One boat, one dhoni, and dates that do not move
Sailing since 2014. Sixteen guests, nine crew, and a captain who decides where we sleep.
Why we run a small boat
There are safari boats in this country that carry twenty six guests and cost less per person than we do, and a page that pretended otherwise would be wasting your time.
We carry sixteen because that is the number one cook can feed properly, the number two guides can look after in a channel, and the number the dhoni can turn around without anybody waiting on the back deck in a wetsuit.
The money goes into the diving rather than the cabins. Nine crew. Our own dhoni with the tanks and the compressor on it. Nitrox blended on board. Two compressors, because one compressor is a trip cancelled. Hire sets in sizes that are not all large.
The cabins are small. We say that everywhere, including on the page where you book one, because a guest who arrives expecting a suite has been let down by us rather than by the boat.
What is genuinely ours is the itinerary and the judgement behind it. The captain has done this for twenty six years and he will move the boat at four in the morning if the swell has swung. That is not a service level. That is just what he does.
Who is on board
Ibrahim Thoha
Twenty six years on safari boats and eleven on this one. Decides where the boat sleeps, and that decision is not put to a vote.
Aminath Nuha
Runs the trip from the jetty to the last transfer, keeps the diary, and is the person who will read your logbook properly.
Hassan Zahir
Instructor since 2011 and the one who teaches the four course places. Draws the best site boards on any boat in the country.
Mohamed Rifau
One galley, sixteen guests, three meals and a snack after the afternoon dive. Provisions the boat once and never runs out.
Practical questions about living on it
Is there internet on the boat
There is a satellite link. It carries messages and email, slowly, and it will not carry a video call.
Inside the atolls there is usually mobile signal on deck and none at all in the cabins. On the southern crossings there is nothing for hours at a time. Tell whoever is at home that this is normal before you leave.
What is the boat actually like
Twenty eight metres, steel hull, eight cabins, sixteen guests and nine crew. A dining saloon on the main deck, a sun deck with shade, and a shower on the back deck for rinsing off.
It is a working boat rather than a floating hotel. The cabins are air conditioned and have their own shower rooms, and none of them is large. What the money buys is the diving and the dhoni.
Book a cabin on a date
Twenty five percent holds it, and the balance is due twenty eight days before we leave.