My alarm didn't go off again, but luckily I woke up with ten minutes. I got ready and finished packing then caught a taxi to the New Harbor. I looked around at the mass of boats and started to worry about figuring out which dhoni was froy the dive boat - but I was fifteen minutes early so I didn't panic. A few minutes later someone approached me and we were off walking - to the other side of the island (?!) where a launch picked me up and took me out to the die boat. The boat is plenty spacious and very nice (though starting to wear at the edges). I was told the others were on their way from the airport. I settled down to read and two hours later they showed up. It took another two hours to get under way - I mostly just sat on the deck and read. The other thirteen passengers are from Austria and either don't speak very good English or weren't not feeling sociable.
After we finally weighed anchor we cruised for a little over an hour and stopped off of Giraavaru (still in Male' Atoll). I got my equipment from the ships supply. Everyone else had their own equipment and since that's the standard for here I was a little concerned about what the rental stuff would be like - it was all brand new, never been in the water before - very nice. We went for a drift / check out dive. The current was very strong so while the wall wasn't all that interesting we whipped by it and it really felt like I was flying. I was starting to worry about trying to keep the group together when it was time to get picked up, when about thirty minutes into the dive we rounded a corner and the current completely disappeared! It was actually a little disappointing because now I had to work to move. The sun was setting as we started to surface - I think it's the first time I've ever seen a sunset reflected in the waves above me! There was nothing specifically about the dive that was great, but there were lots of fish who didn't seem to mind us, and the visibility was good (~50 feet) so it boded well for the next week. While writing up my log I realized the battery in my dive computer is so low that it won't register any more dives until I replace it - not good as I'm at sea diving for the next week. I'll have to look into renting one from the boat, or at least a depth gauge...
After the dive we had dinner. I was exhausted (I had trouble sleeping again last night) and everyone else also went to bed early (not surprising since they had just flown in all the way from Vienna).
