SUPERYACHT #8
Spring 2006
Article selected from our quarterly magazine dedicated to the largest
and most luxurious boats with information, interviews, technical
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Text and photographs by Roberto Rinaldi
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CRUISING IN MALDIVES
Falling into the simplest cliché is very, very easy but how
can we avoid this terrible trap when talking about cruising the
Maldives? Boaters, sea, diving and fishing enthusiasts, sweet
idleness lovers lying on a hammock on deck or on a beach with fine
white sand... The myriad of islands and islets of that Republic of
water, sand and palm trees seems to have been laid there for the
joy of seafarers, enclosed by a coral belt which does not hamper
the wind but prevents the building up of waves thus allowing
smooth sailing. So, cliché or not, banality or not, time
and again we decide to spend our holidays on these islands and
every time we are newly fascinated by the beauty of the atolls,
the sparkling white beaches and the gleaming emerald green lagoons
standing out on the deep blue sea.
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The Four Seasons Explorer is 128-foot long aluminum catamaran,
with a beam of 39 feet and a gross tonnage of 592 tons. The boat
was built in the Image Marine yard in Australia and was launched
in December 2002. Interior and exterior design is by Katherine
Kng, the famous Singaporean architect. The 24 crewmembers look for
and cuddle a maximum of 22 guests, offering an extraordinary
service. Ten identical cabins - with a surface of 215 square feet!
- are fitted with a surprisingly large "king size bed", uncommon
on boats and a bathroom with bathtub and shower stall. The full-
beam suite overlooking the sea is fitted forward and is
remarkable. It is a small apartment with a total surface of 483
square feet and a private deck. As mentioned above, a diving dhoni
follows the boat and is used for diving expeditions. Everyone may
use Nitrox bottles and diving equipment, such as diving wetsuits,
flippers, jackets and regulators may be rented onboard. Even
though a vacation on the Explorer is dedicated to diving
enthusiasts, it is perfectly conceived for non-divers as well for
several daily activities are organized for those who are not fond
of diving. Four inflatables and one boat are available for non-
divers, in addition to several kayaks and sailboards. Guests may
visit villages, stay on the beach, go on guided snorkeling tours,
go fishing etc. The meals offered onboard are excellent and
extremely varied and the traditional Maldivian or Indian cuisine
is especially tasty. For further information visit the web site
www.fourseasons.com/maldives.
Cruises last three to seven days. Guests board either on the
island of Kuda Huraa or by means of a small seaplane that reaches
the cruising catamaran.
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Nowadays, there is a really wide choice of boats for cruising the
Maldives. There are the classic boats, the first ones that sailed
around the atolls, locally built, with full-bottom wooden hull,
large foredeck and relatively small cockpit. Then there are the
imported boats, such as small motoryachts and a few Turkish
caiques. On our most recent holiday we sailed on an extraordinary
aluminum catamaran especially built for the Four Seasons hotel
chain. A deluxe boat, a real floating hotel dedicated to a small
number of guests. The staterooms are large with a king-size bed
and bathtub; actually they do not appear as staterooms but as
rooms with a view... a view on the most beautiful islands in the
world. Just as it happens with all tourist boats, a traditional
wooden dhoni follows our catamaran. Yes, this is in the Maldives'
tradition: tourists live, rest and eat on the boat and then use
the dhoni to reach the diving spots. All diving equipment, air
bottles, the diving compressor are stored on the dhoni... so no
one onboard will have to make sacrifices: diving enthusiasts use
the dhoni to explore the seabed while the others relax on the
yacht or on a deserted beach. Obviously, there are many possible
itineraries. Generally, boats sail from Male atoll to the west,
towards the large Ari atoll. Theoretically, tourists are forbidden
to visit the farthest atolls to the south and to the north, this
is why these are the most coveted destinations and sometime boat
owners succeed in obtaining permits to sail there. Mystery and
adventure, emotion and discovery, deserted islands and virgin
seabeds, this is all true, but after much sailing in the Maldives
I think that any itinerary, even the most common, doe not
disappoint. The diving spots that made the Maldives famous are at
the center of the most visited areas. So do not break your head,
let the captain plot the course and relax. Sailing southwards, the
greatest differences are in the local villages. Maldivians are a
gentle, hospitable and benevolent people. Unfortunately, many
villages in the "tourist" area turned into bazaars, with rows of
shops all selling the same products, lining the straight roads. In
the south villages are different, they are typical, nothing is
dedicated to tourists who are welcome, especially if they are not
carrying a camera. As a matter of fact a young girl, with black
hair and eyes as large as the sea surrounding her island, invited
me to enter in her garden. Gently moving like Mowgli's girlfriend
in the Jungle Book, and I was offered the tapioca she was frying
but she did not give in to the flatteries of the glass eye of my
Made-in-Japan camera. This may be explained by their religion:
modern-day Maldivians are Sunni Muslims: no other religion is
admitted. They are moderate Muslims, gentle, hospitable, yet
unwavering in their traditions and beliefs. Yet, Islam has not
always been their religion, legend has it that they were
Buddhists, then, around 1153 a Moroccan shipwrecked arrived on the
islands. Back then, in the full moon nights, a wild demon on his
boat of fire approached the Maldive Islands exacting as tribute
from the men the sacrifice of one young virgin. One day, Abdul
Barakat met a desperate woman on the beach: she was the mother of
the next victim. Abdul recited the psalms of the Koran and sang
sacred songs to Allah, frightening the demon that fled and never
returned. Since then Maldivians adopted the Muslim religion and
today one can see the monument of Abdul Barakat in the center of
Male, the capital. But let the monuments and legends slide and let
us board in Male for the cruise. For us the adventure starts from
the beautiful Four Seasons Resort in Kuda Huraa island, in the
Male atoll. We spent two days on land in order to adapt to the new
climate and local time and to recover from the long flight,
benefiting from the brand new spa - the hotel's flagship - created
on a small sandy islet. From here we sailed onboard the Four
Seasons Explorer and reached Bandos after a short ride where,
after dropping the anchor on the sandy seabed, we enjoyed a
lobster-based dinner with sunset on the Maldive Islands. At dawn
we leave the atoll and we point the boat's head towards Raasdhoo
for two dives in the famous pass where we have a nice surprise.
All of you will certainly remember that a few years ago, global
warming - probably due to a change in the course of El Nino's
stream - caused a widespread and catastrophic death of corals.
Well, during this first dive, we were surprisingly swimming over a
field of delicate funnel-shaped young colonies of corals three to
four feet in diameter. They were all very similar meaning that the
sea is starting to recover and that the coral is reproducing
itself very fast, getting the seabed back and helping the sea to
return to its original conditions. While we admire the corals, we
see a couple of sea eagles flying in the blue sky, while two
sharks warily swim around us. They are not the sole inhabitants of
this stretch of ocean: sea breams with their menacing mouth, giant
meek Napoleon fish and darting silver carangids meet at the pass.
Diving is not the sole activity onboard. An "expedition" sails on
the tender to a deserted island for a dip in the small pristine
crystal-clear lagoon with no rocks, no algae: a perfect pool with
coral sediments bottom. Our course is set toward Ari atoll,
another forced stop for most cruising vessels. Similarly, a dive
in Maya Tilla is a must. This coral pinnacle in the middle of the
sea, once known for the abundance of sharks, today is also
appreciated for its large black coral trees, the unfailing sea
turtles and the packed schools of yellow and blue midnight
snappers. At dawn a sea like a millpond surprises us: we have
breakfast on deck, facing the tiny Meerufenfushi islet... Actually
it is not really an islet, rather a patch of sand that can be
visited in a few minutes, with a tuft of bright green palm trees
at the center and surrounded by an emerald green lagoon. It is
here that our day starts and finishes, with a fantastic relaxing
swim at sunset, after spending the full day sunbathing and diving.
In the evening, the Indian dinner on deck is lit by tiny candles
that do not succeed in dampening down the starlight. The next
morning we live one of the most beautiful moments of the cruise.
It is still dark when we get up. We load the dhoni to start the
new day together with the sun, to watch the sea awakening, it is
still dark down there. Looking up at the sky we see the first
light of day, the sea surface is silvery, mottled by the wind and
by the sharp and violent rays. Looking down at the sea everything
is still dark gray and heavy. Then near the surface, inside that
immense black cloud that overshadows us, something happens. A
school of small fish huddles trying to escape from predators, the
fusileers continuously move in our watery sky as a stormy cloud
and the fast carangids deadly fling themselves at the school
provoking its explosion into a thousand splinters. A large and
mild Napoleon fish swims over the shoal, it will not attack the
small fish but two carangids use it to hide behind its large body
and attack; again, the only thing the small fish can do is escape.
We watch this precise screenplay, which seems to have been written
by an expert screenwriter. The preys open up and close down behind
the astonished predator, they are ready to continue their number
hoping the bad luck will attack others. While this occurs near the
surface, a couple of large marine turtles peacefully graze among
the corals on the seabed. At the end of the dive we, too, are
ready for breakfast before swimming again in the waters of the
shoal or going on a fishing expedition. Our breakfast is not based
on algae and raw fusileers, for pity's sake... rather we are
offered warm croissants just taken out of the oven, fresh fruit
and eggs on request. The fishing battue is successful, fish will
be the main course of an elegant barbecue on the beach at the
light of small torches: the table is obtained with dug sand
covered by a colored tablecloth. This too is part of the
atmosphere of a cruise in the Maldive Islands: an evening spent on
the beach with a barbecue dinner and some time spent at looking at
the stars and moon through a telescope. Then a new day on the sea:
the Broken rock seabed await us, racked by rifts and recesses rich
in fish and gorgonians.
The Explorer is moored in front of
Dhangeti Island and a second dive awaits us. We set sail with the
doni, Kudarah tilla is splendid: here there is the best seabed one
might expect to find at the Maldives. There are beautiful
gorgonians decorated by multi-colored crinoids, pinnacles of
madrepores top rocks and we admire the corals that are lushly
growing again after the great disaster. A myriad of colored fish
swim in this beautiful environment rich in coral life. There are
red squirrel fish, boundless schools of midnight snappers, orange
and rose Anthias swimming along the seabed. Even morphology is
especially beautiful: there are series of madrepore channels and
underwater decorated arches of gorgonians.
The current gives us no
quarter, but the show is so fascinating that we are not bothered
by it. We are still in the Ari atoll. We are ready to set sail,
the course is set on Felidu Atoll, a place that in our opinion
should be a "must" of any cruise in the Maldive Islands. It is a
tiny and uninhabited atoll, a simple strip of sand. Everyone on
board agrees on remaining here a couple of days. Underwater we
find ourselves flying over the sides of this beautiful pointed
mountain that rises from the depths. This mountain is literally
covered with pastel colored alcyonarians. They hang from the
spurs, covering the whole mountain side; some cling to the rocky
arches under which we are able to swim and below us we admire
multitudes of gorgonians, carousels of big silvery carangids,
large and solitary sharks moving elegantly.
Alcyonarians cover the
vaults of ample caves and a host of red and white corals rise from
the seabed, large tropical unbras hide in this sea forest. The
current appears to be a blowing wind moving the tops of the
largest gorgonians, hanging over the abyss. At night, nobody
resists to the temptation of having dinner on that tiny spot of
sand miraculously surfaced from the depths. We eat under a deep
blue and starry sky while all around us the lightnings of a storm
fire up with reddish light dense clouds loaded with rain. This
sight is uncommon for these islands that are flooded by sunlight,
but it is a sight which clearly remains in our minds and hearts, a
vivid witness of the wild beauty of this extraordinary archipelago.
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