The boat started up around six so when I got up at eight we were arriving at Rasdhoo Island north of the Ari Atoll (Rasdhoo Atoll). After breakfast we went for our first dive. The site was a wall called "Rasdhu Madivar". It was a very nice drift dive - plenty of current to kee< us moving, but gentle enough to see things. The highlight for me was definitely the huge schools (thousands) of redtooth triggerfish.
After the dive we had time to lounge around and have lunch. Some time after two we set out to do our second dive at "Rasdhu Beyru". This was an epic dive from the beginning. We dropped right on to a green turtle who didn't mind us being there at all, immediately after there was a good sized eagle ray and a smallish sting ray. We also saw a white tip shark (~4 foot). Plus all the usual - morays, triggerfish (including a couple titans, tons of redtooth, and a few of my favorite, clown triggers). As an even bigger bonus the visibility continues to get better (more than 80 foot for this dive!)
Back on the boat we relaxed for an hour then headed out to explore the "non-tourist" island of Rasdhoo. There are no resorts on the island, and no foreigners are allowed to spend the night there, the problem is that there are three resorts on the next (very nearby) island so the non-tourist islandois packed with tourist during the day. There weren't many others they by the time we got there, but that just meant the souvenir stores could spend more time targeting us. I wandered up and down the village streets while shipmates bought everything in site. The village is very pleasant - very neat - rows of small coral houses with wide sandy roads and beautiful gardens overflowing with bougainvillea and greenery - and at the end of every street you can see the blue of the Indian ocean. After dinner I sorted through the hundred plus photos I'd taken and picked out about twenty to keep. I tried to go to bed early since tomorrow we've got a pre-dawn dive, but despite being very tired it took me a long time to get to sleep.
