USS Atlantia light cruiser, but thankfully, it more than lived up to the hype
PHOTOGRAPHS BY PETE MESLEY WWW.PETEMESLEY.COM
Diving USS Atlanta was, for me, a long time in the making. I remember meeting Kev Denlay when I was in the Solomons in the late-1990s and talking about the history of this ship. Kev had been one of the first divers to have explored the light cruiser in November 1995. It took me 23 years to fulfill this dream…
DIVING THE ATLANTA Diving conditions couldn’t have been any better. There was a slight five-knot southerly breeze. Sea state – calm. No noticeable current at all. These conditions were not normal for this site. It took Jimmy, the captain, a few ‘drive-bys’ to properly establish how the wreck was sitting and the best place to position the shotline. The USS Atlanta is lying in depths of 104m-130m. Getting the shot right was essential. So many times impatience gets the better of people and they are too quick to throw the shot. This ends up missing the wreck, divers get into the water, only to find that they are diving on ‘HMS Seabed’ with no wreck in sight! Not this time. We threw the shot and after it settled, took another couple of passes really close to the line to make sure we were on the money.
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Five-inch guns on the Atlanta
The iridescent blue shot line sat limp and motionless in the near dead-calm water. Excitement was building, apprehension peaking and a wave of emotion engulfed me. I was finally going to dive the USS Atlanta. All that time researching the wreck, playing the story back through my mind, over and over again. Trying to think of what was going through Captain Samuel P Jenkins’ mind on that fateful night on 13 November 1942, when he had to make the decision to scuttle his beloved ship. That was quickly put to the back of my mind, because our primary objective was to secure the line to the wreck in preparation for the next days’ group. This would be the largest diving expedition mounted on the USS Atlanta in history. Our vessel Taka had an amazing deck crew and to complement that, we put on my own technical support who were experienced technical diving supervisors, who I have worked together with for many years diving deep wreck sites. Andrew Simpson (aka Simo), long-time diving buddy and owner of New Zealand’s premier technical diving facility Global Dive, and good friend Tom Crisp, a younger lad, who cut his teeth on assisting us back in the day supporting the bottom divers on deep wreck exploration . Over the last five years, Tom has been doing his own exploration looking for, diving, documenting and gathering data to assist scientists on some of the many sink holes and cave systems he has discovered. Not to forget Andrew Fock (aka ‘Focky’). Focky was brought onto the team, not only because he is one of the world’s leading hyperbaric physicians, but also because he was one of the earliest divers to dive the USS Atlanta a few years ago now. Focky was chief medical officer on the trip. A truly amazing support team.
After being satisfied the shot was where
we wanted it, Simo and I geared up and after an easy entry from Taka, we scootered a short distance to the empty sorb tin we used as a float. We descend. Still not a breath of current. I look up, Simo very close above me, signal okay. All good. At around 80m the hull comes into view. A little flow of tide becomes evident, but nothing too bad. A beautiful sight. Ambient light is good. The shot with ballast is sitting perfectly on the starboard hull of USS Atlanta. There is a perfect tie-off three metres away. I drag the shot to the tie-off. I then secure the line. Look at my computer – six minutes! Well, that was quick. We actually dedicated quite a lot more time to getting the shotline secured firmly for the next days’ groups. I look at Andrew, point towards the stern and through a few gestures communicate what I would verbalise as ‘wanna go and have a wee look?’ The okay signal is given very quickly!
We drop over the hull. The ship is lying very hard to port, and in some parts of the ship almost upside down. We swam aft towards the stern. The mooring was in 105m of water. Lots of debris lay strewn over the ocean floor beside the hull. I am about ten metres behind Andrew. He is dwarfed by the massive ship, which has collapsed in many places. I look up and see a massive shape that looks like a gigantic tea cup handle. No. It can’t be. Surely not? I scooter out to get a better view. As I position myself, I look and there it is. Two drive shafts, twisted on each other like Medusa’s serpent head. After spending some time in sheer awe of the buckled, twisted prop shafts we moved further aft to where Simo came across a quad set of anti-aircraft guns. These were the standard light anti-aircraft armament on US warships at the start of the war. Although considerable effort and expense was spent on its development, it turned out to be a poor weapon,
Quad torpedo launcher
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with numerous design defects and too low a rate of traverse for a gun firing so light a projectile. They were soon replaced by the much-superior Oerlikon and Bofors.
We then headed back towards the shotline along the starboard side of the deck to where the starboard gun turret was. Both barrels were pointing aft towards the stern. The gun house (the armour plate which covered the guns offering protection to the crew) had fallen to the ocean floor.
These five-inch guns were dual-purpose (DP), which meant that they were capable of being used against both air and surface targets. They were able to fire anti-aircraft, high-explosive and armour-piercing shells.
With regards to armament, the Atlanta was closer to a destroyer, being armed with five-inch guns, but at well over 150 metres in length, and combined with their large battery of 16 five-inch guns (reduced to 12 in number for later ships of the class), they were designated as light cruisers.
The eight twin five-inch gun turrets were placed in a unique configuration. She had three forward turrets and three aft turrets, mounted inline and increasing in height toward the midships, giving her a symmetrical appearance, with a ‘gap’ in the middle superstructure. In addition, the aft battery also had one ‘wing-mounted’ turret on each side, for a total of 16 five-inch guns. Just ahead sitting on the sand was the starboard quad torpedo launcher. There was a set of these on both the port and starboard sides of the ship just forward of the side five-inch turrets (which later were removed due to instability problems).
We swam just a little further along the hull of the ship, turned and headed for home. The deco was uneventful and with the last hour at our last stop, we could clearly see the support tender which had hooked up on the shotline.
The next day we didn’t quite have the same conditions, with a half knot of current for the first group. We split the group into two groups of six divers. This would make managing people in the water a lot easier and not water down our surface support team too much. With a three-hour runtime agreed by all, the second group entered the water as the last of the first group surfaced. Day two was the same. More exploration, more information documented by the divers. Having completed a total cumulative number of 22 dives on this historic wreck was incredible. Without a doubt, the largest expedition to dive the USS Atlanta in history.
PETE MESLEY Pete Mesley, owner of Lust4Rust and Shock&Awe Big Animal Diving, is an accomplished deep wreck explorer and photographer running specialised trips like this to some of the world’s best wreck sites. You can see where Pete is heading on his next adventure on: www.petemesley.com
The twisted prop shafts
SINKING OF THE ATLANTA On the afternoon of 12 November, the Atlanta and Juneau defended an inbound attack of 25 Japanese bombers bound for Allied vessels and Henderson Airfield. That night, giving the naval personnel no respite, two Japanese battleships, one cruiser and six destroyers steamed southward towards Guadalcanal to shell Henderson Airfield. The Atlanta’s role was to assist in covering the Allied transports and cargo vessels east out through Sealark Channel. Once the ships were clear the Admiral in charge of the support group, Admiral Gallaghan, gave the order for a course change, which caused immediate problems with the other ships, with the Atlanta having to change course dramatically to avoid collision. Shortly thereafter, the Atlanta was lit up by Japanese destroyer Akatsuki’s searchlights. Immediately, the Atlanta trained their main battery onto Akatsuki. Meanwhile, torpedoes deployed from at least two other Japanese destroyers trained on the Atlanta and San Francisco (heavy cruiser). One torpedo caught the Atlanta on her port side, hitting her forward engine room and losing all but auxiliary diesel power. After being torpedoed, the Atlanta suffered over 19 eight-inch shell direct hits. During the confusion of battle, the unthinkable happened. The USS San Francisco mistook the Atlanta for an enemy vessel and proceeded to bombard her with friendly fire. Almost all San Francisco’s shells passed through the thin armament of Atlanta, most not detonating but scattering fragments from their impact and killing many men. The Atlanta trained her five-inch guns on San Francisco but soon realised, by the hull shape being illuminated by the flashing gun barrels, they were being fired upon by their own. As soon as the attack stopped, the Atlanta’s Captain Jenkins assessed the ship’s status. That next morning, the call to abandon ship was given and the ship was finally scuttled after Jenkins gave the order. Out of a compliment of 735 men, 172 men were killed and 79 were wounded.
The Atlanta was awarded five battle stars during her World War Two service and received a Presidential Unit Citation for her ‘Heroic example of invincible fighting spirit’ in the battle of Guadalcanal on 13 November 1942. n
