Fotteyo Kandu

The dive starts in open water, at the outer corner of the reef around 22 metres, and from there you hook in. A strong drift runs through the channel, so the routine is to settle onto dead reef out of the worst of the flow and watch the channel pass: grey reef sharks and whitetips patrolling the current, titan triggerfish common inside it, tuna and barracuda holding in the blue.

Off the hook, the walls take over. The narrow channel is cut with swim-throughs, small caves and large overhangs, and the drop-off at its entrance is covered in colourful soft corals. The outer side belongs to the early hours. At sunrise, usually around 30 metres, scalloped hammerheads are reported there, and eagle rays pass along it as well.

Caves, overhangs and swim-throughs on the walls and a soft-coral drop-off at the mouth give this shark drift scenery that most channels lack. A local divemaster calls it the best dive in Vaavu and central Maldives, one voice, but it fits how far divers go to reach it.

The effort is the other half of the character. Fotteyo sits at the far-eastern edge of the atoll, described as the easternmost point of the Maldives, and takes its name from the uninhabited island the channel connects to the open ocean. Its distance weeds out the casual visitor: the divers on the boat are early risers and liveaboard guests who came here on purpose, and the dive has a destination feel of its own.

Not every centre goes to Fotteyo. Plumeria on Thinadhoo runs it when enough divers are keen, leaving around 4 am to be on site before 6 am, at a significant extra charge. Liveaboards on central-Maldives routes include it too.

Bring a reef hook, since the dive is built around hooking in. The caves near the channel entrance sit at 25 to 40 metres and are overhead terrain: look at them from the channel, and leave the penetration to divers with cave training and the right equipment.