Almost Gan

We are currently anchored off a small island with another unpronounceable name, Faresmaathodaa, in South Huvadhoo atoll. Over the last couple of weeks we have slowly made our way south from Male anchoring off small islands like this one. Some anchorages are straightforward and some are decidedly tricky with definite heart stopping moments as we negotiate coral reefs, man made cuts with dubious depths through the reef and even when you think you have entered the safety of the lagoon there are still bommies lying in wait for you. We have been averaging 20 miles a day, trying to sail for the most part and planning to arrive at the pre-planned anchorage with plenty of light to see the lurking bommies and find a suitable depth to 'drop the hook'. The islands are all pretty similar just some more populated than others. What really distinguishes them is the quality of the water - yes, we have been doing quite a bit of snorkelling. Sometimes we go ashore and check out the little towns which also all look very similar. People are for the most part friendly and smile and say hello - others are quieter and more conservative. The kids are always great and very curious.

We, at least I am, are getting very tired of cooking on board and always look forward to the possibility of being able to 'eat out'.  Sadly, this has been very disappointing since we left Male. Most of the larger islands have at least a 'coffee shop' but water and coffee is about all there is on offer. They seem to be a place for the men to hang out with their mates - very rarely do you see women in these establishments. In fact, except for picking up the kids from school it is unusual to see women at all. I can only guess that they get together in each other's homes. We have gone ashore the last two nights to the same 'cafe' where the choices are chicken fried rice or tuna fried rice. We are now out of choices and will probably eat on board tonight. Still it was a nice change and an opportunity to get together with the crew of the other 4 boats in the anchorage

So, here we are waiting for the wind to take us onto Gan in the most southern atoll of Adhoo. The south west monsoon is slowly kicking in and we are getting less of the more desirable northerly winds. It is very hot - we are only 11 miles north of the equator but I'm hoping it will be cooler in the Southern Hemisphere - hot air rises doesn't it?  Looks like there will be a more favourable wind tomorrow and we plan to leave in the late afternoon to 'overnight' the 60 miles to Gan. We will hang around there for a week or so making the last minute preparations ie food, fuel, clearing out etc before we 'step off' for Chagos - an archipelago the Brits claimed way back and then kicked the indigenous people off to make way for a huge, top secret US military facility on Diego Garcia, on the biggest island. Sounds familiar doesn't it? Entry is via a special permit only which we negotiated with the British government. Good for a maximum of 4 weeks. Unless you are US  military or part of the British Indian Ocean Territories beaurocracy you will never get to visit this place unless you are on your own boat which makes us feel pretty special.

Kaashidhoo to Male

Kaashidhoo Atoll was our last stop before Male. We accessed the island and anchorage through a long cut in the coral lagoon which was a bit tricky - actually nerve racking would be a better description. Once ashore we met with the friendliness and hospitality that we have come to expect. Sure we are a bit of an oddity and get plenty of stares but a few smiles and 'hellos' seem to break the ice. Musa was the first local to come and say hello - we ended up with quite an entourage. He spoke excellent English and took us on an impromptu tour of the island. He even included a short walk into the jungle so that we could see some pre-Islamic ruins of what appeared to be a Buddhist temple in the shade of an ancient Banyan tree. The ruins were excavated by a German archeologist and it was quite a surprise. We ended up having coffee at Musa's football club hangout - the netball girls get to use the place as well - most of them being the sisters of the football guys. When we asked about a cafe for dinner Musa offered us a 'bbq', price to be determined by us and proceeds to the football club, as there was nothing open on the island. The couple of small cafes that we encountered had the usual collection of males sitting around drinking coffee and didn't open in the evening. So darkness found us back ashore with a table set for four (sy Sage joined us) at a BBQ in the yard of the UN development fund (??) catered by the football club guys. The fish was delicious and then we were treated to some traditional music(drumming) and singing. All very unexpected but you really need to be alert for opportunities in the Maldives.

We left the next day after negotiating the coral cut - didn't 'touch' this time and were on our way to the north Male atoll. It didn't quite work out like we planned - there were lots of storms and squalls around and we couldn't get through the kandu (opening in the reef) with sufficient light to find an anchorage. We ended up 'doing an overnighter' down the western side of the atoll and arrived in Hulhumale the following morning.

 Hulhumale is an island that was mostly man made (we avoid the term 'reclaimed' as there was nothing here to reclaim) to accommodate Male's large international airport. The anchorage is right in the flight path of the large number of jets and float planes that seem to fly in non stop day and night. It has been ok though until all the dreaded big dive boats came in over the weekend to disgorge their passengers and pick up new ones for week long dive trips. Then we had to deal with not only the air traffic but the noise and wake of a myriad of small boats going back and forward to the dock. We have had several trips into Male itself - we catch the local ferry (less than a dollar for both of us) which is quite busy as it is the only way to get into town. Male is a bustling little metropolis and the hub for everything that happens in the Maldives which appears to be 99% tourist related. Not that you see many tourists in Male itself. They seem to all be picked up from the airport and then shuttled straight onto a float plane to the resorts for the duration of their visit or a dive boat to hopefully a dive spot. So here we are anchored among the dive boats with a small international contingent of cruising yachts who are all here for the same purpose - provisioning, laundry and a bit of a western food fix. There are a couple of places in Male where this is possible - no bars of course but it is a nice break from the local cafes that are only patronised by men drinking the national beverages of coffee and Red Bull (not together). We will be leaving in a day or so for the hopefully quieter South Male atoll. It is also a bit tense here in Male at the moment with protests surrounding the popular ex President being dragged off to a 13 year jail sentence being met by a prominent police and army presence. The emails from DFAT telling us to avoid any mass gatherings ie protests are also a bit disconcerting. Not at all what we expected - but this a country on the 'cusp' - more about that later.

Kulhudhuffushi to Milandhoo

We are slowly making our way south - stopping at different islands large and small and trying to get to know the Maldives and its people. Kulhudhuffushi was an interesting stopover. We anchored in its large commercial port - plenty of room for us but apparently not big enough for any large ships so it is just about deserted. There is a large sandy beach on the shoreline of the harbour which the locals use for swimming and general splashing about. Because it was Friday many of the businesses were closed but there were plenty of people in town and lots of smiles and waves to us. We were trying to find somewhere to do or have some laundry done and enquired in one of the many small shops. The woman whose family owned the shop told us that this service was not available in town and then offered for us to do our laundry at her house the following day. So after visiting the local Saturday market, which was a social highlight in the town, we spent a couple of hours with Mahsoma and her two lovely girls while we waited for the washing to finish. They all spoke very good English and Mahsoma told us that she encourages the girls to speak English at home. The older girl, eleven year old Ahoula, was very curious about our life style and asked if she could come to see our boats. We organised to meet them on the beach later that afternoon. A lot more people than we bargained for turned up - 5 children and 2 adults but no big deal - we decided to ferry them over in 2 runs. We just had 4 of the girls out of the dinghy and up our boarding ladder when there was a call from the dock - a number of men wearing official uniforms were yelling at us and telling us to get the girls off the boat. So, back down the ladder we went. The officials would not let us take them back to their mothers waiting on the beach - they insisted that we bring them over to the dock where they proceeded to haul each one of them from our dinghy up the side of the wall despite our protests that it was too dangerous. Naturally we weren't very impressed and the girls were very disappointed. We were told that while we were in the harbour our boat was under the control of the port authority and were not allowed to take anyone on our boat without written authorisation!  Didn't see that in the fine print. Anyway it was all very unpleasant and detracted from our visit. We had such a great time up until then and the people had been lovely. We had even stopped to watch some locals playing badminton in their front yard and before we knew it they had invited us in and insisted on mixed doubles with us.  The following day we left for Milandhoo Island where we had another interesting experience. We anchored in the island's brand new port which attracted a lot of interest as we were the first two yachts to enter. People came from everywhere to check us out - apparently we were on facebook before we had even tied our stern lines to the dock. A holiday had been declared, not because of us, but because there had been a by-election the day before and there were a lot of 'politicians' in town. In fact the president (?mayor) of the local council came down to meet us and then personally escorted us all over the island and invited us to join the election celebrations that night. We also met and ate with the local parliamentary representative. We didn't end up going to the celebrations - didn't need to, we could hear the speeches from the boat - they went on until midnight. Just proves the old saying - no such thing as a free feed! We had visitors to the dockside until well after midnight and we were very happy to leave next morning. So now we are anchored off Fehigili Island - opposite a large resort that doesn't want us ashore or even within cooee of the place. Never mind it is pretty nice here - we are on a 'hang off' - that is the anchor is in the sand at the edge of the reef in about 10m and we are swinging out in the deeper stuff which is fine as the winds are very light. Tomorrow we will keep heading south towards Male, the capital , and apparently where the action is. Sorry about the lack of photos - I did get an online tutorial from my friend Astrid but the photos are not cooperating. 

Dhapparu Atoll

We said good-bye to Uligan on the 2nd of March after 4 relaxing days there. Uligan is a very quiet place - an ideal place to rest up. Not a lot happening there but the streets are clean with hard packed sand instead of pavements and tidy homes and yards built predominantly out of coral. This type of building led to a lot of coral destruction in the bay - not sure how they broke the coral up ? dynamite but fortunately this has now been outlawed. The locals seem to burn their rubbish at a couple of sites in the town which is preferable to us witnessing a woman hurl a couple of small plastic bags of rubbish into the water. Overall the water was crystal clear and we could see every detail on the bottom where we were anchored in 10m. We inadvertently ended up anchoring over a very large bommie which gave us a great view of coral and fish but a bit of worry when it came to retrieving our anchor - in the end it was all ok. Uligan was a really nice entry port to the Maldives and the entry process could not have been easier. Our agent Asad was very friendly and helpful - nothing was too much trouble but then we were also pretty undemanding. With no wind at all we ended up motoring the 22nm to - this is where it gets confusing - Filladhoo Island in the Dhapparu atoll but we could also be in the North Thilandhunmathee atoll - take your pick. Once again very quiet - there is a village on the southern end of the island but a long way from where we are anchored. The water isn't as clear as Uligan but we think there may be a small stream close by emptying into the lagoon. We have sy Sage (Canada) anchored close by so it's nice to have company. So, another day of swimming,reading and maybe a card game or two later in the day and then moving on tomorrow to our next anchorage about 15nm away. It's a hard life! Sorry about the lack of photos - have posted a few on FB. Still waiting for my gen Y friend Astrid back in Langkawi to send me the blogspot tutorial she promised - come on Astrid, people are waiting!

Phuket to The Maldives

Pre Blog note: don't get your hopes up people. Still haven't worked out how to incorporate photos or even change the font. Still working on it!

We arrived in Uligan, an entry port in the northern Maldives, at 10.30am on the 26th of February after a 12 day passage from Phuket. So, how was it, I can hear you all asking. Here goes:

12 days - our longest passage to date - 3 times longer in fact. Our experienced sailing friends told us that 'the first 3 days are the hardest. After that you get into a routine.......'  Well the first three days were pretty uneventful - light variable winds and small choppy seas until we cleared the bottom of the Nicobars Islands. Nothing to it we were thinking until the Indian Ocean gave us a demonstration of how anything can happen and how quickly. On our third night we were caught in the middle of a storm that seemed to come out of nowhere - certainly not seen on our weather forecasts. Torrential rain (which one of us only partially closed the front hatch?) and winds around 30kts. This we could deal with - it was the lightening that terrified us. Right up next to the boat at one stage - it was a miracle that we weren't struck. That would have been disastrous as it would have wiped out all our electronics leaving us with no communications, navigation instruments etc. The next nine days and nights weren't exactly non eventful but nothing compared to the third night. We were amazed at how we could be contemplating putting up our spinnaker (we didn't) because of the very light wind at 10 o'clock in the morning to quickly reducing sail when 25kts hit us 5 hours later. We also had plenty of company for most of the way - obviously the fastest route is a straight line between points A and B - the shipping lanes!  Our AIS and radar were invaluable, especially at night,  dodging the big guys. It certainly kept us on our toes. 

So here we are in Uligan - a sleepy little island (population 500) in the northern Maldives. There were 4 other yachts when we arrived yesterday and many expected over the next month or so. We were cleared in by 4 very enthusiastic officials - immigration, customs, Coast Guard and not sure what the other role was - accompanied by our friendly agent Asad. They all came out to us in a small dinghy and spent about 15 minutes on board. Lots and lots of stamping - I think they were quite disappointed in our puny little ship's stamp but too polite to comment.  Today we went ashore and met up with Asad who sorted out the very important SIM cards for us. He gave us a quick lesson 'jigging for squid 101' and a lure. So that was fun - Chris says it was the best fishing he has ever done but he is no fisherman. Happy to catch them but then it was my job to rip their heads off - literally. All the while dodging the eruptions of ink. Five caught fairly effortlessly and in the frying pan in no time. Actually we u tubed what to do with them as we had no idea. Watched a great demo from the Sydney fish market which was very helpful - who know how they would have turned out otherwise! 

We will hang around here for another day or so and then start heading south. The Maldives is made up of over 1200 islands - about 500 miles from North to South - and over the next 6 weeks we will visit some of them. Many are privately owned resort islands that do not welcome itinerant yachtie types like us - frightened we will spoil the 'ambience' or something like that. Anyway, we are sure there will lots of beautiful places ahead of us. The whole place is only 2.5 metres above sea level - like our friends on SY Blue Heeler say - no chance of nose bleeds out here. Anyone interested should get here soon before the whole place goes under. Will keep working on the blog layout and photos so stay tuned. 

I can hear you laughing

OK I can hear you laughing from here in Nai Harn when you open our blog and see the very inappropriate photo. Problem is that I don't know how to change it to something with at least a nautical theme. Maybe there's someone out there who can help?? Anyway, due to constant demand we have decided to proceed with the blog project and as you can see it hasn't got off to a great start. To think that we are following in the wake of all the great bloggers - sailing yachts Blue Heeler, Infini, Mr John IV, The Doctor and Jacana to name a few - how embarrassing - sorry kids. So where was I? Yes, anchored off Nai Harn beach on the South East coast of Phuket waiting for the weather to leave for The Maldives. Our original plan was to head up the west coast to Ko Phayam, a place we really enjoyed last year, and leave from there and then being the lazy sods we are thought - that is ridiculous! This place is as nice as any to hang out and wait. It has everything we need - beachside restaurants and bars, laundry and even a local 'bus' into town to stock up on the last minute veggies. Chris is trying to motivate himself to do all the little chores that need doing before we go and me - well there's this blog. There are lots of boats here but not anyone we know - we miss our 2012 buddies. We will use this blog as well as facebook to keep family and friends up to date so stay tuned if you care or just have a morbid curiosity about us. You never know I might work out how to post a photo or two