We have been pleasantly surprised by the prices in the Maldives. We had expected very hi prices for provisions as it's a collection of sand islands in the middle of the ocean where no food grows and everything is imported - mostly from Sri Lanka. Surprisingly basic provisions are affordable, much cheaper than Australia. Even vegetables, which are only available in the capital of Male, are reasonably priced. We stocked up heavily on food before leaving Thailand so we've only really needed to purchase some flour & rice. Being a strict Muslim nation, no alcohol is available for purchase but I'm sure there is a thriving black market somewhere to be found. We did run out of margarine, and purchased the small 500g tub pictured below for AU$15.Perhaps a once off purchase!

All the dolphins we have seen in Maldives have been playful, but skittish whenever we hop in to try and swim with them. However, we finally got to swim with them. They were right next to us, playing underneath us and kept staring at the strange human things in the water. It was amazing! Unfortunately the camera ran out of batteries partway through, but it was still an amazing experience!

Despite being in tropical island paradise, we still have many jobs to do aboard, such as sifting out the weevils from the rice, filling up the dive tanks with air, cleaning the water-maker filters, checking for rotten eggs, dumping tins and cans a few miles offshore, refueling, et cetera. Here's a shot of me sifting weevils from our rice which has been infested due to the hot weather.

We were anchored out off a resort island that never took off and were invited to see their turtle sanctuary. We went in and saw the turtles, which I think were hawksbills. there must have been a hundred in total, and we were able to pick them up, and watch as they were fed. we also saw several large catfish (in a separate tank) and about twenty small, colourful birds.
A tour of the resort showed lines of beautiful bungalows, a bit run down, but still amazing. We were very glad we stopped at this island!

Here we have a beautiful mahi mahi during our sail to the Maldives. Delicious!