Hurasfaruhuraa to Naifaru

Hurasfaruhuraa

3 – 4th April

📍 Shaviyani Atoll · 006°08.623′N, 073°02.087′E

There isn’t much wind around at the moment, so the engine continues to get a workout as we bounce around from place to place.

Our next stop was somewhere that may win the prize for the best vowel/consonant salad: Hurasfaruhuraa. The location may be long in letters but short on tourists. We had the place to ourselves most of the time. In fact, the only visitor we had was the half of a boat in the photo below, which belongs to a high-end resort chain.

Hurasfaruhuraa was another great place to plop our carcasses underwater to see beautiful fish. And as well as the fish, we saw a graceful manta and a dozing turtle, all in 4 metres of water at high tide.

Komandoo

5 April

📍 Komandoo · 006°02.987′N, 073°03.371′E · Shaviyani Atoll

Komandoo is the smallest island in Shaviyani Atoll by area, and it’s the second most populous, with around 1,900 people living there. That density is partly explained by the Shaviyani Atoll Education Centre here, the largest school in the atoll, drawing families from across the surrounding islands. It also has the region’s main teacher training facility. Beyond education, the economy runs on fishing: pole-and-line fishing is the standard Maldivian method, supplemented by reef fishing for export products.

Our reason for being here wasn’t fish; it was to get some fuel. We are trying to get it while we can, so we don’t have to worry about ordering another 400-plus litres elsewhere. It was because of the diesel quest that we met up with Jihad, the very bright fuel guy from Bangladesh who wants to be an influencer and move to Europe. The chances of that succeeding are unknown to anyone, but he is bright, ambitious, speaks excellent English, and has enough common sense to interview both of us for his channel. Whether that has increased or decreased his chances of success is debatable.

We ordered 40 litres of fuel from Jihad, who delivered it to our dinghy while we went shopping. What a star.

It was election time the day we were there, and they were playing the same song over and over again. Brian and Alison on Ozone had been in the anchorage the previous night, so they were well worn out by it. We invited them for drinks on board Jamala to soften the blow.

Dholhiyadhoo

6 April

📍 Dholhiyadhoo · 005°59.655′N, 073°13.131′E · Shaviyani Atoll

Dholhiyadhoo is a small island on the edge of its own circular reef in Shaviyani Atoll. It would be unremarkable were it not for the skeleton of a luxury resort standing on it. The Zitahli was designed, half-built, and then abandoned sometime around 2011 when the financing collapsed, and the project went to auction at a starting price of just under $50 million.

Nobody bought it.

The overwater bungalows are now open to the sky; the pools have filled with rainwater and developed their own ecosystems; the window frames lean against gaping holes in the walls. The reef around it is, by all accounts, excellent, which adds a particular flavour of irony to the whole thing. A luxury resort that nobody ever stayed in, slowly being reclaimed by the sea, on top of some of the best snorkelling in the northern Maldives. Whoever approved the original planning application presumably had no idea it would become a free attraction. Although we believe the Bangladeshi caretakers want an admission fee for looking around.

We took the kayak over and snorkelled around, but saw little apart from building detritus and broken coral. I am sure there is a lovely reef somewhere, but we didn’t see it.

Naifaru

7 April

📍 Naifaru · 005°26.312′N, 073°22.006′E · Lhaviyani Atoll

Naifaru is the capital of Lhaviyani Atoll, about 200km north of Malé, and a destination to stop for just one night before moving on. It has a working harbour, a school, plenty of motorbikes (we heard them), and the general purposefulness of somewhere not geared up for visitors. There are no infinity pools or overwater bungalows here. Naifaru would get a 1 out of 5 on TripAdvisor – up one from the abandoned resort.

The Tadds were already here, and they braved it into town. What possessed them, I have no idea. When we arrived, it seemed a bit bleak – even more so when a local commercial vessel deliberately ran aground the next morning near where we anchored. It was less cheery than a Northern mill town in winter. We left the next morning.