Veligandu News

Dear friends of Veligandu.

First of all I would like to introduce myself: My name is Ole and after four wonderful years in Mirihi I just came back to my "old" home Veligandu where I was in charge of the dive centre from 2002 until 2007.

Gio and Lieneke have left the Maldives and returned to Europe and Marlies moved on to another island in the Maldives. We thank them all for a job well done and wish them all the best for their future. Since the middle of October Anke and Christian have joined the team and together with our guests they enjoy the beautiful dive sites of the Rasdhoo Atoll.

I personally had not only a happy reunion with some long-term employees of the island but also with the hammerhead sharks at Madivaru Corner in the first week. A small group of about 8 to 10 sharks showed no shyness and came very close during the early morning dive. Naturally all our divers were very exited and happy.

But not only early in the morning Madivaru Corner is worth a visit. In particular with ingoing currents this dive site ranks among the best of the Maldives: numerous grey and white tip reef sharks circle seemingly effortless in the current, a group of eagle rays glide elegantly by and thousands of small and big schooling fish are forming the background.

In recent weeks, we were able to cross the channels around Rasdhoo and north of Veligandu with ingoing currents and very good visibility over again. In the Rasdhoo channels we encountered not only grey reef sharks but also big silver tip sharks, different kind of rays and big napoleon wrasses. And in the North channel several manta rays accompanied us.

Since even the weather was at its best we could do several day trips to the North Ari Atoll. Where we could enjoy unforgettable dives at the for the Maldives typical thilas.

Therefore the small but beautiful Rasdhoo Atoll is worth a visit any time. And next year there is an additional reason: From 20.05. until 01.07.2012 we offer a 20% discount on all our dive services (dives and courses) only the rental fee for the equipment and the boat trips are not included.

Sunny greetings from and hopefully see you soon in paradise from the whole Ocean-Pro dive team:
Anke, Ole, Christian, Yves Nooh and Ali.

 

Dear fellow divers, students and friends

We are in the middle of our high season and we have great news.The weather is fantastic and spoils us with sun and nearly no wind.Perfect conditions for doing our full day to the northern part of the Ari atoll.

After a trip of about 1.5 hrs we reach our first dive site, the wreck of Halaveli. When we arrive we often spot mantas and other rays on the surface. The wreck itself is covered in a beautiful layer of soft and hard corals in all colors and shapes.

But don’t forget to look into the blue. If you are lucky you will see the big grey ones passing by. Don’t miss it!

This wreck is also a paradise for makro lovers. You will find plenty of small and very small things. If the current isn’t too strong, we encounter a big school of batfishes at the safety stop to say goodbye to. Now it’s time to travel to our snorkeling site, close by at the Madivaru island in the north ari atoll. While we are in the water snorkeling the crew will set up lunch, prepared by Egon our chef in Veligandu.

A short break with a coffee or tea, a briefing and then we move on to the second dive site. This one is choosen according to the weather conditions or requests made by you. One thing is guaranteed, a lot of fish and corrals everywhere!

But not only on the full day trip it’s fun to dive in the Rasdhoo atoll. Our high-light Madivaru Corner is still one of the best dive sites in the Maldives. Corals, makro, big fellas and current, whatever you like, there you will find it. Did you know that we have leaf and stone fishes there?

If you didn’t dive for a long time with us, you will be glad to know that we can offer two new dive sites in the Rasdhoo atoll. One is Bra thila in the middle of our atoll and the other is a wreck we discovered lately. The wreck is ideal for doing your wreck training dive or just admire the current and corals you will find there.

Since a short time we offer again two tank dives. First one is big blue and then, after a short breakfast, we move on to the north ari atoll. There we could go to our secret spot nooh’s thila!

For very experienced night and current divers, we offer on request a very special night dive at Madivaru corner.

Last but not least our top news: The house reef is reopened for unguided, independent diving on both sides!

Hope to see you soon and dive with you, we wish you to have a great time.

Lieneke, Nooh, Bernarda, Ali, Koen and Gio

 

Hello dear fellow divers, friends, guests and students. It is again time to write a newsletter. With this one we want to keep you updated what is going onin Veligandu Ocean Pro dive Team.

Just released is our latest underwater film produced by Thorsten one of our instructors in Meeru. As always it shows fascinating underwater pictures in HD quality. Fans of macro pictures will be delighted and it is also as blue ray disc available.

In the last few weeks we are regularly visited by a pelagic ray. Particularly at Rasdhoo reef and Holi Faru it can be often observed gliding elegantly past our group of divers.

Madivaru corner is intent to prove that is one of the best dive sites in the whole Maldives: sightings of 30 grey reef sharks in formation plus napoleon wrasse, sting- and eagle rays and even mantas and manta mobulas, all possible in one dive. Therefore it is no surprise that “Farihi”, our comfortable dive dhoni, is spotted there often lately.

At all of our dive spots we see almost always sharks, all kinds of rays and naturally beautiful turtles too. Not only big fish but also some rather rarer species like ghost pipe fish, leaf fish and stone fish, for which you need a keen eye, have settled at our dive sites and can be discovered there again and again.

The baby turtles hatched in Veligandu will be released from their nursery around Christmas time and hopefully will return to the island as islands when it is time to lay their eggs.

The weather has been a little funny, to put it mildly, in the last few weeks also affecting the normally very good visibility. But now we have again picture perfect weather conditions: blue sky, almost no wind and calm seas but diving as you read earlier is always good in Rasdhoo Atoll.

And it even gets better: We offer a 20 % discount on all dive services (courses and dives) in all Ocean-Pro dive centres from 15.05.-25.06.2011. Only the boat trips and the rental equipment are not included, another very good reason to visit us in the beautiful Rasdhoo atoll.

There has been also a change in our team: David has started his university degree of marine biology and has returned to the UK. Ellis, a Dutch girl has replaced him and our team consists now of Lieneke, Ellis, Nooh, Ali our freshly certified open water diver and myself Gio.

We are looking forward to welcome you in Veligandu and show you the beautiful dive sites of the Rasdhoo atoll.

All the best wishes and hopefully see you soon

Lieneke, Nooh, Ellis, Ali und Gio

 

May 2010

It’s already few months ago that you received our latest news from Veligandu. So what’s new, what’s changing and what will stay the same?

The island is still a dream. Egon, the executive chef, is still overwhelming us with his culinary delights. The good News is that he has extended his contract for another year.

The dive sites are still great, with good viz. And we’re finding more and more ghostpipefish, stonefish an leaf-scorpionfishes at every site! Our top spot ”Big Blue” hasn’t let us down either with the Hammerheads. Showing up nearly everytime to say hi to our divers.



We had a strange diver on the island too. On the 4th of april a huge Bunny was seen diving with a giant basket full of easter eggs. But even funnier was the afternoon dive looking for what he’d left behind!



So what’s new in the team? Ilham was replaced by Nooh, our very experienced and friendly divemaster. Having previously worked in rhe rasdhoo atoll he knows all of the dive sites like the back of his hands.

David, who has been with us since last December is fulfilling his lifelong dream to study marine biology and return to England. He wil be leaving us at the end of June. On behalf of the whole team I would like to thank David for all his work and english humor. We wish him all the best for his future.

Also new is our afterdive corner bench. Here we can sit, fill out your logbooks together or just have a chat with friends. Our full day trips have been a big success. Halaveli wreck and Bathala thila are a fish lovers dream!

On earth day the 23rd of April, we carried out a beach and divesite Cleaning with help of many divers. Thanks a lot to all of them.

We wish you all a good time and we hope to welcome you back on the island.

Lieneke, David, Nooh, Ali und Gio

Hello Dear Friends of Veligandu and Divers,

It’s Time to send you News from Veligandu. The Weather is fantastic, the viz is getting better every day and all our friends are back. Bob in rasdhoo reef, cleopatra in veligandu north, fritz at the housereef,and the entire family manta on north channel.

But this is maybe new for you, on three palms we found several frogfish (one of them was named Steve) and some leaffish as well.

Several Ghostpipefishes let us look even more carefully in the reef at veligandu north to find  those beautiful creatures.

But at the moment it looks like we are having a nursery for sharks in the rasdhoo atoll. Whitetip, blacktip ,greyreefsharks and as well zebrasharks are around on every dive!

To make you even more jealous listen to this, manta season is opened at north channel. Up to 5m big and very gracefull in their moves. But as well stingrays, eaglerays, feathertailrays and some torpedorays are around on all the divesites.

There is as well big news for the lovers of night dives. We offer a special nightdive on madivaru corner only for small groups. See this fantastic divesite in a different “light”, amazing!

We have as well some news for the team itself. Nadine left us to go back to her former job in lanzarote. To replace her, we found David, english but as well french and german speaking.

Finally we would like to wish you all a merry Christmas and very good new year 2010!

Best regards and hope to see you soon

Ilham, Lieneke, David and myself

Gio Voglioso
Base Leader OCP Veligandu
Veligandu@OceanPro-Diveteam.com

 

8 of October 2009

Dear divers, nondivers, divers to be, friends and guests.
This is the first Newsletter from the new baseleader of Veligandu.

Mid September the former Baseleader Mark and his wife Lika left the Island to Germany. Katja and Desiree went on a Safaritrip for a week and had very nice encounters with whalesharks.

Who are on the island in the team?

Illhalm, our very experienced, Maldivian Instructor.Because of his previous job as an safariguide he knows the Maldives like his bcd-pockets. Languages: Maldivian and English

Nadine, coming from Lanzarote enforces our team with a huge smile. So anyone who wants to be guided in Spanish or do any course in Spanish, doesn’t have to travel to spain.
Languages: German, English, dutch and spanish.

Katja is well known from last year guests. She will leave to Lily beach by end of October and enforce their team.
Languages: german and English.

Everyone knows Lieneke, her amazing Briefings are famous. After being on Helengeli she’s back with her big smile!
Languages: german, english and dutch

Last but not least, myself for those ones not knowing me. After several years in sharm el sheikh in Egypt, I came to the Maldives. Guess where exactly, yes, Veligandu! Two years later i went on Mirihi and Helengeli to see other Divecenters and Divespots. But now I’m Home!
Languages: german, English, Italian french and swiss-german.

But what’s new on Veligandu?

The hammerheads show up more frequently on the big blue, on the last we did, nine showed their beautiful moves.
Manta rays are seen on Rasdhoo reef and madivaru corner And as well huge stingrays.

On the last fullday trip we had great dives on bathala thila and Maya thila where the grey ones showed up. Between the two dives, Egon our austrian headchef gave us a fantastic buffet and on top we had the chance to snorkel with mantarays.

On 1.of October we joined Guests and local staff for the Cleaning Day. The divers cleaned the housereef around the jetty and found plenty of waste to lift out of the water. Here again thanks to all guests helping to make this event possible!

Illhalm, Nadine, Lieneke, Gio

We, Illhalm, Nadine, Lieneke, Katja and Gio wish you all the best and hope to see you soon

Gio Voglioso
Base Leader OCP Veligandu

Veligandu@OceanPro-Diveteam.com