Multiple islands also have the more land faring cats (eg. Sun, Bathala, Mirihi). But Nika has 4. One belongs to one of the Maldivian staff and the others to the owners. Strangely they don’t bother the free roaming birds at all. They are quite sociable and they come out to say hello to the guests regularly.
Of all the yachts, there is a special fondness in our family for the doubly-sleek, but twice as stable catamarans. Our brother-in-law took us on his 30 foot cat the “Nauti-Gail” (named after Lori’s sister Gail) and recently they custom-built a 54 foot floating palace (“Nauti-Gail II”).
Reethi Rah’s fleet has a bigger cat, but I prefer their styling of LUX Maldives’ “Kokomo” which it offers up for cruises with some very experienced hands…
“[LUX] have an amazing Maldivian captain that has been sailing boats for past 20 years (believe it or not there are very few Maldivians with sailing experience!) and he combines the charters with a lot of local knowledge. He teaches guests the basics of sailing, shows guests secret snorkeling spots or shows guests old Maldivian recipes when cooking the freshly caught fish on the boats BBQ.”
Cat fight!
The New Year brings a new model year for a range of luxuries and this weekend’s annual London Boat Show kicks off the range of new yachts for the maritime elite. One & Only Reethi Rah is a virtual Maldives Boat Show every day of the year with its extravagant fleet of sleek cruisers (first in list above and rest below in order)…
One of my favourite parts of the Maldives are the jetties. They are like boulevard balconies to the spectacle of Maldivian marine life cavorting below often attracted to the pseudo-reef structure of the jetty itself. Resorts will often equip them with lighting which provides further attraction to the nocturnal creatures after dark.
Mostly these jetties take you to the arrivals welcome or the water villas, but Jumeirah Vittaveli has one which simply encircles part of the island. It really is more of a boardwalk than a jetty. And boardwalks are classic ocean-side features. Another benefit they bring is that people can walk along the water’s edge without the challenge of the sand if they are so disinclined (eg. less mobile folks, people dressed up for dinner).
The legendary Dom Perignon reportedly exclaimed when he first sipped the sparkling wine of his cellars “I am drinking stars.” Well, at Conrad Maldives Rangali, you can sometimes wade in them too. Set in the marine-rich South Ari atoll, Rangali is in the heartland of whale shark country who are drawn by the plankton-rich waters. Also, their marine cousins the mantas can be found so readily that they can be regularly seen of the Rangali jetty in the evening doing loop-de-loops in the pier light feeding on the plankton drawn there. But the possibly the most striking example of plankton spectacles was this photo released by Rangali this month showing bioluminensce on the beaches. The aquatic microrganisms emitting their glow with the gentle stimulation of the equally minute ‘waves’ ticking the shore. When we used to sail in Maine, our friends taught us how to prompt this phenomenon by stirring an oar in the nighttime ocean waters. You can even even swim through this constellation with Rangali’s night dive offer called “ocean of stars”.
May your 2014 be filled with sparkling wonders!
5…4…3…2…1…
For a most distinctive bubbly to accompany the ringing in of the New Year, consider this rare magnum Armand de Brignac Ace of Spades presented by the One & Only Reethi Rah beverage manager Craig.
…Happy New Year!
From a snorkel enhancement to a wreck, to a wreck enhancement to a snorkel. The Chaaya Reef Ellaidhoo extensive house includes its own wreck. A small inter-island cargo ship just off the main jetty. Usually such wrecks are the province of dive trips or excursions, but at Ellaidhoo, it’s just another handy feature of their extensively equipped house reef.
What do you get an astronaut for Christmas? A space snorkel.
As Maldives Complete is sort of the hub of Maldives resort snorkelling, (the best snorkelling in the world), I do tend to venture into other extremes of the activity around the world. Or, this week, out of the world. The Maldives is renowned for its low altitude, but NASA today brings it to a record altitude. Snorkelling in Space.
It turns out that the astronauts faced a bit of a problem with leaky space suits which almost drowned one of them. The “snorkel” is an improvised fix to work around the problem.
Maldives snorkelling/diving and space walking have a bit more in common. Diving is about the closest one will get to the sensation of being in space and being in “another world”. Complete with anti-gravity as one of your first scuba skills is neutral buoyancy.
Welcome to the neighbourhood to Velaa resort which opened this week. The latest of the super-premium gold-plated rush. In line with its elite spec, it includes another addition to the under-represented pastime of golf in the country with its own golf academy…
“Golf enthusiasts can enjoy the only ‘Short Game Golf Academy’ in the Maldives, 170m of greens and a swing studio carefully crafted by Masters Champion Jose Maria Olazabal”
If One and Only brings the bedroom into the pool, Cheval Blanc Randheli brings the pool into the bedroom. It has made an entire wall of its villa openable for an expansive vista from within. I love this design element which was have been thinking of adding to our own house (replacing the back floor-to-ceiling windows of the dining room with French doors that open up to our back yard). The approach melds the best of both the gorgeous outdoors with some of the comforts of inside.
The architecture of the villas also features record-breaking entry doors themselves. The previous tops was The Haven’s 4 meter high doors, but Randheli features“An architecture sequence of 7-meter high doors in each villa [which] creates a spectacular space.”
No worries about bumping my head on the frame there then.