Our First Liveaboard
New to diving my fiancé and I thought a great way to improve our skills would be spend a week on a liveaboard in the Maldives. If you’re going to do it - do it in style we thought; so searched the net for inspiration. Neither of us had heard of Peter Hughes before and apart from five days on the Red Sea, our diving had been limited to the Middle East where we live. A look at their website convinced us that the Dancer fleet was just what we were looking for and its newest member Ocean Dancer looked like heaven. So bags packed and hard earned money spent off we went.
During our flight, we had an hours wait in Colombo, as we were not allowed to leave the plane, Alain killed time by chatting to a French couple. They were divers too, and as you do, started to swap stories. As a non French speaking person, I grew bored very quickly as I couldn’t understand a word! A little later I was dragged back into the conversation when it was discovered that not only were this couple, Jean-Pierre and Sylvie-Ann, heading to the same boat as us, but that they knew the designer of the boat and had a financial stake in it. So Alain and I heard a little about the history of Ocean Dancer before we saw her and had already made friends.
We arrived at Male, collected our luggage and headed to our home for the next 7 days. As it was dark, we didn’t get to see very much and it was a bit unnerving speeding across the waves in a dive dhoni in the pitch black. We could see other large boats illuminated as we passed and as soon as she came into view I recognised Ocean Dancer. She is one of, if not the biggest boat in the Maldives and she is a beauty. Even though it was dark you could tell she was a looker! We were welcomed onboard by the crew and the brainchild and owner of the boat, another Frenchman, David. This was obviously a labour of love for him and we really felt that we were entering his home. That has its good and bad points; it gives the boat a warm and fuzzy feeling, but any critique of the boat is personal, and whilst a guest in anyone’s home you are mindful of peoples belongings, doing it for a week, on your holiday can be tiring. Well think about it, spending a week in a strangers home when they are still there would be a little uncomfortable.
Several other guests were onboard already, and we were introduced to a British couple, Denis and Suzie, and an American, Wilt who’d spent the previous week onboard also. The remaining guests were due in later. Alain and I were taken to our cabin, unpacked and after a night-cap in the bar hit the sack; we had an early start the next morning.
During our flight, we had an hours wait in Colombo, as we were not allowed to leave the plane, Alain killed time by chatting to a French couple. They were divers too, and as you do, started to swap stories. As a non French speaking person, I grew bored very quickly as I couldn’t understand a word! A little later I was dragged back into the conversation when it was discovered that not only were this couple, Jean-Pierre and Sylvie-Ann, heading to the same boat as us, but that they knew the designer of the boat and had a financial stake in it. So Alain and I heard a little about the history of Ocean Dancer before we saw her and had already made friends.
We arrived at Male, collected our luggage and headed to our home for the next 7 days. As it was dark, we didn’t get to see very much and it was a bit unnerving speeding across the waves in a dive dhoni in the pitch black. We could see other large boats illuminated as we passed and as soon as she came into view I recognised Ocean Dancer. She is one of, if not the biggest boat in the Maldives and she is a beauty. Even though it was dark you could tell she was a looker! We were welcomed onboard by the crew and the brainchild and owner of the boat, another Frenchman, David. This was obviously a labour of love for him and we really felt that we were entering his home. That has its good and bad points; it gives the boat a warm and fuzzy feeling, but any critique of the boat is personal, and whilst a guest in anyone’s home you are mindful of peoples belongings, doing it for a week, on your holiday can be tiring. Well think about it, spending a week in a strangers home when they are still there would be a little uncomfortable.
Several other guests were onboard already, and we were introduced to a British couple, Denis and Suzie, and an American, Wilt who’d spent the previous week onboard also. The remaining guests were due in later. Alain and I were taken to our cabin, unpacked and after a night-cap in the bar hit the sack; we had an early start the next morning.
posted by Bev @ 11:49 PM
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