In February 2007, Eve and I booked two consecutive one-week trips aboard MV Atoll Explorer which moors at the end of each trip by Kurumba Island near Male. After arriving on an overnight flight from Heathrow there was time for a local dive before departing for the first week’s voyage on MV Atoll Explorer so I met up with my good friend Mohamed "Sindi" Seeneen of Kurumba Dive Centre for an afternoon dive (my dive 1386) from Tango at Back Furu

A week later MV Atoll Explorer returned to Kurumba Island and I joined Sindi for another dive (my dive 1405) at Back Furu. The following morning Mohamed Ibrahim led a group from Kurumba Dive Centre on a dive of the wreck of the Maldives Victory. The current on this wreck can be extremely strong and I thought it sensible to use a slightly larger tank than usual with a Nitrox mix. As the dive proved more challenging than expected I was pleased that I had been so cautious. The descent line from Tango was tied to the top of Victory’s main mast with an ascent line near the stern of the wreck linked back to the main mast. The dive plan was to move forward from the base of the main mast at the centre of the wreck against the current towards the bow, drift back with the current to the stern and then ascend up the ascent line. During the course of the dive the current grew steadily stronger. Having completed our exploration of the wreck we looked in vain for the ascent line. It was missing. So finding a rope, we began pulling ourselves along the deck, back towards the base of main mast. The rope only took us part of the way and for the remainder of the distance we had to fin hard and pull ourselves along the main deck of the wreck to reach a ladder which led up to the main mast. I had plenty of air in my tank and a Nitrox mix that ensured that I was never at risk of going into “Deco” so was quite happy to be the last to ascend. Later I dived Kurumba Pier with Sindi, then Back Faru with Mohamed Ibrahim from Tango and finally a night dive under Kurumba Pier with Reyznek “Tim” Artem. Discarded fish acted as bait luring in numerous large rays and moray eels to the pier.

Six highly enjoyable dives with a first class dive centre.