In some ways, a twelve-day liveaboard is not a holiday, but a dynamic group experiment, similar to “The House of Stars” or “Jungle Camp”. In a way its like a “Big Brother” container, only floating in the water, but with exquisite food and a crew, that can read every wish from your eyes and where you can sense, that most of the crew have been working together for years.

The casting team of random then decided which of the following participants to choose: a medical couple, a teacher pair, and a couple from Berlin. A guy from South Tyrol and a Canadian of Asian origin who now lives in Macao (which covers the international aspect). Then there is a woman who calls the “MY Sheena” her second home due to her many visits, and I, the writer (although chronicler would be more suitable anyway). Diving-experience between 150 and 2500, experience with the booked tour: zero.

Not surprisingly: Starting from Male and heading all the way to the north of the Maldives, that’ never happened before. Director Werner Lau believed this to be a good idea, and that the magazine Tauchen turned it into a reader’s trip, while the weather god provided an additional degree of difficulty on many days with wind and waves. And with currents, needless to say: these are part of every trip to the Maldives. Especially if you do it right, going into the channels where sharks live. Actually, there aren’t as many channels in this part of the Atoll as in the south, but those that were on the list really had it all – especially one that is named K.F.F.C., hardly known, and where the Silvertips and grey reef sharks come upwards when the divers jump into the water to take a close look at the new visitors.

I could bore with Manta encounters, with eagle rays in abundance and shoals of fish, which block the view to some Thilas – a nice treat, since we are talking about a diving safari on the Maldives! Interestingly, were the reefs we did not see under water, but instead, unexpected encounters, the life on board and the events from which subsequent travellers can learn something. And then there was the group itself: The social component of such a tour, which manages to form a unit out of completely different people within a few days, during which complaints remained quiet.

With guides there are twelve participants, twelve days, from Male to Hondaafushi: There is enough stuff to be told, but not right now. Instead, in one of the upcoming editions of the magazine Tauchen, offering that extra spot. Dreams and longings need to be given space, and that applies to many stories too.