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.
