BY SURF GUIDE MICKEY NATTZ
February 27th 2021
It’s the last week of February and our annual maintenance and makeover is all complete. We’re ready to welcome our first guests of the season! We cruise through the atolls towards Thinadhoo Island near the airport, trolling for wahoo, yellowfin & mahi as we go. We drop the anchor and the first thing we lay eyes on is a perfectly peeling 2-3 foot right hander at a spot called Thinadhoo Corner. Now that’s a warm welcome! Moments later the boat is moored and I’m ready to score some waves all to myself before the guests arrive, I couldn’t wait any longer!
The ten days that followed with our guests – a stoked American family – consisted of warm, tropical weather, amazing fishing, and perfect surf conditions. We surfed lefts, rights, caught all kinds of fish, lost and snapped surfboards, patched up a couple of injuries, and enjoyed a memorable BBQ night to wrap up the trip on an uninhabited island somewhere in the Southern Atolls. What a way to kick-start the season!
March 10th 2021
We’ve got a 1-day turnaround to get the boat up to top-notch standard for our next group of guests – 9 mates from America and their buddy from Dubai. We thought our first group lucked out, but the forecast for the week ahead is looking insane! The boys take 20 minutes to settle in before they’re padding out at Thinadhoo Corner with no one else out. Later in the afternoon, we were stoked to find out our love for fishing is indeed mutual, so every afternoon that followed we moored at some of our favourite (and secret) fishing spots to catch dinner. Our world-class chef onboard would serve fresh sashimi as an entrée moments later, followed by grilling the catch of the day with coconut rice and seasoned veggies.
The surf picked up a lot later in the trip, and we scored big time! The fishing also continued, beers kept rolling, and non-stop tunes played through the surround-sound speaker system right up until midnight. On this particular trip, the days (and nights) passed with absolutely no time for boredom or down-time. The only “constructive” feedback from the boys was that we should have convinced them to book a longer trip!