About Manthiri Liveaboard
The Manthiri Liveaboard is an 85ft long scuba diving yacht and is based out of Mele the capital city of the Maldives. The vessel has 6 cabins for a total of 12 guests. 4 spacious cabins are twins, and the other two are doubles with queen beds. Each cabin has an ensuite bathroom, minibar, and hairdryer. Enjoy our blog article on The Maldives: A Garland of Islands in the Indian Ocean.
Manthiri Liveaboard Diving
All the scuba diving is done from the 54ft long Dhoni/tender. It's is basically a 400sqft dive deck complete with 2 air compressors and 1 nitrox compressor for refills. Tank racks, 2 hot water showers and a camera rinse tank are also part of the dhoni. Once you set up your dive gear on the dhoni, it is ready to go all week. At the end of the dive, you will receive a warm towel, meanwhile the Manthiri Liveaboard crew dedicated to the dhoni will refill your tank. So, plan on doing 3-4 dives a day. The big attractions are whale sharks and mantas, and the smaller attractions are frogfish and seahorses. The islands are home to 1100 species of fish, 5 species of turtles, 187 species of coral, 145 species of crab, 48 species of shrimp, 21 species of whales and dolphins.
So, for all future reference while staying on Manthiri Liveaboard, Kandu means channel, and Faru is a reef rising up in a channel. Moreover, a Thila is a reef or pinnacle reef rising up inside an atoll. A Giri is like a thila, but much smaller. When you have a thousand islands, this system makes most dive sites easier to remember. Take the popular dive sites such as Fotteyo Kandu, Hembadhu Kandu, and Ziyaara Kandu. Just by the names you already know they are channel dives and most likely have caves, overhangs, swim throughs, small arches, or they lead to small reefs and have sharks, turtles, moray eels, or schools of fish. Kuda Faru, and Eri Faru are reefs in the channels where one would expect to find gray sharks, white tips, silver tips, and Napoleon wrasse. Okobe Thila, Kudarah Thila, and Mas Thila, all have tons of corals.
Attractions and Activities
Two chefs aboard Manthiri Liveaboard create four-star meals. They are said to prepare a tasteful blend of Eastern, Global, and local specialties. More importantly, they use the freshest and finest seafood available. Furthermore, they can make special vegetarian dishes if you request with enough advanced notice. The only time you won't want to eat on the yacht is when they have a BBQ on a private beach. Between dives, you can relax on the large sun deck, or download your digital photos onto the computer. You could also just hang out on the comfortable couches in the spacious salon. This is where other experienced divers gather to talk about the dive sites they dove.
