Trip Reports

The second day on the Orion. Everything that’s new is strange and expose yourself long enough to something it al becomes normal. So . . . 2 days on board is perhaps just the good time to share with you the first impressions. If I had to describe the boat in one word I just use "cosy". A good word to describe a familiar atmosphere where it is very pleasant to stay. It is practical, without being formal and somehow the boat give you the feeling of being in your element.. Hope you got the idea.

In the beginning years of dive safaris in Maldives, the boats were all kind of modified fishing vessels. Lacking comfort and space they started to modify over they years to become more comfortable and pleasant. Just before all the new ones moved in the direction of looking like mini super yachts the Orion picked it's spot in this evolution. Giving it a very pleasant personality and more than enough places to withdraw. Especially the bar area on the upper stern deck became pretty much our living-room (writing now from there) and . . . that counts for almost everyone on board.

From the whole organisation it is clear that the Orion is a boat for divers by divers. Even though the experiences from the clients differ, they all have in common that they visited other diving places in the world and it appears that most of them have surpassed the 100 dives by far. The diving staff is all very experienced and, more important, seems still passionate in seeing stuff and sharing it. And . . . we dived of course today.

As the end of the dry season is in sight, we did not enjoy the most favourable currents, but still more than enough to see. The first dive this morning was in Laamu atoll while the other two in Thaa atoll. Two channels and one girl (reef) and a very satisfying day. Just to keep it interesting here some shots of the dives.

As a bonus the day ended with  . . . a feeding whaleshark behind the boat. Just came out of the water, filmed it from close and will edit and post it probably tomorrow . . . Amazing stuff happening here!

See you tomorrow

Be safe, but ... dive!

John