Machchafushi Wreck

Descending onto the Kudhimaa, you meet the top of the superstructure first, with the hull listing slightly to one side and the decks stepping down toward the sand. Most divers make a slow circuit of the exterior, and the metal is alive: corals, sponges, algae and sea squirts compete for every patch of bare metal, and glassfish gather in the shaded spaces inside. The top deck, around 20m, is the busiest level. Stonefish and lionfish lie among batfish and surgeonfish while trevally hunt around the ship, and the odd nurse shark or stingray rests on the sand beside it.

Openings cut into the cargo holds on both sides give trained divers a look inside, though the dive works without them. To finish shallow, drift onto the gentle slopes of the neighbouring house reef or swim the short way to Anemone Alley, a patch of anemones and clownfish.

The Kudhimaa started out as a Japanese steel cargo ship and became a dive site when the dive centre on Machchafushi sank her on purpose in the late 1990s. She went down upright and largely intact, so she dives as a ship, with holds, decks and superstructure all in order, and the years since have turned the metal into a working reef.

Two kinds of diver end up here. Guests of the Machchafushi resort start from the house reef the wreck lies beside, and visiting boats run about 35 minutes from Dhangethi and about 50 from LUX* South Ari and Vilamendhoo. The usual plan is an exterior circuit, with the holds left to divers who hold the Wreck Diving specialty, and Euro-Divers recommends Enriched Air for the deeper levels.

Macro is the reason cameras come down here. As many as six species of nudibranch are reported on the wreck, alongside pipefish, and lionfish pose in the open on the top deck. Glassfish packed into the shaded recesses make atmospheric wide shots when the light angles in.

The bottom is reported near 30m, past the Open Water limit, so keep the 30m end of the dive on a computer and let nitrox stretch the time at depth. Stonefish on the top deck sit camouflaged against the metal and are venomous, so hover to steady a camera and never settle on the hull.